nail spa retreat for the d-strings ladies

my boyfriend says that whenever girls are together, they never fail to discuss their own romantic relationships. but hey, that's what girls do whether they be talking on the phone, window shopping, having coffee, or in this case, getting their nails done. this picture of me, jeli, and gaile was taken last april 27, on a d-strings reunion of sorts (minus dwen, who i believe, was in china at that time) at nail spa in shang. we took advantage of the fact that the boys were still on their way to shang from makati and talked about yeah, you guessed it, boys. at least the ones we love, not the ones we used to love...hahahaha!!! girl talk while having your nails done? doesn't get more kikay than that! here's to the next d-strings reunion!

d-strings girls (minus dwen) at nail spa

you'll never guess where i got these

these nuggets of wisdom are just too good to keep to myself. here goes:

on self-confidence

don't underrate yourself. humility deserves honor and respect, but a low opinion of yourself leads to sin.

do not let others have their way at your expense; do not bring on your own ruin by giving up your rights. (think: bradford of The Apprentice, Season 2)

don't hide your wisdom. your wisdom and education can be known only by what you say. do not, however, go against the truth, and remember that you do not know everything.

don't allow yourself to be dominated by someone who is stupid or show partiality to influential people.

stand up for what is right, even if it costs you your life.

on sincerity and self-control

be certain about what you believe and consistent in what you say.

don't try to please everyone or agree with everything people say.

if you don't know what to say, keep quiet. speaking can bring you either honor or disgrace; what you say can ruin you.

on friendship

some people will be your friends only when it is convenient for them, but won't stand by you in trouble.

a loyal friend is like a safe shelter; find one and you have found a treasure. nothing else is as valuable; there is no way of putting a price on it.

never abandon old friends; you will never find a new one who can take their place. friendship is like wine; it gets better as it grows older.

on relations with others

don't betray a friend for money. don't betray a real friend for all the gold in the world.

if you have sons, educate them. teach them self-discipline while they are young.

if you have daughters, keep them virtuous, and don't be too indulgent with them. when you give your daughter in marriage, you have finished a great task, but give her to a sensible man. (so self-discipline for boys, virtue for girls...hmmm...kinda makes sense to me, if you know what i mean)

do not trust yourself to someone you don't love. true true true...

on appearances

do not look down on someone who is unattractive. compared to most flying things, a bee is very small, but the honey it makes is the sweetest of foods.

on being cautious

don't get into an argument over something that is none of your business.

when things are going well, people don't think about hard times; and when things are going badly, they forget about prosperity. all our happiness can be erased in one moment of misery.

on cheerfulness and sadness

don't deliberately torture yourself by giving in to depression.

don't worry all the time. worry never did anybody any good.

jealousy and anger will shorten your life. (thank goodness i don't get angry nor am i the jealous type)

on behavior at dinner parties

when you sit down at a fancy banquet, don't let you mouth hang open, and don't say, "Look at all that food!" (uh-oh) It is impolite to have a greedy eye; remember that. nothing in creation is greedier than the eye; that is why it sheds tears so often.

when you get your food, eat it like a human being. (so aptly put!)

don't smack and slurp; nobody can stand that.

don't try to prove your manhood by how much you can drink. that has been the ruin of many.

on being independent

as long as you have breath in your body, don't let anyone lead your life for you.

keep control over all that you do; don't let anything stain your reputation.

on taking advice

don't ask advice of anyone who doesn't trust you, and don't give advice to anyone who is jealous of you.

don't ask a woman for advice about a rival of hers, a coward about war, a merchant about a bargain (masarap ba tong tinda mo?haha), a buyer about selling, a stingy person about gratitude, a cruel person about kindness, a lazy person about work.

trust your own judgment; no one's advice is more reliable.

on fathers and daughters

although he will not let his daughter know it, a father will lie awake at night worrying about her. if she is young, he worries that she might not get married. if she is already married, he worries about her happiness. if she is a virgin, he worries that she might be seduced and become pregnant while living in his house.

keep a close watch over your daughter if she is determined to have her own way. (umm....Pa?)

don't let her show off her beauty in front of men (so pagmomongha ba ito?) or spend her time talking with the women. women hurt other women just as moths damage clothing. nnnngggaaarrrrrrrrr!!!

-----

i got all that from the bible (book of sirach, to be exact). oh shush it! insomniacs can do anything they want to do to while away the time. so don't ask me, "Mecks, aaaaahhh...bakit ka nagbabasa ng bible?"

written in the stars?

i love reading horoscopes. be it the serious ones or the undeniably out-of-this-world types that the Loyola Lampoon dishes out, reading horoscopes is one of my many guilty pleasures.

i got a ton of magazines over the week from onry, a friend of mine who works for a media company but he's a guy so he doesn't appreciate cosmo, mega, preview, etc. when his mom finishes the stack, he sends them over to his girlfriend, gaile, who reads them (and so do the other women in her family) then she sends them over to me! so i stumbled on an astro special and the piece on aquarians was so right on the money for me i just have to put it here. it goes:

aquarians surf through life at a cool, calm, and collected pace. these levelheaded water bearers

operate on the mind-over-heart philosophy--always rationalizing first, and then acting on their

feelings next. despite their levelheadedness, aquarians are also unpredictable and a little schizophrenic--they can switch from unadulterated laughter one minute to serious sobriety the next. aquarians genuinely want to make the world a better place, and do all they can to preserve their utopian, ivory tower ideals.

the pros:

innovative, friendly, tolerant, independent

the cons:

uninvolved, emotionally detached, impractical, rebellious

sooo true. my mom says i'm apathetic, or in her own words, "wala lang..." hehehe...i bet mai, my high school best bud will agree 100% about me being a little schizo. sometimes i even surprise myself. oh, and yeah. i remember there was this one time my boyfriend and i were driving and we stopped at a red light. the whole intersection was at a standstill, cars were not moving at all because the lane that was supposed to be green and go had absolutely no vehicle cruising it! and i suddenly broke into this wild, hysterical laughter i was already in tears! my boyfriend, i can just imagine, must have thought about driving me straight to the mental institution instead (which, mind you, is a stone's throw from my house.)

this whole assessment of aquarians may not hold true for others but this is probably the most accurate reading i've gotten. i am, indeed, a cool cat, but a weird one, at that!

and another interesting part of it is that it says a love match for aquarians is a libra...my boyfriend's a libran...hehehe

so i learned that we're both air signs, and this is what air signs are all about:

air signs always have their heads up in the clouds. every gust of wind ushers in a million thoughts--this is whay makes the air signs the great brainiacs of the zodiac. these gifted conversationalists will offer you priceless discussions and debates, and can easily persuade you to do practically anything with their excellent convincing power.

and since we're air-air, here's the reading:

the good:

air people instantly understand each other even if no words are spoken between them

the bad:

when opinions contradict, it can be cause for a major windstorm, which happens a lot because air people do love a good argument

this is true for us, but not totally because we don't get into fights per se. we love a good conversation, maybe that's how i'd put it.

well, written in the stars or not, there is just one word i will never, never use to describe myself: SIMPLE. that is just so not me. and people who know me know that that is true. hehe.

and as for my lovelife, hmmm, i'm an air sign, he's an air sign...i guess love is just in the air!

i cannot...i do not...

today i had cocktails with my future bosses and colleagues. good food, great company. the svp for HR told the 5 of us neophytes to say something about ourselves to make them remember us. and so i thought, this is going to be easy as there's just a plethora of things i cannot and do not do (by choice) to share with them...here's a rundown:

I cannot...

• swim properly
• ride a bike
• learn how to play card games (my brain just won't process the "rules and regulations")
• play chess
• estimate distance (i have no idea how far 238km is)
• be sporty (even if i tried)
• attempt to be confrontational
• memorize a piano piece (except for the repetitive ones)
• be all friendly-friendly (i am picky with the people i mingle with)
• write an essay in a noisy place (an A essay, that is)

I do not...

• eat red meat (since April 2004)
• drink softdrinks
• smoke
• drink
• sleep on time
• call my boyfriends by their first names
• order juices or iced tea in restaurants or anywhere anymore (there's just too much sugar, i think)
• eat chicken skin, except when it's KFC
• like a lot of salt (so when i'm at home or whenever possible, eggs are never salted, neither is the fried rice and chicken)
• get "harassed" by anything (i'm always cool, calm, and collected, as they say)

so there goes my top-of-head lists...believe me, there is more...i'm tempted to make a list of my "I have never..." and "I will never..." but maybe next time...

typical boy, typical girl

my guy friends often tell me that i must not generalize men. only the bravest of them will admit to what i, together with a lot of my girlfriends, have come to conclude as typical men behavior when in a romantic relationship. my boyfriend, of course, insists that i expound on this before he gives me a piece of his mind. so here goes...

whenever a girlfriend of mine is being wooed by a guy, you know, the typical let-me-follow-you-around-like-a-lovesick-puppy, or the let-me-send-you-a-have-you-eaten-na text, or the unfailing baguio-is-not-far-from-alabang-i-can-drive-you-there-i-don't-mind line, we always tell her that she should enjoy that 'stage' since it is the most nakakakilig part of the whole story, and make sure she prolongs this period. and i am telling you, this is one advice girls should take seriously from their girlfriends because it is almost always the truth.

we say it is the most nakakakilig because this is the stage wherein the boy makes the girl feel almost like a princess. suddenly he has to carry her things (even her pink purse), walk her to class (which is 3 buildings away from his own class), make sure she's eaten her lunch, and the list can go on forever. in short, he willl do almost anything humanly possible just to make her happy, just to show her that he really, really likes her.

and we girls sometimes get swept off our feet to be whisked off to cloud 9 and 7th heaven.

let's say the boy's efforts pay off, and they become a couple. a few weeks, months even, of what they call, the 'honeymoon period' wherein the two are just inseparable with stars in their eyes. then, that's when the second part of the girlfriends' advice come in handy (prolong the wooing period) as the guy takes a little breather from launching his all-out i-will-pluck-the-moon-from-the-skies-for-you mode. we gotta admit, that could really take its toll on a boy's resources...physical and financial...hehe...

when he was wooing the girl, he missed out on a lot of gimiks with the boys, basketball games (or whatever sport the boy is into), gym workouts, and what have you's. now that she's safely his, he now falls back, albeit slowly and cautiously, into his usual routine.

i don't want to further dig into this because i don't want to come off as if i'm complaining. i am very happy, very content, and very much in love, with my man, thank you. (babe, go and read that again...hehe)

what i just want to say is that this notion of the 'typical boy' isn't a creation of women at all. i think, boys get the technical merit for this as they unconsciously fall into this category. i want to be fair and say that some boys really don't do all that just to get the girl then make a 360-degree character shift. maybe it just is difficult for the boy to show the girl how much she means to him, much more to make her believe him, that he has to resort to great lengths to prove to her that he really does care for her.

but then, undeniably, there are cases wherein the guy really fails in comparison with his manliligaw self. remember the song with the line, "you don't bring me flowers anymore"? maybe this is what that song is about. i think some, and emphasis on some, boys are like salesmen when they woo a girl. magaling mag-sales talk, pagkatapos wala na. i've seen this happen to a lot of my girlfriends and that's just plain sad.

in any case, i guess things really have to be 'normal' again for the couple. being followed around by a guy everyday isn't normal unless you're a hollywood actress, and admittedly, it can get suffocating to be constantly asked whether you've eaten your lunch, or whether you've slept well. and i think, as a couple, you both create a 'new normal' wherein you incorporate both of your realities. sounds romantic to me...

perhaps for girls, it becomes a little hard to accept that the wooing stage cannot go on forever. a little girl daydreams of being a princess and when a guy comes into her adult life treating her like one, it becomes difficult to let go and return to being her normal self. it doesn't mean that when a guy doesn't shower you with as much attention as before, he loves you less. i think if a girl does her best to understand the guy, he will actually appreciate her more.

personally, i sometimes launch into this "we're-not-spending-as-much-time-together-as-before" mode but i really, really try to talk myself out of it because i understand that i am not the only concern my boyfriend has. sometimes i'm successful, sometimes i'm not. and for the times i fail to talk myself out of it, i just tell my boyfriend that it's a "typical girl thing." i don't know if he buys it, but it's the closest to the truth i can find. i read even lucy torres launches into this mode sometimes. and she says it's a girly thing to do. so there.

the most important thing for me regarding this "issue," i guess, is that love will allow you to accept the different facets of a relationship, whether typical or difficult. for as long as you are loved, treated well, and respected, i suppose that is royal treatment enough.

i think in a relationship, one has to remember that while it takes two to tango, it also takes two to tangle. so if you want it to work, you must work at it without fail. that, i say, is the typical thing to do.

me, you, and us

i've recently been reading a book i got from a priest 2 years ago. the book, entitled "Sex, Love, or Infatuation: How Can I Really Know?" didn't appeal to me at age 20 since it claims to be the book you should read before you get married and at that time, the whole marriage thing was the least of my concerns. but now...well, let's just say a lot can change in a span of 2 years...

according to the book, there are 14 clues to help you assess whether it's real love or infatuation and when i was reading the 11th clue ("How do you feel about and refer to your relationship?"), i began thinking about how wonderful it is to find someone you can easily mesh with. it's like finding the perfect shade of lipstick, or the perfect jeans, or the perfect job for the kind of person you are. a semester of philosophy is enough for me to know that the famous, "You complete me," line may sound romantic, but is truly pathetic, and this chapter speaks of a certain oneness that doesn't obliterate the "me" and the "you" in the "us". there's a part that goes,

there results a strong feeling of oneness; each person feels fully
accepted, protected and secure. they are still unique, separate
persons, but they merge themselves into a pattern of common
bonds. in this sense they have become, "unselfed."

i guess this is why in some barkadas, if two people become romantically involved, they become a "packaged deal" such that if one doesn't attend a gimik, it's almost always the case that the other also does not attend. but i think there really is a time, especially in the beginning of a relationship that the world seems to close in on just the two of you. and then, when you both get down from cloud 9 and return to reality, they become (hopefully) more involved in the world that has just gotten bigger for the two of them. now, they get to meet the friends and family of the other person, making them more a part of the other person's life. this is, perhaps, where sharing in another's life comes in. while they used to enjoy doing things as singles, they now find a new joy in being able to share those things with their SOs. and for me, that is really quite romantic.

my first relevant glimpse into this was on a bright february sunday after my birthday when i joined my boyfriend as he ran his usual errands. so we had lunch at marina in jupiter, then had coffee at starbucks, did some groceries at shopwise, then heard mass at st. andrew's, went to the laundry shop then had a light dinner at mann hann over in wilson. these may really sound very ordinary, but the thing is, it feels great to be part of somebody else's life, being let in on his routine, and just plain having fun over something as mundane as racing each other to look for a certain brand of toothpaste in the supermarket.

i wish i could do this with him every sunday, but i'm thinking it might take away the novelty. i wish,then, i could take my boyfriend shopping (to let him in on my routine), but i'm thinking it might test his patience. no, let me rephrase that. i KNOW it will wipe out every trace of patience he has in his body. i won't risk it...hehe

but seriously,

i think the simple, even ordinary moments that we share with our SOs make us more aware of the beauty that lies in being able to accomodate another person into our life, allowing that person to see the real us, accepting that while in a relationship there is a "you" and "me," there is still, as the movie title goes, the story of "us."

i may have seen a lot of things in my life sort of "fall into place" but none probably as naturally as this newfound "us."

here's a poem from the book:

take a lump of clay,
wet it, pat it,
make a statue of you
and a statue of me.
then shatter them, clatter them,
add some water,
and break them and mold them,
into a statue of you
and a statue of me.
then in mine, there are bits of you
and in you there are bits of me
nothing ever shall keep us apart.

marriage: here's what i think

i got to chat with boom tonight, and as usual, it turned into one of those deep, serious conversations we used to share in the past.

we talked about the whole concept of marriage, how it seems so real now, so within reach. he said a lot of his cousins were getting married and he was almost the only one left. we talked about not being established enough to earn the right and the privilege to even think of getting married. i told him it saddened me to think of how people end up in unhappy marriages when in fact they started out with so much promise. it's like you can never be really certain of anything, not even the possibility of forever-in-love. you may be happy now and think that this is the best thing that's happening in your life, but then 10 years down the road you may be thinking, "i want out!" boom said he was more afraid than sad...and yes, it really is so displacing to be confronted with the reality that you can never be so sure. i got a card years ago with a line that goes, "the moment of absolute certainty never arrives." so true, i guess...

that is why i think love has to be nurtured, relationships continuously cultivated. i told boom that a lot of us aspire to have happy marriages in the future but without really fully grasping the idea that a marriage is a day-to-day labor of love. there has to be a conscious effort to make it work, to accept that you've committed yourself not only to the good days but also, and more essentially, to the bad days. i remember my theology teacher saying that when you say, "i do" in your marriage vows, you are saying that while you accept your partner as you know him/her, you are also saying "yes, i accept" to everything else that you do not yet know about him/her, things you might not even like.

i told boom it was like being thrown into a vast unknown, with only your faith to guide you. and this is probably faith in love, faith in each other, and faith in the possibility of finding your own sense of forever as a couple. maybe people are right when they say love isn't enough to make a marriage work, but i think it is enough to make you take risks, take chances and eventually persevere in striving for that attainable, albeit elusive, happy marriage.

i probably don't know anything about marriage, much less making it work, but i do think if spouses believe in a successful marriage, and they live to make it real, and accept everything that goes with such an undertaking, then that passion, that drive will see them through.

but then again, that's only what i think.

in sickness and in health, in flat tires and in stolen kikay kits

my boyfriend came to fetch me at ve's house, which i thought was a sweet gesture given that he's had a long day and was coming from his house which isn't really a stone's throw away from makati. anyway, i was such in a hurry to get in the car because i knew he hated waiting but ve was so in her element, taking her time in preparing my 'take-out' when i already made her kulit 30 minutes before. so when i was about to hop in, she called me to say something but then at the same time, my boyfriend was hurrying me up, saying there was an emergency, a flat tire. and the damage was so bad (the tire can't be salvaged anymore) we had to stay there for like 30 minutes or so, thank goodness there was a man who ran a talyer a few steps away. and so there i was, holding up a flashlight, 'coz that, honestly, was the only thing i could do. oh well...

i know how boys are with their cars, and this boyfriend of mine is no exception. the whole ride home, i was so worried at how upset he was because of everything that i felt guilty that he had to come and fetch me. the tried and tested "put yourself in his shoes" test to understand how he felt at that moment did not work at all because if i ran a flat tire, i wouldn't cuss and begin borrowing jacks and take out my tool box (if i even had one). i would call my boyfriend and ask him to help me. that's what i would do.

so i made for myself an analogy. boys and cars. maybe girls and make-up? that would do it for me. what if i came to meet up with my boyfriend, even if i didn't have to, i just wanted to, and then somebody steals my precious make-up kit (although in reality, i leave it at home). i'd feel pretty bad and make a list in my head of what was in there...and though i can very well buy the same things and create a new kikay kit, there just isn't going to be that "lukso ng dugo" anymore. i don't know what it is with me. i hate losing things. i think replacements can never be quite the original. i'm pathetic. i think i'm going to puke...hahaha

i don't know...i just wish he didn't have to get a flat. maybe we could've gone to have a cup of coffee or something nearby instead of changing tires. that's life, i guess.

my friend's dad (Daddy B) told me that i'd get to know the real person in a crisis. and though this be a minor one, i still love what i'm seeing.

at 22, we're 10 years old!

it's ve's birthday today and officially, the three of us are all 22! i can't believe it's been ten years since we've formed this barkada -- ten years of meaningful friendship filled with its own share of ups and downs. after gazillions of crushes, a million hours of conversation (both trivial and philosophical), and floods of tears over boys, mother-daughter fights, we still call each other the best friends we can ever find.
this is me, ve, and april before going home...thanks leo for taking the pic!
ape's son is sooo entertaining even at 2 years old! he can sing usher's burn, kitchie nadal's wag na wag mong sasabihin, and maroon 5's she will be loved completely in tune! this kid is also a truck enthusiast who knows payloaders, dump trucks and god knows what else, complete with animated demonstrations of how they work...cool!!! he says things to me like, ninang naman e or kaw talaga or even ano ka, baliw? but my favorite, so far, is when he says, whateeeeeeeever as if he's bisaya!! kaaliw! i wonder what he's going to be up to by the time he reaches 3...
it took mattie less than 15 minutes to fall asleep as he grew tired of us making him repeat all his antics...hehe...

night cream in the morning

it's 5:00 am as i type and i am not the least bit sleepy. and to think i drank my short-caramel macchiato-nonfat-decaf 7 hours ago...i bet if i didn't have it decaffeinated, i'd be up for the next 12 hours or so.

so i've been thinking, and this isn't really any of those late-night philosophical reflections i might have, whether i should still put on night cream at this hour when i can already hear our househelp preparing breakfast for my mother. yesterday, i was also thinking of this same thing but i put on some night cream anyway, thinking that the whole purpose of these creams was to work their magic as you sleep. i thought, heck, if the whole idea was to let it sit on your face for the whole duration of your sleep, it doesn't matter whether you're an insomniac, as i am, or not. the whole point is to slather your face with it and then sleep. they didn't say beauty sleeps had to be at night.

see, there absolutely wasn't anything philosophical about that.

i guess now i'm just going to lull myself to sleep and wake up in an hour's time to wake my boyfriend up then let him scold me for not sleeping earlier as normal people do and then go back to sleep.

but not before i apply my Burt's Bees Carrot Night Cream.

revisiting Ally McBeal

i got this from jd's blog but he doesn't know that yet (hehe...thanks anyway, jades!)

i am a loyal follower of ally mcbeal...those people are just so intelligently demented!!! my fave episodes were those involving john's frog, stefan, though...i swear, sometimes mai and i still talk about it and still laugh like crazy...

aside from the antics, i'm really drawn to john's closings...quite philosophical at times (and the philo buff in me just feeds on this..hehe) that is why i am sooo happy i get to watch reruns of Ally McBeal everyday!!! oh well, just read on...

thought exchanges...

Ren矇e Radick: Well, don't get me wrong, Ally ...

Ally McBeal: Why does everyone say that to me? Do I get everything wrong?

Ren矇e Radick: No, it's just that what I am about to say may sound like an insult, so I want to buffer it.

Ally McBeal: Oh, okay.

Ren矇e Radick: Emotionally, you're an idiot.

---

Ally McBeal: I mean, with all due respect, you sort of walk around with uppity breasts, and the hair flips aren't the most subtle. And your perfume - you could be flammable. Now what if somebody shut you down as a safety hazard, how would you feel then?

Elaine Vassal: That was with all due respect?

---

Georgia Thomas: Ally, what makes your problems so much bigger than everybody else's?

Ally McBeal: They're mine.

---

[on Elaine]

Ling Woo: This woman drips with sarcasm at my personal expense.

Nelle Porter: Ling, one of the disadvantages of having magnetism is that you bring people out, people that otherwise would go unnoticed. The fact that she can be so annoying is really a tribute to you!

---

Ally McBeal: Love isn't always enough.

Larry: Yeah, it is. You go without it long enough and you realize it's everything.

---

Ally McBeal: How do these things just spew out of your head like this? Couldn't you at least use your brain as a filter?

Richard Fish: That remark would hurt if I had feelings.

---

Ally McBeal: I kept believing in Santa till I was 12 years old. I just wouldnt give it up.

John "The Biscuit" Cage: And what made you stop?

Ally Mc Beal: My mother. She told me he fondled the elves. Some therapist told her step one was to undermine my admiration for him. Next year she told me that he died. Of a heart attack. Cholesterol. I blamed myself for tempting that poor fat man with cookies and buttermilk. The thought of him struggling down that narrrow chimney...

John "The Biscuit" Cage: And you call me odd?

---

[on Nelle Porter]

Richard Fish: She's good, John -- this woman reminds me of me. Should we hire her?

John "The Biscuit" Cage: It's hard for me to be objective, I'm drawn to her."

Richard Fish: You have no chance, does that help?

---

Richard Fish: Nelle, remember how you hate people talking about you behind your back?

Nelle Porter: Yes.

Richard Fish: I can't do that when you are in the room.

---

Dr. Tracy Clark: He's afraid.

Ally McBeal: Why?

Dr. Tracy Clark: He's interested.

Ally McBeal: Men are supposed to pounce when they're interested.

Dr. Tracy Clark: Hel-lo! They pounce on the wrong girls. When it's the right girl, they turn into bumbling little chickens.

fishisms &...

Richard Fish: You're not who you are, you're only what other people think you are. Fishism.

---

Richard Fish: She told her that you told her about what she told you. I'm in the middle and clueless. I feel like Elaine.

---

Richard Fish: Having a child is a selfish thing. Couples don't walk around wanting to give life. They say, we want a child. We want, we want. It is a selfish thing, a good selfish. Selfish.

---

Richard Fish: Never trust a second thought. Where there is two there is three. You will end up thinking forever.

---

Richard Fish: Personal questions don't bother me. I just lie.

---

Richard Fish: There���s no value to a secret if you can���t repeat it; Fishism.

other -isms &...

Elaine Vassal: A lot of people forget what they're saying in a fit of rage, so I'll be happy to take the minutes.

---

Elaine Vassal: Ally's depressed about her birthday. I know, I've been listening in on her phone calls.

---

Elaine Vassal: That was a snappish remark disguised in a soft tone.

---

Elaine Vassal: Oh, forgive my bluntness. It's a device I use to cope.

---

Ling Woo: It's a problem being beautiful. It's only the handsome men that ask us out because they're the only ones who think they have a chance. And handsome men are dolts. Life is unfair to us. At some point we have to face the certain reality: despite all the good the world seems to offer, true happiness can only be found in one thing - shopping.

---

Ling Woo: I'm rich. I only go into work to wear my outfits!

---

John "The Biscuit" Cage: The world is no longer a romantic place. Some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win, Ally McBeal.

---

John "The Biscuit" Cage: That's the trouble I suppose in coming at people with honesty, some times they counter with it.

---

John "The Biscuit" Cage: By not going down the road, it remains the road ahead which excites me. It even brings me joy.

---

[Ally's psychiatrist plays a tape of people laughing]

Dr. Tracy Clark: Sometimes when a patient says something so competely naive, I find that my own laughter just isn't enough.

& lastly, the mcbealisms &...

Ally McBeal: The truth is, I probably don't want to be too happy or content, 'cause then what? I actually like the quest, the search. That's the fun. The more lost you are, the more you have to look forward to. What do you know? I'm having a great time and I don't even know it.

---

Ally McBeal: I like being a mess. It's who I am.

---

Ally McBeal: Even if I did get past all my problems, I'm just gonna get out and get new ones.

---

Ally McBeal: Sometimes I'm more persuasive when I lack conviction.

---

Ally McBeal: Whenever I get depressed, I raise my hemlines. If things don't change, I am bound to be arrested.

---

Ally McBeal: Maybe I'll share my life with somebody... maybe not. But the truth is, when I think back of my loneliest moments, there was usually somebody sitting there next to me.

---

Ally McBeal: Who wants to be balanced? Balance is overrated!

---

Ally McBeal: Sometimes I'm tempted to become a street person, cut off from society. But then I wouldn't get to wear my outfits.

---

[on her short skirts]

Ally McBeal: Men are always trying to mentally undress me. I'm just trying to save them some time, that's all.

---

Ally Mc Beal: I think I just need to believe that it works. Love, couple hood, partnerships. The idea that when two people come together, they stay together. I have to take that to bed with me every night, even if I'm going to bed alone. That's a McBealism.

---

Ally Mc Beal: There are some people who meet that somebody that they can never stop loving, no matter how hard they try. I wouldn't expect you to understand that, or even believe it, but trust me; there are some loves that don't go away. And maybe that makes them crazy, but we should all be lucky enough to end up with somebody who has a little of that insanity. Someone who never lets go. Someone who cherishes you forever.