SPINDEPENDENCE 3

To all those who have always wanted to try ZIPPING, this is the perfect chance! And to all those who already have, let's SPREAD THE LOVE some more! :-)

SPINDEPENDENCE 3
APRIL 27, 2007: Friday
5:00pm-10:30pm
Greenbelt 3 square (across Starbucks and Havana)

FREE Entrance :)
Hope to see you all there!

Birthday Chronicles: 24

Last April 20, I turned 24!!! WOOOHOOO!

I had an entire weekend of birthday celebration!
There were others who greeted two days early (interchanging my Kuya's birthday with mine...April 18: Happy Birthday, Kuya Pao!) while most were right on the dot! I don't really mind whether I receive birthday greetings a bit early, on time, or several days after the 20th. All the early and late greetings actually made me feel that my birthday lasted more than a day, haha! THANK YOU again to everyone! I feel truly blessed and loved. :)

CEEE-LEEE-BRATE GOOD TIMES, COME ON!!! tooodudududoodoodudoooo

Eve of April 20.
I spent the night rehearsing with my zips classmates for Spindependence 3! Since we almost always zipped until past midnight, we knew that we'd be spending time until my birthday! ;-) I texted them in the morning that I'd bring pizza for the practice and the rest brought something else! :D WOW to teamwork!!!

Thank you to Ramir for the mat, music, and drinks and the mentoring!!! Giselle for the plates and cups (and Carlo, her friend, whom I met there)! Deneb for the brownies! Des for more drinks! Omar for the lambanog which is still in my room! Hernan who carried the pizza boxes for me, hehehe. Thanks to Jamie who came straight from Canlubang tired from campaigning and Mic who came all the way from her tutoring! And to Sarah, my beautiful GS/HS/college friend/sister who has also tried zipping several times, thank you for the photos/documentation! :-)


Sarah and the tripod. Mat, music, pizza, poi, practice. Belair's next top models,bwahaha.

April 20!
I love the fact that my birthday fell on a Friday because the preschool summer classes I teach are only until Thursdays! This meant MORE FREE time for me on my birthday! I woke up early despite being awake until 2 am. I had breakfast with my family and my sister's special guest, Franco. :)

And then I went to the gym alone because everyone else was at work. The fact that the gym was almost deserted at that time of day was already a gift in itself for me... And I was not expecting anything else that morning. But it was my birthday and wonderful things just seem to happen on that day.

A lot of people have crushes in the local showbiz industry. I just have ONE! And I've always wanted to meet him in person because he's the only one in my entire "showbiz list" that I could possibly meet in this lifetime. I have a short list with just two hollywood stars and one local actor. There's Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, and him. And I have never ever seen him in person. Ever. Until my 24th birthday.

There I was near the locker rooms, drinking by the fountain peacefully. And as I flipped my head back, I turned to my left to walk back to the gym area... I stopped.

This guy came out from the men's locker room. He was wearing a red shirt and a white bandana wrapped around his head, emphasizing his face. That face looked so familiar. Gulp (there went my last sip of water). Right there in front of me, inches (ok fine 1.5 feet) away from me... walking and breathing...was the oh-so-good-looking, Piolo Pascual.

My heart sang Happy Birthday to me!!! :D

I was happy with just that. The fact that I saw Piolo in person on MY BIRTHDAY for the first time and he was even WEARING RED was something I found so amusing! By the way, Franco knows this entire story so yup go ahead and tell him! :)

In the afternoon, I met up with two of my dearest girlfriends who were FREE at three pm. It was a spontaneous kind of thing. Aenid texted a few days back and we decided to meet up. Ada texted to greet me that morning and turned out to be free that afternoon as well. Tadan!

My brownie ala mode and dalandan shake! Aenid's cute drawing (center) My weirdness coming to life (bottom center). Ada's heart and lettering (top and bottom right).

My Birthday Dinner with Franco

Happy and full! Recently, the two of us have been into red wine. And that night, we were into several red things. Red Crab for dinner then he gave me a red Samsonite luggage for some of my planned (cross fingers and not-yet-planned) *travels* with my family and with him, naks.

April 21.
I went to Ateneo as a Beta volunteer for Koine Theater Foundation. If anyone wants to give me a late birthday gift (hehe, I know some of you do!), please do so in the form of supporting this foundation and their scholars! :) Koine opens its doors to children from poor communities and hones their talents in singing, dancing, writing, and acting! I heard and watched four of them sing last Saturday and they were truly gifted. :)

These are some of the advanced students practising their dance number. Amazing!

KOINE SCHOLARS NIGHT entitled INVENIO will be held on May 26 (Saturday) 730pm in Megamall Cinema 9. We could all help by buying/selling tickets or opting to become a benefactor and sponsor a child.

Watch Palanca-Award winning writer and composer, Niel de Mesa's INVENIO. Guest celebrities like Aiza Seguerra, Karylle, and many more are also set to join the performance. Tickets are sold at Php500, 300, 200. For tickets call 433.7886 or 09179726514 or log on to Amazing Koine Shows for more details.


I'll be posting this again some time next month when the event gets nearer! :) I really hope you could go!

The rest of my Saturday was celebrating time (not necessarily all for my birthday)! Franco and I kept moving from one place to another that night because for some reason, so many people were born this month...

We attended Cassy's 4th birthday! :)

Left photo: Lala, Chi, and Tata.
Center top: Franco and Drew.
Center bottom: Lala, Santino, Franco.
Top right: Kai.

Remember how I saw Piolo on my birthday? The day after, Andrew introduced me to Jericho Rosales. Surreal? What happened was even more surreal...

It was around 7:40pm. Andrew was outside the house while Jericho and Santino were inside the car, preparing to go. Franco and I went out because we had to leave for my family dinner scheduled on that same night.

Andrew talking to Jericho: "They want to meet you. (they referring to me and Franco)...
Andrew added, "Idol ka niya eh" (referring to Franco. Well, he used to watch Panday!!)

Jericho went down from his car and walked towards us, smiling. Charming. Looking very friendly.

Andrew: "Jericho, Franco. Franco, Jericho" (they shook hands and were really nice to each other)
Andrew: "Jericho, Lala. Lala, Jericho" (we shook hands...)
Jericho to Lala: "I think we've met before" (OMG, I would remember that if ever!)
Lala (keeping my cool): "no, not yet..." (laughs a little, smiles sheepishly)
Jericho: "oh sorry sorry"
Lala: "it's ok!" (laughs... wow, happy birthday to me!)

Inside Franco's car.
Franco (teasing me): O, saan kayo nag-meet?
Lala: Hindi pa talaga. Maalala ko yun if ever! Baka mukha akong taga-beach? Di ba nagssurf siya? Baka akala niya na-meet niya ko sa beach. (Note: my get-up looked beachy, my skin has always been dark, and my hair looked dishevelled. So maybe he thought I was from some island? I wish!)

Going back to the night of the 21st...

Birthday dinner with my family in Katre. Ate Monica was on duty the entire week so we scheduled our family dinner on a Saturday.

It's tradition! CW from top left: my lamb. franco and lala. kuya pao and ria. our parents. nikki and franco. grilled mahi-mahi. :)
Ling was in Boracay and Ate Monica insisted that her pictures not be seen here as she was still "not looking her best" because she has been reviewing for the medical boards. Gio was on duty, aww! Enjoy the lamb, GIO! :)

After dinner at around past 10pm, I went home to change clothes and freshen up. Then, Franco and I went back to Andrew's house because it was also his birthday! (Happy Birthday, Drew!) And by the time we got there, they all knew the story about us meeting Jericho and me being starstruck earlier, haha!

From Top left: Kix and Eng. Tata and Eng pretending to be bangag. Newlyweds Kathy and JC.
Bottom left: group pic with Shereen, Jer, Eng, me, Tata, Kathy, Chi, Duke, and Cats.
Right most photo: Gobernador Duke.

At around 1 am, we we went to Cuisine and met up with Barry. We also met his awesome boss from Australia, Tony, who kept asking me and Franco if we were married. And since we weren't, he kept telling us that we should be. Uhhh, Tony, I just turned 24!!! :-D

3:30 am.
I am getting sleeeeeeepy, my stomach so fulllllll and heavyyy, but I'm more sleeeepy than full... thug. Zzzz.

April 22.
Franco's nephew, Joaquin, turned one! We went to Manila Polo Club to celebrate his Barney birthday party! I had fun eating ice cream and creating my own halo-halo while watching Sesame street puppets and a live bubbles show. ;-)



With the birthday celebrant, Joaquin, and Franco's brothers, Martin and Craig. :) Everyone else was preparing for the Big Day in Calbayog. :)

April 23.
Anna and Jan from GamePlan texted me today along with my two good friends, Cheree and Mayen (I told you I don't have any qualms with late greetings!). Thank you, guys!

At 24, I feel even more showered with love and friendship! To everyone, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I didn't throw a party this year but I felt like I had one BIG BASH!

Happy Birthday to all the April celebrants out there! :)

Marching Ants

I feel terribly HOT. Literally.

I sweat just walking down the street. And it's the tagaktak kind of sweat.

I think SUMMER is making a GRAND entrance in my life right now because I've been neglecting it...

For the past months or so, I haven't been such a responsible blogger and I haven't been my usual fun self because I tried to be a "more responsible" student. Imagine, I was finishing a paper over the holy week when everyone else was relaxing somewhere far from books and laptops. The Life.

How was your summer break, Lala?
Uhh, what summer break? I'm an ant. I'll be enjoying in July when the rain starts to fall... ;-)

Today, I've finally seen my grades online and sometimes graduate school really baffles me. I've met professors who grill me in class and make me find all my mistakes and then give me such a high grade in the end that makes me wonder if I truly deserved it. And I've met professors who ask me all these wonderful questions in class, smile and nod at me as I answer, tell me that I did a great job in my exam, and then give me a lower grade than what I thought I would get. And for this particular subject that I had this past semester (because there is a basis for this post), I thought I wasn't hoping for any particular grade... Not until I finally saw my final grade and felt my heart sink with it. So yes, I am officially grade conscious again just for this particular subject. I cannot argue with physiology. My heart just told me that I have GC (grade conscious) stamped on my forehead again.

But pfffft I'm letting go of my "serious M.A. hat" RIGHT NOW because YEAH, IT IS SUMMER TIME! Finally. :-D

Anyway, I just wanted to post a few long overdue updates about what I have been doing last month. As usual, they've piled up!

Gray Area Studios.
I worked as one of the models for their Open House and here are some of the photos that I liked. Thank you, Isa.

For more information on Gray Area Studios, click here.

Makeup and styling by Carmie Locsin.
Photo by OgeePhotography.

Peppered Cherry Summer Collection
located at the 2nd floor of Serendra Shops, Fort Global City...

For details and prices, check out Peppered Cherry

Models: Tata Garcia and Lala Jara
Hair & Make Up: Carmie Locsin
Photography: Pong Ignacio
Styling: Christina Dy and Jenny Penas
Set Design/Production: Kris Isaac, Marco Ortiga, and Gino Nacionceno

A Work of Beauty.
There is a blog that I often visit because I am amused, inspired, and sometimes just plain curious about what the author has to write. And I think that most Filipino bloggers around the world share the same sentiment as mine. I'm talking about Ala-ism, the blog of Ala Paredes.

Ala and I were batchmates in college (classmates in math 11, haha) and have lots of common friends but we never had the chance to really talk talk (our two longest conversations involved me holding a video camera with her giving out a message for Sarah's 18th birthday party and that short stint in the HK airport on MYX back in college :p) But I've read Ala's stories in her blog and have seen her talents in person and how she continuously shared all these to the world. And THAT is what I found most inspiring about her. :)

One time, Ala asked this question, why are you beautiful? It was for her BLOG's 4th year Anniversary and as one of her readers, I decided to give it a shot. First, because I have this habit of joining all the contests that come along my way, haha! And second, because I wanted to win her artwork!

I had to think of something unique. We're all beautiful inside and for sure, all of us has a certain kind of beauty. But hey, this was a contest! (Yeah, I know I have this competitive streak in me ;-D)

I emailed her the most honest and most striking one-liner I could think of.

TA-DAN!

I found myself as one of the five winners and received her artwork via snail mail (which arrived last month)!

Although I do not have tremendous talent in drawing, painting, or sketching, I do appreciate other people's artworks. And if there is anything I am good at, I think that would be documentation. I've always kept all my friends' artworks given to me in whatever form (no wonder i have such a messy bedroom!) . If any of these young artists turn into a National Artist someday, I would be proud to have one of their works in my bedroom ;-)

Going back to Ala's artwork, it got a bit crumpled from its travel. But the creases just made it more real. It was exciting to think that it traveled all the way from Australia to my bedroom. ;-P

I wanted to keep it flat so I could take its photo. Since it arrived like a rolled poster, I decided to adorn it with beads to hold the paper's (stubborn) edges. And this is how it looked :)

I changed my camera setting into sepia to see how it would look... Am I allowed to do this? altering the original color? :)

The creases I was referring to earlier are more obvious here.

Serene and calming. Trust me, this looks even much better in person.

If any of you are wondering what my answer was as to why I am beautiful, I'll let you wonder some more. ;)

Thank you Ala for appreciating that kind of beauty.

* * *

And this officially ends my "long overdue updates".

* * *

Present Time:
I NEED HELP FROM BLOG EXPERTS: How can I stop my Multiply account from publishing my Blogger posts? I don't want to post my blogs in Multiply (I just chose a few before but Multiply keeps on publishing everything including drafts) so I just keep on erasing them... there must be an easier way than deleting them one by one. Thank you so much in advance to whoever could help me with this dilemma!


Back to School Special
To my friends who I have not updated yet, I have decided to go back to teaching preschool children. Yes, I'm "Teacher Lala" once again as I write this post.

The world has become bigger for the past years. Several doors have been opening, one after another. They were not there before or perhaps they were and I just did not notice. Perhaps, the path is not as simple as I assume it to be. There are so many things to discover along the way and there are more uncertainties more than ever.

For now, I do have a few things that I am certain of.

I'm enjoying what I'm doing at present and happy to have all the persons I'm meeting along the way. And I love the fact that I wear these colorful shirts to class each morning saying:

"If you can read this, thank a teacher."

Easter Bunny Hunt

During the early part of holy week, Padawan, our 4 1/2 year-old pet rabbit, passed away.

I distinctly remember receiving the news.

Kuya Paolo was calling my cellphone but I couldn't answer it because I was inside the library for a final research. I texted him that I could not answer his call but he could text me instead.

He replied in this straightforward manner: "ok and by the way, padawan the rabbit died. I'm burying him now."

I bombarded him with questions until I let the news sink in. I felt really sad upon hearing the news but I thought that Pada lived a good life.

To those who have never met Padawan, he would have charmed you if you did. He charmed my entire family and a lot of guests in the house.

It was Ling who bought Pada (who did not have a name then) for a science paper in high school. Ling bought 12 supposedly female rabbits but the 11 eventually died. Unlike the others, Padawan escaped from her cage and never drank anything from the experiment. It was an experiment on caffeine and heart rates. Pada jumped off from the top of a big TV box by sniffing around its perimeters first and landing on all fours on the floor. From this, she earned the name "Padawan" from Starwars' jedis-in-training and lived by it. She was never caged again ever and freely hopped around our house.

Eventually, Ate Monica discovered and pointed out to us that Pada was... surprise, surprise!
...not a she but a he.

I called him adaptive and resilient because he survived so many misadventures in his life. I even created a blog and named it after him.

One of his literally BIG scares was having a face-to-face encounter with Ava, our old dalmatian. There was also a time when we all thought that Pada escaped from the house only to find out that he had a broken leg and got stuck behind our old sofa which we eventually changed. All of us thought that he was dying then because he didn't want to drink water or eat the leafy vegetables we held for him until Nikki and I gave him a banana and he began to sniff and eat it. After a few days, he no longer limped.

I remember my friends, Jill and Mayen, thinking that Pada was a dog the first time they saw him until he hopped in front of us. He did sort of look like a puppy from afar.

I remember my other dear friend Sarah who one time slept at our house and was surprised by Pada who woke her up from her sleep. Apparently, Pada sat on top of her tummy.

I remember my best friend, Cami, who met Pada when she visited from Canada. She was amazed to see Padawan in person and to see how real it is that we have a rabbit living amongst people.

I remember Franco being wary about finding a hyper little bunny inside the house for the first time. And being even more wary that Pada attempted to hump his legs. But when he called me that day Pada passed away, I told him the sad news right away and he spent time listening to me.

And then there were other more stories of other people and I hope to gather their stories in time if they just share them with me.

Our family's fondest memories of Pada were made out of habits. My dad would have breakfast with Pada under the table everyday and we would have family dinners with Pada staying under the dining table although we trained him to just eat on a particular spot in the kitchen. Believe it or not, he was even toilet-trained to urinate and defecate by the kitchen door leading outside. The power of reinforcements is amazing. Really.

I remember bringing Pada to the preschool where I worked a little more than two years ago because our topic was on rabbits. He survived my driving and that feeling of being placed in a "zoo" where people look at him with curiosity (but this time just little people). I never brought him out of the house again but I think that it was nice for him to be seen by eager little preschoolers and to hear the "oohs" and "aahs" of little children. And maybe by writing this post about him, the "oohs" and "aahs" will come from the readers who have never met Padawan and would never have thought that a little brown rabbit could do all that.

As I write this, my mom and younger sisters are out to buy a new bunny as planned. My dad was the one who suggested the idea. And I trust them that they'll get another good rabbit. My special request was for them to find a gray one this time. If not that, I just trust their judgment to find the right one. Oh, we're not expecting to find another Padawan in this process. Our next rabbit will have his or her own special stories to share. ;)

A special tip for those who may want to have a rabbit as pet or as a gift someday... Remember to always choose a colored rabbit over white ones with red eyes. White rabbits with red eyes are such because they are albinos and as compared to other rabbits, they have lower intelligence and a shorter life span. Just remember to get the colored rabbits -- gray, black, brown, or white with dark spots. If you forget this tip, my blog name will remind you of it.

Happy Easter, everyone.

written in the memory of
Padawan the Rabbit
October 2002 - April 2007