first day of snow

today it snowed... for 10 minutes.



then it turned into slush, then into water in a matter of minutes.



so today's snowfall turned out to look more like white dust. hehehe.

a christmas secret

in vancouver, you know it's getting closer to christmas because it's about to snow, christmas trees have replaced pumpkin patches (at least the one in steveston), ponsettias are everywhere, and a christmas surprise is here.



we haven't exactly told the whole world for sheer fear of not getting thru the first trimester but i couldn't help it! so excuse the long absence... i think i've kept the lid on long enough and will not be able to hold it for another 4 weeks. LOL.

i did try to hold on to the pregnancy test that had a positive result on it but it was too gross to keep it. it was cool though... the urine test stick turns pink after it collects enough pee, then the windows show lines and your heart beats a thousand times a minute til it's completed.

other than the paranoia and the fear that every movement will lead to either vomitting or a miscarriage, we're both excited about this curveball. at least i have an excuse for gaining weight, shopping for bigger clothes, and sleeping more than usual.

going down memory lane

tagged by Lars!

ten years ago i got out of high school alive - with fun memories of world youth day (and walking from taft to luneta in a gala uniform, then acting as markers during the mass with the pope), endless graduation practices, and class/batch song competitions.

it was the year i entered the wacky world of college, in up los banos to be exact. i was a dazed and confused freshie who wasn't used to having boys in the classroom, who vowed (on my first day nonetheless) that i was getting out of there after a year. i remember our freshman orientation day - we were given a grand tour of mt. makiling... err the uplb campus - by the public jeepney system used inside the campus (can't exactly remember what they're called since they're not the IKOT or TOKI jeeps), and i was such a dufus because i had never taken a jeep alone before so i didn't know how to pay the driver. so when everyone got out, i went to the driver's side and paid him - much to the amusement of my blockmates.

five years ago i was in my first job at a small ad agency as an account executive - a.k.a. the client's slave. i proofread, i counted merchandise (from strollers to make-up), drove all the way to quiapo to deliver ad studies, and stayed overnight at work just to get things done. by the middle of that year, i quit and became a writer in another agency (and found real friends there too!).

one year ago i packed and shipped my things from bangkok back to manila. i had completed my 2 1/2 year stint there, and had decided to go back home to settle our wedding and our immigration papers. i had said goodbye to friends who i will always hold close to my heart even if we're in different corners of the world now.

aldo got to manila a few days after i arrived, and before his jet lag even got to manila, we were in the makati city hall, giggling our way through our wedding vows, in front of a nice lady judge who had the ugliest fuschia pink curtains in her sala. in 10 minutes, we were married!

yesterday it was a wet, dreary day in vancouver. i tried reading the latest Harry Potter book but somehow, JK Rowling doesn't quite cut it for me in this book - so i'm still in the first 200 pages.

today it was sunny and comfortably cold, so i was able to run a few errands. i tried martha stewart's lemon squares recipe and it turned out pretty good!

tomorrow, thankfully, is friday - the start of the weekend! i'll be going with aldo to some light exhibit in yaletown with his co-workers, and probably have a drink in-between. as for this weekend - it's going to be Picasso for us at the vancouver art gallery!

*on a non-nostalgic-timeline related tidbit - Rent is out on the 23rd!


what's your timeline like Mik, Mai, Marj, and Jopay?

caffeine killers

i can't live without coffee - just this morning i had a peppermint mocha at starbucks (you know it's christmas when they start having those things on the menu!). goodbye maple macchiato, hello peppermint mocha and cinnamon latte!

but GULP! according to this site, i'll be dead after another 75 cups!

video shmideo

we finally got our video after a month of waiting, and there's not much to say about it except that... i'm happy they gave us the raw shots, not just the edited ones.

i never expected it to be spectacular anyway... but didn't expect it to be too darn... cliche either. darn those edited effects! oh well, that's what i get for leaving manila before the rough cut was done. grrr!

and the most annoying thing of all... the mushy intro on the dvd sleeve! it would have been almost negligible if they just left it blank, but no... there had to be an intro with typos (*insert fingernail screeching on a blackboard sound byte here). hmm... at least they didn't put yucky baduy quotes like i instructed! grr those typos... don't they even know that they should have used NUPTIALS - as it is in my invitations???

hmph! enough ranting. think happy thoughts...

thank God for raw shots!

from Turandot to Chicken Little

we were able to catch the last performance of Turandot by the Vancouver Opera last Thursday... and much like the first time I watched it in Bangkok, I was in awe of the sets, lights, and vocal performance! it was good to catch the show and watch it amidst all these graceful ladies decked with their pearls, diamonds, and wraps... there is something about watching a performance and dressing up for it that i have always loved. besides, after 7 days of runners, jeans, and sweaters, it was nice to wear leather boots, decent pants, and a dressy top for just one night.

*****

chicken little was a fun movie! the action scenes are great, although i'm sure young children will get a little frightened with some scenes. it's great that animation companies are now coming up with socially-relevant story lines with issues like self-esteem, single parenthood, and relationships. who's your favorite character? i loved kirby!

a new immigration requirement?

talk about silly reasons why spouses can be denied a visa!

"He has years' worth of phone bills showing he calls his wife three times a week, often talking for more than an hour. Ranjit writes him letters at least twice a month. There are many photographs of the pair together and hotel receipts from their trips to Delhi to visit the Canadian High Commission.

One of the government rejection letters said the pair looks too stiff in some pictures to be a real married couple.

Pannu and Ranjit "do not depict the comfort level that is visible in photographs of a married couple. You and [Pannu] look distant and aloof in the photographs," said the letter signed by Heather Dube, a first secretary at the high commission in Delhi.

Family friend and community activist Gurnam Singh Sanghera said the comment is outrageous and shows the Canadian official does not understand Sikh culture, in which public shows of affection are not typical."

hmm... good thing we didn't look aloof in our photographs then!

now what?

i have finally squeezed into the empty cabinet spaces, boxes opened and put away, and the kitchen cupboard filled. it's been a little over a month of coming home... so far, so good. i just got my permanent resident card and social insurance number in the mail last week - so now things are more official.

but after two years of a thousand thoughts a minute - moving from bangkok back to manila, planning a wedding, organizing immigration papers, and working in manila again - things have been reduced to a drastic minimum. there are no more deadlines, crammed to-do lists, and late dinners at work. only thank you cards, house-hunting, new recipes, online job sites, and in-laws.

not that i'm complaining. it's just... a different pace from what i've been used to, especially the last 2 years. just like when a big pitch comes up - brainstorm, write, edit, delete, write again, brainstorm part 2, write, then print and send materials to the AEs - after the deadline, "whew... what's next?".

yes, now is a good time to stop, think, and smell the maple macchiato... until the next steep incline comes once again.

it's wonderful. especially if you've been waiting for it for 8 long years.