Saturday, March 26, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
ritual
I can't believe I've been with the same person for two whole years! :-)
Just like last year we celebrated it at Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay. After lunch, we lay around on the outdoor beds in the garden just talking about whatever came to mind...music, our families, the future.
As a present, I made him a romance novel patterned after those 15 peso, cheesy paperback romances they sell at 7 Eleven published under "Golden Romances". Nino likes to buy me those as a joke, and I admit that I do enjoy reading them. I love the campy story lines, the interesting use of Taglish, the cringe-worthy dialogue. Kabaduyan is an art form, and it's one that I appreciate.
Nevertheless, I wanted revenge. So I wrote a spoof of our relationship, complete with cheesy dialogue and story line, horrific Taglish, and kadiri cover, bound and packaged exactly like a "Golden Romances" novel. I've been writing it for two months and he was so shocked when I handed all 30 plus pages of it to him!
Nino on the other hand gave me his old Ateneo Rowing jersey, his old golf club, a golf glove, some golf balls, and an electric putting machine (yes, in case you didn't know, I've been dabbling in golf). Nino is the best gift-giver I know. He's never given me something new, shiny, and expensive, but his gifts are so heartfelt, creative, thoughful, and individualized that you can't help but feel like you're the most special person in the world. He has never failed to surprise and touch me.
Afterwards, we bought my favorite lumpia from "Little Big Store" and two bottles of my favorite milk tea, had dinner at my house, and watched Ali G. :-)
It was truly a special day, but it still would've been special even if we just lazed around on my sofa. I know some couples think the whole anniv thing is cheesy and I used to be one of those people but now I realize the importance of ritual.
You can argue that you can celebrate your relationship on any day, and you dont have to wait till your anniversary or Valentine's day, and I can't argue with that. But ritual is important and the whole point of a ritual is to for it to have some kind of regularity, so you can prepare yourself for it.
Rituals don't have to be big or "splendiferous" (is that a real word or did I get it from Dr. Seuss?). We all have our little rituals with each other: Calling your best friend once a week. Emailing your cousin every month. Texting your mother once a day. Coffee with an old friend once a week. Some rituals are sporradic and unpredictable, but they're still rituals nonetheless.
But whatever it is your ritual with another person is, it is the bare bones of any relationship. It's the very foundation of any commitment to another person. You wouldn't really be able to call a friendship a friendship if you don't make a decision to connect with each other regularly. You can't just rely on accidentally bumping into each other all the time. Once you decide to start a relationship with any person, then it becomes a commitment, and commitment needs ritual to back it up; whether it's with your significant other, your mother, or even your favorite hair-dresser.
The regularity of your rituals may stress the strength and seriousness of your commitment, but not always. Think about it, our most basic, most impersonal relationships are purely ritual-based, relationships with your bank teller, your math teacher, your mail man, or maybe even your DSL guy. You may see them regularly, sometimes everyday. Definitely, there is some form of commitment involved in your relationship with them. But trapped in the confines of pure ritual, it never grows into anything deeper.
Ritual is the basis of any relationship but the only way for the relationship to grow more substantial is to transcend ritual, to go beyond it ... but never to abandon it. If you give extra, outside the realm of ritual, then the relationship takes on a deeper dimension. You can't be there for your friend only during your once-a-week coffee dates. You gotta have some follow through, be present even when it's not time for the ritual.
When a relationship becomes a personal one, the time in between the rituals matters just as much, if not more. If the time in between is well spent, then it won't matter as much if you miss a ritual or two, like an anniversary or a holiday.
Luckily, owing to the fact that we both don't have steady jobs, Nin and I get the best of both worlds!the baby is now a lady (it's about time)
I was shot for the cover of a magazine called Statement the other day and I was so happy because:
1) I didn't have to wear Penshoppe clothes (I love Penshoppe clothes but it's nice to be shot wearing something more dressy sometimes)
2) For once, I didn't have to do the mouth-open Penshoppe smile ( a source of many jokes during Penshoppe shoots. I think all of us Club Pen members have mastered it hahaha!)
3) They didn't make me up to look 14 years old
4) I looked like a WOMAN!!!
They bronzed me from top to toe and covered me with gold dust. They made me wear a gold, 1-shouldered gown. For once I didn't have to look happy-happy, and teeny bopper and got to do the parted-lips, sleepy eyes thing. They even put these down-turned, Marilyn Monroe-esque fake lashes on me. It was all so old Hollywood glam. Aaaah, how wonderful to look sultry. How wonderful to show my legs. Yay!
I have never been photographed like that and I was so pleased with the shots. I was with Rafael Rossel and Alvin Alfonso and the issue comes out in April!happy birthday to me!
I'm turning 22 soon, friends! I know that girlbuds, family members, ninongs, ninangs, and bestfriends who all read my blog will be asking me what I want. And though I don't necessarily expect to get these things from the people mentioned above, it's nice to dream :-) Hahaha!
My Birthday Wishlist
A. books
1) the entire 5-book set of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galazy series by Douglas Adams.
2) Sandman comic books! I want to own the entire series. Right now I only have "Seasons of Mists" and "The Kindly Ones". I haven't read "A Game of You", "World's End", "The Wake"... and a bunch of em. Hahaha!
3) "The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night" by Mark Haddon
4) "Business Cards: The Art of Saying Hello" by Michael S. Dorrian and Liz Farrelly. It's an awesome graphic design book I've been wanting forever and ever, available at Powerbooks.
5) Other trippy graphic design books. I like artsy ones but I think those design and color theory ones will be very handy some day.
6) "Dilbert" comic books (I looove Dilbert!!!)
B. Vanity
1) An antique-looking, gold (or "gold-looking") locket. The oval ones that are kinda big with a nice, delicate, old-fashioned design on it. Kind of like Wanda's necklace in "A Fish Called Wanda", except maybe with a more feminine, art noveau theme. But any old-looking, large-ish locket will do.
2) A nice, good-quality, large-ish purse that will last me for the next 5 years, that will take me from the mall to fancy restaurants. Leather. Classic design with pockets and compartments, in ivory or tan (or whatever looks nice). I'm sick of my cheapo ukay-ukay bags that start looking like it came out of a dumpster after a month's use.
C. Geek stuff
1) A cooling pad for my Mac Powerbook (you can fry an egg on this thing when it starts heating up).
2) A chip for my Magic Sing
3) A USB Flash drive
4) a mini optical mouse
5) a mini web-cam (Mac compatible please!!!)
D. And other things
1) Jeff Buckley's "Grace" album
2) massage massage massage massage
3) Jack Nicholson or Johnny Depp DVDs
4) weights (5 lbs each)
5) a nice, simple little get together where we can all talk, and bond, and drink wine.
And if any of you bitter, old men or women out there dare to bombard my comment box with accusations of me being selfish by posting my birthday wishlist on MY blog, well I wasn't asking you anyway.
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at 8:52 PM 36 Comments!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
beautiful decay
Heat stroke is very bad for you.
I discovered it for the second time during my Penshoppe shoot in Corregidor yesterday. 5 hours of having the sun beating down on you does not do wonders for your skin. My skin was crying out in pain by the time I got home. I had a splitting headache and felt weak and hot all over. I didn't faint during the shoot thankfully but I was getting this terrible urge to close my eyes and black out. I didn't have a drop of water in my body left in my body by the time we wrapped up.
Okay so maybe it wasn't heat stroke. I'm just paranoid because I have had heat stroke happen to me, and it's not a nice feeling. I broke out in cold sweat, couldn't breathe, kept shaking, and had to make a dash for the loo for, er, stomach problems. After that episode, I'm extra, extra careful about being out in the sun.
Corregidor was looking really pretty though. I haven't been there in more than ten years and since then, they've done an excellent job of developing it and maintaining it. The place is so full of history. It's also said to be haunted, something I'd totally believe. World War II was fought there, man!
I remember playing by the big cannons many years ago, digging into the volcanic ash with my foot (Pinatubo had just errupted then) and finding and old missile. It was a little longer than my finger and covered with rust. I thought it was the coolest thing.
They've kept all the original ruined structures intact, bullet-riddled walls and all. Most of them look on the brink of collapse with only rusty strips of twisted metal holding the pieces of smashed cement wall together. All the outer walls were bombed away during the war, making the buildings look strangely indecent, like they had all their guts are hanging out, stairwells and rooms within rooms. But through time, the forest has taken over, sinking it's roots into the stone and making the building look a bit like ancient Cambodian temples (well, almost. It does not compare, of course). All this beautiful decay, set against a backdrop of manicured gardens: gorgeous.
I told Nino about my trip and he asked me again why I'm attracted to ruined structures. I don't really know the answer. Some people feel at home amidst the shiny, new, and high tech, in sky scrapers made of glass and marble. I feel strangely at home amidst the old, the abandoned, the shattered. I'm attracted to tragic beauty. I like old, broken things. I like things that tell a story. I like curvy, erratic lines better than smooth, sleek ones. I like art noveau. I like history. I like my grandmother's things.squawk squawk
I haven't been in a writing mood. Ho hum. So, I'll do this in bullet points:
* Congrats to Narda for the launch of their debut album Formica! Wheee! Yay to my girl, Katwo. And no, it was no problem hosting your launch. Kayo iyan, eh.
* Thanks to Mike and Rowie for taking me and Nino up to Caliraya last Sunday! My boyfriend is now a wannabe windsurfer just like me!
* To the 3rd year SHS students who read my blog, I hope you enjoyed my frivolous little speech at your Career Awareness Program last Friday. I was known to be a little strange in high school, always daydreaming and spaced out and thinking odd thoughts. With a track record like that, I'm not exactly used to being welcomed back into SHS as some sort of shining example for the youth. I always thought that would come at age 90 (but that wouldn't make me youth anymore).
* I love you, Ananda! :-) (You'll be able to read this in about 6 years).
* And I love you, pa! Have a safe trip tomorrow.
* Lolo, please come to Davao with us :-( I promise I will read to you there every night! And I will even bring more, weird, Scottish poetry.
*The end.
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Thursday, March 03, 2005
drimchetter
I watched John Myung give a bass guitar clinic in Makati yesterday. Mwehehe. Astig. Ganda ng hair. Buhaghag free.
Oh yeah, and ang galing din niya mag-bass.
I'm too sleepy to make kwento.
Bukas nalang.
Kidding aside: the guy is not human. He plays bass like a machine, super bilis, super precise. And no dirty tricks: hands down, the cleanest live bass playing I have ever heard. Virtuoso. Nakakabaliw. (Kaya lang hindi siya marunong mag-slap, hehehe.)
I'm still reeling from how I watched one of them Dreamtheater guys yesterday. I was kinda in front too. I mean... WOW!!!
Right?moving house
That's what I feel like right now. Like all my boxes of clothes and knickknacks are sprawled in the living room still unpacked, and that I'm still sleeping on a mattress on the floor.
I got a new Mac: a 15" Powerbook, loaded with 1 gig of ram and packed with all the applications I ever wanted.
I got it second hand so I'm still trying to get rid of the former owner's files to make it feel like it's mine. I'm still trying to get used to it.
Goodbye to Monica, my iBook who served me faithfully for almost 3 years.
Hello, Titania, my new Powerbook!
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