Canonical Interview

I've blogged a few times that the first thing we actually "booked" was our priest. Fr. Caloy usually officiates the first Friday masses here at our office. I've been inspired to go to mass during first Fridays because of him. His sense of humor is right at the bat but he strikes you as someone who is sincere and honest in what he says.

Joema has not met him until our canonical interview last week. And like me, he loved Fr. Caloy's humor as well. Joema wanted someone who will make us laugh on our wedding so I made the right choice based on his criteria hehe. Some of the things we talked about during the interview:

• Fr. Caloy asking us if we're both Catholics. Then I told him that Joema isn't, he's a Methodist.

Fr. Caloy: Ah talaga Methodist? Yung girlfriend ko din non Methodist e.

Me: Yan po ba yung classmate nyo sa Social Dance*?

Fr. Caloy: Ay hindi bago pa yun.

++++++

Fr. Caloy: Naalala ko pa non pumupunta kami dun sa piangttraining-an ng mga pastor nyo (Methodists) sa may Tagaytay di ba? Pastor kasi tatay non e kaya sinasama pa nya ko dun non.

• When asked about the impediments to marriage. He had to explain the "Others" part.

Fr. Caloy: Sa "others" kasama jan yung impotence. Kasi kung impotent na di na ikakasal yan. Dati nga may lumapit sa kin na sissenta-anyos na lolo gusto magpakasal. Tinanong ko kung tinatayuan pa sya sabi nya hindi na. Sabi ko "'Lo, subukan nyo kaya bumili nung viagra. Kung tatalaban pa kayo non ikakasal ko kayo." Sabi ni lolo, "Nagbibiro ho ba kayo?" sabi ko "ay hindi ho seryoso ho ako" LOL

• When asked where we lived

Fr. Caloy: San ka ba lumaki? Ah sa Valenzuela, sa may Marulas? May bahay kami dati jan e.

++++++

Fr. Caloy: San ba kayo don? Sa may {insert name of village}? May bahay pinsan ko don.

++++++

Fr. Caloy: Sa Bulacan ka ba? May bahay din kami dun sa may Marilao. Ang sarap ng talaba don!

(Gusto ko humirit na...Father, ang dami nyo pong bahay ah!)

• With the question, are you giving your consent to marriage with your entire freedom

Joema: Opo

Fr. Caloy: Sigurado ka? Gusto mo palabasin muna natin sya tapos sumagot ka ulit? Sigurado ka ha?

• Talking about the ghosts in the seminary

Fr. Caloy: Ako hindi naman ako nakakita e. Pero meron kaming naging bisita nakakita daw sya. Ewan ko ba don ikinwento pa sa kin. Kumuha tuloy ako ng aso para may kasa-kasama ako dito.

• Telling a story about the Italian priests who can't speak English. The priest ordered hamburger while in New York

Fr. Caloy: Sabi nung pari "Amburger!" di marunong mag-English e yun lang alam nya sabihin. Sabi nung crew: toasted or not. Sagot yung pari "Amburger". Tanong ulit yung crew: toasted or not. "Amburger!" E nainis na yung crew hinawakan sa kwelyo yung pari na parang sasaktan na. Natakot yung pari "Pizza!" ...true story yan ha! LOL

• Still talking about Italian priests. Three of them were going to visit the seminary

Fr. Caloy: Ayan o bumili nga ako ng kape P300 ang mahal-mahal. Buti na lang isang linggo lang sila dito. Kasi kung mas matagal baka kailangan ko pa bumili ulit.

* In one of his Friday mass sermons, he talked about his calling to priesthood. He wanted to be a priest as early as when he was in Grade 2. He would practice with his cousins and have them "eat the bread". But when he was in Grade 4, an older cousin of his told him he was stupid to go into priesthood because he wouldn't have any girlfriends. And he was convinced! haha During high school he had crushes on his beautiful classmates. Druing this times, he knew he had a calling but brushed it aside. And then during college, when he had to take Social Dance as his PE he had a major crush with one of his classmates. He would ask her to practice even after classes hehe. It was during this time that he was asked to come to Vatican by a priest. He went and he saw Pope John Paul II and was lucky enough to kiss the hand of the Pope. When he came back, he heeded the call to priesthood.

Rey and Pam's Wedding

On the last day of September, one of my secondary sponsors got married (inunahan pa ko! haha). It was a perfect time to have my trial hair and makeup with Ella hehehe. I’ve had my trial makeup with her on our prenup but I wanted to see how my hair will look. I gave her a photo of the updo that I wanted and Maricel, her hairstylist, did it perfectly. I met up with them at 1030am at Ever Commonwealth. Just a side story, when I rode the the taxi going to QC:

Me: Ever Commonwealth po
Manong taxi driver (MTD): Ma’am padagdag na lang po ha
Me: *flared up already* Ano!?!?!? Humihingi na nga kayo nung dagdag na sampung piso tapos dagdag pa ulit? Wag na ho…ibaba nyo na lang po ako (kahit na umaandar na yung taxi by this time)
MTD: Ah sige po hindi na..
ME: Ang hirap sa inyo manong humihingi pa kayo ng dagdag. Sa totoo lang po nagbibigay naman ako ng tip e pero pag ganyang nanghihingi kayo lalo akong hindi nagbibigay. Pare-pareho lang naman po tayong nagttrabaho
MTD: e ma’am kasi po yung iba hindi nagbibigay..nakikiusap lang naman po kung guto magbigay e di okay po..kung hindi, hindi naman pipilitin
ME: e mabuti naman ho!
MTD: blah blah blah blah (di ko na inintindi sinabi nya…take note hininaan pa nya yung radio ng taxi nya para marinig ko sinasabi nya)

Later on when I told Joema and our friends about it, he joked that if it was a bad driver he would've told me: "Ah ganon po ba ma'am sige po hold-up na lang" hahaha

I arrived earlier than our scheduled meetup so I went inside the mall and bought two books from Expressions hehe. Will soon post my review on the first book, I’m still reading the second one.

After they picked up me at Ever, we then went to Ella’s house. Maricel did my hair first and then Ella did my makeup. She said she will be using the same colors for my wedding. At first I was a little bit apprehensive. Bagay ba sa kin? But later on looking at the whole picture, it was good on me haha! We had time to eat lunch, Ella ordered Mcdo delivery (8-6236 – plugging pa!), in between applying my makeup. We finished early and had to wait for Joema, Heili and Tric to pick me up. Actually, Ella brought us back to Ever and then from there I meet up with the trio. They suggested we should drive-thru Mcdo to order lunch (super good idea – never got to a wedding with an empty stomach!). They ordered while I just drank Coke, I was sot thirsty but wasn’t hungry because I just had lunch then.

Before 2:30pm we were at the church. It was an old church right smack in San Mateo, Rizal. We waited for a bit before the ceremony started. When the doors were closed and we’re waiting for Pam to enter, my heart was beating so fast. Ewan ko ba! Nagffeeling lang ako na ako yung bride hahahaha! Now, what the heck will I ever do on my own wedding! Buti na lang maikli lang aisle ng Archbishop’s Palace.



Anyway, the rains started to pour during the ceremony but it ended during the pictorials. No more rains when we went out the church!




By 6pm we were at Timberland Heights. It’s a new members-only club. Kind of like Tagaytay Highlands, on top of the mountain with a great view of the city. It was newly built and Rey and Pam's wedding reception was the first ever event that they hosted.

When we entered the property, we were joking with Joema that he might have to present his invitation because of security. Tric and Heil's invite says Mr. and Mrs. while mine only has my name on it. We were telling him that he might be asked to not enter the compound haha. Of course, before we went into the reception hall there's the registration table for the guests. After asking which table I'm assigned to, I had to ask Joema's name too. Aha he wasn't on the guestlist hahaha! Sabi nya if they deny him entry, he would have pulled Pam aside and tell her to include him in the guestlist hahahaha! Anyways, everything's cool coz he has an assigned seat as my guest.

The reception program was short and sweet. Dinner followed by speeches, songs, dance and the traditional garter and bouquet toss.

Congratulations and best wishes, Rey and Pam!

Invites Out

I know I’ve mentioned that we started giving out our invitations. I’m very happy with how our invites turned out. We had A Perfect Creation print the main invite as I blogged before. We went back there, I think after a week, and got our sample invite. We were expecting to get the invitations by the end of September but I think they had some problems with the printing. It was okay because we asked them to make additional 20 pieces (we originally ordered just 80). Iona informed me that there were some delays and that the invites will be ready by 6 Oct. But the 6th was a Monday and they don't open shop on Mondays. Iona suggested that they can deliver it the following day instead. So on the 7th the invites (all 100 pcs of them) were delivered right on our doorstep.

The invites came in these cute brown boxes

But there were some pieces that were damaged - either there were stains or the embossing was not correct so I asked Iona again if they can do anything about it. She said they will replace all those pieces and again had them delivered to our house. The replacements were delivered today. Now that is customer service!

Anyway, on the night of the 7th I started assembling our invitations...

The rest of the invite was DIY. I made the RSVP card..

and the map..

and the sticker (just like our save-the-dates, i just corrected the order of the name, guy's name first yada yada and changed the font)...

and the envelopes too..

(which my family helped me fold, our little assembly line)

So when you open the envelope you will see this...

and it will open up to this..

Allergy Scare

Friday morning I woke up with tingling sensations on my feet. Parang namumulikat at pasulpot-sulpot yung feeling. I felt this almost the entire day. I was uneasy the whole day. The only thing that kept me going was our dinner date with the flyfish gang.

We arranged to meet up for dinner so that I can give their wedding invites. We ate at Claw Daddy at Bonifacio High Street. We ordered pasta, baby back ribs and crabs. We found the food a bit pricey but over all we enjoyed eating there. I enjoyed eating the crab so much - what with pounding it with a stone (or rock?) to crack open the shell hehe. When I got home my feet were swelling. I wasn’t alarmed by this because I thought it was just an effect of what I was feeling the whole day, that I was just probably tired that the swelling was an after-effect of the tingling sensation.

But when I woke up the next day, my hands were swelling too. I can’t even make a fist. My hands up to my elbows were swelling. And my feet were itching! My legs were swollen as well, you can’t even see my ankle. Parang yung itsura ng paa ng mga buntis na minamanas. Ganon! I was a bit scared although I knew (after Grace’s own allergy scare) it’s really nothing to worry about but I still asked my brother and father to bring me to the ER. We went to a small hospital near our house. And since it’s a small hospital they didn’t accept my medical card. I had to call my officemates to ask what I need from the hospital so that I can reimburse my expenses. But I left my phone with Joema the night before. So I had to call him first to ask him for the numbers. And since it’s a Saturday he was still sleeping when I called and was a bit irritated while I was talking to him. I didn’t want to tell him I was at the hospital coz I didn’t want him to worry. But he was just so slow and he couldn’t figure out how to send a business card using my phone that I just blurted out to him that I was in the hospital and he needed to hurry (because I started to feel sleepy). I had to call him a few times and just ask him to dictate to me the numbers of my officemates. Rhoda wasn’t answering (probably because my other number wasn’t listed on her phone) so I had to ask for Ge’s number. O ayun panic tuloy si Joema bigla when he knew I was at the hospital. Anyways, when I got Ge’s number I was feeling really whoozy from the meds they injected so I asked my father to call her instead and told him the things he needed to ask. After a few minutes Ge was there visiting me with her daughter. So sweet! Isn’t it nice when your officemates have become your friends? Sometimes you know them more or they know you more than some of your relatives. But I digress. Ge came by to visit to tell us to just call her in case I will be confined. She will call our medical provider to ask for assistance if that was the case. But thankfully, it wasn’t. I just slept – or "kept my eyes close" is more accurate since I can hear everything that was happening around me, I wasn’t sleeping but my eyes just felt heavy. I was released after maybe an hour, the swelling subsided but my feet were still itching a bit. The doctor told me not to eat so many things (seafood, chicken, dairy, egg, legumes, processed food like hotdogs, etc. etc. in short “lahat ng masarap” – his words). I was given a prescription and we had to buy the meds before heading home. Before leaving the hospital, Joema called and asked if he should go straight to our house or to the hospital. I told him I was being released and that I’ll see him when we get home. After a few minutes that we’re in the house, he arrived. We ate lunch together but after eating I was asleep. As in tulog na parang wala ng bukas. I don't know if it was the meds kicking in. I was lying in the sofa while he was at my feet haha. When I woke up, I found him asleep too. I felt weak to go out of the house and do some of our errands – get banns from church and give out invitation to our ninong. But we had arranged for a dinner with his friends so we went out early in the evening.

My Kumpil

The day before my scheduled confirmation, I emailed Penny and confirmed with her our meeting time. I had a fitting in the morning so I had asked her to meet up around 12nn (when I called San Miguel Church they told me the confirmation is scheduled at 2:30pm but we should be there by 1:30pm and there's a seminar at 2pm). She replied saying that she needs to bring their car to the talyer to have it fixed. Dinaan kasi nya sa baha kaya ayaw na umandar. But after a few hours, she emailed me again saying the car has “miraculously healed” haha!

The next day, my confirmation day (naks!), while I was waiting for her to pick me up, she sent me a message saying the car won’t start. Nakupo! But all’s well as we figured we can just commute going to Malacanang. I called my Tita who’s familiar with the area and asked whether we can go there via LRT-Purple Line. I met up with Penny (and her family) and her dad gave us a ride to the Santolan LRT station. I think it was already 1pm by this time. I don’t know what was into me that day but I wasn’t really worried we won’t be on time. And that’s big for me because I’m a stickler for time. I hate being late (this is the reason Joema and I always have our petty quarrels). But that day I was calm, I wasn’t worried. So anyway, when we got to the station there was a long line for the LRT card, which is unusual because they have a lot of card-dispensing machines there. But on that particular day, only 3 or 4 were working. We lined up and after a few minutes got our cards. When we got off the Legarda station we didn’t know where to go. We figured we can ride the taxi from there going to San Miguel Church. My Tita told me we can also ride a jeep going to Quiapo, get off Mendiola and from there ride another jeep going to San Miguel Church. But according to Penny’s dad jeepneys weren’t allowed in that area and that me wight have to walk going to the church. So when we were out of the station, we started waiting for a taxi or jeep to Quiapo. But most of the jeep signs were Stop and Shop or Divisoria. Okay now we’re lost. We had to ask one of the trike drivers there. Buti na lang alam ni Manong. He told us to cross the street and ride a jeep going to Quiapo. Then get off Petron which is along Arlegui Street and there we can ride a jeep going to San Miguel. We followed his instructions and got off Arlegui and rode the San Miguel jeep. I had to ask the driver if he’s going to pass San Miguel Church and he said yes, thankfully. But there’s this creepy passenger (there were only 6 of us inside the jeep – me, Penny, a lady with a child, the creepy passenger and then another kid seating in front), who immediately asked if we’re going there for the confirmation. I said yes. Then he asked kung sino magpapakumpil, so I answered na ako. But I wasn’t looking at him when I answer him at baka matandaan nya mukha ko. I can’t not answer him din naman dahil baka kung ano gawin nya noh. And I was seated inside inside the jeep and he’s seated right beside the door, the only way I can get off the jeep is passing by him or thru the window haha! And then he started telling us that we should go there during fiesta because the confirmation is free during fiesta. And then he started saying that date of the fiesta, and that they changed the date in the recent years. Was praying so hard we reach the church immediately, not only because we’re running late but also because of that creepy passenger. He was helpful but nevertheless still creepy.

We reached the church siguro quarter to two. There were a few more people coming in after us. I accomplished the form and then had to pay the P600 fee (plus P25 pa for the small medallion). Then we proceeded inside the church. The person in charge, a bald guy, let’s call him Manong Kalbo, started giving us instructions. He was a bit OA in teaching us what to do. We’re not a bunch of idiots you know. It seemed like he was talking to a group of second graders. And I felt like a second grader, I was terrified of him. It seemed we can’t make any mistakes and if we do, we’re a bunch of morons. He discussed part by part the things that will be done during the confirmation. And then the last part he warned us that we shouldn’t seat when the Bishop says “Magsiyuko kayo” or else we wouldn’t be getting our confirmation certificate. But what do you know, when we got to that part, it did sound as “Magsiupo kayo” ahahaha.

Altar of the National Shrine of St. Michael and The Archangels

The Bishop was a small old man. He was old but you can see that he’s also very strict (we were warned actually, I don’t know if we’re brainwashed into thinking it or if he really is that strict). Anyways, since it was obvious most of us were there because we’re getting married (Catholics should have their confirmation as early as age 12), he gave some words of wisdom regarding getting married. What really stuck to my head was his song. He was lecturing us not to engage in pre-marital sex. He told us that brides who wore white and are not virgins are hypocrites. That the song should not be “Here comes the bride, all dress in white”. The bride should instead were polka dots and the song should go “Here comes the bride, three months inside, six months to go and … “ I forgot the last few words. But we were all laughing. He was laughing himself. Like a kid, I might add. Imagine a kid who’s laughing at something naughty he has done but is trying to suppress his laughter or his parents might catch him. That’s what he was like at that time. So funny! Penny and I were still talking about it on the ride home.

St. Michael

When I got my certificate pala I checked it and Penny’s name was misspelled. We had to have it corrected but it was fast naman so no sweat.

With my Ninang Penny. Thanks Ninang! :)

One Month To Go!

Yay!

* Done with my confirmation
* Done with first meeting with Marj
* Got Joema's suit and shoes
* Had bridal shower
* Started giving out our invites
* Finished misalette
* Will have canonical interview tomorrow
* Will get banns and permission from the parish this weekend
* Set meeting with quartet
* Final food tasting next week
* Fax changes for the reception venue
* Buy wedding paraphernalias

I know I'm missing so many things there but that's it for now. We have one more month to go, only 30 days! Gosh! Then I will be Mrs. A. Whooopeee!

The Stolen Lake

Found this old book in one of our cabinets at home. I haven't bought any new books when I finished the last book I read so I had to look for the next book at my old stash. Was surprised to see a "dedication" at the book cover:

Pls. keep this as my remembrance. Thanx for being my friend. Don't dare change. I love you. Take care of your darling .

Forget me not
Forget us not
Forget the letter
But not the writer

Hehehehe the friend who gave it to me was a schoolmate when I was in grade six. I never knew what happened to her when we transferred to different schools for high school.

Anyways, this book forms part of a series written by Joan Aiken, although the foreword of the author says that no need to have read any of the others she has written to understand the contents of this book. The story is about the adventure of Dido Twite, which happened during the time of King James II of England (supposing he was the leader of England instead of Queen Victoria). Dido Twite is aboard HMS Thrush which was asked by monarchy to pass by the land of New Cumbria, to help the queen, Queen Ginevra because her lake was stolen. The book starts to get interesting ones the crew of HMS Thrush gets to New Cumbria to meet the queen. Apparently, Queen Ginevra thinks that she is the wife of King Arthur (yes the one with the sword and king of the round table) and that the king was asleep for already thirteen hundred years. He's asleep because he is healing from his wounds he suffered when he fought in the Battle of Dyrham. He was kept in the island of Avalon and she needs the lake because this where he will travel back to her. The lake was stolen by the king of a neighboring country because he is accusing Queen Ginevra of kidnapping his daughter. He is keeping the lake as ransom. Interesting enough?

Brought this book to Bangkok and finished it while waiting for our flight back to Manila. It's a welcome break from Jaws and certainly a lighter read compared to the next book I've finished. Wait for my next book review.

Prelude to Bangkok

Look where we’ve been...

So many things to write about Bangkok. Let me start on the night we left for Bangkok. As some might have known by now, all Cebu Pacific flights are in NAIA Terminal 3. Thank God, we weren’t one of the thousands of passengers who were stranded on their first few days operating on said terminal. When we got there, we were a bit confused as there were no assigned counters per destination…basta lang all domestic flights will check-in on the counters to our left and all international flights will check-in on the counters to our right. I’m not sure if it’s the most systematic way, as there was an incident where they had to ask all the people lined up if they were passengers bound for Hong Kong. Apparently it was boarding time for their Hong Kong flight and they had to make sure everyone has checked in. Truly enough there was lady who was still lining up behind us. They asked us if it’s okay to let her go ahead of us. Anyways, we didn’t have a problem with that I think I’m just used to assigned counters per flight.

waiting in line for check-in

There weren’t that many food stalls/stores inside the terminal. We had to contend ourselves with eating the rice meals from San Miguel Food Shop. I wasn’t satisfied with the taste but we had to make do with it. After eating our rice toppings, my father had to buy another sandwich from Seatlle’s Best and shared it with my brother. Sana nag-Seattle’s Best na lang nga kami, mas masarap pa.

where we bought our "sad" dinner

The waiting area at Terminal 3 are spacious and the seats are comfortable. Hindi ako nainip while waiting for our flight as I brought a book with me. But don’t you find yourselves eagerly/excitedly waiting for a flight out of the country (or even out of twon) than when waiting for a flight back – super nakakainip na parang ang tagal-tagal dumating ng eroplano. That’s how I felt on this trip.

The travel to Bangkok is around 3 hours and 20 minutes but there’s a time difference of one hour, Thailand being behind. So it felt like the flight was faster than anticipated. We were there around 1130pm and were welcomed by Tita Badette and Tito Tito. They’re friends of my folks. Tita Badette works for the DFA in Bangkok and had passes to go inside the airport. They welcomed us right from the gate when we got off the plane. Hanep! Tita Badette had lots of stories about Bangkok. It’s nice that we had a “local” with us when we traveled from the airport to the hotel. I’ve read some stories about Bangkok taxi drivers na naghohold-up ng tourists which Tita Badette confirmed that there were incidents like that. Of course, she told us other stories about their life in Bangkok – bits and pieces of Thai culture. My first thought of the country was how progressive Thailand is. Their airport is humongous and very modern looking! It is about 30minutes away from the city proper.

ganda ng airport

Their highways were huge as well! Sabi nga ni Tito Tito mura daw ang semento don kaya panay ang pagpapagawa ng infrastructure hehe.

Checking in to Baiyoke Boutique Hotel was easy. Even if we arrived there way past midnight, the front desk personnel were friendly. I had a hard time understanding their English but we got our keys and the necessary information like breakfast and free shuttle van before we proceeded to our rooms. We booked two separate rooms and Jay and I were roomed together. Buti na rin kasi when we got there our “welcoming committee” stayed and chatted with our parents pa. It was a long day before we finally had time to sleep, eager to explore Bangkok.

Final Fitting

I’m finally done with fittings for my wedding dress. We’ve had our 2nd, 3rd and 4th fitting already. Hopefully I will not gain weight until our wedding. Each fitting is about two weeks after the other. For my 2nd fitting both Tria and her mom was there. Both of them plus Ms. Linda were making a big fuss on my dress. I felt like a princess haha! We’re all very happy with the outcome of my dress. This will probably not sound convincing because I won’t be able to describe it. Basta all I can say is it’s simple yet elegant. For all my fittings, we didn’t really stay that long. There were always minor alterations - meaning, hindi ako pumapayat! Although they always tell me that I’m really slim and petite, I still don’t believe them haha! The last time we went there, they’ve put my dress in a body form and it was displayed on their shop’s window. Haaay…that’s my wedding dress!! Now, I just have to maintain my weight (although I wish my arms were smaller ) and hopefully the fit will not change. I can’t wait for Joema to see me wearing the dress!

Jaws

I haven't watched the movie Jaws. I now it's considered a classis but that is the truth - I haven't watched it. So when I saw the book I immediately bought it. Just to know what the fuss is all about this killer shark.

I didn't know that it was such a scary story. The first chapter of the book had me waiting in anxiety how they will find out that the girl they were looking for was killed by a shark. I pity Chief Brody - his wife shouldn't have done that. It was such an unfair thing to do. I wish Hooper had not died and Brody had known what happened. I didn't understant the parts where the author attempted to describe the boat they used to capture the shark haha so much technical terms that I didn't know I can't even picture how the boat looks like. I think the last few chapters were hurried. It felt like the author wanted them to catch the shark ASAP. I'm sure the three of them - Brody, Hooper and Quint were bored to death aboard the boat waiting for the shark to appear but it didn't seem that way to me - as the reader. Or maybe it was just me..I was hurrying to read the last page of the book to see if they really caught the shark. Anyway, all in all the book did what it's suppose to do...it scared me.

Kreativ Blogger

Got this from Steph, who just had her funtabulous wedding. Thanks Steph!

The rules are:
* The winner may put the logo on his or her blog.
* Put a link to the person you got the award from.
* Nominate five blogs.
* Put links to the blogs.
* Leave a message to the nominees.

Now, I'm tagging Cheryl, Liz, Anna, EJ and Abbie.

The Two Mujeres

I’ve been behind my book reviews. I’ve already finished three books since Abundance hehe. So let’s start the ball rolling.

I’ve mentioned in my previous book review that I was already reading another book before I bought Abundance. It was The Two Mujeres by Sara Levi Calderon. What got me interested to buy this book is the text at the back cover:

- the long awaited English translation of the surprise Mexican bestseller.

Simply and sensually written, this love story between two Mexican Jewish women has been both scandalouse and celebrated since its first publication.

It even has a glossary of the Mexican words/phrases with its English translation at the back. It's set up in Mexico and it’s about Valeria…a lady who’s in a gay relationship with Genovesa. It tackles the problems they encounter with the people around them..Ginevra’s two son’s, her parents, her boyfriend (then). I think it was considered and maybe still is a touchy topic, especially with a religious nation as Mexico. I don't understand why the author added the storyline on Morena, Genovesa's cousin. Well, yes she was the reason the two ladies met but the thing about her heroin problem I think it was insignificant in Valeria and Genovesa's love story. Unless it mirrors something in their relationship that I was too dull to see hehe. Anyway, the book was an easy read...some short chapters. It's interesting to note that the author is a Mexican Jewish who has two sons, got divorced and fell in love with a lesbian. I wonder how much of the book is her story.

Kawawang Bata

Mukha kaming kawawa ni Joema nung Saturday. Ewan ko ba kung bakit wala kaming dalang pera non.

We first went to Denden’s to pick up our wedding rings. Remember, we weren’t able to get them because there was an error in the engravings? So we were finally able to get them with the correct engravings. They are beautiful. I love my wedding ring. It goes beautifully with my engagement ring.

We’ve also booked A Perfect Creation for the printing of our wedding invitation. We actually contacted another printer, that’s highly recommended by Pao but they cannot do the printing that we liked. I wanted the texts embossed and the design dry sealed. Iona of A Perfect Creation gave us a very reasonable price for the printing of our invitation plus they didn’t require a minimum number of invitations. Yey! Our invites will still be mostly DIY. We only booked them for the printing. I ordered papers from them for our envelopes but I will make those. It’s came out cheaper as the sheet was only P35 while if we have the envelopes custom-made they will charge us P20/envelope. I figured we still have time and we don’t have the budget haha so I better rely on my crafting skills! I will also printout the RSVP cards and the church/venue map as well. I think our invitations came out more expensive (per piece) because we decided to stick with our design, compared to just picking out readily available designs from other invitation suppliers but I’m happy with how our invitation looks like. No other invitation supplier (yung mga natanong ko lang naman) has a design like that.

Joema and I had lunch at Philcoa before we headed out to Kamuning. We went to Mands’ tailor, Knik, for Joema’s suit. We actually went to Onesimus the Friday before that and inquired how much the suit will cost us. Since we can’t buy their ready-made suits - Joema has a very small frame, even their small sizes don’t fit him properly – we had to have his suit made to order. It would cost us atleast 10k if we had it tailored at Onesimus. But at Knik, the price was only about 6k that includes labor and tela for the coat, pants and white longsleeves polo. Here’s the nakakahiya moment – when they asked us for money for the deposit, I asked if it was okay to pay only one thousand pesos (yun na lang buo kong pera). The old lady told me if we can make it atleast 2thousand haha. Omygosh! Kakahiya wala na kaming pera by that time. Ewan ko why it didn’t occur to us to withdraw money before proceeding with our other errands. Buti na lang Joema had 600 pesos pa and I had some one hundred peso bills on my wallet. It didn’t occur to me to ask if we could pay by check pero siguro kasi I thought they might want cash because theirs is a small shop, yung mukhang only cash payments are made.

So anyway, after that we went to my parish to submit our banns and get the permission from the parish priest. The form for the permission indicated that we had to pay P100 so I was expecting to shell out just that. But when we got there, the lady asked us to pay seven hundred pesos for the marriage banns. Ayayayay! Super walang wala na talaga kaming pera. We paid 6 hundred peso bills and then a fifty plus two twenty peso bills and two five peso bills. Haha baryang barya talaga! Joema and I were whispering to each other we didn’t have money to go home. Buti na lang the parish is just in the village next to ours. I told him we still have change for the tricycle and if we didn’t have enough change for the jeepney fare we can walk na lang! And if worst comes to worst, I would have called Penny and asked for money (she lives in the same village as the parish). Buti na lang din the atm machine outside the village was online. Joema was able to withdraw money kaya we had money na when we got home. Laugh trip talaga! Note that on our first two stops (rings and invitations) we paid by check haha. Note to self: always bring lots of cash when doing wedding related errands!



A Perfect Creation
44 Magiting St. Teacher's Village QC
Tel No. 9205910

KNIK
5 Kamuning Road, Kamuning QC
Tel No. 9284168

Business Loans

While I’m already happy with my job and I know that I’ll probably stay here until my retirement (we have really good medical benefits and a pension plan), I’m still thinking of starting a small business. And since I don’t have the money to start one, I should probably avail of business loans. There are some organizations that will offer you a business loan without any collateral. You will get your startup money without any problems. My problem now is what business should I put up? People always say it should be of interest to you, which is quite logical. You have to learn different things before you set up your business, it might as well be something you are really passionate about. So that leads me to…what are my interests and will they make me profitable?

Travel

I love to travel. And the few times I’ve traveled, I’m so excited about planning the trip. I am usually the one preparing the flight details, the hotel arrangements, our itinerary for the trip. One friend told me I should do that as a business, put up a travel agency or just arrange itineraries for people going on a trip.

Wedding

Even before we started planning for our wedding, I’ve already researched on the different suppliers in the industry. I wanted to know how much budget we should have for our wedding, what is realistic and what is not. And I’ve helped my friends who are getting married by referring different suppliers to them. I’m their wanna-be coordinators haha! Penny suggested I should do it as a side-line.

These are just two of the industries that I think I have a chance of doing something. Well, these are what interests me as of the moment. So if I do put up a business, it might be something related to any of these two – even if it’s remotely related hehe.

48 hours

Last weekend we’ve managed to attend a birthday party, squeeze in my third fitting, go to our friend’s despedida and then went to the province. All that in less than 48 hours.

Joema and I met up at Gateway around 11am Saturday morning. We were at Outback, Libis for Vitto’s birthday just in time. Most of my officemates were there already.

Birthday boy Vitto..happy 1st bday!

My father fetched us after the party and then we went back to Cubao to fetch my mother. We then proceeded to Dream Bride for my third fitting. We were late when we got there (almost 3pm, sorry Tria, my appointment was at 2pm). I’ll try to blog about that and my second fitting on a separate entry.

Anyways, after the fitting my parents dropped us off at SM North, MRT station. Joema and I were going back to Ortigas to attend the anticipated mass at Megamall. Before the mass, we had enough time to go around and look for a bed and couch. I really wanted to buy the sofa bed we saw at Play and Display. We’ll see, we’ll see. There’s just so much to pay for - the wedding, the honeymoon, the condo. Ayayayayay!

After the mass, Ja fetched us at Mcdo, El Pueblo and together we went down south to Joy and Mek’s house for Epoy’s despedida. Since it was his last day with us we didn’t bother playing poker but just went ahead and told stories non-stop. If I didn’t tell them (at 3am!) that we had to leave coz we’re leaving early for the province the next day (which is actually only a few hours away), no one would have gone home. We were all just waiting for someone to say they had to go home already haha.

Paalis na yung tao ginagago pa rin ni Tricio

When Joema and I got home, we didn’t have time to sleep anymore. I told my parents we should just hit the road than let us sleep for only an hour or two. We had a shower, changed our clothes and we’re back on the road again – this time heading north to Nueva Ecija with my family. Joema and I we’re both asleep the entire trip (which is not really unusual for me hehe). Because of my brother’s excellent driving skills we arrived at my grandparents’ house around 730am. It was the first time for Joema to come with us and of course the first time to meet my grandparents. My lola said that he looked younger than me. (Hay naku buti na lang lola kita hehehe.) Joema met most of my relatives there – titas, cousins, nephews and nieces. It was also his first time to get to see a carabao up close haha! You see my grandparents are farmers. There are rice fields in front of their house and even at the back. When we first arrived, I was joking Joema that we own the rice fields as far as his eyes can see haha feeling haciendera!

Takot lumapit sa kalabaw

We were bound for Manila around 130pm, had an early dinner at NLEX and dropped off Joema at the condo before finally heading home. Whew! What a loooong weekend it was!

For Liz

Here's my answer to your comment:

1. Pre-cana seminar - Villa San Miguel couples should get their seminar from EDSA Shrine. The seminar is a two-part thingy. First seminar is Christian Doctrine which is every Saturday 8am-12nn at the second floor (stairs going up the second floor along Ortigas). When you get there to register tell them its for marriage purpose since they also do this seminar for couples who are having their child baptised. You can just drop by they will let you attend the seminar. The second part is Parenthood which is every 4th Saturday of the month 8:30am - 12nn (but we actually finished around 2pm). This one you have to call first their office to register. It's usually done in the free clinic, near the women's rest room (entrance along EDSA).

EDSA Shrine
EDSA cor. Ortigas Ave.
Tel. No. 6315734

2. Delegation from Sacred Heart Jesus - just go the parish office of Sacred Heart and pay the fee of P500. Sacred Heart is near Villa San Miguel, just a ride a jeep going to Quiapo and tell the driver to drop you off Acacia Lane. You won't miss it because it's the corner where Jollibee is at, Jollibee is at the left side of the road. Ride a tricycle parked at Jollibee and tell them to bring you to Sacred Heart. When we went there the church was being renovated but the parish office is open. And we also went on a weekday so I'm not sure if they are open on weekends.

Hope this helps! Drop a line if you need anything else. :)

Abundance

I first got interested on Marie Antoinette when Kirsten Dunst's movie came out. I read in a few blogs about the positive reviews on the movie and on Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette. I wasn't able to see it but was determined on getting my hands on a DVD copy. But as I don't really spend so much on DVD's I wasn't able to get it when it first came out. My brother kept on telling me it's not available in his "suking DVD rental place". While waiting to get my hands on a copy I indulged in reading this PBS site on her. But a few months ago Astrovision went on sale and I was able to finally buy my copy and watch the movie. I'm not really a fan of Kirsten but she was amazing in that movie. It's like she was really the fourteen year old Dauphine when she came to France. She was mesmerizing. Of course there was "Making of" in the special features of the DVD. Sofia Coppola mentioned there that she wasn't really making an accurate historical film on Marie Antoinette but that she was just trying to tell her story.

Anyway, I was already reading a book that's supposed to be next on my book list but I chanced upon this book Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette when I went to Powerbooks when they had their sale last July or August (Another sale! Got my copy for P99!). The author, Sena Jeter Naslund, wrote it in the first person - that way you're reading the events on Marie Antoinette's life as if you are her and it is happening to you. You get to know her from her journey to France to marry the Dauphin up to the last minutes of her life when she was getting ready to go to the guillotine. You feel elated when their marriage is finally consumated and feel sad at the death of her children. Among the personalities surrounding the queen, Count von Fersen intrigues me the most. Was he really her lover or just a really really close friend? In the book, there were no accounts of them making loving or even kissing, but Marie Antoinette loves von Fersen in a way different from her love to the king. It's almost as if she thinks/feels he is her soulmate. There were some pages in the book that made me real sleepy but there were more things to love about it. I love the chapters where Marie Antoinette writes to her mother and her mother writes to her. It made me miss letter writing. Imagine the days when we had to wait for a few days or even weeks before we get any letters from our loved ones. I love that the book showed Marie Antoinette's feelings for the people around her (although some of these might just be assumed by the author). I guess it made Marie Antoinette even more real and not just someone who lived in the distant past and we get to read in history books. This book just made me fall in love with Marie Antoinette more.

You Don’t Give Me Flowers

The other day, when Joema and I were together we heard this song being played over the radio. I told him that was my song for him although we have to change the word “anymore” to “ever since” LOL I know that’s grammatically wrong but anyway. For the more than eight years that we’ve been going out, he only gave me flowers twice. Not that I really care. I’m not really fond of flowers but of course if someone gives me I will definitely be touched. My father gives me flowers on my Valentine’s day and birthday. :D

So choosing the flowers for the wedding was a no-brainer for me. No-brainer in the sense that I wouldn’t care what flowers you give me as long as there are some haha. Some brides might have envisioned themselves walking down the aisle holding a bouquet with their favorite flowers or something that has sentimental value to them but I’m clearly not one of those brides.

My mother and I went to Mang Boy’s stall in Dangwa to get a quotation from him. He wasn’t here but Mang Dinan (his florist) brought us to Mang Boy’s house, thinking that Mang Boy was still there about ready to deliver some flowers. But he already left, so Mang Dinan and Mang Jon showed us their photo albums and asked us about my wedding motif and proceeded on giving us a package. When I told them my motif was plum (or kulay talong as Mang Dinan wrote hehe) they immediately told me that tulips will be good for my bouquet. I was happy with that because I initially wanted tulips or calla lilies for my bouquet. These were the only flowers I’ve seen with colors that are the same as my motif. When I asked them about the calla lilies they told me that the variety of calla lilies in plum color will have small flowers, hence it’s better to go with the tulips. Okay I wouldn’t disagree with that as they are the specialists. Then they showed me a bunch of other flowers for my entourage, principal sponsors and the mothers. I just agreed to everything they said. After a few minutes we were done. Their initial price was a bit steep. My mother was there ready to haggle and haggle she did. If I were the only one there I would have looked for another stall and asked for a different package or I would have agreed to their original price. Actually when they gave the original price, I initially asked them to change the flowers to lower the price but they insisted that I should get tulips for my bouquet as this will be my special day hehe. They eventually gave in to the price that’s within our budget. Hep hep hurray for the haggling skills of my mother!

Two weeks after I was back in Dangwa together with Penny. Now Penny on the other hand, definitely knows what she wants for her flowers. She even brought along a picture of the bouquet she wanted. She had some input on what colors she wanted for her entourage too. They gave her a discount because I was with her. Naks! I, on the other hand, asked them to add a flower as my hairpiece. They showed me a flower and then I agreed, again haha! On that second visit, I was able to see Mang Boy. He was there but Mang Dinan was still the one who made the package for Penny. I guess that's what bosses do you know - boss their people around hehe kidding!

Boy Mahusay
Jarielle's Flowershop
Stall # 16 Dos Castillas St.
Sampaloc, Manila

Church Requirements

We finally went back to Archbishop’s Palace to submit some of the church requirements – baptismal certificate, marriage license, license to solemnize marriage, delegation from SHJ Parish and pre-cena.

Baptismal Certificate

Joema and I got ours separately. No need to get it together since we actually weren’t the ones who got it. My mother and brother got mine at the Our Lady of Grace Parish in Caloocan. If you’re baptized there as well, here are their contact details:

Open Monday to Friday
Office Hours: 8:00 am – 11:30am, 1:00pm – 4:30pm
No releasing during holidays
Tel No. 634-5905
Fax No. 361-9515

If a representative, other than parent/s will get the certificate for you make sure to give authorization letter and photocopy of your ID.

As for Joema’s certificate, this was cause for an argument for us, simply because he kept on insisting that their church don’t issue baptismal certificates for marriage purposes. He kept on telling me that he will give me his original baptismal certificate while I kept on telling him that he has to get a new one. Oh well, atleast he was convinced to get it after our argument hehe. I think his mother got if for him as well.

License to Solemnize Marriage

This was easy to get since our officiating priest was easy to contact. He celebrates the first Friday masses here at the office so I just walked up to him and asked him for a copy of his license. He just faxed me the copy and we’re done.

Pre-cana Seminar

EDSA Shrine conducts their pre-cana seminar in two parts. The first part I blogged about here. The second part we attended last August 23. There were six couples in the seminar. The facilitators were a couple as well. They were married for 26 years already (if I remembered it correctly). They compared getting married to building a house with the pillars of the house, the stairs and the door representing the different facets of getting married (is it obvious I forgot most of it hehe). The latter part of the seminar we were asked to answer a questionnaire – the questionnaire was the same one we answered in the seminar held for our marriage license – and the answers were discussed.

************************

Rhoda and Jopen went with us to the church. We needed them as witnesses for our dispensation (mixed marriage). I’m very grateful they gave us their time (we all had to get off from work early to go Villa San Miguel). This dispensation as I mentioned before is sort of a contract that’s done between a Catholic and non-Catholic getting married in Catholic rites. The dispensation basically states that as the Catholic, I vow to remain a Catholic and to bring up our future children as Catholics, while he signs the contract in agreement. Both parties and the witnesses sign the contract and the parish priest as well. At AP, they have a stamp of Fr. Jun Sescon with his signature so he doesn’t need to be present there. The next day we brought the dispensation at the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila in Intramuros. They said to wait two to three days to pick up the document. I guess they will give us another document that we need to submit to AP. I will have to ask my brother to pick-up the document this Friday.

As for the other requirements, Brother Alexis gave us the forms for the banns and the permission from my parish. We already have the forms for the canonical interview but we have to schedule it with our officiating priest. We also have to get a schedule for my confirmation.

Quote from Joema

Ber months na...September, October, December

I'm His Girl

He was on stage with his guitar.

Then he started singing but the voice is not his – it’s Ruffa Gutierrez’ voice singing!

After the song, he came down to the audience to get his mom adn they both went up the stage. (this is so Piolo!)

Then we started dating. Girls we’re envious of me.

We’re at home doing laundry, while his mom’s in the living room watching – she’s actually watching us with spite in her eyes thinking “She got lucky!”

Then we started fooling around and started kissing. Aaahhh.. If I close my eyes can still feel it haha!

Then I woke up!

I dreamt of him…





Abbie, di ko alam kung bakit….hindi ko naman sya ganon ka-type. Di nga ko kinikilig pag nakikita ko sya sa TV ahahaha! Baka pagalitan ako ni Bebe.

What I'm Doing Right Now

Consolidating my list of prenup pics to be included in our guestbook with Joema's list. We've had the CD for a few months now but haven't finalized our list yet. It's all Joema's fault really. Our game plan was I write my list then he writes his then we compare them and include in the final list the photos that both of us included in our list. So after only a week of the CD with me, I gave it to Joema. He said he looked at it within days of receiving it, and had written down his favorites. But lo and behold he lost the piece of paper where he wrote it. He wasn't able to look at the pictures again after that until last week when I gave him a deadline for his list - finish or not yet finish pass your paper! LOL I'm having a hard time because I have more than 100 photos on my list and he has around 60 on his (we had to submit around 40-60 photos for the guestbook) but only around 25 photos are both on our lists. So frustrating! And it's so hard to choose if there are tons of great photos to choose from. But this is a good probleam really. So I'll stop whining and continue with what I'm doing.

Write...Right?

I have been writing much about our wedding preparations in this blog. Sorry to bore you with the itty-bitty details of our wedding. It's just that most of my time, aside from work, goes to preparing for the wedding. And I haven't really thought about any other things to write about. Even if I wanted to write about something else, I can't seem to start to write about it. Much like in school when I was required to write essays or book reviews. Did you know that now you can buy essays online and then submit the essay to your teacher? Some internet website specializes in providing writing services to students. Some may argue that you won't be able to learn, if someone does your homework for you but still...isnt' this neat? You pay people to do custom writing for you. It can be compared to paying for tutorial services I presume. No more worrying about failing to submit required essays from your different subjects in school, just let them know your specific requirements. For us Filipinos, this is actually not a new concept because there are shops in Recto, near the university belt, that sells thesis papers to students. Do you think this online custom writing is a lot different from the shops in Recto?

Imeldific Much?

I was supposed to have my 2nd fitting with Tria last Saturday, but it was moved to this coming Saturday. During my first fitting they advised me to bring my wedding shoes for my second fitting. Joema and I went to Marikina Shoe Expo (aka Cubao Expo, I still call the place Marikina Shoe Expo...old habits die hard) a few Saturdays ago to see if I can buy cheap wedding shoes there. I didn't want to spend so much on white shoes that I will use just once, unless I get married again. But then again, if that's a second wedding then I don't want to wear white. Anyway, everyone tells me that I should buy white shoes for the wedding so I was looking for a white pair. I already went around the malls but I couldn't find anything that I like. Anyway, Joema and I looked at almost every store in Marikina Shoe Expo when my mom arrived to meet up with us. We went around the complex one more time with her. And before we exited we saw one shoe store that Joema and I didn't enter. Actually, they have a rack of shoes/sandals outside the store that were selling for P200 a pair. I tried on a silver pair of strappy sandals and immediately liked it. I figured even if I don't get to use it for my wedding I can still use them on other weddings (especially Pam's upcoming wedding). The saleslady asked us to enter the store because there were more choices inside. While inside I saw this really cute pair of strappy sandals in gold/cream. My mother told me to try it because it can pass up for wedding shoes. I tried it and it looked good on my feet so I bought it. Yey! My wedding shoes for just P600 ahahaha! All the shoes in the store are on sale so I looked around for more shoes hehe. I've been looking for office shoes for a while now and I scored this gray peep toe slingbacks for just P300. So you thought I was done shoe shopping didn't you? Well, I wasn't. While I was trying on different shoes, another girl was in the store trying on pair after pair of shoes. I liked one of the wedge sandals that she tried on and asked the saleslady on what rack are those sandals displayed. I think she just took the sandals from the girl and asked me to try it on. I was a bit shy to try it on because the girl was still deciding what to take. In the end, she left the store empty handed. So then, I tried the sandals. And they looked good on my feet. My mother bought it for me coz I told her I didn't have enough money and I was thinking I'm buying too many shoes hehe. Yey! For a little over P1,500 I got four pairs of shoes. I was so happy and vowed to return to that store. I don't remember the name of the store but the brand of three of the shoes is Judelle's. The other one is Around World. LOL!

Now my report on the shoes: I've only worn the slingbacks and the wedge sandals. For the slingbacks, the left one is pinching my little pinky so I was in pain by the end of the day (a weekday, I've worn it to the office). But I'm hopeful that it's only because they were new. I'm planning to wear it again tomorrow to see if they're really painful and not as comfy as I imagined. The wedge sandals, I didn't have a similar painful experience. I've worn it on a weekend from morning till night. I had some difficulty but it really comes with wearing high-heeled shoes so I'm still okay with it. As for my wedding shoes, I plan to start using them while inside the house so that come our wedding day, my feet will be accustomed to the straps, to the height of the heels, to my beautiful wedding shoes.

Meet the newest Miglet

This is Alfredo Johann Miguel. We visited him last Saturday a few hours after he was born.


The happy parents – Joy and Mek.

Doctrines and Rings

I’m happy to have started striking off one by one the items on our list of church requirements. The latest one off our list is the Christian doctrine seminar as part one of the pre-cana seminar of EDSA Shrine. We were there by 8am but we were informed that the seminar really starts at 9am, we can instead have our breakfast first and then come back. So that’s what we did. We went to Ministop at Galleria to eat breakfast. Actually I’m the only one who ate because Joema had his breakfast before meeting up with me. It was still too early when we got back but most of the participants started arriving. Most of them are there to attend as requisite for the baptism of their child. Joema was so paranoid he kept telling me that we’re attending the wrong seminar. Not even the first speaker acknowledged the fact that there were couples who are about to get married. She just assumed that everyone’s married and already has a child about to be baptized. Anyway, the first speaker was Tita Minnie. She started talking about the sex and family planning, though this wasn’t part of that seminar, just to kill time. She said that love making is holy because it intended by God for procreation. She added that it was like the highest form of prayer. So next time when we’re in a family gathering and we are about to make love we can excuse ourselves and just tell our family member that it was prayer time already. And then the in-laws will say “Napakabait naman ng napangasawa ng anak ko..napakamadasalin” ahahahaha! She was about to tell us how to make a baby boy or girl based on the Billings family planning method when she saw that it was already 9am and time to start the real seminar.

The Christian doctrine seminar tackled three topics: the Credo, the seven Sacraments and then the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. For each topic there was a different speaker. Tita Minnie was the most affable of them. She had tons of stories of her travel in the Holy Land. I wished she could have done the other two parts. But we’re lucky because she’ll be the facilitator in the second part of the pre-cana seminar: Parenthood. Anyway, after the first topic we had a mini-break and we’re told that we can go down to their office so that we can give our “donation”. The “donation” is actually the payment for those attending the seminar for the baptism or maybe it’s the payment for the baptism itself…I’m not sure. We went there just to confirm if we’re on the right seminar. When we asked, the guy said “Ah walang bayad yun” and then informed us that there is a second seminar.

The second and third topics were okay. We finished rather late because after the third topic they grouped us and had to report on what topic touched us the most. We were so eager to leave because we had to go to our jeweller to pick up my engagement ring and our wedding rings.

We arrived at Quezon City around 1pm. Yey! I finally have my engagement ring again.

Before

After

See i'ts now white gold to go well with our wedding rings. I love love love my wedding ring! Although we weren’t able to take home our rings yet because the engraving was wrong. Mine had “Cris” instead of “Joema” and vice versa. Boo! We had to leave them coz they will correct the engravings. Den den asked if I was in a hurry because she told me we can have the engravings corrected at Rustan's but I told her we weren't really in a hurry because our wedding is still a few months away.

Survey from Anna

1. WHAT WAS I DOING 10 YEARS AGO? “Enjoying” college …hay sarap ng buhay estudyante..ang problema ko lang kung traffic bas a Katips papasok sa school haha.

2. WHAT ARE THE FIVE THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY? Aside from work:
a. buy Quaker Oats – I’ve been feeling a bit whoozy this morning and it might be the cholestorel again OR
b. have my eyes checked – it might be because I really need a new pair of glasses :-(
c. wedding related stuff - email florist to get quote for the wedding, proofread wedding invitation wording before submitting to EJ, arrange measurement of Sharon with mananahi this weekend
d. call Import Export Bank – no, I don’t have money there. Someone just asked me for a favor regarding his investments.
e. finish this survey hehe

3. SNACKS I ENJOY Mr. Chips, chocolate, ice cream, caramel sundae, instant cup noodles.

4. PLACES WHERE I LIVED The boondocks of Antipolo City, the not-so-sosy-side of Alabang, and there's no place in the world like Manila

5. THINGS I’D DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE Get married in Vatican City and honeymoon in Europe and the Maldives. I will buy among other things a house and lot, and then a beach house heck I will buy an island for me and Joema. I’ll buy a Tagaytay vacation house for my parents and a car for my brother. I will travel around the world with Joema. And for the non-selfish things – I’ll build schools and hospitals. Pero sana I’ll be able to maintain it para free education and medical care for the needy. And then save the rest in a trust fund for our future kids.

License to Wed

Had a chance to watch a lot of movies during the weekend like National Treasure 2, American Pie Presents Beta House, Jerry Maguire and License to Wed. I was able to watch License to Wed last Friday - the night before our pre-cana seminar at EDSA Shrine. It was a bit funny because I can totally relate to what's happening in the movie. Mandy Moore wanted to get married in the church where she grew up in while her fiance is a bit skeptical about the idea. Her finace wants to have a destination wedding but had no other choice but to give in to her wishes. As I mentioned in my previous posts, we're having a bit of a difficulty on our church requirements because of Joema's religion. He knows from the start that I really wanted a church wedding - a Catholic church wedding. And he really can't say no to me hehe. In the movie, they had to go through the church's marriage preparation course before the priest marries them and they had to do it in three weeks. Although I think Robin Williams' character Rev. Frank went a little bit too far by bugging the couple's apartment, it is a really good idea to go through a pre-marriage counseling. I wish we still have time to attend Discovery Weekend or even the marriage preparation program of CEFAM. But if not, then we'll have to make do with the pre-cana seminar of EDSA Shrine and the DSWD family planning seminar we attended in Antipolo.

Manic Monday 129

How would your friend describe you to someone who has never seen you?

I suppose since that someone hasn’t seen me my friend will describe me physically: petite girl/lady who’s morena and wears eyeglasses.

Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who, and why?

Yes, my parents and Joema. I know that they’ll risk their lives for me.

If you died or went missing, who would miss you?

My family, Joema, and I suppose most of my friends and some colleagues. Or else I will haunt them haha.

Manic Monday Meme

Nice Morning

This morning our boss gave each one of us this shirt.

Here's the back:

Although I don't think I'll be able to use it because it's Extra Large. I'll probably just give it to Joema though it won't fit him too haha.

And then our friends, Jo and David, dropped by the office to give me this. It's not really for me but for Joema. We didn't get the chance to chat because they had some errands to do. They're going back to Singapore this afternoon.

Joema and I initially planned to go to Singapore this September to watch the F1 Grand Prix BUT because of the wedding we won't be able to go. We're hoping to see the F1 race track in Sepang, Malaysia instead when we go there for our honeymoon.

First Fitting

Last Saturday was my first fitting for my wedding dress. I’m having second thoughts if I should post my picture here wearing the lining. I went to Dream Bride with my family but only my mother saw me wearing it, well of course also Ms. Linda and Lennie of Dream Bride. My mother was telling me not to take a picture coz she was worried I might show it to Joema. I told her no I won’t show it to him. This was because she was asking Ms. Linda if brides really fit the wedding dresses nowadays (panahon pa ni kopong-kopong nagpakasal nanay ko) because during her time it was a big no-no or else the wedding will not push through. Ms. Linda told her it was okay for the bride to fit the dress but not to be seen by the groom while she’s wearing it. I love how the shape of the dress turned out to be. Ms. Linda was happy I didn’t have a big tummy. She said the fit is better without the bulges haha and then she told me to bring shoes the next time. So now I’m on the look out for my wedding shoes.

About the photo, well maybe I’ll post it next time. Maybe I’ll blog about the before and after look of my wedding dress. Abangan!

Jen Gets Married?

Have you seen this?



According to Jennifer Aniston's rep the stories that she's getting married and that she's pregnant "are completely fabricated."

But Perez Hilton writes:

Though Jennifer Aniston's publicist just issued a statement branding OK! magazine's new cover a "complete fabrication"….

A rep for the magazine tells us they "stand by our reporting."

And, as if to prove their point, they forwarded us the following:

USMAGAZINE.COM
Famous Denials By Jen Aniston's Publicist
Wednesday August 9, 2006

Publicist Stephen Huvane with Jennifer Aniston on March 27; Aniston and Brad Pitt with Sting

**Jennifer Aniston**'s publicist, Stephen Huvane, is denying our cover story that **Vince Vaughn** popped the question on June 27. But, then again, he's told some whoppers over the years. Let's revisit them, shall we?

1) BRAD AND JEN ARE NOT ENGAGED After Jen and then-boyfriend **Brad Pitt** took the stage during a Sting concert in November 1999 and Jen flashed a big diamond ring on her left ring finger, Huvane told the media: "She has a ring, but it's not an engagement ring." He continued to deny any engagement until the couple married July 29, 2000.

2) BRAD AND JEN ARE OK Two weeks before Brad and Jen announced their separation on January 7, 2005, Huvane told Us: "They are looking forward to spending the holidays with each other. There is no split. They are fine."

3) JEN ISN'T MOVING TO HER FORMER BACHELORETTE PAD In February 2005, Huvane denied reports that Aniston was planning to move back into her former Hollywood Hills home, telling the New York Daily News, "Jennifer is not planning to move back into her home that is leased out to Ali G [Sacha Baron Cohen]. That is another fabrication." Cohen and his fiance, Isla Fisher, were ousted from the place that same month, Aniston moved back into her old pad later that year, and Vaughn joined her in January 2006.

4) JEN AND VINCE ARE NOT DATING When pictures of Vince and Jen cuddling on the set of The Break-Up surfaced in July 2005, and rumors circulated that the costars were dating offscreen, Huvane denied the coupling to the New York Post: "There is no romantic interest. Vince is a good friend of Jennifer's. I think the tabloids are so eager to see her with someone romantically that they just make these false assumptions."
And, hey, for good measure…

5) GWYNETH IS NOT DEPRESSED In 2003, rumors surfaced that **Gwyneth Paltrow**'s depression over her father's death caused the actress to drop out of the films I Heart Huckabees and Happy Endings. Huvane, who is also Gwyneth's publicist, denied the reports, saying, "She's not going through a serious depression, she just needs some time off."

"I was so depressed about my father,"ÿ the actress later said of the time in her life.

I feel sorry for her because every time something good happens to the Jolie-Pitts her name always comes up…how she’s not yet married and she doesn’t have children yet and she’s nearing 40. I hope she’s really happy with John Mayer. Watcha think? Are the wedding rumors for real?

Photo from www.okmagazine.com

08 08 08

The opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be tonight at 8pm. Good luck and God bless to all the Filipino athletes! Make us all proud!

Blind Faith

I’ve been inspired by Anna to do a series of “book reviews” here in my blog. In quotes because they probably won’t be a really helpful book review. I’m not sure how it will be. But anyways, I just wanted to keep tab of the books I’ve read. I actually have an account in Shelfari but haven’t updated that in a while. I might add a Shelfari widget here in my blog some time soon. I love reading. When I was younger, as a student I really love reading my text books hehehe. I didn’t have money then to buy pocketbooks then so I usually borrow from classmates or from friends like Karen. I remember borrowing Sweet Valley High from them hehe.

Now, I still don’t buy a lot of books. I’m much of a cheapskate to buy them at their regular prices. So I still borrow from friends, especially the more popular ones like Harry Potter books and Dan Brown’s books. I usually buy from book sales because for less than P200 I can buy books in hardbound hehe and I usually go for autobiographies or biographies. I’m a true blue chismosa haha!

So without further ado, my latest read is Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s mother. The first half was about Lula Hardaway but most part of the book is really about the music history of Stevie Wonder. Stevland Judkins, his real name, is the third son of Lula but her second child with Stevie's father. She was forced by Stevie's father to be a pro, although she only gives blow jobs and never had sex with her "clients", to pay for their food. I didn’t know he was already a big star at age 12, even before he hit puberty. And the word Motown actually stands for Motor town and the Motown record company. And that Motown's big boss, Berry Gordy, gave him the monicker Little Stevie Wonder. He was only 10 or 11 when they signed him under their label. I didn’t know much about Stevie Wonder so this was an interesting read for me.

Photo from simonsays.com

Marriage License

We have our marriage license already! Yey! One down and a thousand more things to go hehe. Well, actually my brother has it. He just got it from city hall. Thank God he was free to get it or else I would have to file for another leave just to get it.

So anyway, here are the things that are needed when applying for a marriage license in Antipolo. I live in Antipolo while Joema lives in Bulacan so we have to choose between the two towns. It's no question who's in charge here haha joke!

birth certificate
certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR)
DSWD family planning seminar certificate
1 x 1 ID picture

If you between ages 18-21, you have to get a parental consent. While for individuals aged 22-25, you need to get parental advise. I don't know what the heck is the difference. Please note that different municipalities may require different documents when applying. Some would require a copy of your community tax certificate, some may even require barangay certificates. Fellow bride Dins blogged about how to get the marriage license in Manila, Makati and Quezon City. It's always better to call your Local Civil Registrar's (LCR) office.

For the birth certificate and certificate of no marriage, you can get copies of it from the National Statistics Office. You can go there or order by phone or online, which is what we did. It’s a bit more expensive when you order it online but if you don’t have the time to go there yourself or you can’t ask someone to get it for you then the easiest way is to get it online. The birth certificate will cost you P315 while the CENOMAR will cost P415. If you are requesting for both you and your fiancé and receiving from you both, ready an authorization letter from your fiancé. The site actually reminds you to have an authorization letter ready if you are not a family member or relative of the requesting party. It’s just weird that they are not consistent with their rules because I wasn’t even asked for the authorization letter. After paying, it will take only around 2 to 3 working days for them to deliver the documents.

Now the family planning seminar is held only every Tuesdays and Thursdays and it’s supposed to be from 8am to 12nn. We went on a Thursday because when I called, they told me we can attend the seminar in the morning and to everything else in the afternoon. I called them several times because I wanted to make sure we won’t wasting our time there. The first time I called and told that we have to have the DSWD family planning seminar, I asked where we should attend the seminar..in DSWD..their answer..yes. Of course I panicked. Where the heck is the office of DSWD and we wouldn’t be able to finish it in one day if we’re supposed to go to DSWD first (I’m thinking their office is somewhere in QC) and then go to city hall in the afternoon. Pam calmed me down and told me they probably have a branch there in Antipolo and that I should probably call again to make sure. She told me to ask which floor is DSWD located in city hall. So I called again and asked and made sure that DSWD is in Antipolo city hall. The lady from the LCR said it was located on the first floor and even gave me their phone number and then told me the schedules of the seminar. And then I was calm. Haha. Anyway, when we arrived at city hall a few minutes before 8am, we asked the lady in the “Information” where the family planning seminar is held. She said it wasn’t in that building, it was in POSD. OMG! Where is that? It’s near the market just after Mercury Drug. How do we get there? Just walk from here. So we walked and when we were nearing a couple was in front of us, looks like they were going to attend the same seminar. The men outside the building who saw us immediately shooed us away and told us to go at the back. They probably have seen many couples every Tuesdays and Thursdays and directed them to where the seminar is really held. When we got at the back of the building, the door was locked and no one was there. I told Joema to ask the man again where it is. I was coaxing him that we are players in amazing race and that these couples are our competition and that we have to be ahead of them hahaha. As I’ve blogged before we had to wait for an hour before the seminar started.

Before the seminar started the lady in charge had the audacity to ask “Who came in late?”. I didn’t have the power to control myself, I blurted out loud enough for her to hear “IKAW!”. Of course, she thought it best to just pretend she didn’t hear me. Stupid couple in front said they were the last to come in. Haller! We were all here before that stupid lady!!!! She asked them to lead the prayer. I was still fuming mad when she decided we should have a little game first – the boat is sinking. Grrr!!! Joema and I are the snob types (well more of me I think, he’s just too shy to mingle with the others) so we weren’t too happy with these. After the game, she sort of had us introduced ourselves. She eased on us when she knew we were both from UP. I don’t know why. Well, the seminar wasn’t really about family planning. It was more of pre-marriage counseling. She had us answer a bunch of questions about love in a marriage, communication, money matters, religion, sex, etc. It wasn’t really a total waste of time but I hope they can improve the hall where the seminar is held. There was no electricity and the place stinks. We finished around 12noon got our certificates from her and then we’re off for lunch.

We went back to city hall to apply for our marriage license. It was already one o’clock but the person in charge wasn’t in yet. Someone just handed me the form and asked me to accomplish it. When we’re done completing the form, the lady wasn’t there yet so I kinda submitted the form and our other documents to the person next to the counter for marriage license. I was terrified of this lady. She didn’t smile and asked me arrogantly where our documents where (they’re all attached to the form). And then she checked our form and then asked where the “Jr.” of Joema’s father is in the form, I pointed it to her. And then she asked why my father’s middle initial is different (it was a typo error in my birth certificate) and then asked why my mother’s maiden name is Arcilla in my birth certificate but I wrote Ercilla in the form (again a typo error). Registry in the earlier days sucks! I was so terrified of this person I couldn’t speak. The lady who signs the forms is much much nicer. When she saw that we attached all our original documents, she told we could just attach photocopies since she knew the original ones cost more (if we had to get new ones). After that we were asked to pay the P350 fee at Window 9. There were no lines for the payment so we were back at the dungeons in no time (their office is at the basement). And then they told us to return Aug 4 which is 11 calendar days after the date of our application. Voila! We were done! We would have been done in less than 30 minutes if the lady in charge was there by 1pm. But who am I to complain? I have to live with this kind of service.