bury me in this dress

I was expecting my birthday yesterday to end crappy but it was totally the opposite. My staff threw me a surprise party at the office complete with embarrassing photo montage. I was really surprised and mom was so convincing. I went down to the 15th floor office and just blurted out “Bakit madilim dito?” but it never occurred to me that they were cooking up something the whole day. The thing that made it 100 times better is the fact that Bishie (you remember him?) was there and by the end of the night he dedicated songs to me, got my cellphone and email addy, had our photos taken, held both my hands at some point, and had me singing an awful duet with him (there was videoke). Well, booze was flowing and although I was perfectly sober, I doubt any of those counted since he was tipsy. Still, I was thrilled cos he’s so darn cute. I guess I can declare yesterday as one of my best birthdays. I’ll be celebrating again on Thursday night and I hope it’s just as thrilling

Yay! I can’t wait for this dorama. I know nothing about Honey and Clover though. I got this from the Ikuta Toma lj community

Title: ??????????
Title (romaji): Hachimitsu to Kuroba
Also known as: Honey and Clover
Format: Renzoku
Genre: Romance, friendship
Broadcast network: Fuji TV
Broadcast period: 2008-Jan-08 to
Air time: Tuesday 21:00

Synopsis
Honey and Clover follows the lives of five college students and their love triangles — Tokyograph (http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-2019)

Cast
Narumi Riko as Hanamoto Hagumi
Ikuta Toma as Takemoto Yuta

Production Credits
Original writing: Umino Chika, Hachimitsu to Kuroba (manga)
Screenwriter: Kaneko Shigeki
Producer: Takiyama Madoka, Shikanai Tsugi
Director: Tanimura Masaki, Matsuyama Hiroaki

——-

The screenplay is by the same guy who did Proposal Daisakusen, so you can expect it to be well written. The producers have done dramas like ProDai and First Kiss before this one. The first listed director also did Nodame Cantable, and the second, Liar Game.

As for the other girl in the cast, you know her as the younger sister in Ichi Rittoru no Namida, and quite a few other dramas.

But the most important thing is that TOMA IS IN IT! *squee fest* (I literally started jumping up and down and racing all over the house in delight ^-^) Next winter will be a good one!

Y?ta Takemoto (?? ??, Takemoto Y?ta?)

Aged 19 (at the beginning of the series), Y?ta Takemoto is a second-year student at the art college. He is from Annaka city, Gunma-ken. He lives in the same apartment complex as Mayama and Morita in room 202. His floormates are Morita and Hasegawa.

Takemoto is one of the more mellow characters in the series. He falls in love with Hagu immediately after being introduced by his professor but keeps his feelings to himself throughout most of the series. His love for Hagu and his inability to act upon his feelings as freely as Morita causes some internal problems for Takemoto. For example, when Hagu received a bird brooch that was made for her as an anonymous present, Takemoto couldn’t bring himself to say that Morita was the one who had made it for her. Instead of acting on his feelings, Takemoto decides to be more of a brother figure to Hagu, giving her friendly support when needed. For example, Takemoto accepts Hagu’s requests to build her sophisticated dollhouses and the like. Takemoto is very close to her.

Episodes are often narrated from Takemoto’s point of view. At first he questions why he is in art school and feels that he is not good at anything but he gradually matures and becomes comfortable with himself. The greatest change in his character comes after he spends days riding on a bicycle all the way to the Northernmost point in Japan. After this he feels that he can tell Hagu how he really feels and stand up to Shinobu.

It’s my birthday today. Ugh. The big 3-Oh. I hate that number. I don’t feel that old yet and my friend said I don’t look 30 so that’s good. Still, I don’t feel like celebrating. I want to save money and there’s really nothing to celebrate.

This birthday isn’t too depressing compared to last year’s. I feel loved now especially since I reconnected with old friends. Of course, it’s not like before when we were younger and have the energy to stay out all night and drink too much booze. I don’t even drink liquor anymore.

A friend was inviting me earlier to go to Baguio this weekend. Maybe going there would do me good but I’m too lazy. I don’t want to travel 4 or more hours just to play cards with them. Besides, they’re all boys and I’ll just be reaffirming my role as one of the boys. That has got to stop but that’s always the case with almost all my male friends. Tsk. Not that I’m interested in any of them in THAT way. Yuck! It’s just depressing when I’m never seen as an object of affection or whatever.  So yeah, one of my birthday wishes is to finally have a love life. I’m not raising my hopes up though.

Just posting an old video and trying out revver. I took this using my cellphone camera.

Last night I bought my D80 kitlens from Daphne. She included a wireless remote, a UV lens, and a 4gb memory card. I got them for P44K and it still has warranty from Columbia. I took some photos during and after dinner but I’m too ashamed to post them here. Besides, I haven’t uploaded them to my laptop cos I’ve ran out of space. Anyway, I’ll post photos AFTER I’ve read the manual.

I’m obsessed with this series right now. So obsessed that it haunts me in my dreams and follows me during waking hours. It’s thrilling and frustrating at the same time and I just want to keep on rereading and rereading Twilight and New Moon (Eclipse was a disappointment for me) until I get sick of them. I haven’t encountered a book this addicting for years and I hardly have the patience to wait for the next book which, unfortunately, will be released late next year. Ugh! I keep on thinking about the characters. Bella. Edward. Edward. Bella. I want to be Bella and have my own Edward. *sigh* I want a vampire lover too! Anyway, I have individual reviews for each book. Just click on the links in this entry but there are spoilers.

I consider the time I am with my relatives as the time I’m most myself. Although I don’t spill out my guts to them, tell them my deepest and darkest secrets, nor use expletives in front of them, I still feel like I’m my truest self. No pretentions, no masks, just plain me. Tonight, was my sister and me’s birthday blowout. We invited our close relatives to a buffet dinner at Crowne Plaza Hotel. Some weren’t able to make it and even though that disappointed me, the relatives who were there made up for the others’ absences. I had a good time. We talked about different topics ranging from stock exchange, Rene Saguisag, Hong Kong, Jimmy Kimmel thinking that Filipinos don’t speak/write English, the possibility that my absent cousin might be gay, etc. That’s how we are when we get together.

So when I am with them, my defenses are down. I don’t have to be tough when I’m with them. When I went to the restroom, a young girl and her little sister smirked when they saw me. I ignored them. No. I tried to ignore them but their smirk affected me. I know they were smirking because I’m fat and it hurt. A lot. I quickly washed my hands and left the room but as I was returning to my family, I was teary-eyed. I put on my “tough mask” and got some desserts then went to our table.

Maybe it was just my hormones or maybe I was depressed. I just feel so tired of trying to be tough. I’m tired of pretending that incidents like that don’t affect me. Who would want to be laughed at just because of how they look physically? But I need to be tough for my own good. I need to be tough in order to survive and keep on living. I’m just so goddamn tired of this, that’s all.

I took Yasu to the Manika Manila Halloween EB so he could meet new friends but I think he was miserable. *sighs* Just check the photos at my flickr.

I had a short vacation last November 2 to 3 with my family and some relatives.

On the morning of Nov. 2, we visited the graves of dead relations in Binan, Laguna. After that, we had lunch at Rose and Grace in Sta. Rosa. My relatives love eating there cos the food is cheap. I’m tired of Rose and Grace. The food is so-so. After lunch, we went straight to Tagaytay Highlands.

I haven’t been there for more than a year. I thought that there would be something new and interesting there but there isn’t.  Oh, well there’s free wifi there but I left my laptop in the van so I wasn’t able to surf. I just used my sister’s Sony Ericsson P1i (it has WLAN), so I was able to twit some messages.

Around 2PM, we checked into our cottage rooms in Camp Highlands. There’s A/C and cable tv so that’s good. I slept until 5 PM then prepped for dinner.

Dinner was at the Tagaytay Steakhouse. I’ve tried it before but I read a lot of rave reviews about the Steakhouse so I wanted to try again. Maybe I just missed something. I ordered the rib eye but I didn’t like it much. I guess I’m not really into steaks. After dinner, we went to the entrance to wait for the driver. I noticed a familiar face. I was thinking that the guy looks like Ken Zhu of F4. So when the driver arrived, I asked my relatives if the guy was Ken Zhu and mom said it was him. I declared that I want to have a picture him but the van was already moving. I told the driver to go back but when we got to the entrance, Ken was getting in ride. Boo! I wanted a photo with him

We went to Starbucks (blech) but the place was packed. We also went to Figaro but it was full as well. It was no use so we just headed back to Highlands.

Back there, we dropped off my aunt at Belleview then the rest of us headed to Cottage Grove. I was tired and grumpy so I just went to our room and showered. I also watched some tv while snacking. When my sister was complaining about the sound cos she couldn’t sleep, I pulled out my laptop and watched Dexter. I slept around 4am.

I woke up early the next day. I think 7:30 am. I ate a quick breakfast then showered and dressed up. There was nothing much to do so I packed up my belongings. Around 10am, my sister woke up so I finally got to watch tv. We all checked out around 12pm.

I thought we would be having lunch in Highlands. I was looking forward to Highlands Bistro. But mom said that some of my relatives were in a hurry to go back to Manila. That made me grumpier. I didn’t partake when they had drive through  Jollibee food.

I think we got home at 2pm. I played with my cats and slept for hours after that.

See, it was really a short vacation and I didn’t enjoy it much especially since I’ve been since since November 1.