My boyfriend’s mom is a cool person — but a little complicated. I know I must have written about her several times before. During the early stages of the relationship, we had a lot of disagreement on things, because she is used to getting her way — and I do not easily budge. Hence the conflicts. Eventually, our conflicts escalated into a bit of a cold war — too much pride on both sides, each one not wanting to give way to the other. What can you do with two Leo women?

Anyway, during the ‘dark ages’, I found in her unexpected support and love, and she has become my staunchest ally in those days that Schatz and I were on the brink of separating. I told myself that even if Schatz and I never get back together, I will still fix my own relationship with her.

During those times, we talked a lot over the phone, had long chats via Yahoo and texted well into the night. She became my devil’s advocate, a role I am used to playing with Schatz during  Japinoy-related discussions. But most of all, she became my eyes and ears at their home, when I couldn’t keep an eye on him, when he refused to talk to me. SHE told me of the late-night phone calls, of his moods, of his whereabouts. I know she knew a lot more; she told me things but didn’t jump the gun and confront her own son. She still stepped back and allowed us to work things out together, as boyfriend and girlfriend. She knew we were fighting a lot, but she only took the side of what is right. We stressed her out very much, but still, she never gave up on us. On the day I told her I want to put an end to the relationship, she told me not to give up, told me to keep fighting for it. I OWE A LOT TO HER.

We were able to save our relationship, thanks to her. Because of her prayers. Because of her persistence. Because of her reasonable arguments. Because of her LOVE.

Schatz and I are together once again, our relationship more beautiful than before. Mommy and I are doing much, much better now than when we started more than 4 years ago.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again:

IT’S ALL GOOD. IT’S ALL BEAUTIFUL. THANK YOU, LORD.

Thank you, Mommy. I love you.

I was getting bored of my blog theme – I’ve used that since I moved to WP so I decided to change it today. This one has a customizable header, which I loved. The previous theme was pretty much just ‘Activate’. That pic was taken by my boyfriend when he was in Tokyo — this is inside the Imperial Palace Gardens, I believe. I’m still trying to get the nicer ones he took during his days-off. He had really good autumn pics! Will change the header again once he remembers to send me the pics.

The Philippines does not celebrate Thanksgiving Day, but I’d like to take this opportunity to give some ‘thanks’ shout-outs to some people today. Also, ever since the ‘dark ages’, I’ve decided to cultivate in me the attitude of gratitude, as mentioned in the phenomenal book, The Secret.

Today, I am thankful for:

• the beautiful 78 years in my lola’s life — and the countless ways she has enriched the lives of each of our family members. Many more years to come for her! I sure want her to see my own (five, haha) children with Schatz. Haha.
• my friend and colleague, Cathy, for going the extra mile again for me – because of her, I can go on vacation again. Woot!
• my never-before-seen colleague Lisa for the patience and extra hard work — you’re so nice!
• my sister Aya for the senseless Facebook comment that really made me smile — I miss you so much, panget
• Mein Schatz for something he said to me today that made our healing go fast forward, and for calling me up at the office before sleeping. I love hearing his voice last at the end of each day, and today is no exception. <3

I am not a fan of Willie Revillame. Anything he does, I avoid like the plague. But there is this particular Fort Bus whose driver is apparently a Willie fan (while the rest love Eat Bulaga) – the TV inside the bus is always tuned in to Wowowee despite requests from passengers to switch to Eat Bulaga. So during the commute, everyone in the bus is sort of forced to watch – or listen – to that icky show.

One thing I noticed about this show is how they like to play up on the contestants’ kawawa background. They make people narrate their sad stories on air (with melancholic music playing in the background) – heartbreaks, family problems, money issues, etc. Of course, people will get emotional and break down and Willie will pretend (of course he’s pretending!) to comfort them for a bit — and then:

Willie: Ano pong talent nyo?
Crying contestant: Sasayaw po (or ‘kakanta po’)

And the contestant then begins to perform. WTF was that?? I could only shake my head in disgust.

Wowow-weird. Wowow-what-theeff. Haha

Watch this space! I’m still working on the review, poor me. Late kasi magsubmit yung iba eh! As usual, the facial expression on the Jam is priceless. XD I was chuckling while grabbing the pics from Kinori-chan’s Facebook album.

Japinoy & Remaining at Sakae Sushi

Just got off the phone with Schatz…I really think we are moving in the right direction. I feel we are healing faster now.

We can now talk about what happened in a more relaxed way — no drama, no tears, no fighting, no competing for decibel level.

We can now refer to the incidents and people in a more ‘detached’ manner, like they existed and happened many years before — and not mere weeks before.

We can now make jokes out of it, poke fun at each other (and each other’s stupidity).

Forgiveness is the key.

We have almost overcome the ‘dark ages’, and we have grown together quite a lot during this period. Soon,  the ‘dark ages’ will be completely behind us – I can truly feel it.

It is all good. It is all beautiful. God made it so, so THANK YOU LORD.

Ich liebe dich, Mein Schatz. Schlaf gut. ^_^

How much pain can you endure in the name of beauty?

How much money are you willing to spend in the name of flawlessness?

This Saturday,  my boyfriend and I booked some time at our favorite beauty centre for some overdue facials. I suggested he get a facial before he flies to Sydney for a business trip. I certainly didn’t want him facing his clients with blackheads all over >_<

We had Godiva’s vitamin C facial — our usual, of course. He was supposed to get the gentleman’s executive facial, but was informed it includes some whitening procedure so he opted for the vitamin C one instead. I kept telling him he’s so pale and he needs to stop using those skin care products with whitening stuff because he looks like a ghost already — I guess he took my words to heart. Finally.

I have had this service for many times already – and during my facial, I kept on wondering WHY. Why do I subject myself to this kind of torture?? Why do I pay P600 just to get all red and swollen?? I could feel my facialist digging deep into my skin with the comedone extractor (?), just to get the dirt out. I had to fight the urge to grab her hand and make her stop. I thought I already had holes on my face. I thought I had bleeding spots already. It certainly felt like that. It was so painful that the word ‘anesthesia’ flashed through my mind several times…XD

Some 15 agonizing minutes later, she was done with the torture and was surprised at how my face looked — I was red and swollen all over. I guess she panicked a bit, the way she talked to me. I assured her it happens all the time. I ALWAYS look like that whenever I get a facial. Like I stuck my head inside an anthill. Ick.

The redness and swelling took overnight to subside. When I woke up this morning, there were still some swollen spots, but not very noticeable. Maybe in 3-4 days, even the scabs on my forehead (where the cystic acne used to be) would have been gone already. Fingers crossed.

Will I go back again? Ask me in 3 months. By then, I would’ve forgotten about how bad it felt.

 

 

Schatz and me with good friend John-san

Was finally able to read Mamu’s Facebook message after trying for so long — due to stupid internet connection, my inbox won’t open. If she hadn’t mentioned it in her message, I wouldn’t know that John-san had posted a pic of us in his Facebook album. I went and grabbed it (left). Haha.

Japinoy.com was invited again to participate in this year’s Open House. I also asked Kouchou-sensei if we could hold an anime trivia contest, in addition to our regular free anime film showing. Good that she agreed, since we scrapped the Japan trivia booth this year — for reasons I can’t remember XD

I wanted to man the anime booth with Schatz, but Ogata-sensei refused to cancel our class for the day (even though all the other teachers have). He did compromise and shortened the class by one hour.

This year had the usual activities:

• Origami (with Haruko-sensei and Jovy-sensei)
• Tea ceremony (Yamaura-sensei)
• Kimono no kitsuke (Chippy Morita-sensei and JLo)
• Nihongo lesson (Edwin-sensei) – now two sessions due to insistent public demand, haha
• Glitter tattoo (Maricel-san, Rona-san & Peewee-kun)

There were also aikido and sumo demonstrations. New booths and activities included uranai/Japanese fortune telling, our Japinoy.com anime trivia booth, and calligraphy (Yuko-san). But the most visited activity of all was — what else — the okonomiyaki booth! Ogata-sensei treated our class to okonomiyaki, to make up for forcing us to study while everyone else was having fun. Haha. Unfortunately, my classmates gobbled up everything and forgot to save some for me and for sensei. Talk about DUH.

In the afternoon, we had the usual program – singing and speech contests and awarding of winners. And I am so proud to say that TWO of my students won in the Kana writing contest this year. Omedetou, Joanna-san & Diane-san! I never doubted that these two could win. Haha. Last year, two of mine also won – Michael-san and Wena-san. Hmm…why don’t I do this every year??

This year’s Open House was postponed twice, because of Ondoy and Pepeng, but finally pushed through on Oct 10th. I think this has been the most fun of all the Open Houses at school. So far. The Japinoy.com family came in full force (I love you all) and there were a lot of visitors too from different schools and organizations. I always look forward to this event every year; it is a chance to showcase Japanese culture to Filipinos, and to promote Nihongo Center and PIJLC as the best institutions to learn Japanese in the contry. I hope we would be able to participate in this event every year for many years to come!

PS: Another reason why I loved this year’s Open House — Schatz told me he loved my ‘aura’ that day. Whatever that means. Haha. He told me that he loves this pic very much. OK, so I love it too. ^_^

Schatz and I showing off our glitter tattoos - mine, free! Courtesy of Peewee-kun, haha

My first Friday 5 in a verrrrry long time!

Each of this week’s questions is the title (modified, in a couple of cases) of a well-known book. Just, you know, do your best.

1. What color is your parachute?  – Pink, definitely.
2. Who moved your cheese?  – I did, actually. I was making a sandwich bento for my boyfriend. I moved it, but put it back because if I don’t, I won’t find it again.
3. Where’s Waldo? – Hiding from his exes.
4. Are you my mother? – No way. I only have one kid.
5. What’s happening to your body? – Purging…especially my face. I suppose it’s fine, at least I’m getting rid of all the toxins. I want this to be over soon!

This fun list is courtesy of Friday 5 :D

What I initially thought to be a very boring weekend alone at home turned out to be one of the best days I’ve had since the ‘dark ages’ of our relationship. Haha. Schatz and I met at Robinson’s after my Saturday class and his gym session. Out of the blue, he tells me he wants us to see the movie ‘2012′ together — we’ll catch the last full show and I’ll spend the night at his place. WOW. That’s three straight weekends in a row at his house, haha.  After the ‘dark ages’, we both realized we needed time to be together – we haven’t been doing that for the longest time, due to differences in priorities: two of them were Japinoy.com and my Nihongo school. >_< So we’d grab at any chance, and make up any excuse just to be together. Sweet. ^_~ The priorities part, we’re working on it together — just making sure we’re always on the same page.

After church and filling dinner at Bacolod Inasal, I went to get hot tea while Schatz went to get tickets for the 10pm screening. I came back to the 4th floor, where the cinemas are, balancing our hot drinks only to find Schatz standing there, smiling sheepishly. He tells me he didn’t get the tickets because all that’s left were lousy seats. WAAAAAH, FAIL! We planned to spend time (and money) at Timezone until the mall closes when he suggested out of the blue that we go to MUSIC 21 instead.

I was so surprised at the suggestion – Music 21!!!!  I knew my boyfriend had a fear of singing — and doing it in public makes it worse. I remember the time when our class went to karaoke; he didn’t sing at all. He just sat there, wearing his blinking Santa hat (a present from…haha. Not me!) and clapping after after every song. Even during one Japinoy anniversary at Music 21, he only held the mike to make announcements and not to sing. DUH. Haha.

Now he tells me he wants to overcome that fear little by little so he suggested we go to M21. He wanted us to go together because he is more comfortable with me than with anyone else. When we got there, I didn’t even have to prod him to sing — the moment he learned how to operate the computer and the TV, he was already punching in the first song: Open Arms by Journey. He has a thing for Arnel Pineda. Toink. Haha.

I loved seeing him flip through the song books, looking for titles to sing. I loved seeing him search back and forth in the computer for his favorite Japanese songs. But most of all, I loved how he sang his heart out — off key or not. He was simply enjoying himself and slowly getting his confidence. We had lots of duets and I chose some Japanese songs for him as well — his hands-down fave: Fukuyama Masaharu’s Sakurazaka. Had to coach him on some of the Kanji, but a few repeats later, he had the readings memorized! Yeah, he probably sang it at least 3x.

We were having tons of fun and before we realized it, it was four in the morning. Damn, 5 hours of singing. We both had angry text messages from his mom in our cellphones, and lots of missed calls from his landline phone. DEYMMMM…WE FORGOT TO PHONE AND INFORM HER WE’RE STAYING OUT LATE…(To be continued).