caterpillar talk

04.16.08. taking this photo jolted me back to reality

i set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. but when i woke up, i had to rush because i was already running an hour late. what was i thinking relying on that alarm!? duh.

i managed to squeeze in my usual hour’s worth of morning rituals into 20 minutes and by 6:50 a.m., i was out of my place and making my way to work.

i hailed a tricycle to take me to where the company shuttle usually picks me up for my 7 o’clock ride.

time check: 6:50 a.m.
reality check: a tricycle ride from my place of stay to pick-up point takes at least 15 minutes.

boy, was i running late! worse, the driver of the tricycle decided to take a detour to the gasoline station. i wanted to blurt out, “manong, ma-le-late na po ako!” but i held back and bit the tip of my tongue as an attempt at temper management. inside, i was seething. argh. of all days! of all times! how can a potentially good day start bad?

“Lord, help me.”

my patience was thinning out so early in the morning. i mustered for control over the temper that was about to blow over. i tried to divert my attention to what’s around me and, in the distance, i saw the rising sun. i told myself i should take a picture of it, so i did.

it may not be the best sunrise photo but it’s something worth sharing. when i took it, i experienced a turning point.

as i was fumbling with my phone, getting ready to take my shot, i noticed the time. the display said, 5:57 a.m.

wham!

all along, i was moving disoriented, warped. when i woke up and read 5:30 a.m., i mistook it for 6:30 a.m. ding di ding!!!

bwahahahahahaha…

just when i thought i was running an hour late, i was, in fact, being one hour early. (kay naunsa ka, val?)

one thing i did not fail to recognize, He was quick in answering my simple prayer. His timing’s impeccable.

i needed that experience, that morning, that day to remind me that, yes, He’s still watching over me and paying attention even to the smallest of my utterances.

her: why are you still watching over me?
him: maybe for the same reason you’ve been watching me.

so mushy but still… *awwwwwwww*

thoughts. thoughts. why does it take so much for people to openly admit how they really feel? instead of being straightforward, why choose to be subtle and merely say something as ’safe’ as “maybe for the same reason you’ve been watching me” when there’s “i do care”?

it’s not as if you’ll die if you clearly let the other person know. what’s so threatening about owning up to your emotions? it won’t make you a lesser person.

this little guy is so lucky — he gets away with his show of unbridled passion and never fails to make me giggle. woot!

p.s. i got those her-him lines from smallville. even superman ain’t super when it comes to these things.

“You are my sweetest downfall.
I loved you first. I loved you first.”

that quote is the only part of the song, samson, by regina spektor which i can relate to.

kay can relate jud? pero according sa kasabihan, “ang unang magmahal talo.” nooooooooo, dili ko loser. sa gusto lang jud nako ako una.

-¤-

boinks… boinks “trip”… with the cousins

tropang astig, tropang bangag
we’re so damn confident, we don’t mind playing crazy for the camera

-¤-

these are what i call good morning greetings…

this morning i woke up to the sound of my phone beeping. when i checked my inbox, i laughed and laughed at the über-dramatic tone yet funny implications of the new messages…

“If I were the rain, could I connect with someone’s heart
as the rain connects the eternally separated earth and sky?”– madramang vandal sa upuan

bwahahahah… ferte! grabeng gamit sa poetic license! let’s find that chair. i want to take a picture of it!

“I had to let go of what I thought I owned.
It hurts, yes. A lot, actually.
But getting through each day made me realize
that the world will just keep on turning… and so should I.”

na mao! toinks kaayo. di kaha ma-flipperz ka sa kalipong should you keep on turning pud? wala lang, feeling semi-concerned lang. if kalipong lang pud ang gi-apas, ten shots of tequila will do the trick. mweheheh

buing jud ning mga tig-text sa ako oi. buntag sayo pa gani, laff trip na dayon. hwekhwekhwek. keep those funny text messages coming peepz!

“No amount of worldly success could ever compensate for a failure in the family.”

the last three (3) entries were posted merely for the sake of posting something. this entry is like those previous entries. please bear with my yakkity yakkity yak.

:: society’s measures of success: high-paying job, big house, expensive car and gizmos, smooth-running career — these are the “conventional” measures of success which my friend and i would say “duh” to.

i like what she said in defense of the unconventional measures of success: “these unconventional successes are well worth my ‘poverty’ as the world would call it and well worth the pain i had to endure just because i fell in love with the stars and everything else essential but not easily seen.” i find her statement pretty bold and noble. no wonder, we’re friends.

:: here’s for reggie! reggie who? fans of prison break would surely recognize him as secret service agent bill kim. i was able to watch seasons 1 and 2 of prison break again (a clear sign of addiction!) and i found bill kim so pro and so annoying that i ended up checking him out. as a result, i found out that the actor who plays the part, reggie lee, is not korean american like bill kim is in the series. reggie lee is a filipino american who can speak tagalog, english, and cantonese.

:: once, when my labmate and i were walking around the campus in diliman, a korean pair stopped us and asked, “do you know the way to the sexy station?” what a question to ask in broad daylight! hala, taymsa og sa dihang naskandalo jud mi sa pangutana — ding, red light district thoughts. we gave them the benefit of the doubt though. so we had to beg their pardon before we could say something off. it turned out, their question was actually: “do you know the way to the taxi station?” ehehe…

:: my art mentor shared this:

What Money Can’t Buy
by Daniel Olsson

Money Can Buy
A job, but not accomplishment.
A house, but not a home.
A pet, but not a friend.
Medicine, but not health.
Decorations, but not happiness.
A ring, but not love.
A book, but not a story.
An education, but not knowledge.
Glasses, but not sight.
Toys, but not fun.
Clothes, but not beauty.
A piano, but not a song.
Paper and pencil, but not words.
A bed, but not sleep.
Food, but not a meal.
A window, but not a view.

:: those who really value the concept of home and family know that flirting with wreckers, in whatever form they come, is a no-no. things that will most likely bring forth the erosion of good relations in the family are not worth it. no matter what one gains, for as long as he/she ends up with a wrecked family (or wrecked family relations) because of his/her actions, he/she ends up losing.

:: we may not always have much but we would always have enough because we have LOVE and FAMILY! and that is why we do great things! with much love, we can do great things.

:: from phd comics: “in academia, never say you have problems. it is a sign of weakness. call them challenges or issues but never problems.” uhmmmm… makes sense. renaming problems “issues” or “challenges” will make you feel better and on top of the game. but then again… a problem, by any other name, is a problem.

:: no wonder my labmates wanted me to join them in their naruto craze! but i only got into the wagon just recently, thanks to my sister who borrowed the dvds from our cousin. naruto, the character, is sooooo annoying. i find him so annoying but i always end up rooting for him episode after episode. hahaaaay, the great irony. in this case, “the more you hate, the more you love” applies. my sister and i are planning to watch bleach and one piece next.

:: the most viewed photos in my flickr account:

673 views: yey, they love herbie!*

363 views: indulgence!

:: i managed to accumulate so many pictures in just a short period of time. this is what i realized when i finally got around to organizing my online photo albums in photobucket. i already uploaded close to 2000 photos and i still have to transfer the photo albums i have in friendster and those i hid in multiply and flickr. hala, so now i still have to labor for the fruits of my and my friends’ labor (read: “posing and picture-taking”).

*about the image: i merely added the texts that say “1960s” and “herbie” to the original herbie photo i found somewhere on the net. the image was used among with images of other 60s vehicles for our dorm’s open house early last year.

“Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”
–Wayne Dyer

every now and then, we find a special friend who never lets us down, who understands it all… no, stop. i mean, every now and then, we encounter signs that are just somewhat… — for the lack of a better term — off and, therefore, “interesting” and laughable.

here are two examples of such signs i saw with my own two eyes…

in sm city - cagayan de oro
december 2005

really, it’s FREE???

hala, pasaway! add P10 for FREE drink. hihihi. who’re they kidding? mwahahaha… talk about redefining the meaning of FREE!!!

in a hotel in pampanga
september 2006

the sign at the back of the door of the guys’ room, ehehe

so, what was i doing inside that room? hmmm…

there’re two of us gals in the group. we two were assigned to a different room but we had to go to the guys’ room for a late-night brainstorming session.

i got in there (the guys’ room) ahead of my other gal pal and after she arrived, one of the guys (there were four of them in our team) finally noticed this “interesting” sign… and we all had a good laugh over it.

we couldn’t resist but take a picture!

that sign really piqued our interest. plus, it really caused amused laughter among us. for a moment, i had doubts about us being really housed in a hotel… but, yeah, we were. the sign’s just soooo… — what’s the word — kinky?

note: there are a lot more photos of signs like the two i shared here. i usually encounter them — “interesting” signs — during travel adventures, when my keen powers of observation are upped a notch or two higher. i still have to upload the rest of them to this album.