}
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
near bankruptcy in 3 days
Another 3-day weekend flew by. And more and more my body (and brain) is going on vacation mode. I dowanna go to work anymore! And the bazaars... man. They are just everywhere. They are evil! And I am one heck of a victim. I've spent practically all my salary on gifts for friends, relatives and well, myself. Okay fine, most of the things are for myself. Bad Fozzy. B-A-D.

Saturday, my sister and I went to the Fort. I got gifts for my female cousins and my bestfriend from highschool. I got earrings for myself. I got one of those faker climacool adidas shirts for Chips. I am in search for affordable but useful gifts for my male cousins. Guy gifts are always the hardest gifts to find and I get myself into this rut every Christmas. I also dropped by to an audition for a musical being produced by Chips' friend (it's going to be all-original, and about the life of Esther from the Bible). My sister was then recruited as a dancer-choreographer. She is also by the way the dancer-choreographer-producer-whatever of ABANDON, a live dance and rock concert at UP on December 21. Tag apester for more details.

Sunday, I woke up late and had lunch. I was to drive myself to Christ the King where Chips was selling Yonex badminton rackets (they're Class A stuff - email me if interested). I then manage to purchase a clutch bag, a necklace and a leather cuff for myself. I also buy a gift for my mom and some trinkets for our Creatives. I am still at a loss for my male cousins, and realize that I absolutely have no clue as to what I should give my dad. Arg. I cannot give him yet another pair of boxers. My sister manages to almost complete her Christmas list.

Monday, Chips and I go to Megamall to find my sister an 18th birthday gift. We are also on a mission to find a substitute pair of glasses for the Dolce & Gabbanas he lost. After going from building A to building B and back, we come across a stunning pair of D&G's (the price is as expected, hoo-waa). He later buys them after much deliberation (and walking). I get to buy my dad a Christmas gift. I sure hope it fits him. If it doesn't, well, he'll just have to lose weight. We also get to buy my sister her gift. And I had to go through hell and high water to get it in a color that will match her room. She'd better like it.

My wallet is dying. And next weekend, Chips will be in another bazaar. Which means I will be spending more money. Arg. But the temptation is too great to resist.
dezphaire strapped in @ 1:04 PM   3 walked through

Tuesday, November 23, 2004
headliners
We were in a brainstorming meeting for articulations and headlines yesterday. In the midst of all the dying braincells, our CD quipped with an old headline that actually ran (before client noticed). He explained that the copy layout was as follows:

TANG IN A
NEW PACK

So many iterations of possible interpretations. May tangina na nga, may pack pa. Or could be tang hinayupak. No offense to Tang. I love Tang. But at the end, this is just so damn funny.

***

On my way home, I pass by Timog and am greeted by another insanely blunt Gigolo banner. Not quite as strong as the old ones, but fairly close.

Moving Dicks
(subtitle yet to be determined)

I think they were aiming for something like Moby Dick. But then again, that wouldn't really mean anything, would it.
dezphaire strapped in @ 1:10 PM   1 walked through

Thursday, November 18, 2004
the low below
I am still at work. It's almost midnight. We're data mining for a major presentation and we're not even done. Factbooks dated 1987 to 2004 clutter our cubicles. The ink on the papers is faded, the dust unearths with every turn of a page. This morning, we have yet another clash with Adboard. This afternoon, I concluded that our clients were schizophrenics (or bi-polar or are with multiple personality disorder). This evening, another estrogen-fest with creatives. Yup. We never thought that our morale could go lower. Until we took a break to have dinner.

While waiting for our food in a cafe across the street (my officemates smoke so we sat outside), a woman approached us. She was running from the street, tear-stained and panic-y. She looked like those mother-types, didn't seem harmless at all. She came over to our table (we were the only ones in the cafe) and we could barely understand what she was saying through all the hard breaths. Something about needing money coz someone was in the hospital, with a tube being put through him/her and she didn't have enough money (she showed us a wad of crumpled bills in her left hand). She begged, saying that she didn't know what to do. She left that person (maybe her kid) to look for money. She told us that she wasn't trying to trick us, we can go with her to the hospital if we didn't trust her.

We looked at each other. We confirmed the amount... 800 bucks. Wow. Okay. She better not be tricking us. Of course the thought crossed our minds. This might just be a con. But what if it wasn't? Would we want that haunting our consciences? So the three of us, grief-stricken and all, pooled our money to help her. She went beyond crying as she saw us hand over the cash. She wailed with joy and thanked us like we were miracle workers. She even asked for our names so she could pray for us or something like that... we didn't give them of course.

So off she went. And there we were, slumped and emotionally impaled. Then we ate, recounted the surrealism of what just transpired, bitched about our clients and then went back to work. Man. What a day.
dezphaire strapped in @ 11:39 PM   0 walked through

Tuesday, November 16, 2004
all apologies
I apologize for all the crank that's been going around in this blog, especially the more recent entries. Vacations and shopping sprees seem to give but temporary pleasures. The high seems to last as long as the spree itself.

I am generally in a grinch-y mood. Christmas is bustling in the city. My birthday is tomorrow. And anything and everything that can go wrong at work is going wrong.

I'm trying not to remember that it's Nov 17 tomorrow. That way, I won't be as manic-depressive as I see myself in a 9am client meeting. Or as I rush an FA of a print ad. Or as I attend a media review. Or as I lobby an edit that Client doesn't want to approve but wants to air asap (DUH).

Happy birthday my foot. Okay, sorry. Another crank-attack.
dezphaire strapped in @ 7:11 PM   1 walked through

it's beginning to feel a lot like
Christmas. Decorations are up, bazaars are being set, and malls are playing those annoying attempts to pop-ize age-old Christmas carols (i.e. remixing Carol of the Bells with a Sexbomb medley). It also means more work with everyone trying to squeeze in projects to add into the clutter of all this holiday hoollaballoo or just plain rushing things because deadlines are on the first week of January. As we all know, December is a dead month (ironically).

At home, my mother went light-happy. She bought a whole trove of Christmas lights from Divisoria and flung them all over the house. We have the traditional kapiz parol, the little white strip of lights, the blinking rainbow lights, and hey, we even got blinking stars. We got an entire blanket of little colorful bulbs covering the wall (they blink too). You can literally see our house a block away. I am literally living in a yellow house with blinking lights.

I may just be a crank. All around me, it's screaming Christmas. Up until I get home, I am greeted by Star City on my lawn. But, nope, not feeling it yet. Maybe when the stress eases up (right).

Sigh. What to do. What to do...
dezphaire strapped in @ 9:41 AM   0 walked through

Monday, November 08, 2004
sick as a dog, going to vommit
I'm feeling mighty under the weather today. I didn't go to work. I wonder if I'd rather be at work or sick. As much as I'd like to be my limber and somewhat perky self, I can't. I'm bound to my room. And so I just spent the day groaning and napping and watching TV.

My sister was watching Shrek 2 on DVD so that cheered me up a little. Also there's that Travel Sick show on Channel [v] which was so hilarious. Then there's Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel.

I also checked on my Friendster account, which I haven't even touched in ages. I discover that it's not very friendly. It takes eons to set a photo as your primary photo and it seems to have a healthy disliking for photo deletion. And even if you've deleted all your messages, your Home still says you've got one unread message. Hellur.

I got to finally view the La Luz vacation pics from Chips' digital camera. I just wish we could go back. I tried uploading one of them into my Friendster. It wouldn't work. Maybe we're not friendsters anymore.

My mom just texted me and she's getting me the 4th season of CSI on DVD. Yey. That's going to be in the agenda tomorrow.
dezphaire strapped in @ 6:13 PM   5 walked through

Thursday, November 04, 2004
lost conversations part 2
Something that happened around 2 years ago, between Chips and my sister. I still love telling this story... it's like something taken out of a classic looney tunes cartoon. I don't know if it's actually going to top the band-aid story. And I apologize as I am not even going to try to translate this for fear of losing the context. And for perspective, this was the time when Chips always texted using all-caps:

Sis: (watching Adams Family Values) Ate, ano yung pangalan nung anak ni cousin It?
Me: Ewan. Tanong mo kay Chips. Favorite movie nya yan.
Sis: (texting Chips a message) Ano pangalan ng anak ni cousin It?
Chips: WHAT
Sis: Ano nga yung pangalan ng anak ni cousin It?
Chips: WHAT NGA EH
Sis: Tinatanong ko kung ano yung pangalan nung anak ni cousin It.
Chips: WHAT. WHAT YUNG PANGALAN NG ANAK NI COUSIN IT.
Sis: (bewildered and frustrated) Ewan ko! Tisha?

Was that lost or was that lost. My sister ended up answering, against her will and with all her frustrated braincells, her own question (but to no avail). And Chips ended up having a good, hearty laugh that made his ears red and his jaw hurt.

Bravo to our sisterhood.
dezphaire strapped in @ 5:46 PM   4 walked through

Tuesday, November 02, 2004
and the stress just went poof


The weekend was wonderful. Discovered quite a beach over the internet, a nook within Batangas. We stayed at the La Luz Beach Resort - it's just beautiful. Really worth the long drive and the dirt roads. The adventure unfolds:

The Long Drive.
We had an inkling that the town of Laiya was far from the likes of Matabungkay and Calatagan. It was towards Lipa, the opposite way if you were going to the pier for Puerto Galera. If you breezed through the La Luz website, you'd come across not a map, but a blow by blow account of how to get there. It was okay at first, but then you'd figure that fatigue had probably set in on whoever was typing it (who turned out to be the owner of the resort, who we met later in the beach). I think you'd just have to read the directions to see what I mean. It would've been easier if it was bullet points or something.

Anyway, so we were driving and driving (actually, Chips was). And turning and driving. We made a couple of wrong turns but finally made it to the final turn as said in the directions. Then no more landmarks were given except for a Sampaloc tree that was supposedly at the end of the road. End of the road it was. In verbatim it said "Please follow the road until you reach the end and there are no more roads and you will see a big Sampalok tree." In other words, asa dulo ng walang hanggan. But when we got there, it was well worth it.

The Beach.
Hearing the crashing of the waves just swept all the stress away. The good thing about being at the end of the road was that the resort was the last one on the cove. It was at the very corner of it, which makes for no trespassing jologs from other resorts. The most important pro of this beach? It was clean. No trash or cigarette butts on the sand. The water was clean and clear. The rooms/cottages were simple and well-kept.

The mega-plus part was that there were cabanas with curtains that you can just draw out if you want some privacy. The lounges had tarp cushions and were under wind-proof umbrellas. There was a communal eating area (where you get buffet meals) which makes it easier for the resort to control the trash.

The owner was very hospitable, mingling with all the guests and making sure that everything was alright. He dives and snorkles with guests too. Oh yeah, you can also see fishies there. And you can rent a cayak even. Then he sets up a bonfire at night and gives everyone candles for the cabanas.

I am definitely going back.

The Lesbian Football Team.
The highlight of the weekend for the guys. It all started with Chips noticing a group of soccer chicks with a soccer ball. He was first taken by the soccer ball as he regretted not bringing his. Later on, as we were lounging on the beach, he notices two of the girls together. He brings up the thought that they might be lesbians. I set it aside. You never know, they may be two best friends who just happen to be together walking on the beach (you know, the other girls may be fixing up the room or something). The two later lay sarongs on the sand and put sunblock. Chips brings up the lesbian thing again. Well, it looks normal to me. He constantly insists that they are "together" throughout mid-day. My thought balloon is that just because there are two of them together on the beach doesn't mean that they're automatically "together".

Bestfriend of Chips (a guy) approaches us early in the evening. He excitedly reveals that he witness the two girls kiss. Chips was like, "Damn!" What is it with lesbians and guys? Did I get lost in American Pie 2? We then also learn that their room is right beside ours. Guys' eyebrows raise. So throughout the night, as we were drinking and lounging, the guys kept on turning their heads towards that room beside ours - will they come out? Will they be lounging beside our cabana? And we girlfriends of these two guys just kept on rolling our eyes, trying to keep them focused... on us. Demmit.

The next morning, I think the guys were still on their lesbian-scouting mode. I gave up. Whatever. I'll just stay under my umbrella and read. The guys went cayaking. Just by luck, three of the football girls make sun-tan camp in front of our umbrella. They lather lotions on each other, fix their bikinis, etc. Later I confirm from the guys that cayaking actually gave them a better view. Scheming bastards.

Well, whatever. It was one good weekend. Now I'm back to the jungle. I pray that these pictures last me through the hell week ahead.

And I am definitely going back.
dezphaire strapped in @ 10:37 AM   0 walked through

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Sometimes bored. Most of the time oddly alive. Phobic of butterflies. Creatively suppressed. Hungry for coffee and shoes. This is my subconscious talking... at times interrupted by my reality.

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