Leo picked me up last Thursday morning at around 9. Getting to Muntinlupa was no problem, but it is in this area where the traffic build up began. Nevertheless, we reached Sta. Rosa exit an hour later. We stopped over at Cafe Breton to have brunch and continued on to Tagaytay.
We arrived at the house at around 1130. I greeted Leo's parents, got settled and had lunch when his sister and her family arrived.
See the nice house above where I stayed.
We went to Tagaytay Highlands to hear mass at around 5 pm. I've been there before but it was the first time that I saw it that crowded. Almost all of the parking lots were packed with SUV's and high-end car models.
It was also very windy and overcast up there. Check out the skies and the view:
All mountains. That's all you'll see there. Of course, there's Taal Lake.
We went home where I started my CSI marathon.
Oh yeah, tried to catch American Idol but I remembered that they had this re-vote since there were some errors with regards to the numbers being flashed on the screen. I checked the website when I got home and learned that Mikaela got voted out. What do you know? My guess was accurate!
When I retired that night, I thought I'll have difficulty sleeping since it's so cold and SO quiet. I am not used to sleeping without any noise. So I turned on the electric fan and let the noise lull me to sleep (thank God for blankets and comforters).
Next day, Good Friday. I again started on my CSI cd's (Season 4). Chris, Leo's brother-in-law, invited me and Leo to go with him to try out the local Mushroomburger. I readily agreed since I have never been there even though I've heard good things about the place.
Around 3 in the afternoon, we again headed off to Highlands to hear mass and to participate in the Veneration of the Cross. (I really missed the celebrations at Villa San Miguel where I serve. This is two years in a row where I missed the events up in the chapel.) I, together with Tricie (Leo's sister) and his mom, went up to the altar to genuflect and kneel before the cross.
We had dinner at one of the numerous restaurants near the chapel. I had grilled blue marlin which was pretty much unremarkable. Afterwards,Leo and I walked around while we waited for his dad and his nephew to finish their bowling game (cosmic bowling!). We went home where I again wallowed in my CSI dvd's.
Leo and I left for Manila Saturday afternoon after having lunch at Highlands again. Instead of taking the Sta. Rosa route, we went through Highlands and took the Calamba route. It was a scary and lonely stretch of road. Good thing there were other vehicles coming from Highlands and we had some sort of convoy until we reached South Luzon Expressway. Since we did not take the usual route, I was not able to buy pasalubongs for the family. We passed by Alabang where I bought 6 kilos of ripe mangoes, a kilo of indian mangoes, a couple of melons (and a partridge in a pear tree). We then drove to Mandaluyong where I dropped off my stuff and we went to Powerplant Mall where we watched Coach Carter. I was lobbying for Miss Congeniality but SO wanted the basketball flick (not surprising). Being the congenial person that I am, I agreed and consoled myself with nachos and popcorn.
Since our maid is in vacation (for two weeks. She has been gone for a week already), we had to do household chores. I was assigned to do the laundry today. I started on it this morning and took a break to have lunch with Leo and his family (it's his uncle's birthday) at Hardrock. There was also an ongoing Easter celebration where they had this DJ from 94.7 hosting and a magic show to boot (boy, was I entertained!). Leo took me home afterwards where I continued with my laundry chores.
I really hate doing the laundry. Although I hate ironing more. My palms are hurting from all the squeezing. Most of the clothes are mine (due to my 3 day vacation) and there were a couple of my jeans which I had to squeeze and beat. Sure, we had a washing machine and a dryer, but I still had to squeeze the water and soap residue out and to dip it in fabric conditioner (Go Comfort!).
Oh, and speaking of fabric conditioners, Leo said that my natural scent smells like fabric conditioner. I don't know whether I should feel insulted or complimented. I mean, we leave our scent on our clothes and beddings (especially our pillows), that when another person smells them, they smell us (but we can't smell our own scent). As Leo said, I smell like comfort. I was laughing when he said that. Leo smells like perfume (Blue Harbor specifically).
Enough about fabric conditioners.
I finished doing the laundry about 4 pm afterwhich I planted my ass in front of the TV and did not get up until 8 pm. I managed to channel surf and watch some pretty interesting stuff.
I dread returning to work tomorrow. I feel like my vacation was not enough. Come to think of it, it was not much of a vacation. Being with Leo's family is stressful itself. Don't get me wrong, Leo comes from a really great family. But that's the point, they're so great and poster picture perfect that I can't help but think that there's a catch somewhere. It made me think whether I really do fit into their poster perfect picture. I mean, his parents are so accommodating, congenial and successful in their respective fields. I don't know if anything could ruffle their feathers. His sister and her husband are both high ranking officers in their respective companies. They have two sons who are exact replicas of their two grandfathers. I mean hey, do I really have a place in there? Will I be changing myself?
Anyway, I still have to face work tomorrow and an accounting case and paper for the next two to three weeks. By the fourth week of April, I'm going to relax.
My dad also wants to watch The Cascades perform. Thinking of taking him to watch. It'll be a treat for him. Haven't done anything special for him lately. About time I reconnect with my parents. I've been shutting them out too much.
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