[Group Events] F2F41 | Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz | May 23 2015, Saturday, 11am-2pm | Venue: Milky Way Cafe 928 Pasay Road (A. Arnaiz Ave.), Makati City

[L]

Hi Maria, I got your mail the other day (view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ When we love, our hearts are in constant turmoil. We experience a whole gamut of emotions ranging from being ecstatically happy to numbing pain. And so our hearts are in constant battle to protect ourselves from getting hurt. Somehow though we come to our senses and realize that the riot love causes makes it all worthwhile in the end. (hide spoiler)]

[Louize]

Serve with rice ba yung All Time Favorites nila? If yes...

LAING! and Real Brewed Bottomless Iced Tea. Thanks!

Pwede naman siguro doon na mag-order ng after coffee. :)

[L]

Here's my order: Boneless Chicken BBQ and yung Real Brewed Bottomless iced Tea :)

[Maria Ella]

Steak ala pobre and Kanin. Bottomless Iced tea na rin please. Thanks :)

[Elaine]

Mw deluxe burger and bottomless iced tea please. :)

[Alexa]

Mw deluxe burger and bottomless iced tea as well! :)

[Kristel]

Carbonara on Fetuccine and Cafe Mocha for me. :)

[Tina]

Why is there a riot in our heart when we love?

Because love is a force to be reckoned with, and it's supposed to throw a riot in our hearts to push us out of our neat little boxes into the messy world that is out there. To quote Hannah Brencher:

Love, especially, is a process. Whether that's loving God, or another sticky human, it's hard. It's doors unlocking. It's windows breaking. It's the discovery of new rooms inside of yourself. It's the dark. And it's the light. And it's dark and light all scrambled into one. At the root of it, it's a slow, trusting, building process that starts with letting someone in.

--

ORDER!

Steak ala pobre and calamansi juice :)

[Meliza]

Order: Sinigang na Salmon, Real Brewed Bottomless Iced Tea

[Monique]

Late to the party but! Compliance! :D

First things first. Food! I still haven't received my invite (view spoiler)[boo, Manila PO (hide spoiler)] but since I have resolved to gate-crash the F2F if I don't get it on time, here are my orders: Kare-kare (share tayo guys, this one is really good, trust me) and Real Brewed Iced Tea. And rice, too, if the kare-kare doesn't come with rice yet.

Next: Throwback Thursdays!
#1
(view spoiler)[


I have lots of groups of friends outside TFG, although we don't always get to see each other a lot these days. I have two sets of friends from high school (classmates and CAT officers), one set from college, and another set from law school.

These are my law school friends. (view spoiler)[Yes, it includes my husband. (hide spoiler)] Most of us are settled down already. We only get to see each other once a year, during Christmas or New Year, but every time we see each other it's as like nothing's changed. I guess we stay friends because we never pass judgment against each other, no matter what. (hide spoiler)]

#2
(view spoiler)[

This is my mama, Juliana. She's called either Julie or Juling. She is 9 years my dad's senior. Hihi. She is the strictest teacher you could ever meet, you'd totally hate her if you had her as 6th grade adviser. Her greatest sacrifice: retiring early and getting her retirement pay in lump sum to finance my and my brother's studies after my dad died. She and I were not close when I was younger, but we eventually bonded. I love her very much even when I feel like she's being pakialamera, hahaha. (hide spoiler)]

[Aaron Vincent]

Steak Ala Pobre and Bottomless Iced Tea

[Angus]

Throwback Thursdays

(view spoiler)[


Bonjour! Comment ça va? Moi, ça va très bien! Je m'appelle Angus. Je viens d'Angeles. Mais maintenant, j'habite á Manille. J'aime lire des livres parce que j'adore la littérature. Et j'adore apprendre le français!

That's how far my French can go (not Google-translated). Aussi, I can count un, deux, trois to dix. I started self-studying le français last March. I was supposed to enroll this month at Alliance française de Manille but my classmate backed out. We wanted to be classmates so that we can gossip in French (l'exercice), but we haven't talked for a while. So I decided to self-study more instead before I enroll, alone or not.

I've always wanted to learn a European language. I chose French because there's a French institute here. And there are many French films and books that would make French knowledge useful. (I still want to live in Iceland but how am I going to learn Icelandic here? I'll just learn Icelandic if I manage to haul myself up there.)

It's fun learning French. Studies show that learning a new language keeps the brain from getting rusty. That should be a motivation. The major hurdle for Filipino learners is the guttural R. And the many nasal sounds, vowel variations, grammatical gender, diacritical marks, etc. It's rewarding though. I still have a lot to grasp, and perhaps it helps that I want to read À la recherche du temps perdu, all seven volumes, in the original text.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ranee]

(view spoiler)[ [image error] (hide spoiler)]
This is my medschool barkada. We are not complete in this picture but this has captured what we do when we are together. Bungisngis. Mga Babaeng bakla. I think we clicked because we all like koreanovelas, fell in love with the F4, can name local actors of the 80's and laugh at each other's corny jokes.

[Ingrid]

Throwback Thursday

(view spoiler)[

This is one for the books (for me, hahaha). You see, I've been fascinated with stories about how people meet in random places and then hit it off. Since I was bound to take the bus to and from Baguio (and quite often at that), it occured to me that well, what are the chances of it happening to me?

I tell you, very slim. Until this happened last Saturday.

Meet my father-in-law seatmate, SSS. Balikbayan from LA, he's retiring in Baguio, he said. He shared so many more stories about his family, work, travels. He shared his food too (rambutan which I left with Cary, chicharon which I shared with Ella and Tricia). He also rubbed my back when motion sickness got the best of me (that was embarrasing, and that was when he mentioned I was his manugang so I shouldn't mind because he doesn't mind). He's like the lolo I never had (I've never met either of my lolos, they died before I got the chance).

I found it amusing that he would want me, a total stranger, for his son (view spoiler)[who by the way he so endearingly calls by some nickname PomPom, 28 years old, mestiso, pero hindi naman gwapong-gwapo (his words, not mine), working as an IT at a call center in Makati, and is apparently, or conveniently, single, or so he thinks (hide spoiler)]. He wanted 5 grandchildren too. And he wouldn't mind if we ended up in divorce because we can do that in Las Vegas. He either liked me that much, or he was that desperate to marry off his son.

So much for my happy ending.

We took a selfie (on his phone, just transferred it to mine) before we parted ways. I left him my number (and he gave his too, not his son's, lol). Mag-blind date daw kami ng anak niya. Who knows. If all else fails, I just might take him up on his offer, hahahahaha.

And of course, words of wisdom:
"If you know what's best for you, do it. And if you aim, aim high. Real high."

I have more thoughts about this meeting, but this is way too long, and too public, so I will leave it at that.

(view spoiler)[Okay, so I tried to find his son on Facebook and other social media sites, but to no avail. :))) (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Tina]

Throwback Thursday

Last year I volunteered as an editor for In His Steps, Couples for Christ's daily devotional. Last Saturday, we had our yearly editor's recollection, and one of the surprise afternoon activities was Lettering!

A bit of a background: I'm a pen junkie, but I cannot do proper letterings to save my life. Okay, I can, a little, but it's always messy and it hardly looks like the ones people make. Haha. But I love pens, and I buy brush pens even if I know I suck at using them. (I haven't given in to buying calligraphy stuff because they're expensive and I don't think I can commit to that)

Anyway, so we had a lettering workshop, which fueled my desire to learn brush lettering again.

(view spoiler)[

The words here are titles of some songs I've been listening to in the past days.
(hide spoiler)]

This is far, far from what other people can do, obviously. I'm practicing (almost) everyday, and I figure I'll get better at this if I keep at it. (I hope, anyway) I find it very relaxing, though, especially when I'm practicing the upstrokes and downstrokes to get the proper weight, and when I'm coloring some of the letters. It's almost like destressing using coloring books, except I get to write and play with words. :)

[Monique]

Throwback Thursdays

(view spoiler)[
I don't know if this will qualify as a "hobby" but it definitely is a skill that I'm just starting to learn.


Say hello to my Cinderella. :)

I recently enrolled in driving school and while I'm yet to start the lessons (view spoiler)[boo, full schedule! (hide spoiler)] I've been taught the basics already and so I pretty much have a good idea about what I'm doing. Haha. Except I still don't know how to parallel park, go up and down inclines, turn smoothly, and perform the other complicated things in driving. Major driving milestone: drove myself to the office the other day, with husband of course. It's just 2 blocks but hey, it's city driving (view spoiler)[jeepneys! pedicabs! horrible drivers! (hide spoiler)] and I need to learn somewhere. Will start official time with driving school on the road next week. Wish me luck? :) (hide spoiler)]

[Elaine]

Throwback Thursday
(view spoiler)[
I haven't been doing much for the past week (well, except work related stuff) and I think I was not really able to discover/do/meet someone new so I decided to try something I liked doing when I was in high school (omg, that was 10+ years ago!! Haha).

When I was in high school, street dance and cheer dance was the thing. We liked learning different poses (I realized that these were actually yoga poses) we can use for school competitions/presentations. Fast forward to x years and a few pounds and for lack of something new to do, I tried doing it again for curiosity's sake. I can't do the headstand anymore but I guess I can still do a crooked shoulder stand. After doing it, I realized that I want to be able to strike these poses again so maybe I'll try some basic yoga exercises and learn new poses(view spoiler)[and lose a few pounds (hide spoiler)] along the way. :)


(hide spoiler)]

[Meliza]

Throwback Thursdays

(view spoiler)[
These are my friends from work. We are only 6 girls in our department so it's like a requirement that we take photos together during company events and dine outs. Hehe! Three of us here are friends for about 7 years now and the others for about 5 years already. We've been together almost everyday that we already know each other too well and understand and accept each of our strengths and our flaws too. My bestfriend at work is a guy but it's great to know that we, the girls, are always here for each other. And there are stuff that can only be shared or can only really be understood by girls.
(hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[
This is my Inay. (She's actually taller than me. I don't remember what I did to make me look taller than her in this photo. Hehe!) Sabi sa kwento, my father wanted to get married already (he's older than her) or else break na tayo. Me ganyan. Haha! So my parents were married when my mother was still in college. She continued studying after their wedding, then after a year, they had me. So she went to school preggy. (Buti sakto nagka-EDSA revolution so medyo mahaba yung vacation nya that time.) She still finished college even though she had to take care of me. After college, she chose not to work, to just stay home and be a full-time mom. There was a time that she was offered a job that she wanted, I already have a brother that time, but my father told her to just take care of us. Ang suswelduhin daw nya e ibabayad lang din sa yaya. Hehe! (Nagka-yaya din naman kami nung naging 3 and 4 kids na kami. Loko 'tong Tatay ko.) Sometimes she still tells us this story, as if she regrets that she followed my father's decision. I think these are some of the biggest examples of her sacrifices for us.
(hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[
I met Gemo Perdido Street Station, a friend of a friend, last Tuesday. (I wouldn't have agreed to meet him if not because if this activity. Haha! Kidding!) We (Gemo, my friend, and I) talked about a lot but also had a conversation about books because I told him I like his surname because Perdido Street Station! He said it means "lost". Then he asked me if I have read The Little Prince, and I said I did. He told us that he really like it (So sabi ko, wow, reader! Hehe!) then he asked me how long did it take me to finish it. I said one day, in the morning on my way to work and in the evening on my way home. He laughed and looked so embarrassed while saying he read it for maybe about 6 months. So I was like a little embarrassed too, parang did I sound mayabang or what, so I told him, ay hindi, traffic kasi, maikli lang sya, hindi ko naman naintindihan. Blah blah blah. Then they laughed at me. -_- He said it's okay, matagal lang daw talaga sya magbasa. He asked me how many books have I read already. (Nagulat ako, me nagtatanong pala ng ganun. LOL) I told him mga 170plus sabi sa Goodreads and he said he only read one, yun ngang The Little Prince. He asked for a recommendation, yung kasing ikli daw ng The Little Prince so I just said that I'll let him borrow the book that I had that time with me after I finish it, The Interpreter of Maladies. At least they are short stories, he could finish a story sooner. Hehe!
(hide spoiler)]

[Lynai]

MELIZA: (view spoiler)[AIYEEEEE! :P (hide spoiler)]

[Mawi]

Haven't received my invite yet (view spoiler)[ echoing Monique: boo, Manila PO!! (hide spoiler)] but here are my orders hehe! Steak Ala Pobre and Bottomless Iced Tea.

[Maria Ella]

Elaine wrote: "Throwback Thursday: crooked shoulder stand"
(view spoiler)[Not really sure if kaya ko rin ito hahaha (hide spoiler)]

Meliza wrote: "Throwback Thursdays: Gemo Perdido"
(view spoiler)[He looks nice for you. andaming feels hahahahaha (hide spoiler)]

Hopefully I can post my discoveries later~

[Mawi]

Throwback Thursdays

(view spoiler)[

This is my college crew (crew talaga? Haha!). We've been friends since our first year and, I believe, going through something as tough yet fun as college can really bind people together. It's kind of hard to get us all in the same place nowadays (we're even missing three of our number in this photo) since some of us our working abroad but whenever we get the chance to meet kahit for a simple dinner lang or when one of us gets married or have a baby or any of those life-changing matters, it's always fun and one gets the feeling that this kind of friendship will be for good. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[

Here is my Omma. Mom has made a gazillion of sacrifices for the family but the biggest, I think, was when she gave up her teaching career, which she loves, to help with the family business. I remember there was a time when she would teach in the morning then do accounting for the business in the afternoon, until my dad asked her to do business full-time. And she did that with love, without making us feel like it was a sacrifice to give up her career, like it was the most natural thing in the world; and we love and respect her so much for that. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[

I recently met this one wonderful companion. We are really close now, I think, just look at the picture, ang clingy nya; but there's still a long way to go. I have a couple of people to thank for really introducing us, I hope they know who they are, if not I'll make sure to let them know in time. I am super shy to post a more decent picture of us, so instead I am attaching this one. (view spoiler)[ If you are Facebook friends with me, alam niyo na 'to. Hehe! (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Ingrid]

^Can I just say kinikilig ako, hihihihi.

[Maria Ella]

Mawi, (view spoiler)[andaming feels. IKAW NA :D (hide spoiler)]

[Alexa]

Throwback Thursdays

(last last week)
(view spoiler)[

Tbh, I'm so lucky with my taste in friends. This is my first photo with these peeps after ~8 years of not seeing each other. These are my friends from grade school, and until recently (earlier this month, in fact), I never got to see them because 1) I didn't get allowed to go out much when I was younger, 2) I'm a sucky friend who is always too active in school so therefore always busy and also doesn't like going out in general, and 3) when we all got into diff colleges our schedules were so way out of whack and there's always something going on to prevent me from going to whenever we do get to plan something. I used to be really close with just 2-3 friends in grade school, but since I left, the barkada has grown bigger and bigger until the Facebook group we have says there are 17 of us already. I haven't even met the rest in person, but being the epal fairy that I am, commenting in the group helped me get introduced to them at least, so I didn't feel OP too long (view spoiler)[baka makapal lang din mukha ko HAHA (hide spoiler)]. Even though we don't know everything about each other and keeping up with updates is always a struggle, we've always been there for each other whenever someone is down. We always help each other with problems, even with something as small as picking photos for a school paper lol to as big as helping someone battle with depression. I don't even remember exactly how I got to be friends with these people (view spoiler)[our interests didn't really intersect that much - they're into anime and cosplay, while I munch and derp in general (hide spoiler)], but we've managed to stay friends through the years because we always try to keep the friendship going, and we accept each other, flaws and all.
(hide spoiler)]

(last week)
(view spoiler)[

So this is my mom. People always think we're more of sisters because we always tease each other with things and we're really close. We have the same sense of humor and sometimes we just spend minutes laughing at even the most mundane things (view spoiler)[most recent one is whenever one of us is fetching the other, the one driving would drive the car back and forth, pahard to get kuno HAHAHA sorry mababaw lang talaga kami (hide spoiler)]. We've been through so much together, but I think her biggest sacrifice still has to be choosing to be a housewife so she can take care of me and my brother. It's never easy running our household, and I don't know how she manages everything, but I will always admire, respect, and most especially love her for that decision.
(hide spoiler)]

(this week lol)
(view spoiler)[

NO JUDGING PLEASE huhu
Say hello to watercolor pad #1 and sketchbook #1. Though I want nothing more than to just while away the summer by watching old tv shows and movies (which I am also doing, but that's old hat), I also wanted to be creative, so I decide to dabble in art just for kicks. I did the tried-and-tested method of just practicing constantly and hoping to high heavens that I get better at it. I got started on this pastime when I found myself lusting after art supplies even though I already had the bare essentials at home, so I told myself that I had to earn it by using up the ones I already had instead of splurging and not actually picking up the hobby. I'm happy to report that it's actually pretty relaxing, and nowadays I keep my art supplies nearby because I now get these urges to draw when I see something nice, so yay.
(hide spoiler)]

[Alexa]

Elaine, ang taray ng pose mo teh! Ang galing!
Mel, YIIII :P

[Louize]

Throwback Thursday (today)

(view spoiler)[

(Pollo e melanzane in Salsa di Pomodoro)


Because I'm leaving for another country, it's sort of a demand that I make as many memories as I can before I go (view spoiler)[parang wala ng balikan e 'noh! (hide spoiler)]. But most of the time it's difficult because of conflicting schedules. And, for me, making new memories means missing more things when I do leave. No new people, no new hobby either. Lately, I've been cooking often, as bonding naming mag-mommy. Trying new recipes, like that one ^ . So far, that makes my daughter really happy. And that what matters to me. (hide spoiler)]

[Maria Ella]

MAMI LOUIZE, ANSARAP NG FOODIE. bigla akong nagutom sa madaling araw ahuhu

[Maria]

Hi everyone,

See you tomorrow! Please wear your summer colors ;) don't forget to bring socks if you want to play bowling after.

#SummerIsOver

[Meliza]

Hello po. I might use my late pass tomorrow. :) See you!

[Maria Ella]

Mahaba ang El Niño, mga te. Summer pa rin bukas~
Anyways, pahabol sa Throwback Thursdays / Flashback Fridays

(view spoiler)[There's this guy. (view spoiler)[Tuwing ginagamit ko yung first statement na yan parang nagkekwento ako ng urban legend ahahahahha, (Hi Angus!) (hide spoiler)] He is a friend of a friend. Two years ago he was with us celebrating (view spoiler)[in tagalog, nakikigmik sa gimikan (hide spoiler)]. I didn't notice him maybe because he's a new guy, or I am too busy celebrating.

Come two years later, he approached me and talked.

And talked... until suddenly there's a stranger who wanted to dance(view spoiler)[gimikan mga teh, you know the drill (hide spoiler)] with me, and yet he's like that concerned citizen explained on my behalf.

Wala lang, as little thing as that, I find chivalry very charming. It may be not a feminist principle, but men rarely do chivalry to people they recently know. I dunno, maybe it's just me. hahaha

So photo? (view spoiler)[medyo basag na ata ako rito hehe (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Louize]

Congratulations, Buntis!
Very lively discussion! <3

[Monique]

Congrats, sisterette! (Akala ko nasolo ko na yung prize, hehe!)

[Alexa]

Congratulations, Maria!! Had so much fun being all-out creative this month, not gonna lie :) great job!

[Maria Ella]

Congrats Maria! I enjoyed everything~ :D

[Ranee]

Congrats! Worth the effort!

[Tina]

Congrats, Maria! =) This is the month where I have read the most books, I think, thanks to you. ;)

[Angus]

Congrats, Chami! Natupad din ang pangarap ko na maging Miss Universe!

Buddy, ang ingay mo kasi, narinig ko tuloy hahaha!

[Maria]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for ---

1. reading the book(s)
2. participating in the online activities
3. being present in the F2F discussion
4. Most especially, for sharing ;) (view spoiler)[IMO, this is the hardest one to do, so kudos! (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Next year ulit, pero hindi na muna YA lol :P (hide spoiler)]

[Aaron Vincent]

Congrats, Maria!!

Cousin: (view spoiler)[So, kamusta ka na? (hide spoiler)]

[Kristel]

Congrats Maria! It was really fun, andaming nangyari. Nagkamigraine ako ahahaha.

[Meliza]

Congratulations, Maria! Thanks for a very fun discussion. :D

[Tin]

Uy, makaka pag congrats na din ako sa thread na ito! Hahahaha! Congrats Maria! Enjoyed it a lot! (Maka hanap nga ng bowling alley dito. Di ako maka move on score ko. LOL.)

[Tina]

Tin: Ikaw na ang best surprise appearance sa lahat ng F2F in history. :D

[Angus]

^Agree!

[Monique]

Parang ganito: Tin (!) :D

It was so nice to meet you, yay! Next time ulit? :)

[Ranee]

Hi Tin! bitin nga ako eh. di ka pa namin na-hot seat, hehehe

@Tina, agree din ako

[Meliza]

Congrats din sayo, Tin! I'm proud of you. Andame mong "Achievement Unlocked" nung weekend. :P

[Tin]

Hahahahahahaha! Salamat guys for the warm welcome! I had fun! Hindi ko talaga makakalimutan yung araw na yun! (view spoiler)[ I'll be back! Hahahahahahaha (hide spoiler)]

[Louize]

Tin, nanalo ka ba sa bowling? You're so tall, even Aaron will not brave it to bully you. hehehe (view spoiler)[*Peace, Aaron! :) (hide spoiler)]

Sino mga winners?