1.30.2005

puslan man

i was surfing the net last night and probably out of missing davao city too much i chanced upon this website, found THIS article and was magically transported back to davao city all of a sudden. although the article talked about the new bar/cafe conspiracy in quezon city, it mentioned of the only alternative art pub (that time) in davao city puslan man.

i remember spending one valentines night enjoying the performance of joey ayala in puslan man. man was he good! i was expecting him to do mostly ethnic and environmentally inspired songs which he is famous for, but he surprised us by singing acoustic love songs of james taylor and kenny rankin among others. i was with a couple of other nurses who had the same fate as me to be working on a 3-11 shift on valentines day (i know it sucks, but someone's gotta do the job!). there with me was jeslette, dichi, fonso, harold and saul. i didn't know how we ended up in puslan man, but i was glad we did, because that was the first and last time i was there. later on, i just heard that it had to close and it was a loss to people who loves art and music and basically a place thats different from the rest (because honestly, where could you find a pub that lists "nagtikangkang na baki" on their menu?) how cool is that?

the night went by, i realized it was almost 2 am and there were still a decent number of people left inside. joey ayala probably had the same realization in the middle of singing kenny rankin's "if i keep my heart out of sight", that after finishing the song he jokingly said "oy, hindi bawal ang umuwi ha!" we decided to call it a night after a few more minutes. while walking the whole stretch of ilustre and bolton streets in search of a taxi, i realized that the night may have involved a lot of red horse because saul(you should see this guy when he's wasted) kept crashing into sign boards of xerox copiers along the way.

anyway, those are the kind of things my davao memories are made of and i'm missing every minute of it.



1.26.2005

take five

five things you may not know about my time in school:

  • i never fully understood math in gradeschool.
  • i auditioned twice just to get in our school choir. the first time, i never got in so i went back in line and auditioned again until the teacher considered me for the soprano 2 group... he he he that's how frustrated a singer i am.
  • in high school, i came to school on a regular school day bringing only a ballpen, my money and a tiny tupperware containing my lunch which i placed in the pocket of my uniform.
  • i passed a lot of final exams in college because i am very well schooled in the procrastinator's school of cramming.
  • although i was a candidate to graduate with honors in college, i never applied for it, dahil tinamad akong mag submit ng mga requirements. what difference does it make anyway? it's the same kind of diploma we're getting...

five things you may not know about the job/s i have (or had):

  • the very first thing i bought with my very first pay check was a nice blue swatch watch.
  • i was able to see the inside of a morgue because of my job.
  • my very first attempt at CPR was quite a success. the patient was a post ex-lap due to a stab wound. although he got his heartbeat back, he was attached to the ventilator for days until his whole system finally gave up.
  • i have seen and felt up a real live penis because of my job.... he he he. it belonged to a 64 year old CVA patient which i had the privelege of inserting a urinary catheter to.
  • if not for my job i wouldn't be here in the land of uncle sam.

five things you may not know about my online life:

  • unlike other people who have a whole lot of email addresses, i only have two. one is my hotmail account and the other one my yahoo account which i use for messaging.
  • my younger sister was the one who taught me how to surf the internet.
  • the web browsers that i use are mozilla firefox because its the best and msn because of the msn premium that verizon throws in with their service.
  • i only had one online purchase from ebay, and it's for a christmas gift i gave to a friend.
  • i spend a lot more time on line than watching tv.

five things you may not know about where i live:

  • i live on the fifth floor of an apartment building which is actually the sixth if you count the lobby as the first floor.
  • prior to moving to where i live right now, i was coming home to a 2 bedroom house which is a block away from my present address.
  • all my life i only had 3 addresses including the one i am currently at now.
  • i live right beside the hospital where i work. that's not a good thing if you're fond of using the traffic as an excuse for tardiness.
  • on a good weather, my apartment is a mere 20 minutes by foot from the downtown area, the post office, the bank, the public library etc. i've learned that from the many walks we did during the summer months.

five things you may not know about my home life:

  • i'm currently sharing an apartment with two girls, joyce and cathy. but cathy would be moving out by the end of january so that would leave only two of us sharing a two bedroom unit.
  • i cook only when i'm in the mood. for me, the invention of the microwave is the best thing that has ever happened in history.
  • when i was in the philippines, i used to crash in my sister's room whenever i don't feel like being alone in my room.
  • i just might move into the smaller bedroom when cathy leaves.
  • i do my laundry every two weeks or when my schedule permits it or when i run out of scrubs to wear to work.
five things you may not know that i desperately want:

  • for winter to be over.
  • more time to read.
  • a new car.
  • a longer vacation.
  • a good nights sleep
five things you may not know about what i do in a typical day:

  • sleep the whole morning until noontime, because i don't get to that at night.
  • obsess about my upcoming vacation.
  • go out or go to the mall if i have time or if it's not too cold or if i'm not sleeping.
  • surf the net for hours.
  • do my laundry, cook if i'm in the mood, do some chores (which reminds me that i need to do the very prestigious task of cleaning the bathroom he he he... so i'm gonna end my post here.)

1.19.2005

crazy love stuff

i watched a dvd the other night after coming home from an extra 4 hour shift from the hospital. it was titled "it had to be you" and it stars michael vartan of alias fame and natasha henstridge. i was ready to dismiss it as another run of the mill trying hard to be romantic movie, until it hit me right smack dab into the core of my mushiness. it was a movie about finding "the one"-we had the right love at the wrong time-what crazy love feels like?-bakit ngayon ka lang? stuff all rolled into one. those kind of crap... good crap.

i liked this line from the movie:

"all my life i've been waiting for this thing called crazy love. i'm just willing to accept the fact that if i can't feel crazy then at least i want to feel happy."

just to mimic how people talk these days, let me say that this is so sadness. people wanting to settle for something less complicated because they're afraid to take the plunge. people settling for something they think they could be happy with because it's familiar, because it's there, because it's what they've been used to. i myself am guilty of this and i want it to end now. i'm going to risk being hurt again. i might be jaded from past relationships but it's not gonna make me wimp out on future ones anymore. naks!



i am a strong woman.
i can conquer the greatest fears.
i can handle the toughest moments.
i can ignore any pain.
that's why i want someone to make me feel weak
....the way you do.


1.13.2005

a lot of digressions

i survived the holidays!

the christmas parties are over and the ball has already dropped. it's time to move on to other things such as going back to our diets, doing more overtimes to make up for the overspending we did last christmas, and just basically returning to our daily routine.

first things first. thank you everyone for the gifts! i loved each one of them. but it looked like the pajama tops and bottoms are the runaway winner because i got 3 pairs of them courtesy of joyce, zoey and dennis.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

anyway, one thing that i haven't gotten around to doing lately is read. i miss reading something other than the patient's charts. i have a couple of books that i bought recently and i just couldn't find time to sit and enjoy them. i keep on bringing a david sedaris book to my work but we've been quite toxic lately that i couldn't even skim a page. i need to read a book, a newspaper, magazine, anything not related to my work. sawang-sawa na ako sa Lippincott manual, at sa mga drug handbook nabobobo na ako sa current events. humihina na ang vocabulary ko.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

let me digress a bit. last night i couldn't bring myself to sleep. it must be the 3 cups of coffee that i downed earlier that evening. i did everything i could just to make myself sleepy. i surfed the net, i re-organized my mp3's and i tried re-reading the first few chapters of the catcher in the rye. when all that did'nt helped, i popped in the dvd of the first season of sex and the city. it was almost 7 am when i finished all of the first season and i still don't feel like going to la la land. what is wrong with me these days? it seems that my own bed had suddenly lost it's appeal for me.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

just to digress some more... the other day i went out with a married man. but before everybody says huwaaaat??? it was just kuya eric, he he he. one of those who helps us get around because we don't have our own transpo. i was going to go downtown for some errands when he saw me by the apartment's lobby waiting for a cab to bring me to the bank. swerte naman he's also on an errand run, kaya i ended up going with him. on our way to the parking lot, we met another pinoy whose also a resident of the same apartment.

kuya ___(honestly i don't know his name): o saan kayo?
kuya eric: magde-date kami... wag kang maingay kay misis ha!
(---tawanan---)
me: o nag-paalam ka ba kay ate tess na lalabas tayo?
kuya eric: ipinagpaalam mo ba ako? dapat ikaw ang mag-paalam sa kanya...

hay naku! ang kulit talaga ni kuya eric. wala lang. i'm just thankful that there are people i've met here that are always willing to help. before i came here, i have been warned to be wary of pinoys in america as they could give you the best version of talangka mentality they could muster. you know, people wanting to pull other people down. im happy to say that i have yet to meet one of them and i hope against hope that there's none in this place where i live. everybody here seems to be genuinely concerned of other peoples welfare. i just hope it remains to be that way.