Happy Birthday Dad!

What better way to start the birthday month than by my dad's birthday!!! He cracks me up, annoys the hell out of me, hugs me still, wonders "How are kidneys attached inside the body?" among countless random things, fixes everything broken, owns only four pairs of shoes (!?!?!), explains majority of if not all things to us, has the best handwriting (script or not), is the most kuripot, simple, the how does stuff work dude - I can go on and on!

Let me count the ways!!! xoxo Daddy! Happy Birthday! 

Matt & Nat + Mommy's Birthday

I enjoy walking around aimlessly around department stores just looking. Lately, I have been indulging in this guilty pleasure at Bloomingdale's. These bags from Matt & Nat caught my eye -- well that happens a lot.

The Santogold Shoulder Bag $185

Hendrix Mini / Crossbody Bag $165

They look great on, are cross functional and are well priced. They're eco-friendly too! The leather's synthetic but don't feel 'crunchy' and the lining's made out of plastic and yet have a suede-y soft feel to the touch. The brand site states that they average 21 recycled bottles to line one handbag. That, IMHO, is coolness.  We're all trying to find ways to go green right?  Happy Earth Day! =) 

It's not only mother nature's day but more importantly our mother's birthday. I may not always appreciate and agree with her but one thing I do know is that she always, always has our best intentions at heart. With that in mind, I try my bestest to look at the bigger picture and understand. Cheers! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!! =)=)=)

I Am 28!

Oh what a summer it has been! Days just spent in the City with friends, waking up late to family & Isabel and om-ing and namaste-ing. School starts tomorrow and an internship at Bendel starts next week. It will get interesting! One last semester!!!

Cheers to aging gracefully and to the start of my favorite season. Fall!! It's a "Beautiful Day"... Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes!!

It's Earth Day / Mommy's Birthday

I first got wind of Earth Day vacationing in the US in the early 90s. We were at a Department Store, I think Macy's, and there was a stall giving out Earth Day stickers. Of course when you're of tween age stickers are always fun to go with your stationery diba? Didn't think much of what Earth Day was. These days, it's THE movement in anything and everything. Banks, manufacturing companies, retailers, advertising, products, newspapers are all on the go green bandwagon. Sustainability, eco-friendly, organic, green etc are now everyday words on all media platforms. These are five mini ways I'm in on the bandwagon:

• BYOB - and by B I mean bag and bottle. I keep 2-3 huge canvas bags in the trunk of my car for when I do the grocery shopping but kind of worry about the proliferation of these reusable bags though. As a commuter, my bag is my house and of course keeping it light is a must. It's much more convenient to buy water and throw it out as soon as you drink up. It's tough lugging around a heavy bag. Lately, I've felt guilty so I started using my neglected Starbucks coffee mug/tumbler to bring water along and just go to the school water fountain for refills. When I go shopping and my bag is big enough, I just shove my purchase into it. I don't need another H&M plastic bag or Club Monaco paper bag.
  
• Go Paperless - the amount of mailers, catalogs, credit card offers, coupons etc.. that you get in the post in the US is ridiculous. I was signed up for Anthropologie, Free People, Urban Outfitters, J.Crew, Victoria's Secret, Barneys among many, many retailers. I have started calling the help line for most of them and have asked to be taken off their mailing lists. Why not just sign up for online updates? I recently signed up for paperless banking statements too. I use a lot of paper being in school. If I can access notes online, I don't bother printing them out and use hand outs as scratch paper. I appreciate professors who prefer emailing your homework to them. Although we have free online access to WWD, I get the daily paper in the mail for bus/subway ride entertainment. I make sure I put it out for recycling though.
  
• Lights Out - This one's self explanatory. When something's not in use or you're out of the room, switch it off or unplug it. I also use Blackle as my search engine.
  
• Mapping My Route - I plan my way when I have errands to run and places to go to. Don't really like driving aimlesly unless I want to disappear. I only drive on weekends now and kind of miss it but hey, commuting is one way of helping the environment right? I fear the day when gas prices sky rocket again. Summer gas prices are just around the corner. I believe the mini gets around 32 MPG which is pretty good.
  
• Eco Products Awareness - I think this one is a little tricky because it's the IN thing now. As there is no standard seal or logo for eco friendly merchandise how can you be sure that what the label is saying is accurate??? Any manufacturer can just slap on a tag/label with the words green, organic, sustainable, earth friendly. The government should come up with a standard seal, kind of like the energy star logo. Eco fashions wise, Barneys has been carrying, supporting Loomstate and just recently eco lines from Stella McCartney and Phillip Lim. The Barneys that just opened in Chicago is LEED Certified. I'm also liking that eco fashions are hitting mainstream. Banana Republic just rolled out their second eco line. When you browse through the BR's site, look for the green elephant! I recently went to a Sustainability Conference at FIT where I learned about the growing number of green companies like Terracyle who "upcycles" and Design Green Now. I want a green roof!!! Clothes and accessories made out of recycled material were also on display. Anyways, as eco merchandise gain popularity, I hope a watchdog will be put up to educate and protect consumers. For now, I bug my textiles professor with questions on organic fabrics and such.
  

We haven't discovered how to survive in Mars yet so we're all stuck here. May we all find our own mini ways of helping mother nature out.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!

27th

An all time favorite song can explain this year's mood

Sergeant: "Nothing Personal Miss"

Cars were crawling because of the Labor Day long weekend traffic rush. I decided to take not so familiar back roads to avoid the highways with the help of my navigator and I get pulled over for speeding. Just great. The one day I go off the usual route, this happens. I was going 43mph on a 25mph zone daw on radar. I tried crying/birthday dramatics and "I don't need this right now" to get off but I guess I'm not a good artista. Buti hindi ko siya kinareer when I had the chance 21 years ago.

Sabi ko pa: "Please let me go (parang ikukulong), I promise to pay more attention next time. I'm not familiar with this area and I was just mindlessly following my GPS to avoid traffic "

Ang sagot: "Nothing personal Miss! Just appear in court and plead not guilty and I'm sure you'll get off easy given this is your first offense on record" Pucha if court would let it pass why couldn't he just do it??? Sa isip ko translation: " It's the end of the month and I need to reach my quota" Jerk!!! Boo!

Bear with me, first timer na mahuli talaga eh. Sige na, speeding na. I guess it was bound to happen but the timing amazes me. Now I'm going to be $105 poorer (better to just pay the fee than the hassle of taking a day off to go to court) with 4 license points to my name, I think it only takes 6 to get really screwed. Points which don't go away for at least a year.

Lesson learned na. Susundin na po yung speed limit. Pero to our dear Sgt. --- Have a nice life, I hope I'll always be the girl you gave a speeding ticket to 1.5 days before her birthday! I hope your kids don't get "nothing personal" when they start speeding later on. Congratulations on making your dollars this month.

From now on, I will be more aware of speed limits and will avoid back roads as much as possible too as I think I'm just not cut out to go that slow. You'll always remember the first time.

Work Email Galore

I went back to work today. A new pc with 656 emails was waiting for me. AAAah. That's why they say you need a vacation from your vacation. Oh brother.
PS. my niece is a year old today!!! ang bilis ng oras.

Past A Quarter Of A Century

Almost there 26. Not bad at all. I somehow feel at ease this year. It's a process...all in the process.

Oh! Can't wait for Toronto.

Birthday Gift

My birthday last Thursday was pretty quiet. What made it different I guess would be me being in California and getting carded buying the lottery at a gas station and at the casino. It’s kind of neat not looking your actual age. At least in the US of A where I’m dwarfed by absolutely everyone lengthwise and crosswise. It was my first time to actually play the slots. You see, I’d really rather shop with the money. I’m an instant winner that way. Haha. I played a couple of hours and was winning. I should have stopped there and then. Greed took over so I started losing. Hmph! Shopping? Slot Machines? Shopping? Slot Machines? Hands down it still is s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g.

I got an uber yummy cake from CF and flowers from my best friend. That’s about it. If I didn’t turn my life upside down again I would be toting A BAG by now. That has to be put off for now. Moving is a b-i-t-c-h emotionally, physically, mentally and financially.


So this is what making grown up decisions is like. Harharhar. Deciding to take the job offer in San Francisco was crazy tough. Deciding to give it up and switch directions just like that was even more crazy-tough. But I knew it was the decision I had to make for myself. It felt like I was putting myself at stake so I had to get things under control. Opportunities like that don’t come a dime a dozen so you can imagine the raised brows that I got. At the end of day, it still is my decision whether right or wrong and I will stick by it. Believe me when I say that I will make it right if it were the wrong decision. It’s going to be crazy but I’ll get by. I know I will. I’m going to miss having power/control over zillions of units of inventory. That rush was better than any other high I felt. I don’t think I ever did talk about what I exactly did for Old Navy. I will one of these days. I’m running out of battery right this minute and I of course checked in my charger. Great. Our flight’s been delayed thrice here in Detroit because of Mr. John Hurricane. This airport is jinxed. Every single time I’ve had a layover here, some sh*t happens. Fabulous.

Anyway, I was so afraid I’d miss it. So it’ll be my birthday gift this year. Experiencing my favorite season – Fall!!!

Mini Turned One

And I forgot all about it!!!! I brought the mini to the dealer today for it's first 10000 miles service. The guy doing our paperwork commented that "Hey, your mini just turned one last week!" She's a piece of home that I brought with me here in SF. I love it to death!!!! This photo was taken when I just got to Cali. I was showing my brother where I would be a corporate slave.

Happy Birthday Mini!!!

Today I am thankful for:

- having a mini cooper! (thanks to my mom and dad!!!)

115 Days Before Christmas

Yup! I turn 24 today so those are the X number of days before Christmas. I've just always taken a mental note of that. -BER months na!

Anyway, I just felt like re-posting/linking these, like a birthday wish sort of thing. I don't want to fry my brain thinking of "Who am I?", "What's my purpose in life?", "Why this and that?" sort of reflections at all today of all days. I'm going to just be in the moment.

• the theme
• the plan
• the hope

I long for days like these...

and these! HAHAHA! =)

Man, I'm not 23 anymore! CRAP! har dee har har!!! =) Cheers to the end of August!!!

Ms.Chievous

Fedex was ringing our buzzer as soon as I went down our stairs. Aba! The package was for me! One of my bestest friends, Val , sent me a melon message tee from Kids of Bayo! Whatever happened to their copycat case?! Well anyhow, it said "Hi! My name is Ms. Chievous!" in white glittery letters. It's sooo the two of us. Val, if you're reading this, you better have the exact same shirt!!! Super thanks, thanks! =)

The news is still about Ms. Katrina Hurricane. What a maldita!!! Boy, was she furious!?! It's good that they really made evacuation mandatory. If they didn't, we'll be seeing Asian Tsunami- like footages again. "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn..." nga talaga! The impact is WTF!?! but they have systems in place so that's pretty much organized and being taken cared of. Martial Law has been declared in New Orleans. I hope they stay calm and see that this is for their own benefit.

Last night, a very good friend of mine used the PC to PC calling feature of YM. It works fine. But then, he didn't have a microphone so I was the only one talking to a laptop like a mental person while he answered through chat. Oh boy, you BETTER get a microphone now. Anyway, I've got to get ready to face another retail day. I hope the jungle will be calmer.

7 Days To Go

When I woke up this morning, there was a mini rainbow about two feet radius up against one wall of my room. It was very pretty. I stood up and tried to figure out where it was coming from. This has been my room for the past five months and this is a first. I couldn't help but wonder if it should mean something or it was a sign.

That's my second rainbow sighting since I moved. The first one was one afternoon in Hoboken. That was very pretty that we had to stop the car and take a look. The rainbow arched along the Hudson River overlooking Downtown Manhattan. I should have had a camera!!

Anyway, I'm turning 24 in a couple of days. It's been a sort of habit of mine to think of what I did on my birthday the past year. This time, I couldn't recall what I did!?! It's weird but I could remember what I did the day before and the day after but not on the day itself. Memory lapse!?! WTF!?! I've got to find my old tickler to see just what I did. This will bug me until I know. I've got nothing planned at all. I didn't realize that it was inching it's way near me until I got my work schedule for next week. There is one thing I can do though, it's just quite expensive. Let's see...

"I'm SUPERGIRL!!!"

Yesterday was my daddy's birthday, we all took the day off and spent the day at Six Flags. Inspite of everything that's happening to me, I managed to have a few laughs. Happy Birthday Daddy! mwah! We first went to check out the Wild Safari. You drive your own car or take the tour bus through a safari. I never realized ostriches were HUGE! Besides that, we saw rhinos, giraffes, zebras (such fashionistas with their stripes =) ), LLAMAS ( I immediately had a picture of The Emperor's New Groove), peacocks, bears, siberian tigers, elk, antelopes etc... etc... It's amazing. I can only imagine how absolutely enthralling the African wild must be. I bugged my parents to take us to Africa first than Europe instead.

After that, we went to the main theme park and got in line for Superman. What an amazing ride. They strap or harness you in such a way that you're on your belly or face down in the duration of the loops, camel backs, s-turns and all. I stretched out my hands like super heroes do and screamed and screamed and screamed. It came from absolute exhiliration and frustration. In my head, I was sort of hoping that I'd scream away the pain that I was feeling. We went to the Great Amercian Scream (which I want to scream at because it basically just battered us), Skull Mountain (this reminded me of those Star City rides), and Nitro. Nitro was amazing too. I love coasters that have loads of ups and downs. It's not dizzying and you get to maximize the thrill of the ride unlike those with loops which ends in seconds. We got on the Sky Lift where we saw the whole of the park from above. No wonder they call New Jersey the Garden State. It really is lush with trees! You won't even see the sky high coasters from the freeway. The new coaster KingDa Ka was closed for the day. I think something's wrong with it. I think that's one ride I might not be able to take. Imagine dropping down in a vertical spiral???? Ack! Maybe if I were still in my teens I'd go on it no doubt. I noticed that as I pack in the years, I start getting apprehensive of adrenaline rides. Now, I usually have to psyche myself before I go on. I check whether I'd get dizzy or not. Naku! I better make the most of my un-afraid days. As you get older, you not only have to consider your fear but also your blood pressure. =)

On other things, I had my road test today. I failed without even starting. You see, I didn't bring the same I.D. I used for my Knowledge Test. DRAT! We had to go all the way back home just to get my passport. When I had everything and was allowed to go on, I got the parallel parking bit in one try. Thank Goodness! So I PASSED that try. After that, I had to get my permit validated for the provisional license. ARGH! They looked for a proof of billing address which I didn't have. ARGH! We had to go home AGAIN and get a bank statement. Imagine, going to the DMV three times in a day???? I definitely should've passed. Anyway, my shiny license is safe in my wallet. I can drive unsupervised now although I'm not even too keen on that. I'm too tamad! I'd rather get fetched. How spoiled! I admit it! I never once felt compelled in my bones to learn how to drive even back in the Phils. because I always had a driver waiting around for me. Oh well, things change. I wonder if I'll be eating my words when the car arrives.

I'm going to try getting earlier sleep tonight. I woke up at 4am all panicky and almost hyperventilating not because of my road test but because of ...oh well...