POETS night

music : norah jones' "what did you say?"

just got back from payday friday pub outing w/ my co-teachers. tres musketeras were in full attendance. met new people from my school. an art teacher, another english teacher and a sub who want to be a full time teacher. i had a good time. i opened my big mouth again and quipped that i don't like a certain colleague because he's too loud and i think he as ADD, i later found out that B, one of the guys who we were drinking with was actually a close friend of ADD teacher. oh well, blame it on 2 tall glasses of blue moon.

poets night by the way stands for Piss On Everything, Tomorrow's Saturday. nobody pissed on anything because we three had 2 drinks each so we were pretty much just buzzed. S was hysterical and can be such a potty mouth. K of course was her usual genial, composed and cool self. the two filled me in on office gossip. i'm not sure i liked what i found out.

anyway, tomorrow i go back for the HSPA review session.

i just want to crawl to bed after a long hot shower.

have a great weekend!

torn, a boring afternoon, and a new friend, prospect rackets

background music : hollaback girl by gwen stefani

the highschoolers at iskul bukol had half a day today. good for them. the teachers? well we had to stay the whole day for professional development crap.

i dislike these things. sometimes we get good workshops though, but most of the time? it's a waste of our time. teachers get to experience how it is to be students for a change. we sit on our asses for a few hours listening to some experts prattle on an on about how we can teach better, ladidadidah. another thing i dislike about such time consuming workshops is i get to witness how some of my well meaning colleagues can get really annoying and well, overachievers.

i usually position myself in the farthest table, preferably on the corner of a table near the exit because i have to pee all the time. this afternoon i sat with the ed box and english teachers. good thing S came well armed with reproducible word puzzles so we were engaged, pretending to take notes on the seminar.

so after the two hour ordeal, we were set free with new strategies to bring into the classroom. good luck.

the only consolation i had on today's workshop is i got to entertain my group mates with my commentaries on the workshop. S, another english teacher was amused and amazed at how "bad" i am. she said she always thought i was this meek little thing smiling and gliding my way along the hallways of iskul bukol. i gave her a hearty chuckle. moi? meek? that's precious.

this is S's first year in teaching.she is disheartened by the system, the kids, by her own inexperience. i told her the first year is always the worst. it only gets better. after a few more minutes we said our goodbyes and we left off w/ a feeling that we both made a new friend in each other. but wait there's more, there's a third musketeer in the picture, K. she teaches the same kids that i teach. she's very nice. very positive and very pretty. patient and always encouraging. we said we should go out for drinks tomorrow, since it payday friday. maybe we will.

in other news, i just landed myself a part time job as a lecturer/reviewer for the language arts component of the High School Proficiency Assessment. my parder , the math teacher who teaches next door, and i are going to try our best to prep some kids for the test every saturday, form 9-12. what did i get myself into?

in some other news, R from the technology dept asked me if i would consider teaching basic technology applications to adult non native english speakers. me teach technology?! hold your horses tonto, it's just basic email, web surfing and word application how to stuff. so if the budget pushes through, i might have another work two nights a week teaching mostly parents how to make an email account, surf the web, chat and what not.

whew. and i still tutor richard and olivia. not that i'm complaining.
yet.

bahala na si batman. joke. salamat po at may trabaho ako.

sicko

ayan, ganyan ang nangyayari sa taong gustong mag cut sa trabaho. i filed an ansence today because i think i need a mental health day. and guess what watson, i think i really am coming down with something.

punyemet na ito oo. and i thought i'll be gallivanting in the mall and do all my errands today.


gusto ko ng lugaw na may maraming luya, kalamansi at patis.

of wheels and cycles

tomorrow, i go back to work after a restful week off. tomorrow, incidentally marks one year of when my life and world just came tumbling down last year. it started with my california trip, and things were never the same again.

yesterday Z (yes christina, i heard yah) and i went to a relationship seminar at times square church. it was a very promising and inspiring seminar which would benefit a lot of couples ans singles alike. i'm glad i went there.

i also cooked my first pasta dish in loooong time. i made a simple tuna-capers-anchovy tomato based sauce. z liked it, i did too. it was such a refreshing feeling to see such an appreciative face after preparing a simple enough dish. ang sarap ng feeling na may nag sasabi ng "wow! this is so nice" o di ba, nakalimutan ko na ang ganong feeling. usually it was my friends candy and norboert who would be my special guests for such meals, but now that they are on the other side of the country... i just might feed the atlantic city posse some pasta if i get bored.

moonshine has told me of peter walsh's book about living richly with less stuff and again, this is a win from moonshine. i am so psyched to purge my apartment, i am thinking of giving the term spring cleaning its real meaning. dut du-ruh-rhat... irona mode si inday


z finally figured out the reason behind his sleepiness here in my place. he said my place is poorly lit. when he found out i had 15 watt light bulbs he gave me his usual smile and roll of the eyes that said "i can't believe it." and so today at walgreens we got those energy saver bulbs and my dining area/living area just came to life. and i am awake at 12:30 in the morning.

march is just around the corner, a few more weeks and its our bahamas getaway.. screee!!!! i have approximately 4 weeks to wait before its warm enough to run again. career-in ba talaga ang prep sa beach bum getaway.

on more serious things. i just word from my mom who is in sydney right now helping out with my late aunt's family. she sounded quite sad, which is normal considering our loss. it's a good thing she has a great sense of humor. i got to speak to my 2 year old cousin. when i asked her where her mom is she said "she's in heaven." it seems quite surreal for me still. i am glad and blessed to have spoken to her before she passed. i am glad we were able to clear things between us.

i will say goodbye to my weekend and long week breaks with z as he begins his new job, i'll take this joffin time to restructure my home, organize my apartment, read my books, work out and visit old friends whom i have lost in touch for almost 6 years. talk my ears off the phone with family and friends. ladidadida.

cheers to a fruitful and pleasant week ahead!

winter bummer

palagi na lang. kung kelan bakasyon, saka may snow day. so here i am, enjoying the final weekday of my winter recess while my bruce is burried in almost 9 inches of snow.

c and i made it back to b'field late monday evening. bilib din ako sa taong ito, i've never met anyone who sleeps as much as he does. kulang na lang mag tantrum ako't magtatalon sa kama para lang gumising ang hitad. buti na lang cute ang mokong, but oh well, guess where he is right now and what he's doing?

Zzzzzz again of course.

hemingway, we spent tuesday in brooklyn. visited this cozy and dimly lit polish pub in greenpoint. it was my first time to visit brooklyn. it was cold that day, but the tripe soup and the beef goulash hit the spot just right. we also visited a couple of polish bookstores and bakeries, as well as a couple of polish supermarkets.

yesterday, i went to the county court to inquire about our divorce proceedings. mukhang madali lang pala. sana naman.

wednesday to today we spent here at home, just relaxing and watching dvds, sleep, eat,watch dvds. i finally saw pulp fiction this morning. can you imagine? 14 years after its realease nagyon ko lang siya napanoood. pano kasi halos lahat ng kakilala ko napanood na yun, and though i tried watching it on my own, di ko nagawa dahil hindi siya masaya panooring mag-isa.


with C this morning, it was enjoyable. i just noticed i can get annoying when watching a movie. i tend to get bored easily and tend to ask questions about the movie. bless c and his sleepy ass who was patient enough and answered my questions with a sigh. sigh.

my friend aneta who is also polish gave me a call today. i can't wait to see her and her boys again. it's been 6 years since we saw each other last. excited!!!

i'm gonna try to wake up sleepyhead one more time before i blast MIA on the speakers to wake him up, tee-hee. we still have 4 dvds to watch.

sha-na-na

it's 10 am and i'm about as antsy as anything to get amoveon the road.C is still id dream land. i wan to hop on bruce and head back home. but what's the hurry,it's my week off. better take things easy. if only the weather would let up.

2 things. one happy, one sad. my friend kaye got married. my aunt luz lost her battle to cancer.

open up the sun and let the sunshine in....

my bruce : the little mazda that could

music : born to be wild

this picture was taken by chocnut on the first day of december, 2007. the first snowstorm. i dunno why i was smiling, but i posted this picture because this is how bruce looks like buried in snow.

this afternoon proved to be the worst bad driving day for me yet. i had to pick up O and R from their school -- which was nesltled on a hill. great.

so bruce and i crawled our way up. we passed by 2 lexus sedans, 1 mercedes SUV and a BMW sedan. You can just imagine my feelings as bruce and i trudged our way up the hill to pck up R and O. i got there soon enough but we have a couple more inclines to overcome. the traffic aides have advised me to turn around. and go where, watson? nuh-uh. i'm about 1/4 of a mile from their house, i'm not turning back now.
and so with the pep squad led by myself, richard and olivia we coaxed and cheered on my bruce as we inched our way past two inclines.

bruce : i think i can, i think i can

the traffic aides and onlookers were shaking their heads at first, but when we made it, i heard their hurrahs for my bruce.
my bruce may not be a luxury vehicle, but it's my own little engine that could.