I won the Grand Prize

After a humiliating but very fun newbie intitiation (dancing infront of the GM, the owners of the hotel and everyone else), we finally were able to relax and enjoy the party. Free flowing beer, some tequila and various wines were staring me and my tablemates straight in the face. So naturally, we consumed it. Haha. I'm glad the the dancing part is done. Why? The theme was BAGETS. Growing Up by Gary V. Then Take On Me by AHA. Then Rico Mambo. And last but not the least, Careless Whisper. Those were the songs we danced to. Now, everybody knows the newbies. Haha. Fame is good, but when Ate Guard tells you "Uy, ang galing galing mo gumiling ha! Tapos may mga kasayaw pa kayong mga lalaki!", you know that's not the kind of thing you really want to be known for. Haha!

Although I didn't win the best dancer award (criteria: the sluttier the better!), I won in the raffle draw! I won a... STAND FAN! Weee! At least I won something! Oh, and my crush from the Hotel asked me to dance with him. And we did dance through 3 consecutive slow songs. Before, during and after the whole slow dance thing (dance nanaman!), there were quite a number of people staring. Aside from the fact that I was one of the newbies who danced, the guy I was dancing with was one of the most crushable guys in the hotel, if not, the only one. Hahaha! Apparently, a lot of people were counting how many slow songs we'd dance through

So... who's next?

Yesterday, together with my family, I attended my cousin Paolo's wedding. He married Anna (who is now our cousin-in-law), his bestfriend from Ateneo Law School. He's actually the first one in my mother's side to get married, and well, it was a wonderful thing for all of us. Now the next question would be... who's next? Haha. I guess that is one question that is perpetually wedding staple. So we started pointing to one another and laughing. And then the question came, are Kaye ad Cris getting married? I smiled. I don't normally tell people my sister's engaged (like a privacy policy hahaha), but they were my cousins, so I did tell them that Kaye and Cris were engaged since june. They were like, are you joking me? I said no. They are. But of course, Cris is in the states pursuing his MBA, and Kaye is here. So maybe next year? Or when Cris finishes. Back to Paolo and Anna, they had their reception at Mango Farm in Antipolo, and it was a very beautiful place. Of course, there were a lot of well placed mango trees, and they were draped with lights and it just made the whole ambiance of the place romantic.

Ironically, I found myself, extremely happy about the marriage of my cousin, and at the same time a bit confused about my own lovelife, so to speak. I wasn't feeling it anymore. Either that or am being a drama queen again. Haha. I'm not really used to being extremely patient regarding certain things, but this one, the more I am becoming patient, the more I am losing whatever is in me. It's unlike me. It feels a bit weird. Anyhoot, we'll just how this part of the story goes.

And another bit, after watching the golden compass with him and getting something to eat (again!), and while waiting to get home, I actually mentioned that it was going to be the start of simbang gabi tomorrow to him. I don't think I saw or heard any meaningful reaction from him. Ohhhkay. Gawd, unromantic. Doogsh. But anyhoot, ditch that idea I guess. Wait, am guessing that is what is triggering this. Possibly. But for the mean time, I think I'd just want to let things be for now.

Montecristo

I think, if you're a drinker, you're bound to gravitate (even if you don't know it) to other drinkers. It's amazing really, what alcohol does to people. First, the interest in drinking sparks instant bonding. Then when drinkydrinky time comes, I mean, beer to me is almost like coffee, you can talk about your whole life, your past, your present, shitty times, interesting moments, while drinking it. (But of course, coffee is coffee... and I still love my coffee)

Last night, Andrea and I drank at Don at Tebans, my favorite drinking place (location, location, location!). Andrea's from the front office, and the only reason I got to drink with her one on one was because Genee apparently couldn't make it yesterday, since it was of course a spur of the moment thing. What can I say, drinking knows no time and date. It just happens. Like spontaneous combustion. Haha. So, we bonded, we talked about ourselves, and I guess it's always a lot of fun when you get to know somebody new. The night proved to be an interesting one, as I was just doing away with my beers, quicker than usual, in fact, I was about 1 or 2 beers ahead of Andrea. Weeee. Jedhonx joined us for dinner, couldn't drink beer because he was sick, so he stuck to dinner instead. Oh, and iced tea. Hehe. I had been eyeing that montecristo sandwhich for awhile and finally decided to order it. Visually, on the menu, it looked great. And infront of us, it was mighty fine! Haha. We thought the sauce that accompanied it was catsup, but no! It was something sweet... and when I dipped my french fry in it, I was like, bleh. Andrea said it was strawberry jam. And it was. I just realized that the strawberry jam and montecristo sandwhich complement one another, the french fries though will still be better off paired with catsup. Hehe.

Even after we exited Don and Teban's, our conversation continued until Andrea got a ride home, haha. I think I shall drink with her again! Hehe. She has so many stories, and it's pretty interesting. We didn't like go like, so, what's your fave color? How many siblings do you have? What do your parents do? We just exchanged stories and we picked up bits and pieces about one another, which was so much easier and less awkward actually. =)

Now, I am craving a montecristo with strawberry jam, and of course, a bottle of beer.

Frosh day high!

I have to say, my La Salle days were fun. All I remember doing, aside from either cutting class, staring into space during lectures, and drinking right before PE class (haiya!), well, was just... having fun. Having the time of my frosh life. So I learned the DLSU hymn on my first day, yep first day of orientation at the Benilde Auditorium, and then walked through the campus with those upper batch volunteers who guide you by holding up your freakin' section (LR27) sign for the whole world to see. Okay, I get it, Frosh ako. Haha.

So I timed out at 6:15pm on a saturday night (4 hour shift on saturdays, argh!). Waited for a few minutes for Nuel to come pick me up. And voila, I spot his new car. Spiffy new car, pare. Haha. And then I open the door, not really knowing what to expect, but... I see Nuel. Bello. Mr. Lanto. Oh and the latest update, Nuel is now Noel. He was sporting longer hair, and I think he got a bit chubbier, heehee (peace Nuel). Instead of coffee, we were to have dinner at Teriyaki Boy (originally) but decided on UCC upon his recommendation. Even before ordering our food we had already started reminscing about our first year days at DLSU. And now we're like what? 23? It has been so long.

Memories can elicit a lot of emotions when recalled, and thankfully ours was one of happiness. We may have been a crazy bunch (may have been) but who cares? We were all crazy together anyway, and we still are the same kick-ass group, now with grown-up issues such as work, running the family business, getting a promotion, pursuing further studies... however, we just got a lot better, and smarter, and we got a lot more perspective now. How things change. *sigh*

I have yet to meet up and reminsce with the other people from the frosh 'kada, but I think, when we do meet up, it will just as fun as like our frosh days.

Hindy Claro

BER months suck unless you have somebody to keep you warm. Either that or you have a cup of toffee nut latte to keep you warm. So anyway, I have both so am not really ranting about anything. Haha. I committed my second office blooper this morning. I blame it on the fact that I had ZERO caffeine in my system, and it was deng cold in the office. So somebody calls and asks to speak to Liz, naturally I asked who the caller was, I heard Hindy Claro. SO I was like, "Please hold on," then I press on the plunger lightly and say to Liz, "Hindy Claro, from DILG". She was like, "Huh? Are you serious?", I was like , "shet, oo nga noh, was I duped? Haha", so I transferred the call to her and after her conversation with HINDY CLARO, she said, "Kara, Lyn de Claro". Hahaha! As Genee says, "Litse naman."

Anyhoot, for the past few days, my officemates Liz, Genee, and Ms. Jas (the boss) have been taking advantage of the starbucks anniv promo, 2 stickers for your promo card for every drink purchased. Lisette, with my help, already claimed her planner (and I was the official photog for that exciting moment)and Genee has like 5 more stickers to go. Ms. Jas just started last tuesday. So she has 6 stickers so far. When we got back from Starbucks, and we already mixed our coffees to suit our taste, Genee made an observation. She was like, "You know Kara, this is how you drink your coffee." And I was like, huh? Really? Di kaya. And then I took a sip of my coffee and lo and behold, Genee was right. Haha! And then we started observing each other and how we drank our coffee, but naturally it stopped with Lisette because we didn't really want to go up to Ms. Jas and observe her way of drinking coffee up-close. Genee was like, "why do you drink your coffee that way?", I paused for a bit and thought, well, I like the taste of coffee. I like the taste of toffee nut, and I'd just like to see if anything has changed since the last time I tasted it, of course, nothng should, but am just really keen on the way my coffee tastes. Oh, and we decided to go to starbucks at Imperial Palace Suites since I get my coffee from there most of the time, and of course, one of the baristas there knows me. I should ask his name though, kinda seems impolite not to know right? And it's been like three weeks already. Hmm. Who knows, maybe I'll get discounts or something hahaha.

I'm going back to work, that is if I have any left. My hands are already numb from the cold, so I will get back to my toffee nut latte, since the other one isn't here to do the same thing. Hehe.

Starbucks 2008

My monday wasn't so pleasant. I was sick, I was moody, I was... I was just not my usual self. I guess once the magic of the whole fun-filled weekend faded away (read: My parents vacationed in Macau without us kids... hahah), I was doomed. Back to the reality of work life, which I wasn't really up for. Thank gawd I took a half-day to go with the driver to pick my 'rents up at the airport, okay, okay, I'm after the duty-free bit, sorta. So before that, while at work, I convinced Lisette that we shold go to Starbucks because I needed coffee, and she mentioned that she needed to go to Metrobank, which is conveniently located beside starbucks. So, after gloating about the one sticker I needed to get my planner, we finally went to starbucks. Ahh. The taste of toffee nut is just bliss. Plus the fact that I got my planner. Ohoh, and also, I got a machine-generated complimentary drink from Starbucks too! I was sensing that my day was getting better already.

Okay, so this week, I took two half-day leaves... it was a bit of a crappy monday to thursday because I was sick, as in sick. Hmm.. and Jed didn't bring me starbucks. Haha. Kidding.