Life Update: Teacher Sophie?!

OH. MY. GOD.

I can't believe a full five months have passed since I was last here! What happened?! *shock emoji*

Well, a couple of things:

• Beardy and I moved out of my family home and into a nice little studio apartment nearby (so I get to go home a lot to see Sansa! haha) and we're loving it here.
• He and I got a job in an awesome school in the area (such a relief not having to commute to Manila for work!) And he still has his position from last year, so he currently teaches in two schools on alternate week days, while I have a full time job as a PRESCHOOL TEACHER!!!

*CUE CONFETTI*

I finally get to check that one off of my list of "dream jobs" :) The kids call me Teacher Sofie (Sofia is one of my birth names, while the nickname I've gone by since I was a baby actually isn't? Just a name my mom really liked), and often it's spelled with a "ph" by my colleagues, which I oddly prefer now. The kids can't really tell because they aren't at the age yet where they're taught to spell. Because it's a progressive school! A wonderful progressive school that prioritises the wellbeing and freedom of the younglings over ticking off checklists and getting ahead in terms of academics. Which sounded great to me.. and it is!!!

Anyway, I have a lot of good things to say about the school and I will in a seperate post, probably. For now, I just want to do a little update about things that happened in the past months while I've been gone:

We settled in! Moved our stuff in, bought a pan and a pot, color coordinated a lot (mostly green and blue for everything with minimal additions of red/purple!) and arranged stuff the best way we can in our tiny home. I love calling it tiny home, especially cos I recently started watching a lot of minimalism/minimal living type of videos around the time we moved. We aren't exactly living in a trailer in a forest with minimal electricity; in fact I think we're living quite comfily since we have a common pool outside and we use a/c, but it helped me a lot in acquiring less stuff, owning more mindfully, and detaching from my possessions.

This isn't our house, just the view out our window. It's a tiny room but with a BIG VIEW and that's a nice metaphor about our life right now I guess haha.

But that doesn't mean though that I live in a space that's dull! I still like creating small spaces of interest in the room. But the things I use are usually cheap, recycled, and/or multipurpose. This noteboard on the fridge came from the bottom of a cake box. Can you see the faces Beardy drew on the dino magnets? Hehehehe

Beardy's 26th Birthday!! We had a simple yet special one since it's our first on our own. Just a nice home-cooked meal (greek chicken and veg, tzatziki, tapenade, pan fried pita bread -all from scratch!-, and fresh Moroccan mint tea!) and his favorite Purple Oven brownies :)

Paradores Del Castillo in Taal has such an adorable turquoise/aqua motif!!!

Ihaw Boodle meal at Don Juan Boodle House

Last month, Beardy's family visited us again!!! But this time, it was for two whole weeks!!! It was super nice, even though Beardy and I still had to go to work. We did get to go away for a whole weekend together, it was to Taal and Anilao, Batangas. The weather did not let up, but neither did our spirits! We made up for the bad weather and power outages with boardgames and whatnot. It was such a nice thing to be with them so often, and they were so game for everything! We often would squish ourselves inside a single tricycle to go out for dinner haha. I miss them already.

Eagle Point. We didn't get to swim in the ocean though, just the pool. But we stared at it a lot. The waves were crazy but beautiful haha.

 We also had a nice lunch at Angelfields with my family one day and that was also nice because we were all complete and it's such a beautiful place!

I sadly only managed to take a picture of the tarragon tea. haha! But isn't it pretty? I had soup and a sandwich.

Edit: I forgot to add three events!!!:

1. Beardy and I also had our 70th monthsary! Isn't it crazy how fast time flies? We had dinner at Ziggurat. Cos it's our fave, and it's just downstairs.

(Fun fact: Ziggurat follows us around. When we stayed in makati for 10 days, we were looking for a good restaurant nearby and found out that the #1 Tripadvisor restaurant was just a short walk away from the AirBnb we booked. Then when we moved in this apartment, we noticed there was one downstairs! Whuuut. Too lucky.)

2. My aunt had her 60th bday this month! And our family had a bowling tournament. It was really fun, we don't usually actually do things for parties other than eat, drink and sit around so that was a really nice change. Hope we do more fun stuff from now on! ♥

Some pics from my tita Del's FB:

3. Also, our old neighbors/childhood friends from Alabang came by our house!! It's been YEARS since we were last together! The kuyas of the group live in Vegas now and they visited because their grandma (who we all call Nanay) passed away.

This was us in 1992:

And 24 whole years later!!!!:

Lastly, but very important!!!! Carmen and Aizel FIIIINALLY got to see our new place! Pia still hasn't due to BPO scheduling (huhu) but it was so cool to have them over. We had rumcokes and chats up on the roof while families flew kites, enjoyed the view, and I cooked them dinner! We had a bit of a giggle about how adult it seemed to host a dinner for your friends at your own place. It felt really cool but also made us feel really old haha! We all have new jobs right now and it just felt like a nice stopover before starting a looong road trip in our lives. They're both in Makati but I really hope we get to do it again really soon. With Pia.

So that's more or less my life right now. Just trying to make it work. The first few months have been very draining energy-wise and thus I didn't get to keep up with Youtube and this blog, but as I get more of a hang of my new job I imagine to be able to juggle it with my other interests on the side! Soon I'll be practicing guitar again, I'll certainly be on here more, and who knows, maybe I'll get to upload videos on Youtube again. I DON'T KNOW!! Isn't that great!! The world is so big and full of possibilities.

We're almost halfway through 2013? Huh.

I feel that I sit here waiting for something to happen and yet when things are happening it still feels like nothing is happening. I have two hypotheses regarding why this is:

• We don't recognize when things happen because our perspective of happenstance as we imagine it is a voyeuristic one and we just need to change our way of looking at the present moment into a more positive one/ first-person perspective
• There is a certain kind of happening that I am inwardly craving for that hasn't happened yet

Maybe the act of mentally tilting forward a bit is needed to keep moving forward? Like a Segway.

But in retrospect, a lot happened in April and these first few days of May. At least a lot compared to the time before that. I finished my thesis and graduated, turned 23, started making stuff again, and we went out a lot more than usual:

graduation dinner @Comida China de Manila. Sansa got to run around off-leash becoz private room

we have the cutest parents

beech day (and night) #1

me this mornin: ready n armed for some mornin beechin

sum byutiful ledies. with my explosion of a face

afterwerds we went to Bag of Beans for nommage

before and during nommage. a wild nica appears ~~

after lunch today

(btw thanks to my tito leo and ate ling ling for the pictures!)

But maybe that's the thing. To be able to feel like much happened, I always have to mentally consider how much less happened before. On its own, my year hasn't really been very eventful. But dissecting that thought process even further, I feel the need to explore what my definition of eventful is. I feel that I measure my life a lot in comparison to other people lately. I've been feeling very insecure. I should probably calm down and accept that there's just a lot of talented people that I know and that nobody's laughing at me for not being able to be as good as them. Just me. Which has to stop, too.

I feel that a bit part of growing up in my case has been learning to know that people don't pay as much attention to me as I fear. If I laugh at embarrassing things I do, they will laugh with me. They don't care about me enough to focus on criticizing me. Deep inside, everyone just wants to get along.

Anyway, this month I have tasks to tick off my to-do list. And I'm sure that even when I finish them, I will not particularly feel like I did SO MUCH and that I FINISHED something. It will just feel like there's nothing overdue. At least that's how graduating felt.

My To-Do List for May:

• medical check-ups
• some girly maintenance tasks
• learn to drive
• get serious with yoga again
• start either losing fat or gaining muscle or both
• learn tarot
• finish two books

But maybe that was because graduating was like paying off a debt, and these next steps I take are more like creating some savings. It's adding something to my life instead of just leveling a negative feeling. 

I have hope.

Got roses in the mail again today :>

"vibrant, living, beautiful flowers: sustainably grown from our farm to your homes" good grammar and design (and reference to good environment and humanitarian karma) is always a reassuring quality. I checked other companies and they were tacky (and felt seedy ahaha). So this is admirable.

Here's a well-deserved promotion for My Flower Depot! (This is not a sponsored post. It's a sincere personal "thank you")

As mentioned in my birthday post, there had been a card mix-up in the surprise birthday bouquet my boyfriend had sent me two days ago. I advised him to inform the company, well, to be honest I called it a "complaint". He said it wasn't necessary because there was no harm done, which is true, but that's mostly thanks to the form of his message. However I can't say the same thing for the people our card was mixed up with:

D: Look me in the eye and tell me this doesn't make your skin crawl

Major criiiiinge. So glad I wasn't them. I know, I know. Sorry. This is probably, slightly unethical. But at least I censored their names, eh?

The company very generously sent me a complimentary bouquet of twelve white roses for the mistake. With the correct card this time. I told him really would have liked a card to keep (might sound shallow but having something tangible is a big thing for long distance relationships), which is probably partly the cause of why he sent a message anyway. :) Aw I love him.

short, sweet, simple!

What I appreciated about this company is that they have great service. Emmanuel loved them! The package came on time, they acknowledge customer service queries quickly, and they remedied their mistakes the best they could.:p So it goes to show that they really care about giving good service and pleasing their clients. Not just making money off of their products. They have principle, which is rare nowadays. Looking at their site, you'll even see that they care about ethical procedures:

"Grown with the least environmental impact and using fair labor practices"

Now doesn't that just make you feel like buying everything they sell? See, it pays off to have a clear conscience type of business. It makes people like you.

twelve white roses. the smell was heavenly.

The box was pretty, the flowers were quite fresh considering the weather, and it came with this, which was cute:

I would like to believe that it was just a case of an employee being new, confused or distracted while preparing the package, because my first package, apart from having the wrong card, also didn't have this Care Tips thingy (which I just learned from the website is supposed to be included in each box). 

the pretty gold bday box, which looked a bit haggard when it arrived haha. (the gerbera daisies are doing well)

I really can't blame the company for that now can I? They remedied the mistake of one person(?i think) verrrrry well.

In conclusion to my personal experience:

Cons:

• wrong card, wouldn't be a problem if you write a simple message like a normal person
• care tip card missing, not a real problem cos it's googlable and it's a bonus feature in the first place

Pros:

• they mail your right back
• they make up for mistakes well (complimentary white roses! they practically spoil you)
• excellent production ethic (judging from their claims), even the cards are recycled.
• the roses smell nice
• they send them with water tubes wrapped in clingfilm, so the stems don't arrive dried out.
• the design is classy, not tacky
• free shipping
• items aren't too expensive
• they come on time in a fancy red truck hehe
• THE FLOWERS ARE PRETTY. I loved the gerbera daisies. They might be my second favorite flower now. And the roses of course. I always love roses :)
• They know what they are doing. The gerbera daisies were coiled with fine wire so as to keep them standing up (like what i did to preserve the 2011 valentine roses) because apparently  the stalks are soft.

All in all, as a receiver of the package, I am very pleased with this company, and I'm sure Emmanuel is pretty darn pleased as a sender as well. :)

I hope anyone who reads this keeps this company in mind especially since it's Mother's Day season.

twenty and two (plus complimentary recipe for "Cherry Vodcoke")

I turned 22 yesterday! I slept a huge chunk of the day away. But it's okay because I celebrated ahead of time. I invited a few friends for pizza-movie night on my birthday eve :)

ma burfday nails.. done a day apart and naturally my two hands aren't the same

"My right hand, always painted simpler than the left onee.."

I decided to have a pizza-movie night. I asked my mom to borrow a projector from the office which I propped inside a magazine rack, supported by The Fountainhead and The Da Vinci Code at the bottom so as to leave space for the sockets in the back. I made it face one of the leaning walls and set up sleeping bags and pillows on the floor opposite :) It was a lot of fun, I'm pretty proud of what I've done. It's sort of the best (/the only haha) sleepover I've planned.

Table setup! 

clockwise from top left: witch's hat that our lovely helper propped up on a bedknob, humorously matching the black sheets I asked to be used! heh ; room plans i drew up for the party and for after the party because I'm actually currently making my room over; throw pillows I snatched from the prayer room bodega (we use that word for storage, not just wine) that I realised matches my bathroom's current colors (pictured below); sleeping bags, master lappy, and projector all set up!

everything orange aside from the curtains is actually ACCIDENTAL. i actually hate orange. but it ended up looking p.nice. im starting to like it.

At the last minute I decided to weave my christmas lights onto my window and it ended up looking pretty damn beautiful.

Why didn't I think of this before?

I put a note on the door saying "Come in I'm in the shower" and Carmen arrived and I got dressed and pretty soon Pia came and then Jessica with  and her sister Jas and Jessica's baby Mio...

Who started eyeing mister panda! Jas and Jessica encouraged him to take it from the bedknob and pretty soon he kept posing with it! I didn't know my godson was such a camgigolo!

Jessica had to leave for Mio's bedtime before Aizel even arrived, sadly. The pizza was cold before most of them arrived haha! Also the ice kept melting so fast and I had to run up and down a lot to put and take things from the freezer. If there were things I'd have wanted to change about it, I would have brought a cooler upstairs so I could spend more time with my guests. And maybe bring a toaster so we can heat the pizza. haha. Or maybe, just feel freer about asking my guests to help me! I don't know why I'm so shy, it's my birthday anyway right? haha!

clockwise from top left: smilinaizel with cameo of mister Mnm, pia and hiding carmen, maiface, hiding carmen, jas and mio while we're watching Bridesmaids. I DIDN'T GET TO TAKE A PIC OF JESS :((( which is sad cos she was so pretty!

Movies/videos we screened:

• A Walk off the Earth's reindition of Somebody I Used to Know as sort of a soundcheck
• a bit of Top Secret but it lagged and we switched to
• Bridesmaids, featured on the top right picture above (boom chiki wa wa)
• Mean Girls, all-time classic
• and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Which Carmen brought. It was the more morose of the four films but still quite enjoyable. 

The Grub:

• Cheese Pizzas with raw veggies for toppings/sides
• BASKET OF MOJOS COS EVERYONE KNOW ME LOVE MA SPUDZZ
• Popcorn with M&Ms
• Sarsi floats
• Improvised cocktails. We called it "Cherry Vodcoke" (edit: I just realised that cherry vodcoke was when we replaced the sprite with coke. but oh well. "cherry spriteka" doesn't sound as nice, so..)

Cherry Vodcoke Recipe

Ingredients:

• Vodka (we used The Bar Silver cos I'm a cheap ass mof-)
• Sprite
• sprigs of mint
• Maraschino Cherries in a jar
• ice

Instructions:

1. In a handsome rocks glass, put in ice about a third of the way. (if it's not handsome, do the same, but with a disapproving grimace/frown)
2. pour vodka just a bit short of covering the ice
3. add sprite until it's almost full all the way (about an inch from the top)
4. top off with a swig of Maraschino Cherry syrup from the jar
5. watch it swirl cos that part's kinda epic
6. Plop in a cherry
7. tear off a couple of mint leaves to decorate the top
8. plop in a stirrer-straw

Our honored guest mister M approves!

After watching What's Eati-shit this title's long-, I was only meaning to cool the projector off to be sure but my bros started kinda calling it a night. Oh well, we all needed sleep anyway! We called it a night at 4am, but Pia and I kept talking until about six AM about really trippy stuff like atoms and the universe.

Aizel, Carmen and I woke up at about 10-11AM, had pancakes and tea, watched TV for a while, then Aizel had to go. Her mother has the same b-day as I. After fixing up the mess from b-day eve and shattering a rocks glass in the process (that made me kinda saaaad) Carmen and I retreated back to my cave, lay down on the sleeping bags watching Modern Family and napping. As I was going upstairs I saw a HUGE RED LBC TRUCK stop by our house. I had a big feeling there was a package for me but I remembered E saying something about how he was saving for our trip so I just went on going upstairs expecting nothing.

But lo and behold, when C and I descended the stairs to accompany my mom to church (she asks me to go to church with her every year on my birthday even though I am an atheist. It could be worse so I humor her.) there was a huge-ass flowerbox-lookin box of the whitest prettiest flowers on the table. I wish someone would have told me! There was a good four hours in between the time I saw the truck and the time I saw the box.

I first made like a flowerbed with the whole lot, using the same magazine rack I used for the projector (man is it useful or what) singling out two favorites which were a huge daisy and a rose, then this morning I put some more with the others in the vase that came from last Valentine's Day's bouquet, and then some downstairs to share.

I was confused about the sender at first, because the fact that E never said anything and the fact that he said he'd be in save mode until our summer together threw me off. But the biggest reason was that the delivery company had mixed up the cards! I instead received a dubious message sent between two ladies who seem to only be in the courtship stage because the sender merely calls herself a "loving friend" despite the horribly uncomfortable steaminess of the message. I don't even wanna.. Oh god. poor ladies. I feel bad for them that a whole family of strangers had seen the card.

Luckily daisies (and white frowers) have sort of a meaning between E and I for Reasons, and I had a huge feeling that it was him and not some random relative who decided to give me flowers. He confirmed via facebook that he indeed committed shenanigans and sent me a surprise once again. Luckily his intended enclosed message was a lot simpler and didn't mention anything about letting anyone's love come inside someone's body like the card I mistakenly received had. It was apparently a simple Happy Birthday and an I love you. Having someone who is very concise and straightforward and not the least bit dramatic really isn't looking so bad at all. :)

final arrangement :)

After church, Carmen, my two brothers, my mom and I went to Racks for my birthday dinner. We had AWESOME FOOD and the best waiter ever and the waitresses sang to me and gave me a free apple pie which was delicious and had ice cream and whipped cream on top (so many creams)... Too bad I didn't bring my camera but then again I liked not having to do that and just relaxing :) We did have phone pictures though, but they're in my mom's phone and are unavailable for now. Maybe one of these days I'll upload them on tumblr :)