Look at me, I'm 23...beautiful, a sight to see...

Just five days ago, I’ve been welcomed to 23! It’s been 10 years since starting high school, 11 since I started boarding planes on my own, 13 since my very first boyfriend, and 2 of pseudo financial independence and semi-vegetarian lifestyle. My own mother thinks I’m pretty much “of age” and did not make a fuss when she found out I went to the movies with my boyfriend, just the two of us. Well, not that I asked for her permission. But in any case, I’m glad she’s recognized that I’m getting OLDer!

Before my 23rd year passes me by (and we all know that time does fly fast,) I figured I can make my own to-do list of what I “vow” to do before I turn 24. Here goes:

My 23 “At 23, I will/should…”’s:
1. buy matching lingerie/underwear
2. undergo a pap smear (and no, not in a mobile clinic)
3. read more
4. write more
5. save more (Lord, help me)
6. go on a vacation with my boyfriend
7. buy dollars
8. apply for a US Visa (with my own money..hopefully)
9. learn how to drive
10. be less moody and be more pleasant
11. be more patient
12. donate to a charity or to the Ateneo Scholarship Fund
13. lessen my impulse-buying (except for books)
14. go regularly to Emphasis for my Brazilian with Susie
15. visit a church I’ve never been to (like Calaruega)
16. go to Boracay,El Nido, or Coron (and compare them with Bohol…hehehe!)
17. try applying for a part-time teaching job
18. give more compliments to friends
19. talk less and listen more (I hope, I hope!)
20. clean my room regularly
21. expect less and understand more (but not to the point where I become a freakin’ doormat)
22. layer scents more
23. eat less fastfood

Well, I hope to accomplish all of these in the next 12 months. This pap smear thing, though, is a tricky one. My friends and I like planning for our trip to the OB-Gyne but we never really get our lazy butts off the couch and onto the cold hospital bed. Why don’t I just read up on cervical cancer? Maybe that will motivate me.

I’m keeping a positive outlook on the year ahead. If truth be told, I’m excited at the thought of what my 23rd year will be like. I can’t even begin to tell you how different my 21st was from my 22nd .

In the meantime, allow me to share with you what I’ve picked out as my personal favorites when it comes to my own food-tripping adventures. And although those who know me well know that I’m not much of a food connoisseur (meaning, I don’t really distinguish the nuances in food, i.e., I think the sinigang in Sentro isn’t really that different compared with other restaurants’ sinigang dishes, even the one that my mom cooks), I can (thank heavens!) appreciate exceptional dishes when they truly are exceptional. I hope you won’t go hungry after reading this…

23 Favorite Foodies:
1. CIBO! Everything is G.R.E.A.T.!
2. Max Brenner’s croissant. I’d say it is simply the best!
3. Tiramisu at Caffe Caruso. Nothing like it.
4. Hot chocolate at Bread Talk followed closely by the hot choco at T Salon.
5. Macarons at Bizu. If only they weren’t so damn expensive, I’d devour them like popcorn.
6. Little Asia. Go for the Chicken adobo sa gata. Mmm…
7. Bottomless sago’t gulaman at Sentro. For someone who’s stopped ordering juices and iced teas at restaurants, this sugar fix is one thing I can’t resist.
8. Puto bumbong at Sitio in Podium. Melts in your mouth, I swear.
9. Bibingka cassava at Via Mare. Oh, and their crispy dilis, too…
10. Italianni’s. Great, great, great!
11. Red Kimono’s Crunchy California Rolls. I burned my tongue because I was too excited to eat these goodies. They’re that good. Either that, or matakaw lang talaga ako.
12. Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Worth all the fat!
13. Calamari with Onion Rings at Roma Mia. What with the cream cheese and pesto dip, you can’t go wrong with this!
14. Casa Armas Paella. Try it with their Snipe Adobo. Spanish food at its best.
15. Barbeque Chopped Chicken Salad at CPK. I can live on this alone, I think.
16. Milky Way for their Chicken Macaroni Salad and Halo-halo.
17. Oody’s for the Crispy Catfish with Green Mango. Not to mention their bottomless Pandan Juice.
18. Green Tomato for their Chicken Fingers and Anchovy Spaghettini.
19. Laing at Lokaldero. Creamy goodness!
20. Nishiki for great Japanese food and great ambience!
21. Hizon’s for their meals and to-die-for sweets! Great, cozy ambience, too.
22. Ah Fat for the cheapest, freshest seafood in Davao.
23. Bottomless native tsokolate at Bacolod Chicken Inasal. Sinful, but what the heck.

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Today marks the end of the 2-week work picket of sorts. Let me explain. Beginning February 6, I didn’t do anything at the office. Really. I went to work, sat down and waited for 5:30pm. That went on until Friday. Actually, today is the last day of being “workless.” But let me just say that I’m not complaining at all. In fairness, I got to finish Memoirs of A Geisha, started on 3 books (LOMA, The God of Small Things, and Never Let Me Go), and today, I got to organize my songs in iTunes (which took me all morning), and blog! Tomorrow and until Thursday, we actually have some training and orientation sessions to attend so that will pretty much keep us busy. Plus, the fun part about having training is that we get free food! And for broke people like us, this is music to our ears.

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I’d like to believe I started the year right. January marked the beginning of gym fees that had to be paid for. I didn’t have to pay for the December membership fee because it was free. So when January came, I reminded myself to make the most out of what I was paying. And so, even if I wasn’t in the gym everyday, I was there at least twice a week. Last week, I actually overachieved and was at the gym Tuesday (yes, Valentine’s night,) Friday, and Saturday. But the real overachievers, can I just tell you, are the girls I see everytime I’m at Fitness First Manila. They’re decked in the latest Nike apparel and actually storm the gym with their well-ironed hair down. But the reason why my friends and I refer to them as The Overachievers is because they attend 3 classes STRAIGHT! And mind you, these classes are all strenuous, especially for them who appear intent on making a career out of these gym classes. They attend Step Start (like aerobics), Body Jam (which I join), and Body Combat (like Tae-Bo) with the energy of a two-year old boy. I swear, these girls do not have an excuse to be fat, at all!

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Of course, I can’t blog without paying homage to the Valentine’s that was. I think it was two V-days ago when I first heard on RX this poem being read by a Hollywood artist, much like in a poetry-reading session. I think it must have been Sean Connery who read this, and you can just imagine how sexy this poem sounded. Until now, I’m still in search of this album which features Hollywood actors reading different love poems by poets such as Rilke. Madonna’s reading was also really, really good! Anyway, here’s E.E. Cummings’ poem read by Sean Connery:

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
touching skilfully,mysteriouslyher first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands


A few weeks ago I heard this poem when I heard the song, The First Time I Loved Forever (or at least that’s what I think the title of the song is.) Can you imagine how romantic it sounded? Ah…got me right through the heart.