Jen and KX helped me build it.
I remember when I used to watch my grandfather build ours. I used to help out by washing the leaves, one pine needle at a time.
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
photo courtesy of Suratha
It's been the busiest past two weeks - from hosting my roommates for Harvard-Yale to cooking and cleaning for college students homeless for the holidays, not to mention the Christmas shopping that still has to be done. But it's been fun.
However, I don't want to be too busy to say this. To all of my friends and family, this past year and a half has been a really trying time for me (although no time is without trial) in ways I've never known to express. I thank you for being there for me, for forgiving me and for pushing me out of my rut.
Sara: That gets me off.
Sam: You're easy.
Sara: No. With you I am.
Who wouldn't be with Christian Bale?
OK movie. Good soundtrack. Lots of good-looking people. Promising plot. Disappointing ending. More and more movies have come to my attention with the same apparent deficiency. Maybe I'm the problem; I'm looking for something that isn't there. Closure? Perhaps when one is watching/reading a story one already has a bias on how things should turn out. With art, we're not merely waiting for things to unravel like we do with life; with art, we're expecting to be moved. To be jolted. Right now, my senses are only willing to resonate with awakenings that don't make you want to go back to the way things were, with stories of letting go and never looking back to fix what is broken. Tomorrow, I'll want the complete opposite. As Wilde pointed out, art is about the spectator. If I could rewrite the ending, I'll let Sam be with Sara, but that's probably only because I think I'm like her.
It baffles me that I can't write when I'm happier. On the phone all day, online when not - in constant contact with friends. I only want to write when I'm sad. I talk when I'm happy. Based on the minutes I've consumed on my phone (thousands), compared to how little I've blogged, it's pretty clear than I'm more happy than not.
Happiness: Ings, Ji and Yna. Blockmates and summer babies' quasi-surprise party. Sisters. Unlimited Nights & Weekends. Rollover minutes. YM emoticons. iPod. Oscar Wilde.
Sadness: the habit of reveling in sadness
Yes!! Done, done, done. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who phoned and wrote cards, posts, comments, e-mails and text messages. Thank you thank you thank you Suri for metaphorically holding my hand through the break times. Thank you thank you thank you Ji for celebrating the end with me! It feels kind of weird. Now I'm unsure what to do with myself. Even if I didn't let it take over my life this summer, studying for this test at least enforced some structure into my summer. Now, well, it's a whole lot of reading, watching TV and general house-bumminess for me.
Right after (well more like several phone calls after) I walked to the Strand and bought Harry Potter 6, The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde and Stendhal's Love. Ji and I had dinner at McDonald's and watched 40-year old virgin. (Watch it! It's wicked funny!) All in all, it was a perfect ending.
Jenny and her friends drove in yesterday from Chicago and we met up at the Met from where we walked to the Guggenheim. Shelby got us free tickets! I'm going to kidnap her (and her free tickets) several weekends from now and go museum crazy. We had dinner at the Hard Rock and wandered around Times Square a bit. I'm so tired (and broke) I just want to stay in for the rest of the summer, until Fort Lauderdale.
Off to breakfast and Harry Potter.
Sometimes, friendship is a decent conversation at the 47th St. McDonald's.
Ji is the pink one. We're just a couple of wide-eyed little dolls in the big city. We met up at the library (yes! it's my new favorite place) and walked to the McDonald's for a late lunch/early dinner. I'm going to miss all this time that I (despite MCAT prepping, seem to think I) have this summer for long talks.
I love you, Ji. It might just be that nothing will ever come easy, at least not the things that we want most. If only wanting were enough, since sufficient suffering comes with that. It turns out we actually have to do things. And, it turns out that sometimes, no matter what we do, we can't seem to find ourselves closer to what we want. So when you find yourself asking, what am I supposed to do now? Go to the nearest Blockbuster and rent out Galaxy Quest. Never give up, never surrender.
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Troy: There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a quarter-pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter becomes a cackle... and I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt.
Prado said this morning "We just keep on digging ourselves deeper holes here [in Manila], hoping that our planes will pull us out when it's time to leave." Planes won't do it. Over 8,000 miles away and mine still got deeper. But you know what works? Friends helping you up.
That's the big lesson from this summer's non-internship. I love you all! Thanks for everything.
residual high from my stay in manila has made me forget how much i hate new york in the summer. it was always too hot and the city offered no place for refuge or amusement due to the deluge of tourists. but now everything is foreign and familiar all at once: the neat rows of identical houses, the american cars, the clean streets, the welcome summer heat. i'm lovin just about everything right now.
my trip was uneventful. i couldn't meet up with my cousin because i missed the train to yokohama. after mailing her a care package i went straight to the hotel, bathed and crashed on the bed. i worried that i wouldn't be able to spend the night alone - not after all the goodbyes (said and unsaid), not after everything i've just left behind. but i have no more room for sadness. this summer is for happiness.
prado thanks for kidnapping me every tuesday and all the other bloomfield days. i know and you know my occasional resistance was a mere farce. we're crazy. that's us! chuck shame, dignity and self-respect at the door. embarassment is our middle name and scandal is the name of the game. yns good times and bad, i'm with you girl. i'll miss our random philosophical ramblings. i love you, i love myself, what's not to love when you're self-aware? so much for swearing off alcohol - but all in moderation. "beer is like gold" - i could only wish i had that kind of passion. david token white boy, thanks for letting me make fun of you all the time - as well as laughing every time! you were our ticket to just about everything, above all the band's circle itself. to you i've already said too much one hundred times over. lucky for me you're "amiable" ;-)
prashimodo, athens, jer i will see you east coasters very soon. don't be mad at me for not spending as much of the summer with you because i'm sure to be visiting you individually within the next few months. it's high time i drop my lazy you-come-to-me attitude. RI, PA, DC - watch out coz i'm coming to town!
nix, jells so many plans, so little done. oh well. i look forward to going crazy with you two come fall. we'll show mae and hee won how it's done in manila!
kresta mama-ba. my oldest friend. i love that we haven't changed - not in the ways that really matter at least. i love that we can talk with the same intimacy as if we'd never been apart. i love how you understand me so well. i love you. talk to you soon.
mike mike mike. since you hardly spent anytime with me this summer i have nothing to say to you. call me when you get in.
random summer moments - car rides - table reservations for alex dumas, sandra cisneros and isabel allende - bloomfields! - dancing - dancing with louie - singing with louie - talking to louie - wearing a louie shirt - redbox "i will survive", "dancing queen" - redbox lapdance from danny - 21st birthday serenade from bollywood live band - getting lost to punta - "never" lying to my parents - pool pics - falling into the pool! - marco polo - july 19 - loitering in eastwood - waiting by the parking lot exit - "i get lost.. in your eyes" - "for you i bleed myself dry" / "bakit ngayon ka lang" - sleepovers - hi ma'am, haiku - jay jay sando moment =) - white chicks "makin my way downtown..." (just a thought: how fast do you think vanessa carlton can walk if she expects she can get as far as a thousand miles by "tonight"?) - making fun of everyone - "why not?" - meeting the parents "tita!" - bday surprise for yna - david's wowowee face - david's dance - fighting - making up - friendster stalking
comment and add!
i'll post pictures up soon. love love love!
if i can't be a rockstar, i'll just follow one around. my summer in manila is drawing to a close which means my groupie days are nearly over. in the past 6 weeks we've come from sketchy stalkers waiting by the parking lot exit to (although still sketchy) talk all-night with with the band till they kick us out buddies. goodbye, louie.
Walked around Fort Santiago with Jelly and Nikki. After a while we couldn't stand the heat, so we went shopping at The Fort, Fort Bonifacio. Cooled down at Greenbelt. Got Wipe[d]out - Luis Fear, definitely not my drink of choice. Stay away from it, never have I ever tasted anything so nasty.
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Belated happy.
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Belated happy.
TUESDAY: DISH
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY: PUNTA FUEGO
FRIDAY NIGHT: Good Charlotte
I'm in love with my friends. I wish I can marry all of them. Prado, Yna, Dave - consider this an open marriage proposal. Let's be Mormons in Massachusetts!
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Currently an insomniac. Five days of fun, nine hours of sleep. I've been having some trouble lately. Sleep account: Tuesday night - 2 hours post excessive EtOH consumption; Wednesday night - Zero; Thursday night - 2 hours; Friday night - 5 hours (only after a 3-hour drive, train ride and a rock concert). What to do? What to do? I've tried watching really boring movies, even documentaries - but they always end up ultimately stealing my interest and distracting me from my goal. Hot milk? Can't. I'm lactose intolerant. Homework never failed to put me to sleep, especially when topped off with a tight deadline. I probably sleep more during the term than this summer.
Time to go again. Fantastic Four.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Good Charlotte
I'm in love with my friends. I wish I can marry all of them. Prado, Yna, Dave - consider this an open marriage proposal. Let's be Mormons in Massachusetts!
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Currently an insomniac. Five days of fun, nine hours of sleep. I've been having some trouble lately. Sleep account: Tuesday night - 2 hours post excessive EtOH consumption; Wednesday night - Zero; Thursday night - 2 hours; Friday night - 5 hours (only after a 3-hour drive, train ride and a rock concert). What to do? What to do? I've tried watching really boring movies, even documentaries - but they always end up ultimately stealing my interest and distracting me from my goal. Hot milk? Can't. I'm lactose intolerant. Homework never failed to put me to sleep, especially when topped off with a tight deadline. I probably sleep more during the term than this summer.
Time to go again. Fantastic Four.
doesn't this picture make it look as if our high school life was the story behind the O.C. Okay, fine, maybe Beverly Hills 90210. No? Saved by the Bell? Saturday Night Live (spoofing one of the aforementioned shows)?. This was taken on my 21st birthday which was the best birthday I've ever had! Second only to my McDonald's Cowboy Party at age 8 - just kidding, I never had one of those. Kudos to Danny @ http://danielgimenez.com for taking the best pictures! We miss you already!!
Today I made some progress. I finished a chapter in the morning and I plan to do three more before I sleep! I also managed to calculate how many episodes I can still (re)watch of the O.C., optimize my entire T.V. schedule and organize a regular vegging out with Prashina. I really am hopeless and it really isn't something one should be proud of.
On other news, country music is growing on me, if Ryan Adams can be called country. My Windows Media Player insists on classifying him as such but I suppose I'll have to ask Jenny to be sure. "Be my winding wheel/well the children laugh and sing/a song that ushers in her driving rain" What exactly does that mean? I have much to learn about the Midwest is for sure.
This week we (Nicole and I) are going to start going around high schools to talk to students about applying abroad. I'm somewhat torn about this project. I don't want to pull out the best minds from the country; or even suggest that US schools are better. But in the end, it's their choice what they do with their lives - we're not telling them what to do, we're just presenting them with options. I do think a fresh perspective is what is needed, and there's just too much clutter and noise in this country to achieve anything that will resemble solutions.
For now, more TV awaits. My favorite soap is on.