green dress, pasalubong and happy thoughts

so much to look forward to this coming holiday season. wedding, birthdays (actual BIRTH days... of my new pamangkin!!), reunions of every type of friend group, misa de gallo in ateneo, bazaars with mom (3 bazaars in one weekend... whoa.), TRAFFIC (loving it... am weird), decorating the houses (color scheme all picked out), buying new twinkle lights for 10 pesos (kidding!!), walking around the village looking at houses all lit up with cousins after dinner (tradition), puppies!!!! (praying), watching christmas concerts, hearing carolers in the street and a whole more.

but most of all, i'll be seeing people i've missed for so long. family AND "only friend" (hi to v). spending the most happy season with them. and POTENTIALLY (insert prayer) seeing snow. let's look for snow moo? let's make pathetic looking snowmen (because i don't know how... hands will freeze before we get the body done) and laugh like insane people thinking about how silly it all is.

so, am armed with my green dress, your pasalubong and twenty million happy thoughts, and i'll be seeing you in a couple of weeks. moo.

hmm.

are YOU looking at me??

the last reef on earth.

it's a personal record

four PCRs today. got home at past seven in a daze of microliters and agarose gels. and i get to do it all again tomorrow!

images of christmas in boracay from ariel

iba.

powder anyone?

it's boracay! not bora!!

it's a new phenomenon. but lately, i've heard people refer to boracay as "bora". BORA?!? are they kidding me? why? why?! more importantly... WHY?! (takes a deep breath and counts to 10).

sidetracked: plus there's a bar in the fort named "bora" that lex and i will never EVER go to because we criticize it every time we pass by the place. ay sus.

back to main topic: i suppose it's to sound more cool or in or whatever it is. are we going for an association with bora bora now? help me, but the word boracay itself is such beauty. i must be too old school or something. boracay will always be "boracay". i fell in love with boracay way back when there were just small resorts, no concrete hotels on long beach. no reliable electricity :)

interestingly, i've noticed that people who say "bora" instead of "boracay" are a certain type of person. it's a type. not an age/sex/class/rank thing. anyway, it's become a very useful indicator for me as to what type of person you are just by how you refer to boracay. (we shall not go into the characteristics because we have already calmed down and counted to ten).

so moo. if you want to stay my friend. please. please. it's boracay, not bora!!

ally mcbeal songs

i was watching this show while waiting for my folks to finish getting ready to go out. it was a good episode. the one where ally and larry (played by robert downey jr.) go on their first official date. i like him in general. the character for her, and him as an actor... (gonna get sidetracked, stopping myself).

anyway, i remember the first season this tv show came out, you could NOT interrupt anyone watching it when it was on. no phone calls made or taken. and everyone understood this unwritten law. at least everyone i knew. and everyone my cousins and aunt knew. that's a pretty big group of people who would put everything on hold for ally, then after the show started up again. good times with the cousins at my ninangs house. :)

in almost every episode, vonda sings a song in the final minutes. this one, i particularly like. the rhythm and the way it is sung, with soul. galing. and OF COURSE, me being myself, one of the lines struck me. it goes...

ain't it funny how you're walking through life and it turns on a dime?

hey. hey. hey.