Had a late start to the day but had a nice time hanging out with Jenny at the new Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf along Emerald Avenue. Nice place since it’s situated in a park. For those who are new to this blog, my friends and I are Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL) addicts. My favorite is The Ultimate Mocha (sans whipped cream) and, of course, I ordered it tonight. We just spent hours talking about stuff although I’m not sure if I was a kill-joy since I was feeling depressed earlier. I think our conversation was fine though. Jenny gave me a CBTL discount card but it can only be used in their Tomas Morato branch. Who cares? At least the card does give discounts.

Tomorrow (Sunday), there will be a gathering with relatives for a despedida dinner for my Tito Manok and his family. Tito Freddy is called Tito Manok because pinaglihi sya sa manok. He’s the craziest among my mom’s siblings and he’s always fun to be with. I have a feeling that the despedida will be a sad one because he’ll be leaving the country for good. Sad sad sad. We will miss him so much.

Went out with the family to Powerplant Mall earlier. My sister wanted to go and since I had no other plans (ha! When was the last time I had plans to go out?) I went with her and mom. What a waste of time. I didn’t want to spend a single cent since I’m saving up for some U.S. shopping. I hated window shopping at Zara’s because their stuff I find too expensive. Also, only a few of their clothes will fit me although I gazed at them wistfully because they are really nice. So that’s added frustration and I guess boredom as well. Around 7 pm I started to become cross because I was hungry and my sister still wanted to shop. I’m like that when I feel my stomach is growling. I was able to convince mom to try some Brazilian cuisine at Brazil Brazil. Hey, I was really hungry and wanted an all-you-can-eat buffet. The food was so-so, kinda weird actually but the place was packed. I can only blame “In Her Shoes” for making me want to taste Brazilian (I was watching the DVD this afternoon). I didn’t eat that much actually but I was full. We decided to head home after supper since my sister wanted to catch Pinoy Big Brother but mom decided to look inside another boutique and I found myself infront of Fruits in Ice Cream and ended up buying half a gallon of their Caramelo con Pastillas which is yum yum. So there, I ended up spending 300 pesos for that damn ice cream. I shouldn’t have gone out with my family.
Hey! I went out of the house thrice this week. Am I beginning to become a normal human being? Ha! I doubt it.

I watched Live A.I.D.S. this afternoon with Jenny and her friend Michelle. The show was okay but the past shows I’ve seen were better. Icel and this other girl did briliant monologues. The other spiels and skits were mediocre. So was the spot dance. The company was fewer than usual so maybe that’s why the show wasn’t so good. Anyway, I got reaquaintaed with the old and new Samaskomers which was quite nice. I thought they wouldn’t remember me anymore. I think I need to be more active with the Samaskom alumni. It’s good for networking.

Couldn’t sleep (Argh) so I’m reading my blog links. Neil Gaiman thinks that the Philippines is the world’s most enthusiastic country. Cool. And this one is for Louie since we’ve been oo-ing and ahhh-ing over the pen Mr. Gaiman used. I got this from his journal.

The pen I’ve mostly been using is a 1950s Omas flexinib. If you want one like it it’s cheaper to find old flexinib Watermans on eBay. The ink I’ve mostly been using is Mont Blanc Bordeaux I got in Singapore. It’s not my favourite ink (I’m not a big Mont Blanc fan) but it’s a decent colour and I love the bottle design.

That pen sounds expensive. Haha.

Ack! Neil was with Poppy Z. Brite. She’s one of my favorite authors. I like her better than Gaiman in fact. Ack ack ack! She’ll never go here but if she does, I’ll be the first one in line.

Enough about Mr. Gaiman, I actually went out today (technically last night but my days are skewed). I went to a bazaar with mom and I bought some cheap clothes, bagel chips, and oatmeal cookies. Yummy. Then watched ‘Fantastic Four’ with Louie at Gateway Mall. It was my second time at Gateway and it brought a lot of the book signing memories. ‘Fantastic Four’ was amusing. More fun to watch than ‘Batman Begins’ since it had funny moments. But it’s not as deep as the latter if you can call it deep to begin with. I like The Thing because he was such a dear. He had a lot of self-image issues to contend with. Mr Fantastic was disgusting though. He also looks a bit like my nerdy therapist. I don’t really have much of an opinion on the movie as you can see. After the film, Louie and I had late dinner at the food court. I tried Jumbo Japs and found their Teriyaki salty. I think their crunchy Ebi Maki is really good though. Cheap too. Only cost me 79 Pesos. I wanted to drink Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s The Ultimate but decided against it because I might have trouble sleeping. Should have gotten it since I’m having sleeping anyway. We left the mall after that and went to my house. I burnt Louie a copy of Long Vacation which I hope she’ll like. My CD burner is slow so it took ages to burn the 7 discs so while doing that we talked and watched TV.

Louie said she likes the way I write and I find this strange. I think my writing sucks. It’s very raw. Sometimes crass. Not organized at all. Also lacks focus. I can never write with flowery words. I’ve tried that and found that it’s just not me. I am not into poetry but more into prose. Tried to write poems before and flopped so decided to stop and basically lost interest. Also tried doing prose but always lost interest in the middle of stories. Too bad since some of them really had promise. I’m self-deprecating yet self-absorbed. Shallow yet have clear insights sometimes. Boring AND endearing which seldom goes hand-in-hand. Louie, you are my only fan. Hurray for that! (laughs)