Guess Who's Back?

Livi's back!! Yehey....wordpress has been giving me headaches so I'll be hanging out here for a while...It's good to be home

Major Changes

So many changes have been happening. One major change is in my blog, you can now find me at http://www.ruyandliv.wordpress.com

STDs

Ruy and I have started giving out our STDs (that's save the date). We've decided to give them only to our principal sponsors, family and bosses. Then the extras to friends. =) Here are some pics.

Quarter Pounder

I just finished eating my lunch of one piece of Ritz Cheese Sandwich Cracker. I can't eat anymore. Aaaaaargh. Anyway a friend of mine just read my blog and she said.

"oh my goodness Olivia you lost 18 pounds? That's like 72 quarter pounders."

Hahaha. I love my friends for letting me see things in a new perspective.

Roller Coaster Ride over the Weekend

I've been an emotional wreck for the past week or so. You all know that I've been getting treatment for my hormonal problems right? Well I've been taking one drug for the past month and it was very mild. Around 2 weeks ago my doctor gaveme another drug which was very potent. It left me feeling very weak and depressed. Seriously, I just feel sad without any reason.

Ruy has been more than wonderful about it. I was amazed. I'm really trying to control my mood swings but the doctor said this is to be expected as my hormones are going crazy. Due to this hormonal fluctuation I cannot eat properly. Yesterday my meal for the whole day consisted of 3 spoons full of garlic rice and one Ritz biscuit (with cheese filling). Yup, that was my meal for the day.

Add the fact that I had fever from Wednesday to Friday...I was a WRECK! Last Friday, I was tossing and turning in bed. I was feeling so hungry yet I couldn't eat. I was feeling so tired yet I couldn't sleep (one of the side effects of the drug was insomnia). When my mother saw me last Sunday she got a bit worried. She said I looked so tired and haggard.

The upside? I lost 18 pounds!! Yup you heard it right 18. I couldn't it believe it myself. I've been trying to figure out where the 18pounds came from because I couldn't see any difference in the way my pants fit. My mom said my stomach is a lot smaller (whenver I would gain weight my stomach is the last to grow and when I lose weight it's the first to go), I also noticed that my shirts are less tight around the arm.

I've had a long and "exciting" weekend. Which I'll be telling you about tomorrow. I forgot to transfer the pictures into my laptop and I'd rather show you pictures. Until tomorrow!

16 and 20

16 days until my birthday, and 20 until Ruy's. We're not going to be doing anything special, although I did demand that he pick me up on my birthday as I want to have dinner with him. I don't care where, it could be in my house or in Goodah or in Mang Jimmy's for all I care. I just want to be with him.

Funny how birthdays have become just like an ordinary day when you're an adult. My past birthdays (except for last year's) has been disastrous. I've always been depressed and miserable. Last year was a bit different, after the discovery weekend Ruy and I were doing much better than ever. I also finished my therapy AND I was working in a company where I loved my work and I loved my boss and I loved all the people I was working with (I'm still working in the same company). A week before my birthday, I told Ruy it's amazing how I wasn't feeling depressed at all.

During my actual birthday, Ruy was in the province and so I was more than ready to just crash at home. I know something was up in the office though as my friends were acting strange. Mike de Villa would walk pass me without even smiling. Aaron and Dorothy were speaking in hushed whispers. I knew they were planning something.

I was speaking with Ruy over the mobile phone and walking towards the pantry. When I opened the door there was a loud scream from Christene. It wasn't a "SURPRISE" it was a "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH"....apparently instead of me being surprised, I surprised them. Wahaha

It was the best surprise party ever with the most eclectic menu. Imagine this: Tequilla, Bibingka, Chocolate Mouse and Crispy Pata....hahahah

2, 890,800

2,890,800 minutes
2,890,800 moments so dear
2,890,800 minutes
how do you measure the life of a woman or a man

YUP!!! Ruy and I have been together for 2,890,800 minutes (and a bit more, I didn't want to compute for the 2 extra days) \. It's amazing when you look at it that way isn't it? 2 million minutes as a couple. Looking at it that way puts things in perspective.

How can you cheat on someone who invested that much time on you? How can you waste all those minutes? How can you risk losing all of those memories? How can you risk not having 2,890,800 minutes more with this person?

We're not in Kansas Anymore...

Nor am I in the Philippines. I'm in SIBERIA. Yup this is what we call our office space right now. It's freezing, literally! You would see people here clad in jackets and scarves and it's not because we think it's fashionable.

Let me give you a clue on my general situation for today. I am currently wearing a wool scarf, and a jacket with the hood up. I'm also drinking hot water of the mug which Ruy gave me. That's how cold I am right now. I'm also working in the Pantry as it's the warmest place inside our office.

To a woman with slight fever, this is not the best situation to be in....haaaaaay

What have you done?

I got this icebreaker. Those that Ive done are in bold and in this color

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (not by foot though...hehehe)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone (what with the all the brown out in teh Philippines during the 90s....just kidding! Hey Bianx, remember all the candles and rose petals we used everytime one of us girls gets depressed?)
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables (mongo beans? I've also been fed my pet chicken thanks to my grandfather)
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars (I'd love to do this again)
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (think yoga class with SISTER GITA..wahahah)
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger (as a dare...but I never showed up)
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day (more like adopted 5 diff accents in a day)(everytime I would travel by myself I would change my accent just for fun. People can never tell what my nationality is anyway.)
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends (I still do)
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip (I'm looking forward to more of these)
48. Gone rock climbing (Im not sure if indoors count)
49. Midnight walk on the beach (last time this happened in Boracay with Ruy, I was walking away from him cause I was so pissed....hehehe)
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken (so far)
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music (we had to sing the pasyon to the tune of Honey for our Filipino Class ...sing with me "Sa ona pang manghohola. Ang mga propetang madla..."
87. Eaten shark (does shark's fin count?)
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived (my mother fell down a flight of stairs while she was pregnant with me...thus the damage in my brain...hahaha)
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (I was quite good actually)
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone's life

INTERESTING!!! I'd love to know what you guys have done!!

You give me FEVER

I love the Madonna version of this song...."FEVER, when you kiss me, fever all through the night. You give me fever". Unfortunately I literally have fever today. This probably explains why I've been shiverring and gnashing my teeth even if I'm wearing a thick jacket (courtesy of Sunny, thanks Sunny) and have been drinking tea given to me by Fabian (straight from London...naks).

Ruy's being quite funny about it...he wants me to go home. HELLO, i'm not about to leave all my work just because of FEVER. My boss was working up until midnight last Friday even with a fever and a cough. He even went drinking with us until 3 in the morning...hehehe.

I'm supposed to train the Italian Sales Team of our company tonight and I'm not going to leave everyone hanging just because of a slight fever. Besides, what will I do when I get home? I spend 80% of my time at home just playing with my nephew (whose picture appears here...isn't he the cutest? And I'm not just saying that because I took the picture) and if I'm sick then I obviously cannot play with him lest I infect him as well. So better stay at work and be productive right?

Allow me to digress. Ruy's the best (for me), I realized how lucky I am to find a match. Am I sure it will be this good forever? Nope, he might cheat or we might lose interest in each other in the future. But right now he's been such a blessing......waaah my fever's making me mushy

SOOOWEEET

Sometimes Ruy bowls me over with his sweetness. He asked me what I was doing and I said I was working and researching on my new medication. And he offered to buy it for me...and he was so mushy about it....hehehe. I wouldn't write what he said verbatim in order to keep my fiance's macho image...hehehe.

I refused to let him do it. Despite all my whinings, I'm more than capable of paying for my medicine. He then said "I know there's no need for that financially but essentially, isn't that what being together is all about? Let me do it..."

Woohoo...sooweeeet. I told him, I'll let him do it when we get married. I just feel funny about letting someone take care of things I'm responsible for (i.e. My health). This is something I really have to work on, I have issues with depending on other people. Do you know that I even refuse to let Ruy carry my bag? My principle is, it's mine, I knew it was heavy but I was stubborn enough to bring it so I should be the one carrying it.

In restaurants, when I order something bad and Ruy orders something really yummy he would offer to exchange with me. I also refuse. It's my fault, it's my stupidity which led me to the bad food therefore I should suffer the consequences.

I should learn how to accept help, and learn how to be weak from time to time. Howellll

I Can't Wait to Give Out STDs

This is Ruy's wonderful comment after we went to Printer Matter. We finally saw the mock-up of our STD's (that's a Save the Date card by the way) and I would lie if I said that I was extremely pleased with it. I WASN'T!

The color was to light for my taste and I wanted it to be more gold and more black. But according to the people making it, we were limited by the paper we were using. Hopefully it would look better in the invites.

I wanted several revisions but Ruy stopped me. He said it's not worth the trouble of going back and forth, he said he's happy with it. I decided to be a good girl and follow Ruy. (see? I follow Ruy!! wahahah) I realized that it's not such a big deal, would people really care if the save the date was more black? Or if the pattern was a bit off-center? Nope...it wouldn't help our wedding or our marriage either. So I let it go...Patrick once advised me to choose my battles. I decided this is one battle not worth fighting for.

66

After a depressing post (depressing for me that is) I just want to share that it's our 66th monthsary today! YIHEEE...No we don't celebrate our monthsaries every month, although we try to greet each other IF we remember.

IT was Ruy who remembered today. Ruy has been sooooooo sweet lately despite my sour mood. Here's a rundown of the sweet things he has done:

- he bought me an USHER dvd, even if he hates the fact that I love Usher
- he bought me a starbucks tumbler to hold my coffee in the office. Why? Cause I've been complaining that our office is freezing (when I say freezing I mean my teeth chattering most of the time)
- He bought me fruit shake yesterday (i've told him that I don't like chocolate right now and all I want is fruit)
- He bought me 2 magazines. BRIDE and Metro HOME.

All the gifts were really sweet but I'm a bit uncomfortable about him buying too many things for me. My goodness I'd be just as happy with a sweet text. I loved what the magazine represented though, it reminded me of the 2 things we're aiming for right now. *sigh*

When we started dating Ruy was incredibly...mmm...UNSWEET (i know there's no such word, I'm making it up). And now he's been so thoughtful. Amazing!

POVERTY

This is the state I'm in right now. My doctor just recommended that I take a medicine which costs 123 pesos each. Right now I'll be taking it once a day and the frequency might increase if it still doesn't work. WOW....so right now, my monthly medication costs 5000 pesos. That's quite a lot!

So, I'll spend 5k on medicines, 10k on the wedding, 6k on my car, 4k on gasoline, 2,500 on parking, 1,500 on mobile phone bills. That's 29,500 a month just on my basic expenses. Now that I have done the computation, I realized that I should still have quite a lot left for other things in THEORY, but somehow in practice it seems that my salary disappears as soon as I pay everything off.

My family keeps on saying "You're earning so much, I don't understand why you're being so stingy. You should have hundreds of thousands of savings right now" ...I wanted to tell them "EXCUUUUUUUSE ME! Who forced me to buy a new car?", I was perfectly happy with my beat up car, but noooooh, they had to scare me into buying a new car. And then now I'm the bad guy?

I was thinking about where my money has been going in the past. I realized that it's been going to medical tests, medical check-ups, car repair and weekends. Obviously the first three cannot be scrimped on, I realized that the only way for me to be able to save some more is to have less extravagant weekends. That's easy enough to do. I just hope I wouldn't have to bail out of the SAGADA TRIP in August. I'm really looking forward to that.

Pearly Whites (A Shameless Plug)

Do your teeth look like these?



Probably not (yet) but chances are your teeth could be whiter. I know mine could. If you are like me, then your teeth have probably been stained by too much soda, tea, coffee or smoking. My mother is a dentist and I've begged her so many times to bleach my teeth but she has always refused. She would always tell me that the existing bleach has proven to be too harsh and it left teeth extremely sensitive and some have even burned the gums of the users. EWWWWWWWWW

Today however my mother actually approached me and told me that she found this wonderful product I could use! Yehey just in time for my wedding! She said that this wonderful product would come with a 2 week preparation in order to make sure that my teeth would be healthy enough for the treatment. I'll be trying it out very soon (and no my mother's not giving it to me for free) and I'll be letting you guys know what happens. I'll be taking my before picture now so we could compare it. I'm so excited.

In case any of you guys are interested just email me or pm me or tag me.

Advanced Happy Birthday CYRIL

Who is Cyril? CYRIL is Ruy's best friend and someone I love sooooo much. I don't think Cyril knows this but whenever Ruy and I would fight in the past, all he has to do is call Cyril and I'd be happy.He's just such a fun person to be around...we can actually take Cyril anywhere and he could fit in. Even Carmi (my bestfriend) adores him.

Now that he's turning 22 (heeeheee) I wish we could have celebrated your special day together. Show us pictures of how you're going to be celebrating Cy okay?

He Knows Me So Well

Ruy already knows that I can bug him into submission most of the time. This is what makes it so hard for him to surprise me, I normally bug him until he tells me. Today I received a text from Ruy.

RUY: I have something for you. I'll give it to you when we meet, But I won't tell you what.
LIV: Unfair, how come there's a disclaimer already? You didn't even give me a chance to bug you.
RUY: Sorry but I just can't allow you that opportunity.

I'll try to bug him for a hint right now. I'll see if I can squeeze anything out of him. Hehehe, this is a challenge...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BLOG!!

Dear Blog,

I can't believe it's been a year since we started this journey. I remember that in the beginning our relationship was a big secret. No one knew you existed, I wasn't so comfortable about letting people read through my thoughts through you. Look at you now! You actually have regular visitors. Over 10,000 people have visited you and have gone through the roller coaster ride of life as you have.

Congratulations!!! Here's to many more years.

Love,
Olivia

We MISSED the Point

Yesterday, Ruy insisted on having dinner together. I told him why don't we eat at my house so that we could save up. He agreed...

What did we have for dinner? Lechon which Ruy bought from someplace and TINOMOK and Beef Ribs which I bought from Gerry's Grill. We spent more than what we would have had we eaten out together...oh well

I'm Gonna Knock on your DOOR

DOORS, after toilet bowls we are now supposed to choose the correct doors for our house. We need to find a design for the front door and for the side doors. My God who designs doors? Here is a design that I liked for the side door

TOILET

Last Sunday, Ruy and I went shopping for TOILET BOWLS. Never in my life did I imagine that the time would come when I'd be shopping for TOILET BOWLS. Ruy was more persnickety about the designs than I was. I let him do the choosing, only hinting about the cost from time to time. The design we got is exactly what you can see above.

STD, Bizu and a Keychain

Last Saturday, we were supposed to attend a FOOD TOUR of Binondo. This was supposed to be our Father's Day gift to Tito Ollie (Ruy's dad). Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperative so the tour guide called me up and said that we couldn't push through.

Ruy and I decided to make it a productive day by doing some Wedding Preps. I was a bit uncomfortable because I wasn't really dressed to impress. I was wearing my "I'm-going-to-walk-for-4-hours-so-I-don't-care-if-I-look-like-crap-as-long-as-I'm-comfortable outfit" I looked like crap on that day. But I decided to brave it out and show my crappy self to the world. (I also forgot to bring Iron for my hair, clip, or a cap).

Ruy has contacted Printed Matter in the past to inquire about the STD (he did this out of his own volition! I didn't ask him at all. I was so impressed and touched). So we already knew everything we needed to do, we went to their office and asked Printed Matter to make our STD's. Ruy was nice enough to let me choose the style. I love what we chose and was actually willing to pay the downpayment for the invites right there and then. Ruy stopped me though, he wanted to wait it out a bit more. Oh well...fine. I'll be seeing the mock-up by Saturday and I CANNOT WAIT. I feel like a giddy school girl.

We still had time to kill after the Printed Matter incident. We decided to go to Greenhills as we haven't been there for a long time. On the way to greenhills Ruy and I tried to figure out why Michelle from Printed Matter thought we were sweet (she told us we were so sweet, and we were seated right across each other not touching, barely talking), we don't get it. I concluded that she just needed something to say and she thought that would be a nice thing to say....hehehe.

In greenhills Ruy finally bought a keychain while I bought Mango Chiboust, 4 macarons de Paris and 3 Truffles from Bizu. We were talking about how my purchase amounted to the keychain which Ruy bought. Ruy said "The difference is this: Tomorrow, this keychain will still be with me, while all your food would be gone". I then said, "I'm sharing this food 4 other people. It's something they will remember"....

That's how it started. Then it ended with Ruy and myself engaging in a huge fight. I will not go into details but it got pretty nasty. So nasty in fact I was contemplating of walking out, except I had my company laptop with me and I refused to place that laptop in any dangerous situations.

We were okay after an hour. THEN Ruy's mom texted Ruy saying that there's going to be dinner in his grandmother's house. I seriously panicked. I refuse to look like a crap in front of these people....NO. I told Ruy I cannot as I look like this. Ruy somehow heard me say "Ok" (go figure)...

I sat through a 3 hour family affair looking like crap. It was the most painful moment of my life. So painful in fact I had migraine after. (talk about psychosomatic diseases).

During dinner by the way, I had my first taste of les escargots....mmmm, it was an experience. Ruy is a huge fan he ate like 30 of the little buggers. I told him "You swiped out an enitre colony of snails"

One conversation left me giggling during that night:

RUY: Ang galing, sino kaya nakaisip gumawa nang kuhol
Liv: (while looking incredulously at Ruy) mmmm, si God?
RUY: No I meant who thought of cooking it tonight!!!!

Wahahaha.

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

Are you guys familiar with this song? I wasn't, not until 5 years ago when Ruy gave me a copy of this song (among other songs). To be honest I found the entire collection of songs weird. I didn't know what he was getting at. Why was this man giving me a song which says "That certain night, the night we met, it was such a romantic affair...and when we kissed and said goodbye, a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square". I didn't get it, the night we met wasn't romantic. And there was no nightingale in sight. To be perfectly honest I don't think I ever remember seeing a nightingale.

I was expressing this to Ruy last Friday and he was laughing. He said that that song was one of his favorite songs, and he just wanted to share it with me. He then asked me "If you found me weird, why'd you keep going out with me?" . I didn't have to think hard about it, I knew why. My reason was because he was SOOOO different from the men I used to date. To be honest, I was sick and tired of dating these kinds of men. I always knew where I stood with them. I knew I had all the power in the relationship. I knew that if I they saw me when I wasn't wearing my make-up they'd probably be a bit turned off. I know they'd be sweet and suave until I become their girlfriend. Then things will change.

It was completely different with Ruy. I had no idea where I stood with him. I wasn't even sure if he was interested in me. Up until we became a couple I wasn't sure if he was really into me. Strange I know. This is why Patric said we were the dysfunctionally functional couple.

Last Friday, we heard that song once again. Yup, that was Ruy's surprise. We got to watch Manhattan Transfer sing A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. I LOVED the concert. It reminded me so much of my childhood. When I was growing up, while everyone my age was listening to RX and KC, my mom had me listening to Basia and Sergio Mendez, etc. I loved it then and I realized that I still love it now. I must say, that when the Manhattan Transfer sang Shaker Song I got chills down my spine. Ahhhh, it felt like home.

Surprise

Ruy just called to tell me that he's taking me out tonight!! Wooohooo, here I am feeling so needy because we haven't "dated" in a long time, and now we're going out...I didn't even have to whine!!

I'm so excited. I don't care how bad or good the night is...he prepared for it. That's what matters...

Huh?

"Olivia, I think when you are married you will beat your husband!"...WHAT?!!! When my client/friend told me this I almost cried. WHY? Why does everyone think I'm such an evil girlfriend. Don't they know that it's actually Ruy who's been very grumpy lately? In fact, everytime Ruy would turn grumpy I'd either just keep quiet or tell him "You're being grumpy again ah"

Why is this bothering me so much? Could it be because I've heard it too many times? I've heard it 4 times this week. Arvi just told me yesterday that he thinks Ruy will be under me when we get married. My goodness! I hate weak men. If Ruy was weak and if I could control him then I wouldn't want him. Honestly! Weak men make me want to throw up.

Just to clear things up once and for all.

1. Ruy is not under me.
2. Nor am I under Ruy. We are both free to do as we want within the confines of commitment and morality.
3. I have never ever beat Ruy.
4. Ruy has never intentionally battered me. (Although, accidentally stepping on my toes and breaking my toe nails should be counted as battery as it hurts like hell)
5. Ruy is free to drink with friends. I go out more often than Ruy.

What's in a Ring?

Last month, while Ruy and I were talking I realized that I had offended Ruy when I made some remarks about his proposal happening "just" inside the car. I felt so bad cause I know that Ruy actually put a lot of thought into his proposal and here I am making fun of it. Ruy's proposal was actually perfect for me. I would admit that seeing stories and videos of men who propose in public (for the whole world to see) makes me swoon. Yes I am a woman and I do find that romantic. I cannot see myself in those situations though. I'd be so embarrassed, mortified even! I have been very vocal in telling everyone that if anyone does that to me, I'd run away. Contrary to what people think, I don't like being in the spotlight.

I loved Ruy's proposal, I really did. I was so surprised, I was with my family, and I was all made up....perfect!!

This whole talk about the proposal got me thinking though....what is my dream proposal? What would have been a swoon worthy proposal for me? The first thing that popped in my head was the first proposal in Sweet Home Alabama. Remember when Reese Witherspoon was led into a Tiffany Store and she was given the chance to choose her ring among all those rings? WOW! It seemed so perfect initially but then I realized, I DON'T WANT TO CHOOSE MY OWN RING!!

I believe the ring your bf/fiance chooses for you is symbolic of how he sees you. I sincerely believe this, this is why Carrie (from Sex and the City) threw a tantrum when the ring she was about to be given was butt ugly. I am now looking at the ring Ruy gave me....what is it saying?

Well, the ring is not plain (take that you Mc. Donald's lady who called me Plain Girl in Green Blue Shirt), in fact it's a bit complicated. Might be symbolic of how Ruy sees the complexities in my personality (might also be symbolic of the difficulties Ruy faces in dealing with me). The band features an intertwined design. Hmmmm....what could that mean? It could mean two things....one, it's symbolic of how our two lives are about to be forever connected or two, it could be symbolic of Ruy's desire to strangle me when I become too complicated.

Interesting...very interesting.

All for a 4-hour Affair

Ruy's colleague got married last Saturday. I was of course ecstatic at the thought of dressing up. I started preparing last Friday. Ruy once mentioned that he liked those side-swept bangs so I said...hmmmm....maybe I should surprise him. So I had my bangs cut in order to be able to don that style. The picture you can see is how my hair looked upon waking up. (Yes, I had my digicam beside me while sleeping.)I HATED the bangs. Seriously! I called Ruy up immediately after seeing the hair and told him what I did. He was laughing and he said so why did you get it cut? And I said "Cause you said you liked it! This is your fault!!" (of course I knew it wasn't really his fault, but it's nice having someone blame. =)

I had my trusty stylist Mac Labay style my hair for me. (thank you Mac! You really are my sould mate!!). I went to my mom's house, she loved the hair! Wohooo, you see my mom is a very critical person and if it passes her judging then I'm fine. My sister insisted that I stop fussing with my hair and make-up and take a picture of her instead. See, she just lost her front tooth and would like to see how she looked like. Yes people, my sister is just as vain as I am.

Ruy picked me up. He said I looked nice...woohooo a compliment from Ruy!!! This is quite rare. The first time Ruy took note of my make-up was when he told me that my blush on was not even (to make matters worse, I wasn't wearing any blush on at that time). We went to Loi and Willard's wedding in San Seb. Here's a picture of the bride and groom. I'm glad things worked out fine for Loi. Remember that she had a big problem with one of her suppliers a week before the wedding. SCARY!!

After the wedding, I almost threw a tantrum cause I wanted Ruy to give me the car keys so I can run to the car. You see it was starting to Rain and my blow-dried and heavily styled hair would die a natural death if it gets touched by the rain. YES PEOPLE, AFTER READING MY BLOG FOR 11 MONTHS YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT I CAN BE VERY VAIN. We made it to the car but my hair still got a bit wet....hmmmmph. So during the reception my hair was not as nice as it was during the wedding. See Ruy doesn't understand this as he has no hair!!! Hahaha.... Here are some reception pics.

So Near yet So Far

This is the story of Ruy and myself this week. He has a Sales Conference here in Manila (a rarity as he is almost always in the province). The conference is actually held in QC Sports Club, a stone's throw away from my house. YET we haven't seen each other, nor have we been able to keep in touch over the telephone.

When he's on break, I'm busy. When I'm not busy, he is. It's a bit frustrating really. Every night, I'd try to stay up and wait for him to come home so we could talk properly. Unfortunately I end up falling asleep as I am sooooooooo tired.

Today I texted him at 6:59 am telling him that I'm in the office already. At 7:30 he texted back saying:

RUY: What?!? Bakit ang aga mo? At this rate we'd never meet.
LIV: Color Coding, I have no choice.
RUY: Damn I could have picked you up!

Awwwwwwwwww....I don't know why that made me smile. I guess it's nice to know that he's frustrated too. We'll finally be able to have dinner together tonight. Thank goodness.

Wedding?

I confess, I've completely lost interest in the wedding preps. It just seems so trivial now compared to the other things we're preparing for. It really makes me wish we just had a small civil wedding with our families. Ruy wouldn't have any of that of course (neither would my grandmother I suppose).

Right now, the entire hullaballoo of the wedding just seems so silly. Spending at least 25k on flowers? 30k on one gown? What for? Only a handful of the guests would actually appreciate it. It seems completely irrational to me specially since I don't really believe in the Catholic Church.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an atheist. I am very spiritual, but I'm not religious. I don't trust the people who make up the Catholic Church. Yet here I am, succumbing to one of their sacraments....

Beauty

I was eavesdropping to a conversation while buying my daily bottle of mineral water when I heard a woman say "Beauty is overrated." I looked at the face of the woman who said this and I thought to myself "Of course you'd think that, otherwise you'd be depressed."

I would have to say that I believe beauty is underrated. I think that people don't realize the impact of being considered beautiful. It could be as simple as being served first in a restaurant. It could be the fact that when you go to a drug store instead of waiting for hours before someone asks what you're there for, people are actually clamoring to be the one to serve you. It's about receiving free things all the time. It's about never wondering if someone woudl be willing to be your date to the most boring wedding.

It's the confidence it brings you. It's knowing that when people look down on you it's due to jealousy. It's not wondering if your boyfriend's parents would approve of your looks.

I could name so many other things that people might call superficial. It's ironic though that the people who call these things superficial are those who save all their money just to get a full body bleach.

Pagtatampisaw sa Sinasalaming Kaluwalhatian

In case people are wondering what my title means, it's the tagalized version of "Basking in Reflected Glory" (thank you to Patrick Tiongson, Patrick Porto, and Loi for this translation).

Congratulations Ruy!!! Mwaaaaaaaah (wahahaha, isn't the fact that I'm not telling you guys what I'm congratulating Ruy for sooooo irritating?)

Different Kind of Weekend

Ruy and I both try not to bring work home. We both work very hard already and we want to have a bit of rest during the weekend. More often than not, it's Ruy who's very guilty of this. It's not enough that he's working practically 20 hours a day hundreds of miles away. When he returns he still has work to do. Every once in a while I get the chance to participate (or help out)even if it's doing something as mundane as encoding numbers in Excel while he reads them. Last Sunday, after lunch, we went through Ruy's presentation together. It's not often that people get to see their partner's in their element. I often wish I could see Ruy do his job more cause I really find it impressive.

It's not the sales, not the output which impresses me. It's the way he deals with people. How people love him, and trust him. How he can talk to tricycle drivers or janitors in a sincerely nice way. I'll stop gushing while I'm ahead.

Welcome Home PT

PT just arrived last Thursday and so I called up Patric Porto and Loi for a dinner last Saturday. PT is still jetlagged but that didn't stop us from having long, funny, senseless yet mind stimulating conversations.

Here's to my 3 favorite men from Ateneo. MWAH!



I miss you guys. I expect to have another dinner with you guys sometime this week.

Busy Me -- Busy US

This week (as with the past week) has been quite hellish for me. I have so much work that I end up messing up on small details. Ruy is in the same boat, he's stressing quite a bit with his job as they have a performance appraisal coming up. He's always like that, always nervous always tense but I think that's what drives him to do well during their performances.

Back to myself, a consultant came over with our CEO. I suppose (and I sort of hope) that we'll be having a more delineated structure in the company. He listened to my meeting with 3 clients and I was happy to see that he eemed to like it. It was delightful to see him getting involved in the discussions (I was surprised by his enthusiasm as he is quite straight-laced and often times serious).

I'll be working till 10 pm tonight. I just found out that we'll be having another one of our famous parties tonight. I don't know if I'll have the energy for it. I might try to drop by for a minute or two.

Conversations with Meg

This made my day...

megserranilla: uy kelan kasal mo?
Livee: Next year pa. we had it moved cause of feng shui
meg serranilla: hahaa
meg serranilla: so ilang taon ka na by then?
Livee: 24 ata
Livee: turning 25
Livee: gosh I'm young
meg serranilla: hehehe...ok lang yan
meg serranilla: si mama mary nga 14

Trust Me

If there's one person who trusts my make-up skills it would have to be Patric. Sometimes I believe he trusts my skills more than I trust in myself. (self esteem issues people, bear with me) Looking at Patric's picture below, I'd have to say that I am quite impressed at myself (my self-esteem fluctuates, sometimes it's high sometimes it's low bear with me once again) I made Patric look fierce, yet very clean. You see, during that time Patric's skin was drying up and that's so hard to hide specially cause Patric only told me I was going to do his make-up when I was already in the office and had a very limited supply of make-up in my kit.

I also ADORE the eye make-up (of course I adore it, I did it). It looks so fierce without looking scary. It also hid his feline eyes which sometimes makes his features look feminine. I wanted something more androgenous for this look and I think I achieved it.

Patric has asked me to work on his make-up thrice. And each time he presents me with a challenge. One was during a class production for a psychology class. Second was during a Malate halloween party and lastly that time shown in the picture for an Avant Garde Christmas Party. I love it! Patric can I do your make-up next Halloween again?

Patric Porto

I cannot let this week past without blogging about one of my best friends, PATRIC PORTO. I love this guy to pieces and when I talk about him I can't help but be like a proud MOMMA! Allow me to bask in Patric's reflectd glory.

When we were freshmen in Ateneo. I saw thi guy write this HUGE sign which he posted inside his notebook. It said SUMMA CUM LAUDE. He said that he would graduate Summa Cum Laude, I said "Right!?"

Fast forward to our graduation, yes he was the summa cum laude of Ateneo. I couldn't be more proud. Patric doesn't do anything just for the sake of doing it. Each step has a motivation, has a purpose. Since college, I've been pushing him to study abroad. He said he was tired of studying.

I'm so happy he finally changed his mind. Now he set his sight on Harvard (on a full scholarship). When I heard about this, my reaction was completely different from my reaction when we were freshmen. I had no doubts, I just said "It's about time"

2 days ago, I received an excited phonecall from Patric. He just got his GMAT score he got 760/800. You only need 720 to enter Harvard.

Your one step closer Patxie!!

Love-Hate Relationship

This is what I have with Ruy right at this very moment. I seriously think that when you need something you should be the one to follow things up and not leave the other person hanging. When you change someone else's plans and include yourself in it, the least you could do is follow through.

Lastly, text back when you have 2 mobile phones. That's not a lot to ask right? AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH, can I strangle someone right now? I'm trying to strangle my 1 Liter water bottle but it's not so satisfying without the yelps of pain.

Mush

There's only us,
There's only this.
No day but today

Last Weekend

I told Ruy that after Baguio and after accompanying me to my extremely long and agonizing medical tests he deserved a restful weekend. Given that we spent Saturday braving the Quiapo crowds, we were left with only a restful Sunday.

We went to Megamall (for some weird reason, Ruy and I have an affinity to this mall when we watch movies) to watch OMEN. Everyone knows I hate horror films but I decided to brave this one out for Ruy. I have to say that this is even scarier than those horror movies with monsters because this deals with EVIL. I believe evil really exists. And the fact that the deaths seemed like accidents and not so out-of-this-world is even freakier.



We had lunch in Sugarhouse where we played around with the camera. Here is my favorite photo I call it "alone and greasy"....waaaaaahahaha. I can try as hard as I could but being deep and thoughtful is so not me. Ruy took some photos as well but I like mine better. HAhahaha. I'm the most self-centered person I know (after Affie and Patric and my mother)

After that we looked around for some tripods and a possible gift for Quitos, Ruy's brother. Eventually Ruy sat quietly in chocolat, familiarizing himself with the camera while I went to the Bridal Fair. I'm beginning to hate bridal fairs! They're so crowded! Anyway here's one picture that Ruy took, might as well include it here as this is supposed to be OUR blog (not that he's contributing anything to it....hmmmph)



Guess what this is!

Nani

A lot of you know off my grandmother. You all know that I'm the quintessential Lola's girl. My St. Scho friends have all been recipients of her cooking (remember how she would force us to have lunch at 10 am?) and of her kakulitan.

When I was single, I would always say that it doesn't matter if my mother approved of my boyfriend but my lola had to. I told Ruy this from day one, and luckily my lola ADORES Ruy. I think he's the first in-law she ever liked.

Whenever I would look at my lola's old pictures, I would be amazed at how similar we are. We have clothes that are exact replicas of each other, even the colors are the same. Our hairstyles are very similar. And we look so much alike. No wonder we are fans of each other! hehehe.

It is not unexpected for me to have her as one of my first subjects. Here are some more Nani pix.



The next couple of pictures are those of Nani playing with her great grandson. I jokingly called her "the Active Lola"....



I would like to point out that Nani is one of the best supporters of my camera. She's my only willing subject.

Dorothy

Happy Birthday!!! You probably thought I wouldn't remember right? ;) hehehe. I miss you so much and I hope you're having fun. DENNIS! You better take care of Dorothy... ;)



I have to say that you looked absolutely radiant during your wedding. This picture made me so kilig. Dennis looked so happy!! Ruy you better look that happy during our wedding...hehehe

Tall, Dark and ?

Ruy and I were having a very funny conversation about babies. We were talking about my two nephews who were born a week apart, Caspo (a nickname we gave him as he looked like Casper when he was born, his picture can be seen below) and Gabriel (i'll post Gabby's picture next time) and how one was taller than the other.



We then happily concluded that our baby would definitely be tall (I have tall genes as I'm the shortest in the family, meanwhile Ruy is really tall) so yehey for our baby! BUT our baby would definitely be dark ....AND he would definitely have curly hair! OH NO!!! I then concluded that our kids would be TALL, DARK, AND CURLY.

Ruy couldn't help but laugh at my conclusion. He can't deny it, he knows it true!! So when we were trying to come up with a name for our baby we were fooling around by saying that we'd name him (Ruy wants to have a girl, but we both think that our first would be a boy) Tyrese or Usher...para bagay sa color. Hahaha

If I have a really ugly baby, would I find it ugly? Sure, I'd love it of course but would I know it's ugly? Would I feel pity for my baby because I know it's ugly? Or would I be blinded by love as I'm the mother?

Based on recent family history, I don't think I'll be blinded by love. My cousins know what's wrong with their children. My mother is my biggest critic, and my grandmother once exclaimed that if she ever had an ugly child she'll hang it up on a tree. So you see, my family doesn't wear rose colored glasses. We see beauty and the lack of it. But we take it as it is.

Going back to our baby, I am sure I'd love it sooooooo much. But I just have one prayer, if it's going to be an ugly baby, can it at least be a boy? I have seen how mean girls in my high school were to girls they considered ugly. I don't want my childl to have emotional scars...

Our New Baby

Yup you heard it right, Sushi has a baby brother.



Yehey!! Finally a hobby Ruy and I can share (no he doesn't like shopping and make-up and I can't stand video games). The LCD of this baby is to die for. Seriously! I was amazed.

Henry's in Quiapo was really a haven for cheap (read: poor) people who want to get into photography. Imagine I bought a 1GB Sony memory stick for 2000! I looked at the Sony Philippines website and I saw that it normally costs 5,999.00 in malls. What a bargain!

Ruy thought we should have bought an SLR but I said let's practice with this gorgeous baby first. Then we'll buy an SLR when we're really really good already.

LOI

Loi was one of my bestest friends in College. God, he was my classmate in practically every subject during our first 2 years of college. He even endured learning Bahasa because of me.

Needless to say, I love this guy very much. Why? Cause he's insane!! Check out our conversation yesterday. I just told him about my Mc. Do Incident.

Loi: i think i had a crayon na may Green Blue, which was different from Blue
Green
Livee: no kidding?
Loi: meron ding Orange Red and Red Orange
Livee: matalino pala yung tiga mc. donald's. mas sosi yung crayola niya kesa sakin

Loi: baka she's rather complicated
Loi: that's why she found you plain
Livee: you're probably right
Loi: perhaps she already found self actualization with her line
of work
Loi: and sees your struggle to find yourself
Livee: oh wow, she probably saw right through my masks.
Livee: she knows that deep down, i have no identity
Loi: yes
Loi: you are plain
Livee: you're absolutely right. I am a blank slate
Loi: you better work at mcdonald's as well
Livee: yes, mc. donald's is what make's the world goround
Livee: mcdonald's is the center of the universe where one finds peace and contentment.
Livee: oh, and self-actualization
Loi: and you owe to that server this enlightenment

Loi: why did you get medical tests?
Livee: for my hormonal problems.
Loi: ahh
Loi: so you're still contemplating to become a mormon?

Love you LOI!!

Oh No...Beeyatch!

You Are 82% Bitchy

Ouch, you've got a heart of steel, and you don't mind throwing out cutting insults to whomever you hate. Those who know you well know not to mess with you. And those who don't know you well are plain scared of you!

How Bitchy Are You?

Phonepal

I spent 20 minutes of my break time looking for a digital camera for Ruy and myself. I am currently torn between these two



I was looking around when I came across ABENSON. The guy promised to be able to coordinate with their supplier, he said "Ma'm just write your name and phone number on this pamphlet and I will text you when it's ready" So I did that...I wrote Olivia and 0917-xxxxxxx and left. After the Mc. Donald's incident I went back still fuming a bit and asked the sales man for updates. He said "Ma'm I'm sorry no one's replying right now. Why don't you leave your name and your phone number here and I'll text you"

I was about to do that when I remembered, HEY! I just did this earlier, where's the number I wrote down earlier? And you know that mother f*&#@$ said? "Ay mam nakuha po nung isang customer eh" I was so mad. I said "What? You gave away my phone number?" and he said "Ma'm wala naman pong problem yun, sulat niyo na lang ulit dito" of course I freaked out and started saying stuff like "What do you mean walang problema, shempre may problema, number ko yun! I don't want to give that away to random people"

Why didn't you take care of it? When you asked for it I entrusted you with that. I'm not going to give you my number again cause I don't trust you. ....

So right now I am waiting for a text or a call from my new phone pall

Plain Girl

It was lunch time. I've been working for 4 hours. I didn't have a lot of time to eat so I decided to do what every working person falls prey to every once in a while...Fast food.

I went to Mc. Donald's and ordered a double cheeseburger. They told me I needed to wait for 5 minutes, I said that's fine. I waited...and waited.

Finally, my burger was delivered to me with the receipt. I looked at the receipt and there was a description of myself ... "PLAIN GIRL IN A GREEN BLUE SHIRT!"

Excuse me? Plain girl? First of all, there's nothing plain about me. Second, GREEN BLUE is not a color!

Yesterday I Cried

The past week hasn't been easy in a lot of ways. I'm stressed over the medical tests, I have a lot of work, I had to go on leave to go to Baguio and to be tested, etc. Yesterday was my first day back. I spent Monday night making a list of EVERYTHING I needed to do, it came down to almost 2 pages, and to those of you who have seen my teeny tiny handwriting you would know that 2 pages means a whole LOTTA work.

I left the house to go to work at 7 in the morning. This is quite early as my travel time is usually just 15-20 minutes. I was driving when I noticed something strange about the way I was driving, I tried calling Ruy to ask but he wasn't answering, so I went down to look at my car and saw that my front tire was extremely flat yet again. I wanted to cry (but I didn't)...f*$#@ tires! I changed all four tires less than a month ago, and now it's doing this again! I had no choice but to run the flat tire to the nearest vulcanizing shop. The guy said there's nothing wrong with my tire and just put it back.

I arrived in eastwood at exactly 8. I decided to park outside where there was a flat rate (I knew I was going to stay in my office for a long time, and having to pay an exorbitant parking fee was just like adding salt to the wound). The manong told me I had to pay...damn it I noticed that I had absoloutely no money in my wallet. I told the manong to point me to the nearest ATM...he made me walk all the way to the starbucks complex to withdraw. Beggars can't be choosers so I obliged, when I returned to pay him he said "Ang tagal mo naman, dapat dito ka na lang sa chinabank nagwithdraw". WHAT!!!! I held my breath and tried real hard not to strangle him... he's still alive now.

I went to work and work I did! I was in the office working, not blogging nor chatting, up until 12:00 in the evening. When that was over, I walked to the parking area dead tired, only to find my tire flat yet again.

I tried calling Ruy, no signal. I tried calling my Kuya (cousin), no reply. Eventually I gave up and realized that I had no other choice but to drive to the gasoline station.

Thank goodness for the wonderful manongs over there. I was so greatful for their patience and care. Bait talaga! When they were about finished I was finally able to call Aaron who dropped by to tell me what to do and to tell me not to drive like a maniac. THANKS AARON!!

While driving home I just couldn't help but feel sad. After working like a maniac all day, all I wanted was a warm bath and a soft bed. But instead I was stuck in a gasoline station trying to call for help. I remembered my conversation with Ruy a long time ago, the one he got really upset over. I told him that ultimately I'm the only one reliable enough to take care of myself. I can't expect anyone else to be available for me. That fact still hurts. We all want a prince charming or a fairy god mother to make everything better for us, but ultimately we're the only ones who can do that to ourselves.

That made me cry. I hate being alone. I hate the fact that I was stuck with a flat tire and no one knew. What I hated even more was going home to my grandmother's house at 1:30 in the morning to find her getting mad and saying "Ano ka bang klaseng babae, bakit ka umuuwi nang ganitong oras"

Wow. I didn't even bother explaining what happened. What for?

Fieldtrip!

I'll be going to Baguio tomorrow. I still haven't packed. In fact I'm still in the office. This is going to be my most disorganized trip EVER! I'm nervous....

Work, Work, Work

I spent the whole day working yesterday, from 10am to 12am (yup, that's 12 hours in the office) then I waited for 30 minutes for the elevator to pick me up(damn these eastwood elevators). I walked towards the parking area when I suddenly came across some people in the office having drinks in Jack's Loft. You see our big boss is here and he loves his WENGWENG. =) So I was sucked in by the celebration and spent an hour and a half there blabbering away. Someone said...let's be pigs and have a buffet breakfast in Something Fishy....yehey! I love the buffet breakfast there despite the fact that it sucks. =) It's cheap food but I swear to god, I can subsist on it....I'm craving for the palitaw as we speak. For a breakfast whore like me, that place is a gold mine. So anyway at 2:30 am I ended up hauling my big ass home and seeing that I had 9 missed calls and 14 messages in my cellphone...whoooops I forgot to tell people I wasn't going home. I was supposed to be home by 7 so everyone was a bit panicky.

Now it's 8 in the morning, 5 hours after I arrived home, and I'm back in the office. I have a LONG day ahead of me. I'll be talking for 14 hours straight and I swear to God I'll be dead by the end of the day. WISH ME LUCK!!

College Escapades = 2

There was a time when i was deluded into thinking that I would go to medschool. Because of this delusion my friends (Loi and Patrick) and I all took up Comparative Anatomy under the bird lady. We have a love-hate relationship with this woman. She made us do crazy things like have a whole chicken eating contests and then had us rebuild the chicken bones.... THEN she would point at certain bones, ask us the name and what is th counterpart of this bone in the human body.

The worst part of comparative anatomy came when she told everyone in class that foot spas are useless as the dead skin would grow back anyway. I BLEW UP...Patric still remembers this time fondly. I told her "So why do you brush your teeth? It will get dirty anyway. Why do you take a bath, you will get dirty too!"... I told Patric I didn't know why I got so emotional over this argument. Patric said it was because she was going against the things I stood for "Which are beauty, indulgence and hygiene"

During the latter part of the sem, things got better. Our comparative anatomy group (which included Mishi) had the cleanest and most organized working area. Thanks to the impeccable hygiene of my groupmates. (we had Lysol spray, Lysol wipes, alcohol) Trust me, dissecting a cat can get pretty nasty and gross.

This picture was our cover for our last project as a group for this class. It was incredibly stupid but we loved it at that time. We photoshopped a flying cat being released by Loi. I MISS YOU GUYS...

College Escapades

Once upon a time, there were 3 friends named Patric (in the striped shirt), Loi (carrying the baby), and Liv (wearing the white Ateneo tank top) these three friends liked receiving expensive gift so they thought of a scheme. "Why don't we give a collective gift to people so they'd be forced to give each of us gifts?"

Their plan was brilliant! They would get the cheapest cookies you could buy (the ones that came in pails, similar to what your maid buys when she goes back to the province) and they would decorate it a bit to make it look like they baked it themselves. Then they would give it to everyone a week before Christmas break, so people would have the chance to buy gifts for them. The best part about this, was that they'll be spending around 200 pesos each to give gifts to around 30 people. That would give them a lot of money to spend on gifts for each other!

They divided the plan among themselves. Loi was in charge of the cookies, Liv of the chocolate and other decors and Patric of the wrapping.

So they bought chocolate blocks from Chocolate Lovers, and a pail of cookies from a grocery (courtesy of Loi's mom, thanks Tita Gila). They melted the chocolate and made various chocolate designs on the hundreds of cookies they bought.

Then someone came up with a great idea: "We need to have our pictures taken in front of the cookies so that everyone would believe we really made it." Thus the picture on top. (NOTE: the mittens were unused and the tupperware is empty)

Then came the packaging. They cooked up a 'factory line' sort of process to wrap everything.

The finished product was excellent! The best thing about it was that no one can say anything bad about it cause it was 'homemade'.

A few months after, they suddenly remembered. They were so focused on the cookies, they forgot to give gifts to themselves....bummer.

The Weekend that Was

Where the hell did my weekend go? It seems I just inhaled them all away. It seems that it passed without my noticing it. What was I able to accomplish over the weekend? Nothing. I brought home work and I wasn't even able to pen my files.....aaaaaaarrrrrrrrggghh.

Last Saturday we visited this restaurant in Marikina called Windmill. We've (of course you know that when I say we I mean Ruy and myself) heard some raves about this restaurant so we decided to try it out. It claims to serve up steaks, barbecues and authentic Marikina dishes. Ruy and I decided not to try the Marikina Dishes (I'm not too fond of Waknatoy and Ruy doesn't like Everlasting ad Pininyahan), instead we settled for the steak and barbecue. Now when I saw the sign outside which said Barbecue I had images of juicy and succulent ribs....wow. Instead we had a 15 peso barbecue on a stick. BUMMER. I didn't like the look of the meat on the stick so I refused to try it I think Ruy said it was average tasting though. While waiting for our tenderloin steaks, we feasted (okay, feasted is an exaggeration) on their garden salad and laing. The gardn salad was the pitts. The dressing was ketchup and mayo (the marikina version of thousand island) and instead of lettuce, it had cabbages for greens. DAMN! The laing was okay but lacking in coco milk. The steaks were a different story though, they were quite good, but pricey for 90 pesos. Pricey cause the cuts weren't too big. I curse the person who told me about this place, we could have gone to Mr. Kabab or Hot Racks. hmmmph

After the disastrous lunch. We went window shopping in MC Home Depot. Ruy decided to have a hotdog from the stand first as our lunch left us both hungry. I had no idea shopping for toilet bowls and bathroom tiles could be so difficult. It's a good thing Ruy and I have agreed on a theme, it makes things a bit easier. We both wanted a strip of stone wall in the bathroom to give it a more "zen" feel. And instead of the typical bathroom tiles, we'll be using textured materials. Like the kind you'll use outside...wooohooo. I love it!

Ruy dropped me off in Marikina so I could wait for my family. My lola finished cooking her KARE-KARE (which is to die for) which I will be bringing over to Ruy's house. You see, my mom, stepdad, aunt and sister were going to see the house Ruy and I are having built for the first time. Ruy's parents were gracious enought to invite us to dinner after as well. It's like pamamanhikan part 2.

I was so proud of Ruy cause he was such a great host. His pizza made from scratch was yummy, and my mom and step dad loved his baked tilapia in Oyster sauce recipe. Ofcourse I was teased for not knowing how to cook. I wish I could refute that statement, but it's true. I don't know how to cook.

It was weird cause going there I got so pissed off my mom and step dad I really blew up in the car. And then we had to be all smiles when we got to Ruy's house. Hypocrisy? Maybe, but I'd rather call it being polite.

My mom said our house was "cute". A polite word for minutely tiny. =) I don't mind, I love the coziness and the fact that it can get paid very quickly. Then we can set our sights on a bigger house. Ruy's dream house is actually very reachable. I hope we'll be able to get that in 10 years....wooohooo talks about the future makes me feel giddy.

Taataa for now. I better work

Light at the End of the Tunnel

It was a holiday in France yesterday so I was free to bum around and do nothing, that's not what I did though. I started my day pretty early, drove to New Manila where my sister and mom were. We had breakfast and we went our seperate ways, my mom drove my sister to her Kumon class while I did some transactions in the bank. My mom took my car (cause I parked blocking hers) so I ended up walking from the bank to our house. Yeah I know I could have waited for my mother, but I had to watch the season finale of American Idol so I braved the sun and walked the 5 minute walk to my house.

While watching the show I kept myself busy by trying to find churches which hold confirmations regularly. No one was answering the phone in San Miguel (where I was confirmed 5 years ago) so I ended up calling Quiapo. Amazing how the same sacrament costs 100 pesos in Quiapo and 600 pesos in San Miguel Church, am I the only one who believes this is just crap by the Catholic Church? Crap which I'm obliged to follow because I'm getting married IN the Catholic Church. Don't get me wrong, I'm not atheist. I just think that people should be able to avail of Sacraments without fees. I also called other churches just to be sure that I've covered all the bases. Mount Carmel and OLA in Marikina both refused to confirm Ruy as we're not getting married there (isn't that more crap)? I also called NSO and Marikina City Hall to ask for their requirements for the certifications we'll be needing in the future. I was also trying to see if it would make more sense for us to get married civilly first.

My mom dropped my sister off our house and she went to Divisoria (my mom's currently obsessed with her DIVI shopping sprees). My sister, my aunt and I decided to go to St. Luke's where my mom's clinic is to wait for my mom there.

My sister slept, so did my aunt (my mom's clinic has a private room where my mom exercises and my sister plays) and I spent my time contacting florists to get info about their prices. Flowers are really the most difficult for me as I'm not so knowlegable with them. I just know I love looking at them but given our theme and motiff it's really hard to find proper flowers. My mom arrived bearing A LOT of things from DIVISORIA. She delighted herself by asking each and everyone of us how much each item was. WOW, my mom needs to party more.

After a snack in Delifrance, I went to my ENDOCRINOLOGIST. I was so happy with him cause he was able to really tell me what's wrong with me (PCOS with elevated Thyroid hormones) and he promised me two things: 1. I'll be back to my natural weight by my wedding 2. And the most important thing, I can have babies without any problems. I am soooooooo relieved. The weight gain is secondary to the baby.

My doctor was really nice by the way. In case anyone needs help with their PCOS he's the one to go to. He was the one who cured my aunt so I'm confident.

Staring at a Blank Wall

Ruy wants to have white walls. I was stunned, I asked him "What about me, made you think I would be happy going home to a house with white walls?"

Just venting.

To B? Or not to B? and What color should or B be?

To b or not to b? What is B? BAGUIO! Ruy's parents invited me to join them on their trip to Baguio next week and I'm still not sure as to my decision. I desperately want to go to Baguio as I've never been there with Ruy. I like these trips although this will be our first really long trip with their whole family. I'm sure there will be awkward moments but I vow to sleep during the said moments.

Why am I hesitating? I should be jumping up and down now cause the trip is relatively free. Not a lot of money to spend except on pasalubongs and if Ruy and I would go out on our own. The thing is, I'm not sure if I want to miss work again. Basically I'll be losing around 1,600 if I miss work despite being paid for my leave. Why? It's hard to explain, basically we ahve a complicated salary system.

I want to go, but should I? AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH

---0---

What color should our B be? What color should our bathroom be? I never imagined that this would be a difficult situation. I thought bathrooms were supposed to be white. Ruy's mom said that it gets dirty easily if it's white. I agreed with her temporarily then I realized that I'd rather have something that gets dirty easily, so I can see if it's dirty. And if it's dirty then I should clean it. YES, I have taken it upon myself to clean our bathroom. I don't think I'd trust anyone else to do that. Ruy wants to get a maid, but I refuse. I don't want a maid, not yet anyway.

Back to the color of the bathroom, I just want a plain white and wood bathroom. It seems so boring though. Ideas anyone?

Thin, Rich and Married

These are my three goals. Yes I am writing it down for the whole world to see so you can mock me if I fail. How did I try to achieve these goals today?

THIN - I ate cereals for breakfast. And tuna and mandarin oranges for lunch. I skipped my customary iced tea and fruit shake and settled for gallons of water instead.

RICH - since I didn't buy iced tea and fruit shake or carbonara I havent' spent anything all day. I'm sooooo going to be rich.

MARRIED - I'm asking Ruy to choose his barong supplier, Mang Rey or Veluz.

Small steps baby, small steps will get me there.

Name-Schname; Lucky Underwear; Edit; Love You More

I'm amazed at how people have called me different names at different points in my life. Here are some of my names:

• Olivia - my real name, makes me kilig when Ruy says it. Scares me when my mom says it.
• Livia - what my mom calls me, what my mom uses when she talks about me as well.
• Livia Dear - what my mom calls me when she writes letters to me (this rarely happens)
• Inday - what my Lolo used to call me. My Lolo's from Iloilo and this is a term of endearment
• Baby Boy - my dad and several of my guy cousins called me this because I was a tomboy when I was a kid and I would climb trees, have eating competitions and run up hill with my KUYAS.
• Olivetti = my aunt called me this as a term of endearment.
• Friendly = a name with a long history. Lou Anne wrote a letter which spelled Friend as FREIND, so I teased her about it by calling her FREIND. Then she called my FREINDLY...which eventually evolved into the saner version FRIENDLY
• Lia = my official nickname when I was a kid. The reason is I couldn't pronounce my name so I would say that my name is "Olia". People started calling me Lia.
• Liv = my mom's ex called me this and it sort of stuck with a certain group of friends. When I was in college I used this name too as I had a blockmate named Ria and everytime people called her I thought they were calling me.
• Livi = my office nickname. My french clients call me this and I love it. I was just teasing around and it sort of stuck. so now everyone's calling me Livi or Livie.
• Shorty = Chum used to call me this to tease me about the fact that I was short. Damn him, everyone would look like a midget beside him
• Ata = my sister calls me this. Sometimes when I feel like teasing her, I force her to call me PRETTY ATA instead. =)
• Ta Lia = my nephews call me Ta Lia as a shortcut of Tita Lia....
• Ruy has no pet name for me....but he's my PUDYOT...wahahaha just kidding. Ruy would kill me if I call him that.

--0--

I have this underwear which I bought from TOPSHOP which I think is my lucky underwear. I don't like wearing it all the time cause it's lace, and as people now lace isn't the most comfortable underwear. Anyway I was forced to wear it today as it was the only one I saw in my other house. Then, out of nowhere Ruy asked me out. I realized that the past few times I've been asked out by Ruy, I was wearing the same underwear. This is now officially named my lucky underwear. I will buy a lottery ticket tonight and try it out.

--0--

I'm sorry for all my grammar and spelling errors. I usually write my blog while talking to clients. I promise to spell check and review my posts often...or at least I'll try.

--0--

Jen made a comment that she's sure that Ruy wouldn't cheat on me as he's so into me. This is not the first time I've heard this comment. People have been telling me how obviously into me Ruy is. I'm flattered of course but then...aren't I obviously into Ruy too?

People might think I'm this evil person stringing Ruy around. But i'm not..I can be nice!!

I would have to admit that in the beginning Ruy was way more into me than I was with him. But after a year or so, the tables turned . I think I was more into him than he was into me. Now, we're on equal grounds but sometimes we still fight about who's more into who...this is why we've both decided that the inscription in our wedding ring would be :

Love You More

I'VE BEEN TAGGED ON LIFE'S SIMPLE PLEASURES...

Instructions: Name ten of life’s simple pleasures that you like the most, then pick ten people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used.So here are my ten simple pleasures:

1. One = funny, smart and evil people like Patxie, Angelique, Vicki, Michael de Villa, Friendly, Mayot, Patrick Tiongson, Jen and LOI!!
2. Two = breakfast with Ruy
3. Three = Ruy, is someone obsessed?
4. Four = Iced Tea
5. Five = Sundays playing with my sister and teasing her
6. Six = feel of Ruy's hand on my back
7. Seven = hugs
8. Eight = reading something poignant
9. Nine = talking to my favorite clients
10. Ten. = my grandmother

Your turn!! I'm tagging the following

1. Friendly
2. Patrick Tiongson
3. Van
4. Jen (ni Eric)
5. Arvi
6. Angie
7. Maeyho
8. Gewi
9. Joanne
10. RUY (even if you have no blog)...hahaha

Honey I have an IQ!!!

I just took an extremely difficult IQ test and when the results came out I was so pleased that I called a friend and said "HEY , I have an IQ!"... a statement which shows just how low my IQ really is. hehehe

Speaking of IQ, let's talk about being smart. 2 people have told me to read this book called"Smart Couples Finish Rich" (thank you JEN and DATA) I finally followed their advices and bought this book last night. I must say that I'm not disappointed, I can see the value of the book. I'm looking forward to discussing the content with RUY. I like the way Data and Benc did it, Data would read a chapter then pass it on to Benc and they would discuss it. I don't think I can do that though, I'll probably have sleepless nights reading the book then force Ruy to read it and harass it for not reading it fast enough.



I have already told Ruy we're going to have "money talk" soon. We need to lay down our expectations, what we're going to be paying for in the future. How are we splitting the expenses, what are the rules regarding giving to relatives, etc. Another important thing is finding out how much we're both worth right now. I must say that with the car, the house and wedding expenses I'm worth somewhere below zero right now...hehehe I'M POOR!!!

--0--

I can't believe that YASMIN now costs 640 (thank you CYNCH for the heads up) how can something jump 80 pesos in one month? I feel even worse cause Jen said that in the US the insurance company pays for this. Damn the Philippine Health Care System!

Up for the Challenge?

I LOVE MY COMPANY. This is just too hilarious. I know it looks silly, but we are seriously in need of people:

iTi Consulting is a Swiss international company that specializes in English distance learning. It was founded with a vision to provide superior English training using the latest in communications technology and the finest individuals in the training industry. Recognizing the presence of a highly educated English-speaking workforce in the Philippines, iTi Consulting was established in Manila and began its operations in 2003. iTi Consulting Manila is the headquarters for training and IT operations, managing worldwide operations such as those in the US and Canada. In less than 18 months, iTi Consulting has become the leader of English distance training by telephone in Europe.iTi Consulting’s success lies in its people. Its workforce consists of top-notch individuals who are dedicated to ensuring that our learners receive the finest service possible. With skill and productivity as our main recruitment criteria, we make certain that only the exceptional are hired.
IT job openings:

Senior .NET Developers

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor's/College Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology or equivalent.
• Required skills: C#, VB.Net, ASP.Net., MSSQL, OOP design principles.
• Must have more than 5 years of work experience in software development, with at least 2 years as lead developer for Web applications.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
• Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  
• Full-time positions available.
  Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or ysimon@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: Senior .NET Developers in the subject area.

Junior .NET Developers

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor's/College Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology or equivalent.
• Required skills: C#, VB.Net, ASP.Net., MSSQL, OOP design principles.
• Preferably experienced employees specializing in IT/Computer - Software or equivalent.
  Fresh graduates/beginners are also welcome to apply.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
  Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  Full-time positions available.
• Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or ysimon@iti-consulting.com.
• Indicate FR: Junior .NET Developers in the subject area.
  

Software Testers

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a High School Diploma or Bachelor's/College Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology or equivalent.
• Required skill: MSSQL.
• At least 3 years of work experience in the related field is required for this position.
  Experience in test design and planning, use/creation of automated testing tool such as Mercury WinRunner/LoadRunner or Open STA, and testing in various platforms.
  Experienced in at least 3 of the following is preferred (Functional testing, Reliability testing, Regression testing, Stress testing, Performance testing, Load testing, Bug monitoring and control).
• Should have background in the following: relational databases, Web technology, Networking, OS and Troubleshooting.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
  Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  Full-time positions available.
• Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or ratienza@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: Software Testers in the subject area.
  

.NET Architects

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a College Diploma or Post Graduate Diploma / Master's Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology or equivalent.
• Must know the design and development of Web applications and database systems and should know how to create the best Web architecture, system integrations and reviews.
  Must have more than 5 years of working experience in software development, with at least 3 years as lead developer for Web applications.
• Required skills: .NET Technology, ASP, C#, and SQL Server 2000/2005.
  Must have excellent analytical, problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
  Must have good communication skills.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Libis, Quezon City.
• Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  Full-time positions available.
• Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or ysimon@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: .NET Architects in the subject area.
  

Project Managers

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor's/College Degree or Post Graduate Diploma / Master's Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology or equivalent.
• Must have a working knowledge of project management methodology (project planning, budgeting and control, change management, issue management, requirements gathering and validation, project reporting and documentaton, etc.).
• Must have a minimum of 6 years experience in project management, specializing in software application.
• Should know how to make decisions and use the best practices in every step of the system development life cycle.
• Should know how to set directions for system standards, timely project deliverables and quality of the system being implemented by the team.
• Required skills: .NET Technology, ASP, C#, and SQL Server 2000/2005.
• Must have excellent analytical, problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Must have good communication skills.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
  Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  Full-time positions available.
  Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or ysimon@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: Project Managers in the subject area.
  

Web Design Specialists

Responsibilities:

• Create compelling user-centered visual design concepts for interactive products, optimizing the use of screen layout and user interface elements.
• Assist creative/design team in development of product strategy, including creative platfrom, storyboards, creative concepts, and production specs.
• Assess new standards, technologies and trends, and formulates strategies and plans for future enhancement of Web sites.

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor's/College Degree or Post Graduate Diploma / Master's Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology, Art & Design, Advertising/Media or equivalent.
• Should have at least 4 years of experience as Webmaster.
• Required skills: HTML, Javascript, Flash Animation.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
  Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  Full-time positions available.
  Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or apena@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: Web Design Specialists in the subject area.

Junior Database Administrators

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor's/College Degree or Post Graduate Diploma / Master's Degree in Engineering (Computer/Telecommunication), Computer Science/Information Technology or equivalent.
• Must be able to design and execute database loading, implement advanced recovery plans, backup, recovery console etc.
• At least 3 years work experience in design, management, maintenance, and administration of MSSQL 2000.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
  Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
  Full-time positions available.
  Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or cbautista@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: Junior Database Administrators in the subject area.

IT Support

Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a High School Diploma or Bachelor's/College Degree in Computer Science/Information Technology, Business Studies/Administration/Management or equivalent.
• Required skills: Windows NT/95/XP applications.
  Preferable skills: Software Development.
• Required language: English.
• Applicants must be willing to work in Eastwood, Quezon City.
• Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.
• Fresh graduates/Entry level applicants are encouraged to apply.
  Full-time positions available.
  Please send your resume to jobs@iti-consulting.com or kfernandez@iti-consulting.com. Indicate FR: IT Support in the subject area.

Ruy's Rubbers

Yup Ruy's Rubbers, his tires, actually my tires since he bought them for me. As some of you know my tires are going bonkers, apparently they're horribly mishapen and in danger of exploding if I go really fast. Leave it to RUY and ARVI to scare the shit out of me. I was already set on buying second hand tires to replace my sucky tires but noooooh Ruy and Arvi tell me that I shouldn't be scrimping on something so important. I finally concede and tell them "ok, i get your point I'll change it at the end of the month"

Ruy still is unsatisfied though and yesterday he called me to tell me he has bought tires for me. Not 2 as I originally planned but 4! GOSH, as if I could afford this right now. I'll be paying Paul Vincent, my car insurance and car registration, etc. I'm not the richest person right now. Good thing Ruy paid for it. =) I'll have to pay him back really soon...or do I? hehehe

So he insisted on waiting for me to go home last night so he can personally give me the tires. I went home at 10:30 as I went overtime once again. I felt so bad for him as I know he needs to leave early in the morning the next day. I told him he shouldn't have brought it over as I could have picked it up myself the next day, I couldn't help but laugh when he told me "but if I didn't bring it over there'd be no 'kilig' factor"...WHAT? hahaha Only Ruy can find romance in a set of tires!

I really loved seeing Ruy last night but I couldn't enjoy it cause I'm acutely aware of the fact that Ruy is tired and really needs to rest. I hate that feeling, I hate wanting him there yet knowing that he needs to be somewhere else. I used to envy those people who could demand time, money, and effort from their partners without any consideration as to their partner's current situation. I used to wish that I could be just as selfish/self-centered as them, but now I know better. I know how important it is for me to take Ruy's situation into consideration and for him to do the same to me. MUSHY.....ewwwwwwww