I love my new crash pad!
Ten reasons why I love 1703 West of Ayala Condominium, Gil Puyat Avenue:
1. It’s within walking distance to Greenbelt, Glorietta, Warehouse135, Saguijo, and just about any gimmick place in Makati. And oh, RCBC tower (which matters only if I decide to work @ CAPEX)
2. I share it with Marj, Pola, and Yen - three savvy girls I definitely get along with.
3. The lobby is awesomely hotel-esque and the entire place is well-maintained.
4. Our shower has a heater! Our room has an aircon! And a full-length mirror too!
5. We have an actual stove in the purty purty kitchen.
6. McDo, Ministop, and BPI are less than 50 steps away.
7. Gym with a working treadmill. Nuf said.
8. CY wouldn’t have to go far to visit me. We can see each other every damn day.
9. We have cable, wuhooo! (as if I watch TV often)
10. There are plenty of pirated DVD stalls just around the corner.

Au revoir Prince David and Katipunan!

I can’t believe I watched You Changed My Life in GB1 yesterday… Opening night and, more than an hour before the screening time, the line was already so fuggin’ long. We were s’posed to watch at GB3 but the tickets were sold out already. (BTW, we saw Christian Bautista there)

The movie was… ehh. Well, you know how I feel about pinoy romantic comedies, especially those that use song titles as movie titles. It’s just indicative of the amount of originality and creativity infused in the film. The only semblance of “creativity” was how the producers shamelessly promoted John’s and Sarah’s endorsements in the movie: Belo, Greenwich, Biogesic, and Jollibee. Branding, tsktsk, low budget obviously. I tried to keep an open mind, believe me… but the movie was everything I expected it to be: shallow, cliche-filled, and just plain ohhhh pleaaaaaaase. Typical. Some things just never change.

When John Lloyd first appeared on screen, the collective “awww” from the audience was too hard to pass up. POTEK. I just don’t get all the fuss about that guy. He’s neither cute nor hot - in fact, he even has a daddy-ish vibe about him and I don’t see the appeal. He’s not even a good actor; Rayver Cruz, Joross Gamboa, and Gio Alvarez (aba kilala ko naman sila, so don’t call me an elitist) outperform him by a mile. For one, John Lloyd’s English diction needs much improvement. He’s been in the acting industry quite a long time already and I don’t understand why his acting doesn’t come off as natural. He doesn’t transcend the role and the discriminatory viewer is always aware that he is just acting.

Sarah Geronimo, on the other hand, has a natural sincerity about her. It’s hard not to emphatize with her character - not because I can relate with her experiences, again, ohhhh pleaaaaaase. But her quirkiness is simply contagious and I can’t think of a better actress for her role (although that’s probably because I haven’t actually watched a lot of pinoy movies in this genre).

From the perpetually annoying “bebe ko… bebe ko? bebe ko! bebe ko…” to the hilarious POWER HUG! POWER KISS!… maybe the movie wasn’t so bad after all, props to Sarah, Rayver, Joross, and Gio. But please bonk me on the head if you catch me about to waste my time on another one of those films.

But then again, at the end of the day, it’s who I watch it with that really matters.

Remind me again why I have to attend Risk Management class today when:

1. Our teacher has consistently been coming to class unprepared and I end up either not learning, learning something wrong, or not paying attention at all.

2. We spend half the period listening to our teacher make a speech about how disappointed he is with our performance. I don’t understand how he can have such high expectations for his students when he is clearly not qualified to teach the subject matter and it seems as though he isn’t taking the necessary measures to remedy this shortcoming.

3. I think I can gain a better understanding of the topics if I spend the time reading the book on my own instead. After all, his lectures are pulled straight from the book and his additional input, if there be any, are mostly erroneous.

4. The reasons to attend class are the same reasons to ditch class:
    a. Midterm exam results will be given today. I’m sure I did pretty okay with the exam; not an A, but definitely not a B-minus. But with the way our teacher has been discussing our answers to certain questions, I’m expecting the worst. Although I’d like to know how I did, I’d also like to keep the last remaining shred of respect I have for our teacher.
    b. Teacher evaluations will be conducted today. While I’d like to copy this entire post on the evaluation sheet, I’m afraid of doing something that I will someday regret. As a student, it’s a difficult position to be in when your teacher happens to be a close friend. The math department is to blame for placing us in this position. However, our teacher should also be held responsible for making sure that this awkward relationship does not compromise his teaching and our learning.
    c. Today is the very last day of class, possibly for the rest of our lives. The previous set of classes have not been very good and as much as I don’t want remember those as my last classes, I fear that, given the way that Risk Management classes have been going, there’s no way to go but down.

As much as I’d like to act like a responsible student, at least for the last remaining days of our academic lives, attending class just borders on impractical and pointless.

I heard the news from my mom that Mary Saludares passed away after a fatal car accident in Edgewood last week. Up to now, I’m still in disbelief. After reading all the blog posts of Mary’s friends (mostly from ballet), sadness about her death is somehow replaced by a nostalgic yet light feeling of blessedness for being one of the people whose lives Mary was able to touch. She was truly one in a million. Rarely can you ever find someone who can make you feel comfortable in an instant. She was one of my first few friends when I danced for Steps, possibly the most graceful dancer I have ever gotten to know.

Anyway, the news…

Mary Saludares, a 20-year-old member of The Washington Ballet Studio Company, was struck and killed by a car Friday night in Edgewood, State Police said.

The award-winning company was scheduled to perform Sunday at 4 and 7:30 at at Howard Community College’s Smith Theater as part of the Candlelight Concert Society’s Family Series, but The Washington Ballet announced in a release that it had canceled the remainder of its tour. The release said the group was on tour in Harford County when the accident occurred.

According to the State Police, Saludares was crossing Route 24 at Edgewood Road just after 10 p.m. when she was struck by a southbound silver Chevrolet Impala driven by Robert Kane of Abingdon. Saludares was pronounced dead at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center.

State Police were investigating the accident.

“No words can describe the pain of losing Mary,” said The Washington Ballet Artistic Director Septime Webre. “She was not only a beautiful dancer, but a radiant soul who emitted peace and joy. The entire TWB family mourns her passing and extends its thoughts and prayers to Mary’s family.”

Saludares began dancing at the age of 6 under Sofia Elizalde and Raul Sauz at Steps Dance Studio in Manila, Philippines. In 2006, she received the highest Royal Academy of Dance Award, the Solo Seal. She had the honor of being the first Filipino entry in the 2006 Adeline Genée International Ballet Competition.

In 2004, she received the Luva Adameit Award in the first NAMCYA Ballet Competition in the Philippines. She later attended the School of American Ballet and The Washington School of Ballet’s Release Time year-round program. She was selected to join The Washington Ballet Studio Company for its 2008-2009 season, achieving one of her dreams of moving from student to professional.

Saludares is survived by her father, José M. Saludares Jr.; her mother, Marissa S. Saludares; and two brothers, Patrick Vincent Saludares and Bryan Joseph Saludares.

Students and staff are being offered grief counseling services. A memorial service is being planned for early March in Washington to honor Saludares. A private family funeral will be held in the Philippines in the coming days.

There are slow days and there are days like today. My thesismates-slash-roommates and I spent half the day cramming – no, not cramming – “finalizing” our thesis paper and presentation. It’s not that we dint manage our time wisely, it’s just that 24 hours per day is never enough for a magis thesis like ours. Add to that the fact that we got our thesis topic 2 months into the 2^nd semester, props to our favorite character in the Math Department.

 I was mildly panicking this morning because we still dint have our paper and presentation on this day of our report and I had to proctor an exam from 10:30am-12nn. Thank god Ate Edith found a replacement. Geez, it’s our effing finals week, I don’t think it’d kill them to stay out of my frikken ass for this goddamned week.

Anyway, our thesis “defense” was scheduled for 1:30pm at the Math Dept. We finished our final paper 1:00pm. Jaah and I rushed to the netcaf downstairs to have it printed and photocopied. Before we left the printing place, we realized that we dint have a title page yet. I wasn’t able to note down the title that we used for the powerpoint presentation so we ended up guessing the title – and it turned out to be right naman (yay, go memory space!). We couldn’t decide whether to include the title page in our photocopies and I don’t know why we did. We ended up short on cash to pay for the photocopies so we had to pool our barya – and I’m not just talking about 1-peso and 5-peso coins na may halaga – we ended up counting 10-centavo and 5-centavo coins (as in yung mga coins na may butas!) praying that they would total to one peso. Why oh why did we include the title pages?!

Since we were almost late and the weather was unforgivingly hot, we had to take a trike to Ateneo. I had to pay the fare since Jaah’s and Zah’s wallets were already emptied - thanks to the friggin’ title pages, haha. I swore pa naman to survive on just P300 this week and, well, that’s a lost cause. When we got to the dept, Tups wasn’t even there yet. *slow clap*

During our report, Tups kept on asking stupid questions because, well, she’s Tups. Fortunately, DocMara was able to get the theoretical aspect of our report, otherwise sayang naman. He commented that our report was one of the most mathematically-grounded ones among all the reports so far – and that’s saying a lot. Just a simple smile from DocMara would make all our eyebag-building nights worth it. But a smile wasn’t all that we got, he actually said that our report was “excellent” and he seemed very impressed. He should be.

VaRmates… I’M SO PROUD OF US! It’s finally oh-VaR!

Gimme an A!!

Remember that game in Grade School? Where you say “I love you because” and add a phrase describing some or all of the people in the room… like “you’re wearing glasses” or “you suck at math”… and the people described have to trade places with each other? Well… This is nothing like that.

I love you because…
- We have so much in common yet we’re so different
- I’m completely myself around you
- You’re spontaneous and paranoid at the same time
- There’s never a dull moment when you’re around
- You’re driven and ambitious
- You listen to me whine
- You’re the yin to my yang.
- I miss you all the frikken time
- You can be adorably stupid sometimes
- You’re adventurous and you love to travel
- You’re musically-inclined and that’s hot
- I sometimes feel that you can read my mind
- You talk about your family a lot
- You’re an awesome kisser
- Everything feels right and it just keeps getting better
- I don’t feel self-conscious when I’m with you
- You go all the way to Katipunan just to see me
- We are both cursed; I’m a freak magnet and you’re a becky magnet.
- Suddenly I feel calm
- You set your goals and you work hard… but not too much
- You’re uninhibited and you take initiative
- You’re sensitive and cheesy sometimes
- You’re opinionated
- You’re simple and practical, just like I am
- You’re a total gentleman
- You’re mature but you act like a kid sometimes
- I just want to be around you all the time
- Your clothes always look great on you but I wish you’d gain some weight
- You always ask about my day
- I get you
- You get me

*sigh*

1. If god is anything like what i imagined him to be, then god will understand.
2. It’s like meeting a total stranger and realizing that he’s your soulmate… while you’re on your honeymoon.
3. If this isn’t love, then I don’t know what love is.

Dang, I’m in love.