I officially have a backlog of blog entries! Woo!

BUT I’m going to cut the chronological order here and post the events from today—primarily because I have less pictures for this one.

Day started with me and my brother heading over to Graphika Manila at the SMX Convention Center!

I wonder why I look teary-eyed. :(

Graphika Manila! It’s my first time! The venue was huge! It took 3 function halls!

Advertising professional, Jerome Austria, talks about this adorable shoot for the VW Star Wars: The Bark Side video that went viral early this year. Link: HERE

After another talk (I missed the talk from CreatePH that I wanted! ;_;), I met up with my college friend who were also, coincidentally, at the event! The only difference was their tickets were free—LUCKY!

Anyway, they invited me to watch The Bourne Legacy with them at Shangrila Plaza. It wasn’t part of my plans at all because I paid for my ticket and I didn’t want to waste it. There was, however, the thought that I never get to hang out with them as much as I would like. So, JUST SAY YES.

It so happened that my other thesismates and another close college friend were coming as well! It would be the first time my thesismates and I properly met up since our thesis defense last year!

(WHY AM I THE SHORTEST ;_;)

We went and watched the film—which a lot of people are excited to watch because a good 50% of the film was set in Manila. They shot for almost a month in different locations and a lot of the streets were blocked off. Most people wanted to see the final outcome.

In another fit of spontaneity, we decided to eat at Little Tokyo! Oh, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world—I’ve been dying to eat there since I was in high school. My family aren’t too big on Japanese food as I was (*coughjapanophilecough*) so this was a dream come true!

The food was so good! And the prices weren’t that bad—standard Japanese prices. I can’t imagine eating (and paying) for these on a regular basis though. It’s all part of what makes eating Japanese special, I suppose.

And we weren’t done! In the final bit of spontaneity, we went to the drive-thru Starbucks in The Fort! I’ve only been in there once, so it was fun to just hang out and have a long catching-up with my friends. 

So I arrived home at 12 midnight. Every one of my friends had a long day/night before but I’m so glad that they came today!

:)

END NOTE:

My office friends and I have organized an internal relief drive for the people that need relief goods! It was a great opportunity to help and here’s the fund so far. I’ve contributed a LOT of my clothes (about 70% of those donations are from me at the moment!). I think it was appropriate because I realize just how much clothes I no longer use!

Don’t forget to help in any way you can as well! Honestly, it doesn’t matter what shape or form your donation is, anything will help. 

My barkada (group of super best friends) and I went to Punta Fuego in Batangas! We aren’t beach-y people so this is super (understatement) rare!

But the day before that I met up with “The Usual 4” at “The Usual” CBTL, The Fort.

*”The Usual 4” is composed of Raisa, Chris, Meo and myself. We’re now called this because aside from being the usual four people to be ever-present in barkada get-togethers, we’re also the first four to meet up at the same place (because Raisa, Meo and I live near-by and Chris is always willing to go to us, wherever we are).

As proof, here we are circa 2010. :))

And here we are now:

A few blog posts ago, too:

Anyway, here’s the rest of the weekend in Instagram photos. Some stolen from Raisa. I’ve yet to upload the photos from my camera and steal some more photos from Jean’s camera.

And yes, I never found my swimsuit. >:E

More photos when I’ve uploaded/stolen them! :)

I can probably count with my two hands the number of times I remember ever having gone to the beach. My memory can’t vouch for my childhood, but the number has definitely dwindled in my adolescent life. 

I’ve only ever owned 4 swimsuits: one in my childhood, one in my early teenage years, one in my late teenage years and one in my college years (until now). 

And I’ve never been so overly fond of the beach like most people. I know a lot of people from school and work that say “I can’t wait to go to the beach!” “OMG, let’s go to the beach please!” “I was at the beach over the weekend” “I’m going to the beach with my family, eh.” And I’m like “..I still don’t see it.”

It’s probably because of a number of things: 1. My family never really went to the beach often 2. It’s probably genetic (my parents hardly went to the beach neither) 3. My high school friends aren’t beach people 4. My college friends aren’t beach people. In short, the circles I’ve travelled with in my life, well, aren’t beach-type circles. We’re more the indoorsy-let’s-watch-a-movie-play-games-read-talk-take-photos type, I guess. ANYWAY.

My latest trip to the beach was last December 31. I enjoyed the beach and appreciated the sand and the sea and the view, but I didn’t go in the water. *shudder* sea water.

I could list down the peeves I have about the beach, but I’m not going to do that. Instead, i’m going to talk about my swimsuit. Yeah, all that talk for this. Sorry, but at this point you’ve read to much, you might as well read on.

My latest swimsuit is missing. Yep. I paid for that swimsuit myself two years ago, so it’s relatively new. it is also relatively new because it’s only been in sea water twice in the four beach trips I’ve made over the last 2 years (which is the most it has been in recent years, trust me).

So it’s missing. I have no idea where it went. Last I saw of it was when we went to the beach in December. It’s always been there when I need it—I mean, c’mon, I hardly touch the thing, where is it going to go and how is it going to go anywhere? And I seriously can’t find it. I bought beach shorts to go with it and everything. 

What sucks is that this is trip has my high school friends going. This is our second time to the beach together!!! (Yep, you heard right)! The last time I went to the beach with them was in 2006, SIX years ago.

I didn’t have a swimsuit then because I was a scrooge and not willing to bend for personal preferences, but now I’ve changed and opened myself up to sand in my suit, toes, crevices of my body that I will be annoyed with, in my hair and (possibly) eyes.

I’m ready to have a swimsuit now. 

WHERE ARE YOU.

WOES. 

“MISHIE, this blog was totally useless. What was the point?”

POINT IS: I’m in a delusional woefullness so let me create my useless blog post.

Face #01: Micah

This is Micah.

Let me start Ninety Faces with one of my best friends! 

Micah and I have been friends since the fifth grade, although things didn’t always run smoothly (what relationship really does?) We had rough patch that we, thankfully, got over because I swear that in the years that followed, she really became a source of a lot of strength, patience, fun, etc. for me! 

Of all my friends in high school, Micah was the only one that I was able to spend a significant amount of time in college with. Apart from being 3 from our group of 8 to go to DLSU, she was in a course 70% similar to mine, so as a resulte, we were together a LOT. 

Micah knows this for sure, but we went through a lot of academic, social and mental frustrations in college. I’m so glad that she was there for all that support. I think my university life just would not have been, in any way nearly half as enjoyable and tolerable without her. Really. 

Now that we’ve both finally graduated, I don’t know what’s next for us. She would surely continue to build her Keybie empire and I genuinely hope that graduation does not mean the start of the end of all the fun times. I spent a lot of time with her, but I don’t think I ever tire of it.

Even if I genuinely feel grumpy with her sometimes (like I said, Best Friendships have those too), I definitely love this girl!

BONUS PHOTO!

Mishie x Micah | December 2001

DISCLAIMER: Photo-heavy post ahead—but super cool!

It’s been a while since I’ve been to a museum. I’ve been to a few when I was younger like Museong Pambata, The Air and Space Museum, the United Nations, The IRRI, The Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. 

Unfortunately, as a kid, I don’t think I appreciated the wealth of knowledge I was learning. The most recent museum I went to was when I was a sophomore in university. I went there with my best friend and we were engrossed. We even met some Englishmen there who overheard us complaining about how short we were—they said that “small is beautiful” and my faith in the human race was restored!

ANYWAY, my highschool friends suggested the idea and I was all for it. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a field trip!” a friend of mine said. And I’ve been living so close to The Mind and this was finally my chance to see what was inside!

First, since my friends and I were talking about fashion bloggers, we took some “Lookbook” shots of our own! ;)

Onto The Mind!

I’ve been such a fan of the show “The Pickers” on History recently, I just couldn’t help a little bit of a picker in me when I saw this really old, 1920’s Philippine Automobile!

I want to have those stars on my ceiling!

THIS is possibly, for me and my friends, the highlight of the entire trip. YEAH, I know, funny right? But this is what we’ve decided to call the Cosmic Tunnel. It leads to a different part of the museum, but what it is essentially is a tunnel where you feel like you’re on a bridge in the middle of space. The cylindrical tell is spinning and then you feel like you’re about to go off-balance. 

It’s so hilarious! I just stood in the middle and felt like I was about to fall off! It gives such a natural high—we couldn’t stop laughing!

Yep. You read it right. You won’t believe how much I learned about fossilized dino poop from the Mind Movers. :))

And peeking out over the ridge is!!!

Did you know: Dinosaurs are most closely related to birds (specifically chickens) rather than reptiles? Proof: they have a wishbone which only birds have. 

It’s all about the angling!

Awesome diorama!

Puzzles! We had to fit these 11 cubes into this one large compartment!

We did it! Or did we? ;)

Large tangram! We had to create a large square using all the pieces. No joke, we were determined. We stayed there 45mins. 

At some point, people were starting to look at us. It felt as if we were contestants on the Amazing Race. We felt as if the challenges and installations in The Mind really would make a great venue for TARA. 

We did it!

We were so tired after that, we couldn’t wait to eat lunch (our tour was from 12nn to 3pm) so we didn’t even bother to look for a place to eat and settled for the Jollibee within The Mind’s premises. So good!

We walked over to High Street after and when it started to rain, settled in Starbucks.

Our orders: Iced Green Tea Lattes, Iced Green Tea and Green Tea & Berry Cake. The barista looked at us and said “So di naman masyadong mahilig sa green tea ang barkada niyo?” (So it seems that you and your friends don’t seem to like green tea that much?) which was, of course, sarcastic. We love green tea! :) 

The Mind was great—if you have the opportunity, I suggest you go—or any museum close to you!