new york, films and weddings

i have a lot of things going on in my mind right now. oh yes i do! you'd think that in between my job and the bore that is my life here in suburbia, i wouldn't have time to think about things... you're in for a big surprise.

i actually think about things a lot. before going to bed, while taking a shower, during a caloric burning session on the treadmill... i think about things a lot it's not even funny.

on a totally unrelated matter, have you guys ever tried sitting through my bestfriend's wedding and when harry met sally back to back? i tell you, it is not for the faint of heart. if your hydration status is not something you'd be proud of, do not... i repeat, do not attempt this feat because dehydration usually follows after crying your eyes out like a chinese mourner. but of course, i exaggerate.

i watched those two films just recently for the bazillionth time and it never fails to put me in a bleak mood. through the years of watching these films, i found that i've been rooting for julia roberts' character all the more and that i've envied sally albright (meg ryan's character) for the longest time for finding harry burns.

anyways, i've been in the city again a few days ago and i realized that going to new york somehow recharges my suburban batteries. as usual in typical new york fashion, we did a lot of walking again and guess who decided to grace us with her presence on the sidewalk while we were on our way to central park?

me and joyce posing with american idol fantasia barrino

despite the proximity of jersey to the big apple, we still consider ourselves tourists in new york and did what else but take pictures!

joyce and i walked a whole length of central park just to get to strawberry fields and see the famous imagine mosaic.



this baby's mom had a hard time taking the picture because the baby wouldn't look at her camera and was instead looking on our direction. in the end she had to ask somebody to take both their picture on the same spot i was sitting on.

this is what "the mall" looks like post summer pre autumn time. this is where they shot maid in manhattan and joyce and i were wondering which of those benches jlo sat on during the shoot.

the pond

this is bethesda fountain where we stopped for some ice cream just in time for an impromptu set from these indie artists who played classical jazz. they were really good and sounded like a soundtrack of our own manhattan movie. i swear, it really felt like a scene out of a feel good movie, except that our feet were killing us.



after the leisurely walk in central park, we hurried back to times square to catch the 7pm show of the wedding singer. yes the movie is now in broadway and it is 10 times more fun seeing it on the stage. the music is fun and upbeat and the cast was not a letdown. they did quite a bit of change on the end part though but it wasn't bad. instead of the real billy idol on the plane, they had a group of impersonators (channeling billy idol, mr. t, tina turner, cindy lauper and imelda marcos!) witness julia and robbie's vegas wedding. i really enjoyed it. it's one of those broadway plays that i wouldn't mind seeing over and over again.

here's something i found on youtube. nope i'm not the one singing but i wish i was that good.

Grow Old With You

I wanna make you smile whenever you're sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
All I wanna do is grow old with you.
I'll get your medicine when your tummy aches.
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growin old with you.
I'll miss you, kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold.
Need you, feed you, and even let you hold the remote control.
So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed when you've had too much to drink.
Oh I could be the man who grows old with you.

ROBBIE & JULIA
I'll miss you, kiss you, take your shoes off and rub your feet.
Need you, feed you, and when we play checkers i'll let you cheat.
So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed when you've had too much to drink.
Oh I could be the one who grows old with you.
I wanna grow old with you.

happy...happy... joy... joy!

summer is almost over and things are finally looking up. in fact things are finally looking better on the home front. no more of that inconsequential crap that kid's stuff are made of.

moving on to other things. how is it that that a lot more plans are being made for fun things now that fall is on it's way? like the concert in mohegan sun that joyce, gina, me and a couple of morristown girls are scheduled to go to. i'm sure it's gonna be a blast, add to that the plans of a broadway show in new york or maybe the us open. it's all gonna be good.

speaking of the us open, joyce and i enjoyed watching a really exciting game early this afternoon, courtesy of rafael nadal and luis horna and as i am wont to do, i rooted for the underdog horna even if i knew nadal had the game in the bag. needless to say nadal won in the fourth set but not without a fight from horna who had the spectators do a standing ovation on one of the awesome rallies of the game. now if only i could find time to watch roger federer and james blake do their thing on the court, i would die a happy woman... he he he.

now let me talk to you about movies because i haven't seen any good movies lately. that's right, i've never been inside a cinema for the last three months. lately i've become the stingy lady who would haul quite a number of dvds from the public library's collection because it doesn't cost a thing (just a few cents worth of gas). but i came upon a trailer of the movie stranger than fiction and boy oh boy! did it look promising. it has a very strong all star cast that includes will ferell, emma thompson, dustin hoffman and maggie gyllenhaal among others. i'm just curious because i know chuck palahniuk (author of fight club, invisible monsters) wrote a non fiction book of the same title and i'm not sure if there would be any problems regarding intellectual property rights and stuff.

anyway, here's a preview of the movie:



it's gonna be released in november, so that is something i'm gonna be looking forward to this fall.

from a blogger with love

if stupid anonymous "commenters" (if there is such a word) think that their stupid one liners would get the better of me, they have to think again.

what can i say, other than it so typical of "you" guys to be resorting to that. was that the lowest you can get? or should i be expecting more of those pathetic acts.

three words: get a life!


ps.... the "wahihihikhik" gave it away dumbasses.

just like that and it's over

it's been three days since my flight back to new jersey, i have attended two parties, worked one 12 hour shift at the hospital and i still can't get my mind off the fun i had in massachusetts. we did a lot of fun stuff that i don't even know where to begin.

do i begin with the night we walked "the adorable" max at the park by the charles river?

or the day we spent inside the harvard university campus to take pictures...

and more pictures

loads of them

on the same freakin steps!

until we got tired of it?

or do i tell you of the supposedly one night only camping trip that turned to two nights just because we were suckers for body aches and pains? too bad i don't have the pictures yet of the 9 mile kayak trip that would now make me think twice about thinking that kayaking is an easy sport.

yep, the camping trip turned out to be fun.

it was so much fun that it turned out to be a photo shoot of sorts.

and as they say...it's all fun and games until someone from the neighboring cabin yells out "hey guys! would you mind keeping it down?" which totally shut us up and sent us sleeping early inside our tent.


but i guess i am digressing from the main thing that we came to massachusetts for. i should be telling you about the whitewater rafting that we did for the first time (at least for dichi, dennis and i). i should tell you about how we impressed people at how sync we are with our paddling. i should tell you about how our guide (jack) felt so lucky for having such a wonderful crew to paddle with. i just felt sorry for the old man for getting stuck with a bunch of hard headed, adrenalin powered crew who wouldn't ease down on the paddling on his orders. you should've heard senen ask: "jack, can we go there?"..."jack, can we surf that rock?"... "jack, is this the gap?" several times like a kid with ADHD who hasn't had his dose of ritalin for the day...he he he (ing-ana siya kakulit!)

the pictures tell it all. i never regreted having called in "sick" just to go on this vacation. it was one of those things that you just had to do no matter what the odds are. just like going through "the gap" and finishing the 9 mile kayak route by yourself (even if the idea of giving up in the middle of the river was too damn tempting), you just had to plunge in it head on... conquering your fears and pushing yourself to the limits in the process.

in the end, amidst achy limbs and backs...despite the sleepless nights...after the rush to the airport to catch flights...the five of us reluctantly go back to work. waaah! i'm already missing you guys! thank you for the good times. until the next trip!


for more pictures please go to my multiply.


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

to senen: you were a wonderful host. thank you for letting us raid your room and for making us smoothies for breakfast. i will always remember you everytime i see "silky-silky" bedsheets and duvets.

a happy camper i will be

yep, you heard it right. i am gonna go ahead and give myself a break before summer ends. never mind that i still haven't found somebody willing to work for me on my "saturday on" at the hospital, or that i am running out of PTOs (paid time offs)... i am going to boston to indulge in some outdoor activities that i am so badly missing. and to prove to you that i am most determined to go on a vacation, let me tell you that i have already booked my tickets, ergo my credit card has been charged, meaning there is no turning back now.

so any suggestions on a good excuse for calling out sick? i will definitely need one.

if mt. mayon can spew out lava, why can't i?

if there is one thing people should learn when they're trying to mess with me is to not do it when:

number 1: you are not my favorite person at the moment.
number 2: i am trying my best not to say something bad about you out of my really, really straightforward mouth.
number 3: you are hitching a ride and your precious life is at the mercy of my driving skills.

good thing i love cuervo so much that i would rather see "pseudofriends" unscathed than give him multiple dents on his macho body.

it used to be that "makulit" is a cute thing to be. well it has lost it's novelty for me. word of advice: do not mess with me when you're not ready for the consequences because the bitch in me might just be a little too keen to resurface.

operation: reminisce

TOP TEN SIGNS A SURGERY IS TAKING WAY TOO LONG

10. you start making crank calls from the phone in the operating room.

9. you figure out how to reprogram the new ekg monitor and set a new world record score for pong.

8. using discarded glove wrappers and saline bottles, you have created a mixed media replica of the eiffel tower.

7. you page a medical student intern to the OR STAT and tell her you need her to get a hamburger and fries for each member of the surgical team.

6. you vow that you will smash the cd player with a traction weight if you have to listen to the surgeon's favorite cd one more time.

5. you have a paper airplane war with anesthesia, using parts of the old chart.

4. suddenly, anesthesia's jokes are actually funny.

3. you turn the thermostat up to 80 degrees just to see if it will get the surgeon to operate any faster.

2. you invent a new game called "specimen, specimen, who's got the specimen?"

1. you come up with a humor list called "Top Ten Signs That This Surgery is Taking Too Long..."

Lynn Milam

god, i miss the OR!

• i miss my post board volunteer days with 6 strangers that i eventually ended up to be good friends up until now.

• i miss those times we (the girls) fought over who gets to scrub in on dr. angala's cases, just because dr. angala is so good looking behind those green consultant's mask.

• i miss the smell of burnt flesh everytime the surgeon is cauterizing bleeders and tissues.
  

• i miss seeing internal body parts, the peristaltic movements of the stomach and the intestines, the beating of a heart inside a rib cage, mangled omentums, amputated limbs, broken bones being put together again, kidneys, spleens, uterus, name it. now i am officially a gross person.

• i miss playing the game "i've got the better cautery machine than the bitchy nurse!" because i work in a government hospital, we have to make do with hospital equipment that suck and most of the time nurses try to compete on who gets to have first dibs on the better working equipment, but it's fun anyway.

• i miss the hemostats, the allises, the babcocks, mixters, scalpels, army navys, deavers, richardsons, rib spreaders, heanys, bulldogs, metz and mayo, t and ts, periosteal elevators, burrs and a partridge in a pear tree.
  

• i miss those days when we would request for anesthesia not to schedule a case every 5 o'clock or was it 5:30 pm because we wanted to catch meteor garden on tv. dao ming su!!!!

• i miss bossing the anesthesiologists to get their sleepy butts up because a stat gsw is being wheeled in.

• i miss counting the sponges, instruments and needles.

• i miss folding those damn operating sponges during downtimes.

• i miss the effects of inhaling too much nitrous...ha ha ha adik!

• i miss setting up my cd player before scrubbing in for a really long case.

• i miss the feeling at the end of a case where the surgeon is suturing up and i'm thinking "i can finally have lunch at 3 pm."

• i miss working with our surgeons back then.

in short.....i miss being in my element.

off to the movies

i was on some sort of a mini international film festival in front of the tv these past week. i went inside the blockbuster which was just within walking distance from my gym and grabbed me some foreign dvds. what i love about these foreign films is that it really grabs your attention. when you decide to watch it, you have to give it your undivided attention. meaning, no clipping of the toe nails or sorting the laundry should be done while the movie is on otherwise you wouldn't get to read the subtitles.

the first movie i watched was sex and lucia (lucia y el sexo) and oh my freakin god! paz vega was hot! hot! hot! it was a movie about a waitress (lucia) who got involved with a writer (lorenzo) who had a one night stand with a woman (belen) in an island on his birthday which resulted to a cute girl named luna (hingal!). of course there are more characters and most of them are connected to each other in some weird way and the hard part of watching this movie was not knowing if what's happening is part of lorenzo's novel or in fact a reality but that's what makes this film appealing.

now let's go korean with the film il mare. everybody knows that this is the film where they based the just released movie the lake house which stars sandra bullock and keanu reeves. i haven't really seen the lake house yet and i'm not sure if it still on the theaters as i type, but i sure hope to god that they didn't ruin the movie. i loved the fact that ji-hyun jun was not her usual my sassy girl self, it was so refreshing to see her in a sensitive non-astig role. speaking of my sassy girl, let me just post the "ten rules" which was my favorite part of the movie.

The 10 Rules:

1. Don't ask her to be feminine

2. Don't let her drink over three glasses

3. Drink coffee instead of Coke/Juice

4. If she hits you, act like it hurts. If it hurts, act like it doesn't

5. On your 100th day together, give her a rose during her class

6. Make sure you learn fencing and squash

7. Be prepared to go to prison sometimes

8. If she says she'll kill you, don't take it lightly

9. If her feet hurt, exchange shoes with her

10. She likes to write. Encourage her

the last movie that i watched in between tending to my laundry and tidying up my room was ang lee's eat drink man woman. now this is one movie that you don't wanna watch when you're hungry, because it will just make you grab the hunan wok menu by the fridge and start ordering chinese food. i tell you, if you wanna torture someone who is on a strict diet, let her watch this movie. (not that i wanna torture you joyce... he he he... i just wanna share a really good foreign movie with you.) enough of the food, this film is all about a father, his 3 daughters and the bond that goes on between them. it is touching in a sense that the father (who's failing taste buds were paralleled with his loss for the zest for life) was communicating his love to his daughters through food. it made me cry (oh yes it did!) because it kinda reminded me of my own father whose pancit lomi and caldereta recipes i'm missing right now. damn those millions of miles that separates the US and pinas!

anyway here's what ang lee has to say about his film:

"Everything is much different in Eat Drink Man Woman than the other films I've made. It has a bigger cast and a lot more complex story line... I started thinking about families and how they communicate. Sometimes the things children need to hear most are often the things that parents find hardest to say, and vice versa. When that happens, we resort to ritual. For the Chu family, the ritual is the Sunday dinner... At each dinner the family comes together and then something happens that pushes them farther apart."

here's hoping that he makes more movies, especially after his infamous and well acclaimed brokeback mountain.