The Cookie Didn't Crumble This Time

This season's American Idol is the best I've seen so far. Finally, after 6 seasons, the audience was able to distinguish talent from mere star potential. I've been watching the entire season. It was obvious at first that David Archuleta was the crowd favorite. Well, let's just say, the teen population in the US is a lot bigger than the rockers and alternative music lovers combined. But after watching the finale yesterday, it felt good to see the BEST winning the crown. The Cookie ruled!!!! For the first time, a rocker dude won the title.

I've always loved David Cook. His rendition of "Billy Jean" made me a complete Cookie fan. He first reminded me of Blake Lewis from last season. Unfortunately, after Blake's successful beat box version of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name", he turned out to be a disappointment, unable to duplicate his success from that one song. In David's case, he has been consistent. He never compromised his style and identity, even if it meant singing Mariah Carey's cutsie song "Always be my Baby". He definitely brought the house down that night. I was expecting something stronger, like "Hero" but he does know his music and knows how to get around it, even if he was singing a love song. He proved it again during the judge's choice for the Top 3. Simon's choice,"First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, only proved that they were trying to sabotage David Cook. But he proved them wrong, never thought a slow sentimental song would sound good even in rock. As Simon has said, "Round one goes to Cowell and Cook".

Can't wait to see what season 8 has to offer.

The Commuter in Me

I am not an avid fan of public transportation. My definition of public transportation are limited to jeeps, provincial buses and taxis. I seldom leave my home base which is Makati. Living in Makati could make anyone a contended cow. It almost has everything so there's no point in going to another town or city.

Two weeks ago, I was forced to leave my comfort zone. I had to start a new job, in Cubao, of all places. Cubao is the first leisure/commercial area in Quezon City or QC. I used to live in QC and Cubao was one of the first to provide shopping malls and department stores in the Philippines. Unfortunately, it's at the other side of the map. Makati is considered the south side, QC would be the north side.

Taking a cab is not advisable. Besides the traffic that I may experience along EDSA, I would have to pay a pricey amount for cab fare. Just the other week, I came home late from a night out with my batchmates in training and although the streets were deserted, I still got to shell out 150 pesos for a trip back to Makati.

My best option is the MRT. My first MRT, or shall we say train experience, was in Hong Kong, where they call it MTR. There are some discouraging points though. One, I have to climb my way to the train station which is about 2 stories high. Then, I have to bear with the sea of people, trying to purchase their tickets. On bad days, I would be cramped sooooo much in a train that I don't have to hang on to the hand rail to prevent myself from falling while the train hits the brakes. But I eventually got the hang of it (no pun intended) like taking the elevator when it's available or buying a stored value card which could last me for a week. Yep, I'm still alive. Though I really have to allot like 1 1/2 hours for travel time at least, I don't look all stressed out when I reach my destination. You wouldn't see me catching the EDSA bus though. I'd rather pay 150 pesos.

Well, the worst is yet to come. I haven't experienced extreme rains, flooded streets and my worst fear of all, the MRT shutting down due to technical (or mechanical) problems (knock on wood!)

As for Cubao, it's not that bad. My route from the MRT station to the office includes going through the malls: Farmer's, Gateway and Shopwise ... a pleasure to the eyes for a mall rat like me.

Split Decision

Imagine what a split decision could make.2 weeks ago, I was in this very same room moaning and groaning in boredom. I made a quick decision to pack our bags and go home ... and that's what we did.

I settled in my house in Makati, uncertain on what's gonna happen next. My initial plan was to go to Eperf and finalize my exit. My feet brought me to Cubao instead. With no preparations at all, I faced the challenge of applying to the company I said I wouldn't work for. I love the job, it's the location that kept killing me. Thankfully, there was the MRT and what seemed like eternity to get to took me only 30minutes.

A week later, I was training for IP. First week brought too much pressure on me because there were a lot of expectations on someone who's been through the same job.

Last Friday's final assessment was gruesome - couldn't eat, had too much coffee and shivering the entire time. The pressure was at its peak. My mission then was to make it on the first try. Though I was expecting to be sent back for more training (because of my grammar and pronunciation slips), I convinced myself that I am good enough to be accelerated. No, not only good enough, I am one of the best who deserves to be accelerated. With that in mind, I brazened myself to war. Arms flying, talking at the top of my lungs ... being alone in the room helped a lot because I wasn't conscious of what I was going to do. I had a game plan, impress the Canadians - and that I did.

Second week of training now. More to come. PST's more on the technical stuff. Lots of keys to press, lots of protocols to remember ... just had to keep focused for 2 weeks and then i'll be off to the floor and that's when the "like riding a bike" happens.

CiJ and Gabe's Graduation Rites at Inner Wheel

Yup, a year has passed since we enrolled them in school. Our boys were very excited back then because they were going to the same school. We were just trying to make things end back then so we just recycled their old bags and it took us a month to buy their school shoes.

Well, here they are right now. More mature, more knowledgeable and more confident of themselves. They even have their awards to boost. Gabe was honored "Best in English" and CiJ was "Second Honor for Prep Students".

This WAS me

For those of you who can't believe it (me included hehe!), this was me 20 years ago. This was sometime in 1988, my Mom was on her very first vacation since she left for the Middle East, my sister was 1st year in college and the baby I was holding was Sam, barely 2 years old.

I was a swimmer at PLM hence the nice arms and shoulders. Unfortunately, that was the last time I've seen myself to be that fit. I lost gained weight after college and lost it again sometime in '96 but was never able to get that same kind of physique. Blame it on bad metabolism. haha!

Goodbye Past, Hello Present

Thanks to our new broadband connection, along with the new laptop (and of course to my mom who paid for the connection), I was able to clean up my email account. That account was opened when I worked for AMN. We were all required to have a new yahoo account for business purposes. I was reading mostly my Sent Items and Drafts when I chanced upon two letters that were not sent. One was an open letter to James during our "hard times" and the other was a copy of my conversation with a person that shall we say "changed our lives". It felt different reading those two letters. It did remind me of those times but it doesn't seem to hurt anymore. I know I saved those messages to remind me not to get hurt again. But it doesn't seem to be like that anymore. So, along with the other messages stored in my email account, I deleted them. It's my version of letting go and living in the present so I could move on to my future... our future.

TOP DESIGN

I've always dreamed of remodeling a house. I remember when James and I had our first place,I've always had these fantasies of how our bedroom should be, how the bathroom would be like. That's why it didn't come up as a surprise to me when I took the job when my mom said we're gonna renovate our house in Cavite. I couldn't go to work then as per doctor's orders so I took the job.

Figuring out what to do with the house was easy but designing it was the hardest part. First off were the painting. The house sure needed a new coat of paint but I never thought there would be so many colors to choose from. I decided to come up with 2 different colors for each bedroom. Since my mom is expected to stay in the master bedroom, I choose a very light pink for it's shade. Since she also liked violet, I decided to use a small hint of purple on the borders, as well as the doors and cabinets. But then there was also the issues of the tiles to go with the paint. I chose a darker shade of red that looks but doesn't feel like a carpet. The second room was easier. Since I've grown accustomed to different shades of blue, I've decided to use it as my basic color then added some darker shades to highlight the doors of windows. The tile, of course, was also blue. And so, we now have the pink room and the blue room.

When we got to the kitchen, we had to consult a geomancer. I am not really a feng shui fanatic but I remember somebody telling me once that it is bad to build your kitchen on top of a septic tank as every food you cook could bring sickness to your family. It was the geomancer's idea to use green tiles on the floor, along with other buried stuff to prevent "bad spirits" from spoiling our food. Since we were supposed to tile the floor green, we decided to color the entire kitchen green. I got to discover the beauty of ceramic tiles. Unlike in the 70's and 80's, when ceramic tiles were just 1x1 in dull colors, ceramic tiles nowadays come in different sizes. It also has different colors and some, like the ones that I chose for the "green room" has designs like flowers and vines. Unfortunately, not every design would fit every decorator. The first thing you have to keep in mind is that you should have a good tiler, one like mine. He's very particular in every detail, from the cutting to the lay-out of the design.

We applied the same principle of tiling in the bathroom. Only this time, it became more delicate since he also has to create a slope going to the drain to prevent any standing water, to prevent accidents, plus he had to carefully set the toilet in place. Everything was perfect.

Well, we're halfway done. They've already put the first coat of paint at the second floor hallway, which will also be the main color of the entire house. There's also some painting to be done on the kitchen and bathroom walls. It could still take us a while, since we are still waiting for additional funds to come in but when it's all done, I'm sure it's gonna be perfect.