Chopsuey

I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days. Had a fever and wasn't able to go to work this week. Been back for not even a week and I've been on leave again. Haaay... I just realized for three consecutive weeks, I haven't been going to the office 5 times a week. Last week, I went back starting Thursday, and then this week I was on sick leave Wednesday, and then next week Monday is a holiday. Hurrah!

Yesterday, I was going around the mall with a friend when I saw a Christmas countdown...28 days to go! Oh gosh! We haven't even started shopping for gifts yet. We haven't decorated at home. We have Christmas decors but haven't got the time to put them up. Maybe tomorrow, if I'm feeling better.

An officemate told me that I might be getting sick because I'm cleaning now, that is, I might be allergic to dust. Oh yes you read that right...I don't clean my room, our house..any thing when I was single. We have househelp to do that. But now I have to do it or else we'll be living like filthy pigs. Oooh I have plenty of "newlywed" stories to tell ya!

I'm waiting for the hubby to text me so I can go and meet him. We're buying some appliances tonight. We're buying them one by one.

****
He texted me already..Bye bye!

My Maid of Honor Arrives

But before she did (this was Thursday before the wedding), we spent the entire day doing the packaging for our placecard holders. I bought the candy holders really early into our wedding planning. I think around March or April. Bought them at Living Well and got the cake and bell toppers.

I initially asked Grace if she could purchase for me the personalized M&M’s. But this proved to be very expensive. So when I saw those personalized Hershey’s kisses from The Knot website, I thought to myself, I can do that. I just need to buy the kisses and then print out those stickers (they are the same kind of round stickers I used for our save-the-date cards). But because I was out of time, I didn’t do the stickers anymore but stuck with Hershey’s kisses. My knows the local distributor so I can get them on discounted price anyway. Those were what we picked up from My the week before that.

So there we were, the whole morning of Thursday packing the chocolates in their individual packages and putting the name cards with their ribbons. That was a bit easy, but Marj wanted these delivered to them and packed per table.

Look how pretty they are

We can’t just put them in plastic bags because that will ruin the organza ribbons and the name cards, so we were desperate in finding boxes for them. We couldn’t find any in National Bookstore and Robinsons Department Store. So off we went to SM Megamall. SM really does have it all for you. We found shoe-box typed boxes at their Stationery department. I was exhausted after that because before the task of finding the right box, we were at Greenhills looking for jewelry for my mother. She wanted a specific kind of necklace that will go for her earrings that she wanted to use for the wedding. We then picked up my dad, before eating dinner and finally going home.

But the night was still too early for us. When we got home, we boxed all 180++ pieces of packed kisses in their respective boxes. Each box were labeled with the names of the guests for each table. And then I emailed Marj our guestlist with the seating arrangement. Had a few minutes to rest, and then my brother and I are again out of our house. This was probably around 10 in the evening already. We first headed to Lorena’s house to pick up Heili and Grace’s dresses. And then we were off to Makati to bring Heili’s dress and pick up the CD they made for the surprise audio-visual presentation for us. After that, we were cruising our way to the NAIA terminal 1 to pick up Grace. How pathetic the arrival area of our international airport is! You have to pay P30 just to get inside that waiting area where you can see the balikbayans across a road (you can even cross the road to fetch them, they have to cross the road to get to you) and watch them from a TV monitor that will not even show you a clear shot of your balikbayan’s face. Grace’s flight landed early but we waited for her for almost an hour to come out. I was watching the TV monitor the whole time but I didn’t see her, when I set my eyes across the road she was already standing there hahaha. Jay and I had to go back to the parking lot, get the car and go around the terminal to get her. Can’t anyone think of a better way to do this? We have lots of Overseas Filipino Workers. I’m sure a lot them come back to the Philippines each day, can’t we atleast make their arrival easy for their families waiting for their return and for the OFW’s as well?!?!?!

Anyway, we brought Grace to her condo after that. It was already Friday by then and was past 1am. I had her fit the gown because if there alterations to be done, we have to be up and about early morning of Friday to go to the modista. And as luck would have it, the dress didn’t fit her. Blame it on her for giving wrong measurements harharhar. We left her to rest but when I got home, I still had to some packing. I still had to pack my clothes – those I will bring to the hotel (nights before and after the wedding) and those I will bring for our honeymoon. Finally got some shut-eye at 3am but was already awake by 630am.

The Days Before

I’ve been back to work since Thursday last week but haven’t blogged much because I’m not sure how I’ll start blogging again now that I’m married – yuck ang drama! Di ko lang kasi maisip if I should start blogging where I left off (a few days before the wedding) or blog about my daily life as a newlywed.

Anyways, let me go back a few days before our wedding day.

Monday night

Joema and I met up with the choreographer of our first dance, Phyllis Lim. Phyllis is such a sweetheart. She not only arrived on time, but she was early (promptness is plus points for me as I’m a stickler for time). She didn’t teach us any steps that we were uncomfortable doing. She suggested that we do separate steps as intro for our dance but Joema was adamant he will only dance if we’re dancing together hehe. The first part of our dance was … shucks I don’t remember what style of dancing it was called =P The second part was swing. Phyllis was really patient in teaching us. She was the one urging us to practice, practice and practice. She even suggested we record our dance on video so that when we practice by ourselves, we have something to guide us. I'll upload this video on my multiply account soon.

We chose the song “Honey, Honey” from the OST of Mamma Mia. Actually, Joema was in charge of all the songs/music used in the wedding. He gave me the list of the songs and I just gave my final sign of approval.

Phyllis even gave us some tips like we should practice before our first dance. If we have an “alone” time between the church and the reception, she said we should practice then since if we just go there unprepared even if we practiced the night before we might forget a few steps. Another important tip she gave, never make eye contact with your audience. If you’re not a seasoned perfomer (surprise, surprise we’re both not!), you should not make eye contact with anyone during the dance. If you have to look at the audience, look at the top of their heads. She said making eye contact will make us lose our concentration and forget our steps.

When Phyllis left, we felt we accomplished so much hehe. Now learning the steps is one thing, pulling this first dance off is another.

Tuesday

Joema and I met up for another round of dance practice. This would be the last day that Joema and I will see each other before the wedding. He was telling me we should see each other Friday night so that we can practice but I told him we shouldn't. We were both eagerly anticipating our wedding day.

Wednesday

Since it was only a few days before the wedding, I planned to go to confession on this day. I went to EDSA Shrine because they had regular confessions everyday. It was my first time to confess there so I though there will be a confessional box. Of course before going, I had an examination of conscience and started listing down all my sins. It was really my plan to just read the list when I go to confession. When I got inside the “box”, the set-up was face-to-face with the priest. I had a big paper bag with me because I brought home Mama’s gown. I reached into it because I placed my prayer book there with my list. The priest (he’s a funny one!) said “Oh I thought you were going to give me pasalubong” ahahaha. He was I think of Indian descent so I was surprised to hear him speak Tagalog. When he saw my list, he just asked me to hand over the list and he read it himself. There’s probably something on my list that made him ask my age. When I told him, he asked me if I have a boyfriend so I told him yes and that we’re getting married. I also told him that we were having a mixed marriage because my fiancé isn’t Catholic. Then he asked “What? Muslim?”. Before I left he asked about the wedding again and I said it was that coming Saturday and he wished me well. It was a very “easy” confessional. I wasn’t terrified to be there at all. The priest was very warm and very “forgiving”.

Appetizer

Visit Bim's blog for our onsite video.

Will post more after I'm done sorting out work. Just came back from a short vacay after the wedding.

Countdown: 5 days to go

I think I spoke too soon that I'm not worried. Because the other night (mm...that was Saturday night)I woke up in the middle of the night (nyak! redundant!) so worried about some wedding details. Now, I don't even remember what it was about. Good thing, I was able to fall asleep again. This morning I woke up really early and worried again! I know I woke up early because my alarm went off only after a few hours (I think). Hate that feeling that your mind is awake but you still don't want to get up and fix yourself. Hate it that I woke up before my alarm went off. I'm pretty sure I don't have anything more to worry about. I just keep on thinking about the small details which is sooo frustrating.

I'm also paranoid I won't fit into my wedding dress. For the past couple of days, I've been eating rice three times a day and not going to the gym. I only went once last week for a 30-minute cardio exercise, that's after a week of rest (because of my sprain). So I decided to go today and surprise surprise! I lost 1.5 pounds. Now that is amazing. I don't know what happened for me to lose that weight. Although I've been drinking tea and using this foot patch that's supposed to detoxify you. Note to self: blog about this patch after all the wedding hulabaloo!

And then later this afternoon, we'll be doing something as a surprise for the our wedding guests hehe. I hope we pull it off. (Is that giving away so much on what it is?)

Countdown: 7 days to go

It's exactly one week before our wedding. I'm left here at home while my family left for the province to visit the grave of my Tito. They didn't want to bring me just to be safe, since I already proved that the saying is true for me hehe. Anyways, I stayed here the whole day. Joema didn't visit because his family stayed with him at the condo. It's their last weekend together, his last as a bachelor, so I can't force him to come here. Atleast I still get to be with my family everyday. Unlike him, when he started living at the condo he only saw him atleast every other week.

So what have I been doing for the past 12 hours? Not really twelve hours because I woke up at 10 this morning. I think I haven't slept that long since we were in the thick of wedding preparations. Then I started watching Samurai X heheh or should I say Rurouni Kenshin asindicated in the DVD. I saw Jay watching it the other day and I was hooked. I was fascinated that it tackles much of the political arena in Japan during an era after their revolution. I just don't know how historically accurate are the things in this anime. Or if these are all fictional. The primary character, Kenshin Himura, known as Battousai the Manslayer was a former part of the Imperialist group. As his name suggested he slays the enemies of the Imperialist government. Most of the fights are done with much talking between the two opponents. Himura usually convinces his enemies that their principles are not for the good of the majority in Japan. See I'm really into this hehehe. One more thing, Himura reminds me of Zaizai. I don't know why because as Joema points out Himura is Japanese while Zaizai is Taiwanese =P. Must be how the Japanese anime is where one moment the charachter is serious and then the next the drawing will be all whacky. Zaizai is like that in his Taiwanese dramas and in real life I suppose because he's the clown in F4.

Okay, I'll continue watching as I'm having a hard time typing and watching the subtitles of this anime.