Single Awareness Day

This day last year I was a singleton celebrating Valentine's Day... in an airplane. Arrived in Manila at around 10 in the evening and waited for the printer to deliver some materials I had printed. I was also rushing about since I had to be early the next day to do ingress for an exhibit. Little did I know that the person I had a belated Valentine's merienda with (well not really to celebrate Valentine's) would become my Sweetie!

I couldn't stop laughing over my dear friend Sorsi's recount of how her family and friends in the US have been trying to set her up with someone, anyone actually. Head over to That Girl Was Me and check out her latest adventures. I know I'm the one to blame for some of the horrors she went through recently and I try my best to cheer her up and motivate her to hang-on and aim to get the best. Hey, I waited years before I got found by the right one and here's how I managed to hang-on:

1. I read books! I went through Joshua Harris' "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and "Boy Meets Girl", Greg Bernhardt's "He's Just Not Into You", "The Rules" (forgot who the author is sorry), and the best was Bo Sanchez' "How to Find Your One True Love".

2. I met boys! At some point I really didn't want to date anymore. I made a mandate not to date anyone for a whole year after my last relationship. Why? To prevent rebound since it was a 7-year long relationship. I only actually started dating 2 years after only to get frustrated since I didn't realize that even friends would be such boleros. After reading Kuya Bo's book, I kept myself busy and did my homework of meeting 5 single guys every week.

3. I made friends! I will not be a hypocrite and say I did not start falling for some of them, but hey I'm a girl and it's quite easy for girls to fall. I knew though when to stop and did not give my heart to any of them. I also made it a point to keep the boys I met as friends (save for a couple who became Mr. Hyde after a while). I also managed to make a lot of new friends last year from all over the country (and the world).

4. I made peace with my past! It's kinda strange but I always felt that I would only find the right one once I made peace and put closure to my past. It was kinda weird but each one of them just showed up one by one early last year and the last one just popped up just before new year.

5. I kept busy! My work kept me sane since I was always doing one thing and another. I also tried out doing new things, bugged old and new friends. I remember Kuya Bo's book had a list of suggestions on what you could do as a singleton.

I did give up and thought I'd remain single forever. Good thing the Daddy and son tandem I had as seatmates in the airplane kept me sane. I made up my mind then that my life would just be about my family, work, some interests and perhaps study for a doctoral degree, but maybe, maybe because I was closer to heaven when I was saying my prayer, God heard my last plea and granted my prayer.


Here's a funny video that's quite appropriate for Valentine's day -

Love, Music and Friendship

My brain's been muddled up lately with a lot of things (isn't that usual?) and I just don't really know what to blog about! Too many things buzzing around my head and I just couldn't get a handle on what I should post about. Well... I did manage to post something on my work blog about the newest gadget on iGoogle (Blogger Play) after realizing I haven't done a post for 2 weeks already and something about bridal showers in the Twisted Wedding Planner. See? Sometimes it's really better to have a niche blog, at least you know what exactly you should post about. Sigh.

So, I'm doing a random thoughts post. Pffffttt.

1. "You'll just know," is what all my married friends told me when I asked them about "How will you know if he's the one?" And after ranting about my ideal guy, my type of guy, whether it's better to be single or married, I finally have an answer! Yes! The sky is fantastically falling! I finally have a love story to tell. And, I think, my Dad's poem for my Mom (which he wrote about 50 years ago) says it best. You will just know. And for my Gtalk contacts... sorry for being so mushy and cheesy the past few weeks. Tao lang po. LOL.

2. Love is simple. I always believed that love is not complicated. That when it comes, it just falls right into place. No hitches. No hassle. No apprehensions. No anxiety. And the best thing is to be with your best friend. I've met a lot of guys. And I've even made a list on what kind of guys to stay away from based on my experience. It's gotten so bad that I really given up and I was entertaining spinsterhood thoughts on my way back from the US. LOL.

3. Rachel Anne Wolfe and the Aquarela Band. Attended Rachel Anne Wolfe's "Cool" album launch at Fully Booked last October 12, Friday with Sweetie. If you're a child of the 80s I'm sure you'd remember Rachel Anne Wolfe since she's one of GMA's stars. I was quite surprised that she sings (well I don't really remember) and she's still very pretty. She was very down to earth and very much into the internet like her brother, Richard Merk who couldn't stop saying "Google made my life easier!" when I met him.

I also met the Aquarela Band couple, Miguel and Evelyn Juteau, who does bossa nova. I've only listened to a sample of their work in the Multiply account and will most probably borrow Sweetie's CD. I think it would be interesting to listen to since the snippet showed me a different take on bossa nova music. Too bad I missed Sitti's recording of her new album! Arggghhh. Jetlag!!!

I was too shy to have my photo taken with Rachel Anne Wolfe, but I managed to have one taken with the couple (Photo by Jay).


4. Meeting a famous composer. When my best friend and I started hanging out last January, I've experienced meeting a number of celebrities because of him and I've always been starstruck (and when you're in a roomful of media people, it gets quite obvious hehe). Ewanko ba ambabaw ko kasi eh. And when I met famous, award-winning composer, Trina Belamide (she "Tell the World of His Love", "Now that I have You", "You've Made Me Stronger) among others), I was starstruck again. Sweetie's always full of surprises, I dunno who I'm going to meet next. Hehehe, I don't think I'll get used to it ever.

Here's one of her award-winning songs (Overall Second Prize, 1999 USA
Songwriting Competition) -



5. My brain's really mashed up, so here are some photos from the past week -

Taste Asia "3" with Jehzeel, Andrew, Karlo and Miguel. Thanks to Bella of SM Hypermarket for assisting me when I did some grocery shopping! (Photo from Andrew)


At Bonifacio High Street with Andrew, Jay (a.k.a. Sweetie), Juned, Rico and Sasha. (Photo from Andrew)


My second family during Mabel's despidida de soltera. "So who's next?" my Mom asked. (Photo from Micholle taken by Sweetie). (See? Miguel's taller than me now!).