Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Wedding Preps Updates

My ticker says that my wedding is 7 months and 1 day away. In a month, it will be six months away and so on and so forth. I'm not yet panicking but there are still a lot of things that needs to be done.

I interviewed a possible wedding OTD cooordinator last week. It was a very fruitful meeting and I'm very much decided into getting her services. However, I have yet to convince my mother in law. She liked the coordinator that we saw at the wedding we attended a couple of weeks ago but I like this one better.

Also, my mother in law and I settled on the type of cloth/color for the dress of the ninangs. Apparently, the two other ninangs in Leo's side (his aunts--the sisters of his mom) wanted to use a leftover cloth which is also a shade of blue. Since I do not want the ninangs to wear different colors, I have to go to Divisoria or a tela store to find that type of color/cloth. I can't describe the color. I'll take a picture of it and post it somewhere so that the ninangs from abroad can see the color.

I also decided on my wedding march. I was listening to my mp3s when I came across this Filipino song sung by the Philippine Madrigal Singers. I knew then that that is the song (with that rendition. Not by a solosit but by a choir!) that I want for my bridal march. As hiring the Madrigal Singers is out of the question (the cost in hiring them is equivalent to the cost of 10 of my entourage's gown--including mine; my photographer/videographer and the church!), I scouted for one who sounds like them although cheaper. I contacted my old choir master and asked if he could recommend me to a good acapella group--one who sounds like the Madz. He referred me to Musicapella--a choir that regularly sings at Sanctuario de San Antonio and with the choir master being a former member of the Madz. I called him and we set up a time to meet at the end of February. I already told him about the specific song I wanted and he will teach it to his choir. By the end of Feb, they should have learned it already and I could listen to them. And best of all, their fee is half the cost of our church! Heee!

Measurements for my gown and my entourage will start by Feb. 17. The entourage from the groom's side will go first and my side will be on Mar. 10. I'll be measured during the second batch. Cecilio Abad (that's my couturier) wants to have me measured as early as possible. I've been hedging as I want to lose more weight before he wraps his tape measure around me.

My mother in law also had my engagement ring redone (ano ba sa english ng engaste?). It's more beautiful now. From the tiffany setting (with 6 prongs), she added12 more stones (at lower karats of course) and raised the setting of the main rings (para litaw raw). It's more beautiful now and Leo and I are thinking of insuring it. I've grown paranoid about it and it's definitely not something for daily wear.

There are still a million things to do for my wedding preps. With the six month mark nearing, panic will soon start in. For the six month mark, my goal is to get our wedding requirements--birth certificates, license etc.) After that, meeting with our AE at Palm's to discuss the food and lay-out etc. And I still haven't decided on our give-aways yet oh and worst of all, my entourage is still not yet complete!!! (breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out).

Wedding Gown Design




Posted the completely downloaded drawing of the gown

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Me and Miguel


Even if we only stayed less than an hour at my nephew's party, I got a couple of nice pictures with him.

The first picture is of me and Miguel. Sayang di siya nakatingin.

The second picture is Miguel with his mom (my sister). He just woke up from his nap and was quite cranky.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Leo and Sunshine pictures


This was taken during an officemate's wedding on Sep. 2004 at EDSA Shangri-la.

Pulled out Thorn

Well, I had quite an interesting session here at work yesterday. Though how "explosive" it was, at least it was a thorn off my chest. For the past 5 months or so, I've been worrying about several issues at work that I wasn't able to relax or even get a decent night's sleep. Everything came out yesterday and no tempers flared as it was acknowledged that there were some things set aside due to other priorities. Nevertheless, I'm glad that it's out now. I can now breathe a sigh of relief.

At least now, I can focus on more important things and move forward. I spent last night thinking about my wedding and resumed preparing for it. I really can't wait!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Our (Mis)Adventurous Weekend

Last weekend was probably the most weirdest weekend I ever had.

Saturday was okay, it was Sunday that really weirded me out.

Leo and I left Paranaque after lunch to go to Quezon City for my nephew's first birthday party. At the corner of Araneta Avenue and Quezon Avenue, we got into a fender bender. Our stoplight was go but since there were no policemen/traffic aides around, the cars going south were turning left going to Quezon Avenue. It was no surprise that we got hit. The driver admitted his mistake (it's a no-left turn intersection darnit!!!) and asked that we go to their nearby office (St. Peter Funeral Homes) so that we can talk to their manager and settle the issue. Leo and I agreed as we really did not want the hassle of going to the police station to get a police report.

Upon getting to the funeral home, I walked around and was surprised when I saw the name of the father of a former officemate interred in one of the chapels there. Well, I was not surprised that he passed away as a former officemate also texted me about it (he was ambushed last Friday). It was just a big coincidence that the driver who hit us works for the same funeral parlor where he was interred. So I went up to the chapel and stopped for awhile to condole with my former officemate.

Leo and I left a few minutes after and we arrived at the house of my brother-in-law in one piece sometime after 4pm. However, after probably half an hour, my sister asked us to bring our sister-in-law to the hospital as she needs someone to look at her eye. My niece managed to poke her mom in the eye with her party hat. She could not open her eye and her vision was blurred. So Leo and I brought her to a nearby clinic but they refused to see her as they did not have an in-house opthalmologist. They directed us to Capitol Medical Center. We went back to the house, got directions and proceeded to the hospital.

We eventually found our way to the hospital and had my sister-in-law treated. As Leo and I were running on a tight schedule (we still had to go to Magallanes to visit Leo's ninang who just arrived from the US), we just dropped off my sister-in-law back at the house and proceeded to Makati. At that time, it was already almost 6pm.

We decided to take Araneta Avenue back to Makati instead of EDSA. Bad call though as there was a portion of Araneta Avenue that was closed due to the Sto. Nino processions (it was the feast of the Sto. Nino). Leo had to take a detour and we wound up getting lost. Fortunately, we were able to find our way out of the maze of sidestreets and got out at Sta. Mesa. We eventually found our way to Magallanes.

We just breathed a sigh of relief when we got home. It was really one weird day. At least there were good things that came out of it.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Another Wedding


Last Wednesday, Leo and I attended the wedding of his cousin.

The first picture was taken at the church--Guadalupe Church in Makati. It's an old church near Pasig River. It was also where my brother got married last December 2004.

The second picture was taken inside coconut palace. The reception was held outdoors and they had this area which is near the bay itself. I was so envious and it made me think twice on why I decided to have a morning wedding.

My friends have gushed on how I look good in the pictures. It's nice to know that the investment I made on my gym membership and personal trainer is not for naught. A friend also complimented me on my make-up and asked if she could hire him/her for my wedding. I really laughed at that. I actually did my own make-up and I was not particularly happy with the results. My skin was flaky and dry due to stress and my make-up was caking, but apparently, it's only visible during close-ups. I'm glad I did not have one taken.

The jewelry that I wore came from my mom. She bought it from a jeweler in Makati the last time she was here and left it with me. It was a perfect match to my dress.

As for the dress, I bought it SALE at SM (500 bucks!) January last year. It was a very good buy and last Wednesday was the first time I had the chance to wear it. I also like the color of my dress. This is the color that I want for my entourage.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Leo and Sunshine




Sample AVP that I created

Beware of Smokers

Everyday going work, I have to wade through groups of smokers near the bus stop where I get off. These are the smoke-belching call-center people who are either taking a break or getting ready to go home. I respect their right to smoke, but I just don't like the fact that they form clusters along the sidewalk and provide some sort of barricade for people who are scurrying to get to their offices on time. Plus, I don't like the fact that the smoke sticks to my hair and clothes.

On an interesting sidenote, I have an officemate who used to work for one of the big cigarette manufacturers. He said that their marketing strategy is to promote responsible smoking--meaning their target market are people in their 20's and above because these are people who are (supposedly) able to decide for themselves already. Anyway, I hope they include in their marketing plan, teaching people where and how to smoke without annoying non-smokers.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Having fun with Picture Project

After weeks of depression, I finally sat down and did this thing. What caused the change of heart? It wasn't instantaneous, mind you. It's just the matter of figure out what I should do.

Anyway, this link is the result of my efforts in tinkering with Picture Project--a software that came with the camera that was given to me. It's a very nifty tool that helped me create the slide presentation It's quite large at 29MB--well, it shouldn't be surprising seeing the number of pictures plus the music embedded in the file.

Do enjoy and tell me what you think. It's only a sample and it won't necessarily be shown during the wedding. I guess I was inspired by the wedding we just attended.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Reprieve

Okay, I think I'm better now. I managed to let my feelings out yesterday to somebody who listened and cared to what actually happens to me. I also had a long chat with Kay (who I mentioned a while back as my mentor) about my work-life. She again swears by the horoscope book (which she bought at Don Bosco). She said that life will be better by Jan. 19 and I'm really starting to believe in that stuff. She said that according to the book (ayon sa nasosolat), life will be tough from Dec. 19 to Jan. 18 and she was right! The last few weeks have really been tough. I was not able to enjoy my Christmas and the break because I so dreaded coming to work. So no major decisions for me until Friday.


Good thing I'm on leave today. We're attending the wedding of Leo's cousin. I would want to see how her wedding would look like as we both belong to the same wedding e-groups. She had a nice despedida de soltera last Sunday. I imagined how my party will be like.

===============================

My four year old laptop was looking for a replacement as early as last year. Good thing Leo took pity on me and bought me a new one -- Toshiba Satellite. It's a big deviation from my old trusty Compaq but that old heap was getting slower and get this, ants are setting up residence in its CDROM Drive. I don't know why as I surely do not use it as a coffee cup holder!

We got this laptop quite cheap and with specs that I can live with. A 40gig HD is okay and more importantly, it has wireless! Yahoo!I can surf while I'm in school! I could actually use my laptop to update my blog now. Now if somebody in the neighborhood has wireless access, I can maybe hook myself up. Hehe.

Speaking of New Year, it's been quite a bad start for me healthwise. On the evening of Jan. 5, I came home with the mother of all headaches. Good thing it was not painful enough for me to be able to drift off to sleep at around midnight. An hour and a half later, my cellphone woke me up and it was my dad in the other line. He asked me to take a look at my aunt as she was complaining of a tummyache and it sounded urgent. So I groggily looked in on her and she was fine. I just told her to wake me up in case she needed to go to the hospital.

I staggered back to bed but unfortunately, I could not go back to sleep as my headache returned in full force and it managed to spread from between my eyes, to my temples up to the back of my head. It got so bad that I threw up twice. I called up Leo feeling very pitiful about myself. He said that he can leave in 15 minutes, but taking into his travel time from work, it'll take him an hour before he can fetch me. I tried waking up my cousin to accompany me to the ER but he was so dead to the world. I did not want to disturb my aunt as she was resting so I quietly dressed and waited down at the garage for a tricycle to pass by. When one arrived, I quickly hailed it and asked to be bought to the bank (I was going to the ER and I had no money with me!) and then to the 24 hour clinic in BF.

Upon getting there, the doctor asked if I wanted a shot for the pain and I readily agreed. He also told me to have myself admitted to a hospital IMMEDIATELY if the pain persists even with the painkiller. Otherwise, it's just possible migraine. The shot really helped as minutes later, the pain abated. I then gathered my things, hailed another tricycle and I let myself back in the house. I don't think nobody noticed me gone. Leo called me back and asked if I needed him. I told him to stay at work as I just need to get some sleep. By the time I managed to drift off to sleep, it was around 3 am.

I woke up at 7 am and hurriedly got ready to go to school to pay my tuition and then to work to finish some pending items. Around lunch time, my dad called me telling me that my niece is on her way to the hospital due to possible dengue. Everyone was panicking as she had a nosebleed and according to the mother, her eyes bled as well. I got myself together and waited for my dad to pick me up to go to Medical City. Two hours later after we got there, the blood tests revealed that it was just viral conjunctivitis (sore eyes) which was left unattended for two weeks. Yes, my niece had sore eyes for 2 weeks an nobody noticed. Duh! Thus the fever and nose bleed.

Leo picked me up from Medical City--which is a really very nice (and expensive) hospital--and brought me back to the office where I stayed for another hour. After that, we went to Alabang to have dinner. On the way there, I got a text message from a good friend that she's also on her way to the hosptial due to a threatened abortion. Am glad that she's better now. Her baby's okay and she's resting at home.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Reprieve

Okay, I think I'm better now. I managed to let my feelings out yesterday to somebody who listened and cared to what actually happens to me. I also had a long chat with Kay (who I mentioned a while back as my mentor) about my work-life. She again swears by the horoscope book (which she bought at Don Bosco). She said that life will be better by Jan. 19 and I'm really starting to believe in that stuff. She said that according to the book (ayon sa nasosolat), life will be tough from Dec. 19 to Jan. 18 and she was right! The last few weeks have really been tough. I was not able to enjoy my Christmas and the break because I so dreaded coming to work. So no major decisions for me until Friday.


Good thing I'm on leave today. We're attending the wedding of Leo's cousin. I would want to see how her wedding would look like as we both belong to the same wedding e-groups. She had a nice despedida de soltera last Sunday. I imagined how my party will be like.

===============================

My four year old laptop was looking for a replacement as early as last year. Good thing Leo took pity on me and bought me a new one -- Toshiba Satellite. It's a big deviation from my old trusty Compaq but that old heap was getting slower and get this, ants are setting up residence in its CDROM Drive. I don't know why as I surely do not use it as a coffee cup holder!

We got this laptop quite cheap and with specs that I can live with. A 40gig HD is okay and more importantly, it has wireless! Yahoo!I can surf while I'm in school! I could actually use my laptop to update my blog now. Now if somebody in the neighborhood has wireless access, I can maybe hook myself up. Hehe.

Speaking of New Year, it's been quite a bad start for me healthwise. On the evening of Jan. 5, I came home with the mother of all headaches. Good thing it was not painful enough for me to be able to drift off to sleep at around midnight. An hour and a half later, my cellphone woke me up and it was my dad in the other line. He asked me to take a look at my aunt as she was complaining of a tummyache and it sounded urgent. So I groggily looked in on her and she was fine. I just told her to wake me up in case she needed to go to the hospital.

I staggered back to bed but unfortunately, I could not go back to sleep as my headache returned in full force and it managed to spread from between my eyes, to my temples up to the back of my head. It got so bad that I threw up twice. I called up Leo feeling very pitiful about myself. He said that he can leave in 15 minutes, but taking into his travel time from work, it'll take him an hour before he can fetch me. I tried waking up my cousin to accompany me to the ER but he was so dead to the world. I did not want to disturb my aunt as she was resting so I quietly dressed and waited down at the garage for a tricycle to pass by. When one arrived, I quickly hailed it and asked to be bought to the bank (I was going to the ER and I had no money with me!) and then to the 24 hour clinic in BF.

Upon getting there, the doctor asked if I wanted a shot for the pain and I readily agreed. He also told me to have myself admitted to a hospital IMMEDIATELY if the pain persists even with the painkiller. Otherwise, it's just possible migraine. The shot really helped as minutes later, the pain abated. I then gathered my things, hailed another tricycle and I let myself back in the house. I don't think nobody noticed me gone. Leo called me back and asked if I needed him. I told him to stay at work as I just need to get some sleep. By the time I managed to drift off to sleep, it was around 3 am.

I woke up at 7 am and hurriedly got ready to go to school to pay my tuition and then to work to finish some pending items. Around lunch time, my dad called me telling me that my niece is on her way to the hospital due to possible dengue. Everyone was panicking as she had a nosebleed and according to the mother, her eyes bled as well. I got myself together and waited for my dad to pick me up to go to Medical City. Two hours later after we got there, the blood tests revealed that it was just viral conjunctivitis (sore eyes) which was left unattended for two weeks. Yes, my niece had sore eyes for 2 weeks an nobody noticed. Duh! Thus the fever and nose bleed.

Leo picked me up from Medical City--which is a really very nice (and expensive) hospital--and brought me back to the office where I stayed for another hour. After that, we went to Alabang to have dinner. On the way there, I got a text message from a good friend that she's also on her way to the hosptial due to a threatened abortion. Am glad that she's better now. Her baby's okay and she's resting at home.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Let's Be Happy

Mukhang matumal ang umpisa ng aking bagong taon. Dalawang Biyernes na ang nakakaraan na umuwi akong luhain at isang tao lang ang dahilan sa aking pagdurusa at pagdadalamhati.

Panginoon ko, bigyan Niyo po ako ng karapatang lakas at katapangan na gawin ang nais Niyo at makagawa ng nararapat na desisyon para sa aking kinabukasan.

(Kung nais ninyo ang buong kuwento, hindi ko kayang ilathala dito. Maaaring padalhan ninyo lamang ako ng pribadong mensahe para makabigay ako ng sagot)