Yesterday night was Kaingin’s acquaintance party entitled “Kaingin Goes Retro”. Kaingin is an socially-aware organization in the Ateneo where we tutor public school kids. *sigh* Public schools here are downright pitiful. There’s a serious lack of classrooms, books, chairs, everything else. Classes are held beside the canteen just to accomodate them all the students. The books are so outdated and even the grade four kids don’t know how to multiply, let alone divide. The public school buildings are so dilapidated and the environment is really not conducive for learning.

Anyway, the acquaintance party was held at BF Homes clubhouse. Obviously, the theme is retro. The place was decorated nicely, and all the people were in 70s outfits. Although hunbun’s hawaiian shirt didn’t fit in with the party. *lol* The committee heading the event really prepared. Except for the catering service and food which was inedible. The games were really original but were too rambunctious for my taste. I prefer nice parlor games. Hunbun won a lot of prizes for games which were too weird for me. Okey, so I didn’t have that much fun. But I did enjoy the conversations I had with my friends. I love catching up on their lives. And I did enjoy the disco dancing.

Neal, Dianne, hunbun, and I left the party at about 10:30pm. We headed straight to McDonalds to eat because the food was really horrible. I ordered a BBQ burger meal. *yummy* During the car ride to Dianne’s apartment and Neal’s house, we gossiped a lot and gossiped some more. *haha*

Hm… I was on YM the other night with one of my close friends. I even considered her my best friend. We were inseparable during high school. But now we go to different colleges so we we’re not that close anymore. I’m feeling sad and really lonely because she has a new best friend now. I’m glad though that she’s well-adjusted in her new school but I can’t help feeling like I’ve lost a very special part of my life. *sigh* I miss the special sisterly bond we had.

Yesterday, hunbun and I had lunch at Eyrie. It’s a yummy and affordable restaurant along Katipunan that is wildly famous for its baby back ribs. Afterwards, I left most of my notebooks in hunbun’s car because most of my classes were finished. When we got back to the car 6 hours later, there was so much heat trapped inside. And the plastic covering on my notebooks melted and shrinked. My guess is that it shrinked because of the extreme heat. *sigh* I painstakingly covered my notebooks one by one. It’s kind of a small thing but those things matter a lot to me. I’m an OC person.

We were feeling realy rich that day and we had dinner at UCC. Hunbun ordered his usual Hamburg curry and I tried their house specialty garlic seafood pasta. Both our entrees were delicious! I love fine dining. Of course, we couldn’t leave without our favorite dessert: Pane Alla Cioccolata. The whole dinner cost us about Php900.00, roughly a week’s allowance. *hehe*

Hunbun and I had a few hours to kill before our meeting at 5pm this afternoon. We decided to go to any coffee shop along Katipunan to study. We’re kind of bored with the library since you need to keep silent at all times. We tried our luck with Seattle’s first but there were no available seats. Luckily, Starbucks had some free seats! Yey! It was actually my first time to study in a cafe. *lol* I found that although they provided study tables and a conducive atmosphere, I wasn’t that productive there. Probably because there were a lot of people and they were really noisy. Next time, I’d prefer to study at the library. I accomplish so much more there.

We attended Celadon’s CFA Departmental Gathering afterwards. Only a few members showed up. That kind of made the whole event not so successful. Afterall, the point of the event itself was to welcome the new members into the department. *sigh* We as managers even prepared games and presentations. And so much food was wasted! Anyway, the meeting ended at about 7pm. Hunbun and I were getting ready to go to his car when the rain suddenly poured, really really hard. We waited a little while for the rain to weaken. And it did, so hunbun got out his umbrella and handed me a towel to put over my head. He so sweetie. I’m very susceptible to sickness especially the flu. We toughed it out and trecked through the muddy field. It was okay at first but the rain kept pouring harder and harder. The umbrella was no match for it. It turned inside out and became a rain catcher instead! At that point, we were drenched from head to toe and our shoes were covered with mud. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, hunbun and I started laughing so hard because of our weird plight. To top it off, I was wearing my platform sandals. Yikes! At least I was not wearing my new white Nike sneakers. I think this is the closest I’ll ever get to dancing in the rain. *lol*

Look at what I discovered. It’s Pinky the Talking Toonie. She’s a little teddy bear that you can attach to your cellphones. She’s configured in such a way that she’ll move in rhythm with the voice of the person on the other line. So it seems like you’re talking to a little teddy bear. Oh my cuteness! I want one! You can even view her in action. I just can’t resist these things.

I had so much fun on our barkada bonding yesterday. Vassy’s mom dropped her off at my house about 2:30. We caught up on each other’s lives, actually her lovelife, while I was busy getting ready. She has a former chatmate, now textmate who is also her ka-MU. They’ve never met but were already “in like”. You know the stage where you’re more than friends but not yet lovers. *lol* I know what she’s going through since hunbun and I met through IRC. Yep, the internet is a wonderful but very risky way of meeting potential partners. Afterwards, we decided to reserve seats online for Along Came Polly. It’s our first time to use Ayala SureSeats. It’s very convenient! No more lining up for movie tickets.

We finally arrived at Greenbelt 3 about 4pm. Bea and Bon were already waiting for us at Starbucks. We immediately started the first half of our girl talk which lasted for more than a hour. We gossiped about the usual stuff who’s dating who, what’s the latest happenings, college news, etc etc. After finishing all our frappuccinos, we stolled around the mall and picked up our movie tickets. Then, we decided to take a picture. Of course, the nearest decent photo booth was at Glorietta 4. We actually walked all the way there with me unwillingly trudging along. *lol* I’m not a girl for long walks. And here’s our cute picture.

From left to right: Vassy, Bea, Gretch (me), Bon

We rushed all the way back to Greenbelt 3 to catch our 5:30 movie. I stopped over at Muscle Beach to buy a bucket of my favorite barbeque popcorn with extra powder and bottled water. Watching a movie is so incomplete without barbeque popcorn. *hehe* We arrived at the cinema just a few minutes late. Yey! Oh, the movie was good, great even! It was funny, serious, romantic just at the right moments. We all walked out with a happy glow, partially courtesy of the happy ending. Ben Stiller was hilarious. And Rodolfo, the blind ferret, was so adorably irresistable! I loved Jennifer Aniston’s white bikini. I just don’t understand why Lisa could fall in lust with that nudist scuba driving instructor. *lol* At least his hippo story was amusing.

We strolled around the mall again to look for a yummy place to eat. Since Bea is our resident expert, she picked Bubba Gump. I’ve never eaten there. It’s an American restaurant inspired by Tom’s Hank movie Forest Gump. Almost everything they serve there has shrimps and mashed potatoes. They have a creative way of calling the waiter’s attention. On every table there’s two license plates on a wooden stand, one saying “Run Forest Run”, the other “Stop Forest Stop”. Obviously if you want to call a waiter’s attention you flip the “Stop Forest Stop” sign. *lol* But this method is kind of a hassle to the customers. We ordered two dishes and just shared them since we’re not big eaters. Besides, one dish costs Php400.00. We then started the second half of our girl talk. Bon told us that she is a prefect at her new school in Hong Kong. Wow! They even had head girl and head boy just like Harry Potter. I want to be one too. She also told us about the new trend there: cutting your wrists when you have problems. Yikes! I couldn’t do that to myself. I love me too much for that! All of us also wondered where Liz is since we haven’t heard much from her since high school. *awww* I miss her!

It was already past 9 so Vassy and I said goodbye to Bon and Bea because both their families were in Glorietta. Before that, we asked two people to take a picture of us using my digicam. Both the married man and the security guard did not know to use it properly. *tsk tsk* Anyway, during our car ride home, Vassy and I were so sleepy. Probably because the rain was lulling us to sleep and that we had a fun but tiring day. I really really enjoyed our girl’s day out.

Here’s my first try making a 32 x 32 button. I used Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Imageready CS. *sigh* I’m just not good at these pixelling stuff. Anybody want to make me one?

I went to see my guidance counselor yesterday. In high school, our guidance counselor were impersonal. Actually, I’ve only seen her once. She scheduled an appointment with all the senior students to help us choose a career path or what course to take in college. She told me that all my test scores, I think psychology and IQ tests, were above average and that I can do whatever I want. It was really flattering to hear that I can be whatever I want to be. Who doesn’t like to hear that, right? But now thinking back, that advice is really unhelpful. I’m at a point in my college life that I’m at a crossroad. I don’t know if I should pursue my Computer Science degree or shift to another course. That’s why I sought my guidance counselor. He was actually very accomodating, very friendly, and had that “big brother” aura. We talked about 2 hours non-stop. I didn’t know I could be so talkative. I certainly have a lot of things on my mind. He confirmed that I had no problems with academics or grades but I’m not sure of what I want. All I know now is that I don’t feel happy with what I’m studying. But that unhappiness is very vague and general. Having “bad” teachers may be a cause of that problem. He also told me that I’m a “visual leaner” through some psychological tests we took last year. That means I can grasp concrete objects more than learn through abstract methods. Algorithm analysis is very abstract and very boring. I think that’s why I find it a bit challenging to visualize. His advice is that I go to the Career Exploration Workshop. The facilitators would be able to help me match my skills, maximize my potentials, and basically find the right course for me. I really felt better after that session. Just being able to talk to someone helps a lot. And thanks to my hunbun for urging me to schedule an appointment with the guidance counselor. *hehe* I’ve been unloading all my thoughts to him lately.

I’ve been really busy this afternoon making my neice’s 4th birthday party invitation. She’s going to have an under the sea theme. Lucky girl! I’ve been harnessing all my creative prowess to make her a cute mermaid and bubbles invitation. I’ve finished 3-4 different layouts and I’ll probably make more for her parents to choose from. Yeah, I did use pictures of Ariel (The Little Mermaid). Kids nowadays are so blessed. I never had such a big birthday bash. But I’ll make sure my future kids have one. *hehe*

Guess what? Vas, Bon, Bea, and I are finally going to have our girl’s day out tomorrow. It’s such a shame Liz is in Bohol. We’re missing one kabarkada. But none-the-less, I’m excited!