After months, yes months, of whining about a messy apartment but doing nothing about it, our place is now squeaky clean and organized! Much as I want to take the credit, I wasn’t bitten by the home-cleaning bug. Our mother stayed with me and my sister for the weekend and she did all the work. I probably should not be saying this but when she first came inside our room my mom said she thought it was a demented person’s place. That’s how bad it was! I wasn’t even able to clean up before she arrived, citing work deadlines as usual. Anyway, the thing is, having your mother around after being on your own for such a long time can remind you of how much better she is than you are in taking care of yourself. She just knows these things. She even knows that she’ll need to come back in a few months time to check if things are being maintained around here.
My sister wants me to buy that karaoke player that looks like a DVD. I agree, although I think I prefer the “Magic Sing.” However, a torrent of activities at work and at home took away my attention from that for a bit. It’s a good thing I don’t have time to go the mall, thus eliminating the possibility of unnecessary spending. Besides, another friend at work pointed me to the direction of this program that can mask the vocals in mp3s so you can record your voice and edit the audio to make it sound professionally cleaned up if not sung like a professional. But still, having a home karaoke system, more so if portable, is more group and family friendly. If ever, I’ll have to start looking for an HDMI switch to accommodate all those cables that go with my quite small TV.
Make me forget that the U.S. Open is about to start. I still find it weird that Rafael Nadal is now the top seed. Naturally, he should be, despite the fact that Federer is the four-time defending champion there. Just a few days from becoming ATP’s no. 1 and I’ve read he’s already in a fashion magazine spread. What will Anna Wintour, American Vogue‘s editor-in-chief and Federer’s friend, say to that? I don’t think Roger needs a memory stick to remind him that barely 12 months ago, these high-profile friends of his were watching him take all the glory in the tennis courts and then bringing him to the Paris fashion runways during his “dayoffs.”
Well, speaking of glam, Ana Ivanovic is back at the top of the rankings and is the women’s top seed. As for the WTA, the no. 1 spot has not meant that much since Justine Henin retired. Somebody has to step up and deserve the ranking. Maria Sharapova, the one who can be considered the best hardcourt player in the field save for the Williams sisters, is out of the Open due to a shoulder injury.
While I was pushing a grocery cart in the packed SM Hypermarket (now I know why it’s prefixed with “hyper”) last Sunday, I was imagining if driving a car would be as easy as maneuvering a push cart. Of course, that’s a silly idea. I did try to learn back when I was in high school, a couple of years shy of the legal age allowed to drive. We had this owner-type jeep and I remember that my father allowed me once or twice to take the driver’s seat, in the main roads of our province no less, with a few nervous passenger friends who didn’t want to say anything so as not to hurt my feelings. I know that was foolish, and although our old vehicle didn’t have and probably didn’t need online car insurance then, I was confident that I wasn’t risking anybody’s life in that few minutes of my own personal thrill. (How did I grow up to be such a nervous wreck?) But I was deemed careless, unbalanced with speed, and incapable of controlling the gears, besides the fact that I can’t make a turn, so I didn’t try again even when I was a lot older. It makes me wonder if I can start learning to drive again one of these days. Maybe when I am finally capable of actually getting myself a car, I’ll go down that road.
On my way home last Saturday afternoon, the first time in such a long time that I came off work before the sun has set, I came across a group of teenagers with funny t shirts. They all have these large-print shirt that’s says something like “I’m gorgeous” (not really funny) or “I Don’t Know What Makes You Dumb but It Really Works” (Ok, not always funny). One of them has this smartass one liner that has awful grammar. Unfortunately, this blog had a five-day-long downtime because of my Web host’s server problem and I completely forgot what those exact (wrong) words are. I’m just too happy to be back, although I initially had problems with the permalink (the exact URL of my posts) structures again and had to upgrade from WordPress 2.6 to 2.6.1 and then downgrade all the way back to 2.5 when all else failed. Maybe I should find myself some of those shirts to lighten up. I saw one at SM that I’d like to buy as a gym shirt – it says “Fatness First” in the exact same font one famous gym franchise use.
If there’s one thing I learned today, it’s that procrastination is bad. (Yeah, right!) Ever since the news about Broadway Asia’s Cinderella came out, I knew there’s no way I’m not going to watch. First of all, it’s an international musical that stars Lea Salonga. I don’t have a second of all – I am so there! But I didn’t purchase my tickets even after they began selling. I waited and waited, thinking about the schedule and that there were so many performance dates anyway. When my sister and I went to the Ticketworld outlet today, we found out that all balcony seats are sold out for ALL weekend performance dates. We managed to buy two tickets for Tuesday (August 12) but it was at the topmost balcony row. Talk about the least favorable location. But not to dishearten my sister (a big fan of Lea); at least she’ll be able to watch with her friend. As for me – it could be (Ebay) beginner’s luck – my other sister found two tickets up for sale; the other good news is, it’s on the “Buy It Now” category so I didn’t have to compete against anyone else, like what happened the first time. But the better news is that those tickets are exactly within my budget and they’re balcony center seats. It’s going to be on the matinee show (August 24) and although I prefer to watch on the closing night, I’m a little relieved by Lea’s announcement that she’s scheduled to perform on each and every date barring illness.
Anyway, after buying the tickets, we strolled in the mall to look for some things we need at home. I haven’t shopped for appliances and gadgets lately so it surprised me to see that the television displays now mostly consist of LCD TV screens. The smallest one I saw (25 in.) costs Php 29k. Then, we did a little window shopping, looking for clothes and shoes on sale and viewing Nautica watches display, although we didn’t really plan to buy anything. We went home carrying nothing but the clothes rack I bought from ACE.
I also must say that Mall of Asia has officially taken the place of Glorietta as my favorite mall. I just don’t like their cinemas, well except of course for the IMAX theater and the Director’s Club.
Thinking about future projects and options, feeling panic at the thought that I’m entering my 10th year in my first job, remembering about the “where do you see yourself in 5 years” questions during my job-hunting days fresh out of college – those are the things that I’ve been pondering on lately. I know; it’s depressing. And I don’t have any plan just yet. I don’t mean that I want to resign from my current post, at least not anytime soon. Stability is still the priority. They say the best way to be rich and free at the same time is to be self-employed – start a business or something. The thing is, I’m not particularly versed in economics and I hate math in so many forms, so that option may be quite a stretch; most importantly, I don’t currently have the finances to start anything. I’ve heard about friends venturing into stock trading, so I did research on futures trading. It gave me nosebleeds. I don’t want to get filthy rich anyway. I just want to live comfortably and not at all filthy. So how do I start the change? I believe these things have their way of being revealed. I just know I don’t want to stand still and wait. Nobody’s getting any younger.
He may be dropping to no. 2 in the world ranking in a weeks’ time; he may be losing confidence and tournaments lately, but you can’t say Roger Federer doesn’t have style!
Here’s TheFed carrying the Swiss flag at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Bejing Olympics. I got the photo from tennisforum.com and the highlighted part is obviously a mistake.
He looks good in red, no? I can imagine him driving a red Ferrari F430. I bet this guy doesn’t need car insurance, no matter how many millions his car(s) costs. With his tour schedule, I wonder if he even drives at all. Tennis stars have such a globe-trotting lifestyle.
When we visited a friend who recently gave birth, we brought some baby clothes and bath products for the newborn and some fruits for the mother. It was quite funny that we overestimated the little boy’s size! He was but two weeks old and we bought some shirts that would fit a one-year old (possibly). I so wanted to hold the baby but in the end I got too cowardly; he was so soft and fragile that I vowed to just come back after a few months so I can play with him. As author Dorothy L. Nolte said, “Of all the joys that lighten suffering earth, what joy is welcomed like a newborn child?”
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