Overtime!

When I love what I'm doing, you can just pile the work in front of me and I'll happily do them. No complaints. ;)

Like now, for instance. It's a Sunday and here I am working, working, working. I'm happy doing this because 1) I want to finish everything ASAP 2) in connection to reason #1, there's something in store for me over the corner (yahoo!) And lastly, 3) As my friend, Mayen, told me last Wednesday, I am actually in the middle of my self-discovery at the moment.

We all have that moment when we're in our own element. So what's my element? Swimming in the sea of things I love to do and with people who are in full support swimming with me!

I've been reviewing my blog entries. I sometimes tend to make generalizations. Like I end up typing these lines before my thoughts... "as with most things..." or "if there's anything I am certain of"... etc. Those who know me well also know that this is not how I speak in person. I usually write my entries when I'm extremely sad or when I'm extremely happy or when I'm extremely bored. And during those days, I tend to make conclusions about certain things. Today, I'm writing because I'm just being true to my word when I said that I'll write whenever I feel like doing so. I woke up itching to write something. So here I am.

I watched Ocean's 13 with Franco last night. Amidst all the things that happened in the movie (semi-action scenes, gorgeous faces, and twists), one line struck me... "Once you get embarrassed of who you truly are, you lose yourself". I might just have tweaked that sentence because I'm basing this on memory (which we know is always reconstructed). Nonetheless, the gist is all there.

With that line in mind, let's start embracing ourselves! And I'm starting this by answering my friend's TAG. What's a TAG? It's a game that children play lot. When I was a kid, I used to play tag a lot too! But now that I'm older, I can't remember the last time I did. I don't even play the online tags that I get. But that's about to change because I was "tagged" last week by my friend, Debbie Ty. I promised to answer her TAG this week. It's about sharing your SEVEN QUIRKS.

Here are mine...

1) THE UNLEASHED BRATINELLA. I am naturally sweet and nice but when I get mad, I can get really mean. And it's the kind of "mean" that's only "mean" to the person I am "mean" to. This rarely comes out because it's kind of difficult to make me mad. ;) ...It was Mayen who clearly pointed out my bratinella side. For the record, I don't want to be "mean" in any way anymore. My lesson for the week: Love begets love and hate begets hate. :)

2) LET LOOSE TEACHER. I am the least OC preschool teacher I know of. When there's no particular need for straight lines, lines can curve in whatever direction. As long as the students are doing things that are still in line with the lesson goals, I let them be. For instance, orange people with purple hair are fine with me along with rainbow-colored horses. I usually ask my students for the real colors of these subjects and they know (black or brown hair, brown or fair-colored skin, black, brown, or white horses etc). Then I ask them what they used to color the drawings and they tell me the colors they used (purple hair, orange skin, multi-colored horses). When kids answer that way, it's not wrong. It's brilliant.

3) BUG-ME-NOT WRITER. I don't like people reading over my shoulder while I'm in the process of writing my thoughts. And my sister, Ling, is doing it right now.

4) HIDDEN BAG COLLECTOR. I collect bags in different shapes and sizes but I don't like changing my bags too often. I end up losing some things in the process. If you constantly see me for a long period of time, you'll find me using one kind of bag. In college, I had that striped yellow and blue tote. Recently, I usually have my staple black leather bag or my brown BIG bag with me.

5) JUNGLE GIRL. My room is still a jungle. Yes, after the paint job I did and after moving the structures around, it's back to it's messy self. My mom usually says that I am mentally organized but being physically organized is an entirely different story. I tell myself that my room is physically organized in my own world. Seriously, I will have to do something about it SOON because my Ate Monica is now back home reviewing for the boards and we're sharing the room again.

6) THE FAMILY BOOKSNAIL and MUSICAL NOTES SNAIL. Whenever I watch Disney's Beauty and the Beast, I get so excited over the castle's library! But did you know that as a kid, I was one of the slow readers. Uh-huh. I was left alone to read while on a vacation in Los Baños while my cousins and older sister could play games. I can't remember if I did learn reading that way but they threatened me that they won't give me my favorite kalihim from the bakery if I didn't read my storybook. I guess it somehow worked. I grew up with the Sweet Valley Kids/Twins, the Unicorns, Nancy Drew, Charlotte's Web, Hariet the Spy, Make Your Own Adventure, Fear Street, and Enid Blyton's stories! When it comes to musical notes, I use colors to read the notes (do-orange, re-red, mi-yellow, fa-pink, sol-blue, si-brown).

Meanwhile, my older sister, Ate Monica, is the crazy genius/speedy-gonzales of reading although she'd never admit it. She used to read books when kids her age still haven't and she could read all the musical notes really fast even without much practice. She was amazing in everything that had to do with reading! When we were kids, all I could teach her was "right" and "left" because that's what I knew best! Now, Ate Monica has a whole array of medical knowledge, which I only partly understand because of House MD, Grey's Anatomy, and Scrubs. Hmm, the only thing I could teach her right now is fire dancing!

Note: I don't usually compare and I don't encourage comparisons between or among siblings. I'm just making fun of ourselves here!

7) AMBIDEXTROUS OBSERVER. As a kid, I wrote on the blackboard using my left hand and wrote on my notebook using my right. I remember saying this observation aloud to nobody in particular and wondering how and why I did that. Years later, I took Psychology. People in psychology are curious people who want answers to their own questions but in the end, we only find more questions. ;) In terms of being ambidextrous, I now write only with my right hand. My left usually does the hand gestures as I speak.

We all have different quirks and I'm sure I still have a lot aside from the ones above. These are just some of the things that popped in my head while I was writing. It's now obvious what makes me preoccupied these days. ;) Back to my overtime!

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY, EVERYONE!

I'm tagging these people:
DORAY
JASMINE
NIKKI