100 Things About Me
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
WARNING: "Impossible- to- read- in- one- seating- (Yes, it's that long)" entry ahead.
1. I was the first born of two 17 year old horny teenagers who are the eldest children in their family.
2. That makes me the eldest grandchild and the eldest among nieces and nephews and cousins.
3. I went to Colegio San Agustin in Makati for my primary and secondary education.
4. My parents were also graduates of CSA and since it used to be an all boy school and my mom was from the pioneer batch of women who went to CSA, that also makes me the first Augustinian baby.
5. Being the first grandchild of a photographer, I naturally had the most pictures.
6. Sadly, I don't know where the pictures are anymore because we were constantly moving.
7. I have lived in 7 houses all my life: 4 years in Dasmarinas Village in Makati, where my grandparents, uncles and aunt lived; 3 years in Merville, Paranaque; 6years in San Antonio Village in Pasig, 1 year in Dasma again during my parent's separation, while we had our apartment in Pasig renovated; 1 and a half years back in the apartment in Pasig; 1 and a half year in an apartment a few meters away from my parents with my sister, Ara; 3 years in Ayala Alabang but it was too far and the gas and toll was just too expensive so we moved back to Pasig; 1 year in Valle Verde; And now, 2 years in our 4 bedroom apartment in Katipunan.
8. When I was a baby, elemental spirits from my Grandma's Island took a liking to me. These elementals were: dwarves, lamang lupa and even a mermaid! (As the Island is surrounded by waters of Laguna Bay).
9. My family realized something was wrong with me because I would have epileptic- like seizures. So they took me to a doctor but he said I was normal and nothing is wrong with me.
10. So my parents called for a mang-tatawas or witch doctor to drive the spirits away.
11. And I went back to normal... or so we like to think.
12. My mom always made me wear frilly dresses during special occasions.
13. I would never torture my daughter that way.
14. I went to Maria Montessori Nursery school and I remember that one time, all the girls were seated on the floor on one side of the room while they boys were on the other. One boy was so naughty that the teacher asked us to switch places, hoping that being surrounded by girls would make him shy and shut him up. Woe is me, the boy I ended up sitting beside me kept pinching me. So I pinched him back. And so all throughout, we were pinching each other's arm while pretending that nothing is happening despite the excruciating pain!
15. I think that's when I started hating boys.
16. I don't have tonsils anymore. Because of tonsillitis, I had an operation when I was about 4 years old. I don't remember getting really sick with high fever. All I remember was waking up drowsy in the recovery room after the operation, with my mom asleep by my bed, holding my hand.
17. No, I did not keep my tonsils in a jar as souvenir.
18. In Kindergarten, while playing "Open The Basket" was fun, I secretly I hated it because I didn't want to be the "it." I didn't want to be the loser who wasn't fast enough to run inside the human basket.
19. I went to Sacred Heart Kindergarten School in Merville and it was my first time to encounter nuns.
20. And realize that nuns were sometimes not nice at all. They were very strict.
21. My only playmate then was my sister, Ara.
22. We hated each other's guts then. We'd fight and pinch and pull each other's hair and even bite each other.
23. There was a time I started a fight and Ara bit me to retaliate. To get back at her, I screamed and cried so hard that it sent my mom running. When my mom entered the room, I wailed and pointed to Ara, "She bit me!!!" and so my mom got mad at her. I was manipulative at that age.
24. I used to have lots and lots of baby dolls. But I had one favorite. It had yarn for her hair and when you rubbed her nose, it smelled like cherries. The doll instantly became my baby. Because she had one dress only, I undressed all my other baby dolls and made their dresses my baby's dresses. My parents wondered why I had a lot of naked dolls.
25. Speaking of naked, I saw my first porn magazine when I was around 6 or 7. My dad left them lying around in his bathroom and since he told me not to touch them, I became curious one day and looked.
26. When I was an only child, I liked pretending and imagining but I never had an imaginary friend.
27. As a kid, I loved playing bahay- bahayan. I had lots of tea sets and dinner sets.
28. One time, I used baby powder to pretend that I was making milk for my pretend baby, Ara. Shortly after, the incident in number 23 occured and it wasn't because I forced her to drink it.
29. At another time, my uncle and aunt, who owned a handicrafts factory and exported to the US asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told them I wanted the fake fruits, vegetables and bread they made in the factory. These fruits, vegetables and paper- mache'd breads looked so real that when we used them as centerpieces, people thought they were real! They also made my bahay- bahayan more fun.
30. When we moved to Pasig and I had playmates who lived in the apartment complex, our bahay- bahayan turned into teacher- teacher. Being the oldest among the kids, I was always the teacher. We even had quizzes and math problems!
31. That was my first ambition- to be a teacher.
32. I grew a little older and seeing what a hard time my teachers were having with my noisy and naughty classmates, I, then, secretly wanted to be a model/ commercial model.
33. And even held commercials in my bathroom by myself. I usually had shampoo commercials.
34. Then, I grew a little bit more and realized I can't be a model/ commercial model forever and realized I was stuck for I didn't know what I wanted to be next. So I always settled for a safe and common answer: a business woman.
35. When I was around 6, I was scared of accidentally locking the door and not being able to come in again. For years, every time I went out a door, I checked the knob first to make sure that the door wasn't locked by pushing the lock and then unlocking it. (Note: I was OC pala at a young age!) I got out of the habit because I thought that checking the door every time I exited a room for eternity was ridiculous!
36.When I moved to CSA, on the first day of school, I cried when my parents dropped me off in my classroom... I cried also for the next 3 days! I was scared and overwhelmed by the size of the school. In second grade, I cried on the first day. In third grade, I didn't feel like crying but I felt that I had to because it was sort of like a ritual.
37. On my first day of school in first grade, my dad told me that when classes ends, he'll pick me up at the gate where he dropped me off. But the teachers decided to close that gate during dismissal and re-routed everyone to another exit. Needless to say, I got lost and cried again.
38. I was such a cry baby when I was baby that my mom would also burst into tears because she didn't know what to do anymore.
39. I think I cried the most when my parents separated when I was 13.
40. I used to be very shy and quiet as a kid. My parents' separation brought me out to the loud, talkative, outgoing person that I am today.
41. In second grade, I got into an accident. At around 8PM one night, my grandfather visited our house to check up on us since my dad was in the US. I offered him a glass of iced tea and fetched it for him. As I was about to pour the iced tea into the glass, I was surprised to find that the pitcher was suddenly empty! And that's when I saw that the iced tea was on the floor, mixed with my blood. Apparently, as I was carrying the heavy, thick glassed pitcher (from Tang, by the way), I accidentally hit the bottom of the pitcher on the counter and it broke, causing the bottom end of the pitcher to land on my foot. The impact was so strong that I didn't feel any pain. I had to go under surgery where they placed artificial tendons on two of my toes (the middle toe and the tall toe) and wear a cast. The incident made me miss my second quarterly exam. To this day, I have a huge, inverted L scar on my left foot.
42. In third grade, I had a huge stationery collection and I swapped with my classmates. One day, when we had to take our bags out of the classroom and into the hall because we had to clean the room, someone stole my entire collection. I never bothered starting the collection again.
43. Speaking of collections, I once collected magazine inserts. My mom had so many magazines and since she kept throwing away the inserts, I decided to collect them. I spent my afternoons going through her magazines, pulling out inserts. After a week, I got bored and started to wonder what was I thinking. I think I just got excited looking for inserts. It was happily finding a Swarovski encrusted pin in a hay stack.
44. Other things I collected: coins (from my uncles' and grandfather's collection), Archie comics and books, particularly, the Sweet Valley series.
45. At one point, my favorite toy was a doll house that came with a Barbie- like doll, only it was an inch shorter. I didn't play with the doll. Instead, I gathered all my teeny, inch high figurines: bears, Hello Kitty, Lego men and turned the doll house into their mansion. For furniture, I used up the furnitures from old doll houses and even Lego blocks! I spent the entire afternoon fixing up the doll house before I would launch into a story. It was a pretty dysfunctional household.
46. I loved going on out of town trips with my grandparents and all my dad's siblings, their wives and kids. We would always go to Puerto Azul where my grandparents eventually bought a house in Ocean Villas. The house had three floors. It had two bedrooms, one room per floor. The middle floor served as the living room, dining room and kitchen. At one point, there were 29 people vacationing in the house. Sadly, no one hasn't been to the house for years and years and last we heard, the house is inhibited by bad spirits, so bad that they were poltergeists.
47. Speaking of spirits, four years ago, my third eye was semi- open. I began seeing white shadowy figures that were clearly supernatural, in my house and they disappeared the moment I saw them. I don't see the faces or actual details of these spirits. And that's why I say my third eye was semi- open. People who are into paranormal stuff say that once your third eye is opened, you can never close it (meaning, you will be stuck with seeing ghosts all your life). I decided not to develop my ability to see things from other dimensions as I am not ready. Though I find it cool, it sometimes freaks me out. Hence, I do not see these spirits anymore nor do I even feel their presence when others could. I'll blog about my experiences later on.
48. My first trip out of the country was to Hongkong with my sister Ara and my grandmother and her aunt's family.
49. My first and last trip to the US was the summer after I graduated seventh grade. It was meant as my graduation present but it was also to take me and my sister away so that we won't think of my parent's separation which happened four months ago. My grandma booked us a tour on the West Coast: California, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado and the East Coast: New York, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Canada.
50. My last trip out of the country was in the summer before sophomore year in high school. My grandparents treated out the entire family to Hongkong: two grandparents, seven adults, eight children. It was hell for them.
51. Within the country, the other places I've been to are: Baguio, Cebu, Subic, Boracay, Bacolod. I know I need to get out more.
52. I never liked reading except for Archie Comics. I learned to love reading when we were assigned to do a book report.
53. Shortly, I started my 8 year love affair with the Sweet Valley Series..
54. I loved books so much that I put up a tiny business called Rent- A- Book Club. We were five girls in the club who rented out their books at P5.00 for three days. It was sort of like a library that earned.
55. One of the happiest moments in my life was when I received the Sweet Valley High game board for Christmas. I was so ecstatic that I unconsciously swore. It was the first time my parents heard me say "shit!"
56. Another happy moment was when my mom's cousin gave me her entire Sweet Valley High collection. It was complete from number 1 to 60 and all the special editions. I never got to read them all but I was content just looking at them perfectly arranged in ascending order on my shelf.
57. At one point, I had 600 books on my shelf. All of them are in boxes now as we don't have any space for them at our current house.
58. In sixth grade, I got into a fight with my group of friends. I lost two of my bestfriends in a shallow war of jealousy (back then, it was a big deal!) Going to school was hell for me but it made me learn alot about friendships, being alone, forging new friendships and swallowing pride.
59. My boyfriend, A, would think I didn't learn a thing about swallowing my pride because I'm a very proud person.
60. I am also very headstrong that's why my friends say that of all the people they don't want to fight with, it is with me.
61. Because of Friendster, I was able to get in touch with two of the best friends I lost back in sixth grade. We met up for dinner and it was as if nothing happened. We even laugh about the drama we had back then.
62. I also used to write stories on Intermediate pad paper. Twice, I wrote a story revolving around the Simpsons.
63. I was a late bloomer. I developed breasts in seventh grade but only got to wear a bra in Freshman year. I got my first period late of my Freshman year. I also got my first crush in fifth grade but that went out fast when rumors spread that he might be gay. I went on my first chaperoned date when I was about 18. I let the first guy court me when I was about 20 and had my first kiss and boyfriend at 20 years old as well. I only started driving when I was 22.
64. I hated being teased by my dad especially if it's to a boy and so if I noticed a boy liked me, I'd be so mean to him until he stopped liking me and left me alone. Thus, explaining why I was first courted at 20 years old.
65. I was deathly afraid of my dad. There came a point in my adolescent life that I didn't talk to him unless I had to. Otherwise, I stayed away from him.
66. I wore braces from 3rd grade to 7th grade and had retainers after. When my visits to the dentist started to become 6 months interval, I knew I was going off my retainers soon so I stopped wearing them altogether.
67. I had three major crushes in real life. All of them one at a time: The first was my crush from the village. He was the leader of the gang. The second only became popular after the movie, Casper, came out because he looked like Devon Sawa, the actor who played the temporarily resurrected Casper. The third was a major heartthrob and co- captain of the soccer team. I was obsessed with him and even wrote a poem and gave it to him on his graduation. I never had a crush on my boyfriend, A. Instead, when I got to know him, I liked him so much that it was beyond a crush.
68. I met my two bestfriends in sophomore year of high school- Glady and Jeane.
69. On the first day of school, the teacher told us that we could sit anywhere. Since Glady was the only acquaintance I had, I asked her to sit beside me. Jeane, who also knew Glady only, asked her the same thing. Glady decided to make both of us sit beside each other while she sat in front of us. I think Glady regretted making that decision because Jeane and I wouldn't stop picking on her. We would hide her things, tap on her shoulder and pretend it wasn't us.
70. I also met my other (former) bestfriend. She was Pinay but grew up in the US. She eventually became my seatmate and we got along so well. We liked the same things, had the same sense of humor. Inspite of talking to each other the whole day, we would talk on the phone when we got home from school and the next day, we had letters for each other. The four of us hung out together but this former bestfriend and I got along better than she did with Glady and Jeane.
71. Until one day, she met other Fil- Am girls from my school and suddenly, we weren't on the same page. She slowly drifted away and that broke my heart. But the experience drew me closer to Jeane and Glady.
72. I met my highschool barkada in Junior year. Jeane met Mitch, a Senior, and when they began dating each other, his group and our group forged. There were about 12 of us in the group. 3 Sophomore girls, 4 Junior girls and 5 Senior guys. We were the only group in high school that were composed of different year levels.
73. One of those sophomore girls is my distant cousin who was popular for pretty face and petite figure that guys went gaga over her charm. She had boyfriends one after the other and sometimes flings in between. This cousin of mine is now a famous bomba (soft porn) star.
74. In my fourth year in high school, our class retreat fell on my birthday. Before I left the school going to the retreat house, my friends from different year levels gave me letters and gifts. Glady gave me a letter written in a whole black cartolina, using metallic gel pens. Unfortunately, I guess because I was carrying so many things, I accidentally left the letter on the bus. I never got it back.
75. When I was about 5 years old, my mom and a photographer forced me to wear this oversized yellow shirt that smelled like it came straight out of a factory and do all sorts of weird poses as the photographer snapped away in my grandfather's warehouse. I was cranky and I cried a lot, giving my mom and photographer a hard time. I couldn't understand why they had to keep taking my picture. Years later, when I saw sample shots from that pictorial, I realized that the pictures were for Christmas cards to be given out by my grandfather's company, Foto- Me. It was my first modelling gig and I never realized it until now.
76. Because I am tall and skinny (ehem, slim), all my life, people tell me that I could be a model. I did a couple of gigs but never really pursued it because of fears and insecurities that I will never measure up.
77. I have a name doppelganger. She and I have the same name (same nickname and last name!) that we are often mistaken for one another. She is currently a writer and loves to travel the country. But most of all, unlike me, she pursued modelling. In fact, we even have the same mentor, Joanne Zapanta- Andrada.
78. My first print ad was for VMV skin care. Tita Joanne and I took screen shots of me dressed as an angel in my backyard and the VMV team approved the screen shots as the ad itself! We didn't have to re-shoot. The ad came out in Cosmo Philippines Magazine in September 2000.
79. I also came out as a model for a feature story in Tita Joanne's column in the Philippine Star. The story was about the trends for the summer which made me wear bikinis and bathing suits. When the pictures came out, my grandmother was shocked. As a thank you from Island Spice, whose bathing suits I modelled, they gave me P3,000 worth of gift checks. One bathing suit cost P2,995.
80. I've been on TV many times. Three times on MTV (one was to model and talk about a certain gadget on Be Seen, another was to introduce a song and the last was an interview about partying in Boracay. The last two were done as a favor to a friend who is producer), once for an interview about women, love and relationships, before the premiere of a new local semi- reality and dating show and I think, seven times for an interview about the bar I work in (two for local travel shows, two for rival networks during the opening of one of our branches, one for a Japanese travel show and twice for Unang Hirit). Note: Sorry, I do not mean to sound like I'm bragging but I just wanna document it for posterity sake. I am losing count.
81. A once asked me if I wanted to be famous. I answered that I didn't (want to be).
82. I used to bite my nails. In fact, I come from a family of nailbitters. I stopped biting my nails the summer before freshman year in high school and now, I am known to have looong nails.
83. For my college education, I went to University of Asia and the Pacific, a young university more popular known as the school of the rich and spoiled brats because of its ridiculously high tuition fee. (The tuition fee for one semester could pay for one person's college education plus pocket money in another university!) Being a school full of rich kids was a massive misconception. Most of the students was able to afford the tuition fee because of college education plans. Although there really were rich kids, you wouldn't think they were rich because they were so simple and down to earth. I even knew one guy who went to school with holes in his shirt... not because he was starting a trend!
84. The school was run by the Opus Dei, a religious order known for their ultra-conservative ways, and one of their strict policies was the dress code which did not allow us to wear sleeveless tops and skirts that were higher than three inches above the knee. Because I sometimes wore baby tees to school, I would often get in trouble with the administration. I believe I was on the dress code watch list.
85. Despite what other schools think, the students are not slackers. In fact, if you want to stay in the varsity team, you have to maintain a certain GPA (unlike other schools). My friend's parents, who are also members of Opus Dei, asked one of the deans why the students have so much work load and the dean replied that they intentionally piled up the work load to avoid the students from having lots of free time, which if they did, they would spend it partying and getting high.
86. On your sophomore year, you get to choose your major. I applied to Integrated Marketing Communications, a course that was very hard to get into because aside from the 5 page application form that required you to show your writing and creative skills, there was also an interview. It was very competitive too as out of the 200 plus applicants, only 60 students were chosen each year. Thus, when the results came out, many students cried when they didn't see their names on the list. I, of course, felt honored to be chosen. Because of it being a course for only 60 students, many people from the other course thought that we were arrogant and elitists.
87. My classmates and I were 'cream of the crop' but it came with a price. We were the only course known to have such a heavy load that we were often in school till midnight, working on group projects, sleeping over our groupmates houses for serious work and even met up with our groupmates for more work and projects on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays!) and even Christmas holidays! There was a time that I didn't go home for three weeks and slept over my aunt's who lived nearby.
88. I believe the course helped me prepare for the working world and it has shaped me to be the corporate worker I am today: confident, articulate, a fast and efficient worker and a multi- tasker.
89. I was once kicked out of the classroom for talking too much.
90. I once had a boring teacher who was so spoken that even if she used a microphone, you couldn't hear her. My partner in crime Karla and I would be so bored that we would just attend class for attendance and somewhere in the middle of class, we would pretend to go to the restroom but we would never come back.
91. I met A through Karla one day when he accompanied her to school. The very next day, while hanging out with Karla and another friend, the friend asked them to set him up with someone. A thought it would be a great idea to set me up with his friend. Needless to say, the friend became my first boyfriend.
92. A month after I broke up with my first boyfriend, A and I started hanging out just as friends and in three months, we started to have feelings for each other.
93. One late night, after a movie, A and I walked on the streets of Quad, Glorietta and Greenbelt and talked about ourselves. That night, I knew he was the one for me because we shared the same dream. We both wanted to live in a condo in Makati. I was so amazed when he uttered those words because I never thought it would be possible to have the same dream as somebody else.
94. I fell in love with A because he was the exact opposite of my ex and he knew how to make me laugh and treat me well.
95. But had he asked me out when I first met him, I would have said no. Simply because he didn't have a car (hey, I don't have one either so how the hell do we go out on dates? Take a cab? At that time, I lived in Alabang!)
96. Back then, the first thing I'm looking for in a guy are: (1) Looks- he must be decent looking, observes proper hygiene, dresses well and is someone I'm attracted to physically; (2) Car- Yes, he must have a car because my dad would sure as hell won't allow me to go on dates riding a cab. Plus, I lived sooo far so a cab wasn't an option; (3) Language, Diction and Grammar- He must know how to speak English properly with the right pronounciation of words; (4) Sense of Humor- self- explainatory; (5) Proper upbringing and breeding- meaning he wasn't raised by wolves, knows his table manners and has values.
97. I'm not looking anymore. I found the right man for me.
98. When I get married, I won't change my last name. Instead, I will hyphenate my last name with his.
99. Though we do talk about marriage, I am saving up for our home instead of our wedding.
100. I have no idea what to put on this number because I want to exit with a bang... Now I have something written here!
1. I was the first born of two 17 year old horny teenagers who are the eldest children in their family.
2. That makes me the eldest grandchild and the eldest among nieces and nephews and cousins.
3. I went to Colegio San Agustin in Makati for my primary and secondary education.
4. My parents were also graduates of CSA and since it used to be an all boy school and my mom was from the pioneer batch of women who went to CSA, that also makes me the first Augustinian baby.
5. Being the first grandchild of a photographer, I naturally had the most pictures.
6. Sadly, I don't know where the pictures are anymore because we were constantly moving.
7. I have lived in 7 houses all my life: 4 years in Dasmarinas Village in Makati, where my grandparents, uncles and aunt lived; 3 years in Merville, Paranaque; 6years in San Antonio Village in Pasig, 1 year in Dasma again during my parent's separation, while we had our apartment in Pasig renovated; 1 and a half years back in the apartment in Pasig; 1 and a half year in an apartment a few meters away from my parents with my sister, Ara; 3 years in Ayala Alabang but it was too far and the gas and toll was just too expensive so we moved back to Pasig; 1 year in Valle Verde; And now, 2 years in our 4 bedroom apartment in Katipunan.
8. When I was a baby, elemental spirits from my Grandma's Island took a liking to me. These elementals were: dwarves, lamang lupa and even a mermaid! (As the Island is surrounded by waters of Laguna Bay).
9. My family realized something was wrong with me because I would have epileptic- like seizures. So they took me to a doctor but he said I was normal and nothing is wrong with me.
10. So my parents called for a mang-tatawas or witch doctor to drive the spirits away.
11. And I went back to normal... or so we like to think.
12. My mom always made me wear frilly dresses during special occasions.
13. I would never torture my daughter that way.
14. I went to Maria Montessori Nursery school and I remember that one time, all the girls were seated on the floor on one side of the room while they boys were on the other. One boy was so naughty that the teacher asked us to switch places, hoping that being surrounded by girls would make him shy and shut him up. Woe is me, the boy I ended up sitting beside me kept pinching me. So I pinched him back. And so all throughout, we were pinching each other's arm while pretending that nothing is happening despite the excruciating pain!
15. I think that's when I started hating boys.
16. I don't have tonsils anymore. Because of tonsillitis, I had an operation when I was about 4 years old. I don't remember getting really sick with high fever. All I remember was waking up drowsy in the recovery room after the operation, with my mom asleep by my bed, holding my hand.
17. No, I did not keep my tonsils in a jar as souvenir.
18. In Kindergarten, while playing "Open The Basket" was fun, I secretly I hated it because I didn't want to be the "it." I didn't want to be the loser who wasn't fast enough to run inside the human basket.
19. I went to Sacred Heart Kindergarten School in Merville and it was my first time to encounter nuns.
20. And realize that nuns were sometimes not nice at all. They were very strict.
21. My only playmate then was my sister, Ara.
22. We hated each other's guts then. We'd fight and pinch and pull each other's hair and even bite each other.
23. There was a time I started a fight and Ara bit me to retaliate. To get back at her, I screamed and cried so hard that it sent my mom running. When my mom entered the room, I wailed and pointed to Ara, "She bit me!!!" and so my mom got mad at her. I was manipulative at that age.
24. I used to have lots and lots of baby dolls. But I had one favorite. It had yarn for her hair and when you rubbed her nose, it smelled like cherries. The doll instantly became my baby. Because she had one dress only, I undressed all my other baby dolls and made their dresses my baby's dresses. My parents wondered why I had a lot of naked dolls.
25. Speaking of naked, I saw my first porn magazine when I was around 6 or 7. My dad left them lying around in his bathroom and since he told me not to touch them, I became curious one day and looked.
26. When I was an only child, I liked pretending and imagining but I never had an imaginary friend.
27. As a kid, I loved playing bahay- bahayan. I had lots of tea sets and dinner sets.
28. One time, I used baby powder to pretend that I was making milk for my pretend baby, Ara. Shortly after, the incident in number 23 occured and it wasn't because I forced her to drink it.
29. At another time, my uncle and aunt, who owned a handicrafts factory and exported to the US asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told them I wanted the fake fruits, vegetables and bread they made in the factory. These fruits, vegetables and paper- mache'd breads looked so real that when we used them as centerpieces, people thought they were real! They also made my bahay- bahayan more fun.
30. When we moved to Pasig and I had playmates who lived in the apartment complex, our bahay- bahayan turned into teacher- teacher. Being the oldest among the kids, I was always the teacher. We even had quizzes and math problems!
31. That was my first ambition- to be a teacher.
32. I grew a little older and seeing what a hard time my teachers were having with my noisy and naughty classmates, I, then, secretly wanted to be a model/ commercial model.
33. And even held commercials in my bathroom by myself. I usually had shampoo commercials.
34. Then, I grew a little bit more and realized I can't be a model/ commercial model forever and realized I was stuck for I didn't know what I wanted to be next. So I always settled for a safe and common answer: a business woman.
35. When I was around 6, I was scared of accidentally locking the door and not being able to come in again. For years, every time I went out a door, I checked the knob first to make sure that the door wasn't locked by pushing the lock and then unlocking it. (Note: I was OC pala at a young age!) I got out of the habit because I thought that checking the door every time I exited a room for eternity was ridiculous!
36.When I moved to CSA, on the first day of school, I cried when my parents dropped me off in my classroom... I cried also for the next 3 days! I was scared and overwhelmed by the size of the school. In second grade, I cried on the first day. In third grade, I didn't feel like crying but I felt that I had to because it was sort of like a ritual.
37. On my first day of school in first grade, my dad told me that when classes ends, he'll pick me up at the gate where he dropped me off. But the teachers decided to close that gate during dismissal and re-routed everyone to another exit. Needless to say, I got lost and cried again.
38. I was such a cry baby when I was baby that my mom would also burst into tears because she didn't know what to do anymore.
39. I think I cried the most when my parents separated when I was 13.
40. I used to be very shy and quiet as a kid. My parents' separation brought me out to the loud, talkative, outgoing person that I am today.
41. In second grade, I got into an accident. At around 8PM one night, my grandfather visited our house to check up on us since my dad was in the US. I offered him a glass of iced tea and fetched it for him. As I was about to pour the iced tea into the glass, I was surprised to find that the pitcher was suddenly empty! And that's when I saw that the iced tea was on the floor, mixed with my blood. Apparently, as I was carrying the heavy, thick glassed pitcher (from Tang, by the way), I accidentally hit the bottom of the pitcher on the counter and it broke, causing the bottom end of the pitcher to land on my foot. The impact was so strong that I didn't feel any pain. I had to go under surgery where they placed artificial tendons on two of my toes (the middle toe and the tall toe) and wear a cast. The incident made me miss my second quarterly exam. To this day, I have a huge, inverted L scar on my left foot.
42. In third grade, I had a huge stationery collection and I swapped with my classmates. One day, when we had to take our bags out of the classroom and into the hall because we had to clean the room, someone stole my entire collection. I never bothered starting the collection again.
43. Speaking of collections, I once collected magazine inserts. My mom had so many magazines and since she kept throwing away the inserts, I decided to collect them. I spent my afternoons going through her magazines, pulling out inserts. After a week, I got bored and started to wonder what was I thinking. I think I just got excited looking for inserts. It was happily finding a Swarovski encrusted pin in a hay stack.
44. Other things I collected: coins (from my uncles' and grandfather's collection), Archie comics and books, particularly, the Sweet Valley series.
45. At one point, my favorite toy was a doll house that came with a Barbie- like doll, only it was an inch shorter. I didn't play with the doll. Instead, I gathered all my teeny, inch high figurines: bears, Hello Kitty, Lego men and turned the doll house into their mansion. For furniture, I used up the furnitures from old doll houses and even Lego blocks! I spent the entire afternoon fixing up the doll house before I would launch into a story. It was a pretty dysfunctional household.
46. I loved going on out of town trips with my grandparents and all my dad's siblings, their wives and kids. We would always go to Puerto Azul where my grandparents eventually bought a house in Ocean Villas. The house had three floors. It had two bedrooms, one room per floor. The middle floor served as the living room, dining room and kitchen. At one point, there were 29 people vacationing in the house. Sadly, no one hasn't been to the house for years and years and last we heard, the house is inhibited by bad spirits, so bad that they were poltergeists.
47. Speaking of spirits, four years ago, my third eye was semi- open. I began seeing white shadowy figures that were clearly supernatural, in my house and they disappeared the moment I saw them. I don't see the faces or actual details of these spirits. And that's why I say my third eye was semi- open. People who are into paranormal stuff say that once your third eye is opened, you can never close it (meaning, you will be stuck with seeing ghosts all your life). I decided not to develop my ability to see things from other dimensions as I am not ready. Though I find it cool, it sometimes freaks me out. Hence, I do not see these spirits anymore nor do I even feel their presence when others could. I'll blog about my experiences later on.
48. My first trip out of the country was to Hongkong with my sister Ara and my grandmother and her aunt's family.
49. My first and last trip to the US was the summer after I graduated seventh grade. It was meant as my graduation present but it was also to take me and my sister away so that we won't think of my parent's separation which happened four months ago. My grandma booked us a tour on the West Coast: California, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado and the East Coast: New York, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Canada.
50. My last trip out of the country was in the summer before sophomore year in high school. My grandparents treated out the entire family to Hongkong: two grandparents, seven adults, eight children. It was hell for them.
51. Within the country, the other places I've been to are: Baguio, Cebu, Subic, Boracay, Bacolod. I know I need to get out more.
52. I never liked reading except for Archie Comics. I learned to love reading when we were assigned to do a book report.
53. Shortly, I started my 8 year love affair with the Sweet Valley Series..
54. I loved books so much that I put up a tiny business called Rent- A- Book Club. We were five girls in the club who rented out their books at P5.00 for three days. It was sort of like a library that earned.
55. One of the happiest moments in my life was when I received the Sweet Valley High game board for Christmas. I was so ecstatic that I unconsciously swore. It was the first time my parents heard me say "shit!"
56. Another happy moment was when my mom's cousin gave me her entire Sweet Valley High collection. It was complete from number 1 to 60 and all the special editions. I never got to read them all but I was content just looking at them perfectly arranged in ascending order on my shelf.
57. At one point, I had 600 books on my shelf. All of them are in boxes now as we don't have any space for them at our current house.
58. In sixth grade, I got into a fight with my group of friends. I lost two of my bestfriends in a shallow war of jealousy (back then, it was a big deal!) Going to school was hell for me but it made me learn alot about friendships, being alone, forging new friendships and swallowing pride.
59. My boyfriend, A, would think I didn't learn a thing about swallowing my pride because I'm a very proud person.
60. I am also very headstrong that's why my friends say that of all the people they don't want to fight with, it is with me.
61. Because of Friendster, I was able to get in touch with two of the best friends I lost back in sixth grade. We met up for dinner and it was as if nothing happened. We even laugh about the drama we had back then.
62. I also used to write stories on Intermediate pad paper. Twice, I wrote a story revolving around the Simpsons.
63. I was a late bloomer. I developed breasts in seventh grade but only got to wear a bra in Freshman year. I got my first period late of my Freshman year. I also got my first crush in fifth grade but that went out fast when rumors spread that he might be gay. I went on my first chaperoned date when I was about 18. I let the first guy court me when I was about 20 and had my first kiss and boyfriend at 20 years old as well. I only started driving when I was 22.
64. I hated being teased by my dad especially if it's to a boy and so if I noticed a boy liked me, I'd be so mean to him until he stopped liking me and left me alone. Thus, explaining why I was first courted at 20 years old.
65. I was deathly afraid of my dad. There came a point in my adolescent life that I didn't talk to him unless I had to. Otherwise, I stayed away from him.
66. I wore braces from 3rd grade to 7th grade and had retainers after. When my visits to the dentist started to become 6 months interval, I knew I was going off my retainers soon so I stopped wearing them altogether.
67. I had three major crushes in real life. All of them one at a time: The first was my crush from the village. He was the leader of the gang. The second only became popular after the movie, Casper, came out because he looked like Devon Sawa, the actor who played the temporarily resurrected Casper. The third was a major heartthrob and co- captain of the soccer team. I was obsessed with him and even wrote a poem and gave it to him on his graduation. I never had a crush on my boyfriend, A. Instead, when I got to know him, I liked him so much that it was beyond a crush.
68. I met my two bestfriends in sophomore year of high school- Glady and Jeane.
69. On the first day of school, the teacher told us that we could sit anywhere. Since Glady was the only acquaintance I had, I asked her to sit beside me. Jeane, who also knew Glady only, asked her the same thing. Glady decided to make both of us sit beside each other while she sat in front of us. I think Glady regretted making that decision because Jeane and I wouldn't stop picking on her. We would hide her things, tap on her shoulder and pretend it wasn't us.
70. I also met my other (former) bestfriend. She was Pinay but grew up in the US. She eventually became my seatmate and we got along so well. We liked the same things, had the same sense of humor. Inspite of talking to each other the whole day, we would talk on the phone when we got home from school and the next day, we had letters for each other. The four of us hung out together but this former bestfriend and I got along better than she did with Glady and Jeane.
71. Until one day, she met other Fil- Am girls from my school and suddenly, we weren't on the same page. She slowly drifted away and that broke my heart. But the experience drew me closer to Jeane and Glady.
72. I met my highschool barkada in Junior year. Jeane met Mitch, a Senior, and when they began dating each other, his group and our group forged. There were about 12 of us in the group. 3 Sophomore girls, 4 Junior girls and 5 Senior guys. We were the only group in high school that were composed of different year levels.
73. One of those sophomore girls is my distant cousin who was popular for pretty face and petite figure that guys went gaga over her charm. She had boyfriends one after the other and sometimes flings in between. This cousin of mine is now a famous bomba (soft porn) star.
74. In my fourth year in high school, our class retreat fell on my birthday. Before I left the school going to the retreat house, my friends from different year levels gave me letters and gifts. Glady gave me a letter written in a whole black cartolina, using metallic gel pens. Unfortunately, I guess because I was carrying so many things, I accidentally left the letter on the bus. I never got it back.
75. When I was about 5 years old, my mom and a photographer forced me to wear this oversized yellow shirt that smelled like it came straight out of a factory and do all sorts of weird poses as the photographer snapped away in my grandfather's warehouse. I was cranky and I cried a lot, giving my mom and photographer a hard time. I couldn't understand why they had to keep taking my picture. Years later, when I saw sample shots from that pictorial, I realized that the pictures were for Christmas cards to be given out by my grandfather's company, Foto- Me. It was my first modelling gig and I never realized it until now.
76. Because I am tall and skinny (ehem, slim), all my life, people tell me that I could be a model. I did a couple of gigs but never really pursued it because of fears and insecurities that I will never measure up.
77. I have a name doppelganger. She and I have the same name (same nickname and last name!) that we are often mistaken for one another. She is currently a writer and loves to travel the country. But most of all, unlike me, she pursued modelling. In fact, we even have the same mentor, Joanne Zapanta- Andrada.
78. My first print ad was for VMV skin care. Tita Joanne and I took screen shots of me dressed as an angel in my backyard and the VMV team approved the screen shots as the ad itself! We didn't have to re-shoot. The ad came out in Cosmo Philippines Magazine in September 2000.
79. I also came out as a model for a feature story in Tita Joanne's column in the Philippine Star. The story was about the trends for the summer which made me wear bikinis and bathing suits. When the pictures came out, my grandmother was shocked. As a thank you from Island Spice, whose bathing suits I modelled, they gave me P3,000 worth of gift checks. One bathing suit cost P2,995.
80. I've been on TV many times. Three times on MTV (one was to model and talk about a certain gadget on Be Seen, another was to introduce a song and the last was an interview about partying in Boracay. The last two were done as a favor to a friend who is producer), once for an interview about women, love and relationships, before the premiere of a new local semi- reality and dating show and I think, seven times for an interview about the bar I work in (two for local travel shows, two for rival networks during the opening of one of our branches, one for a Japanese travel show and twice for Unang Hirit). Note: Sorry, I do not mean to sound like I'm bragging but I just wanna document it for posterity sake. I am losing count.
81. A once asked me if I wanted to be famous. I answered that I didn't (want to be).
82. I used to bite my nails. In fact, I come from a family of nailbitters. I stopped biting my nails the summer before freshman year in high school and now, I am known to have looong nails.
83. For my college education, I went to University of Asia and the Pacific, a young university more popular known as the school of the rich and spoiled brats because of its ridiculously high tuition fee. (The tuition fee for one semester could pay for one person's college education plus pocket money in another university!) Being a school full of rich kids was a massive misconception. Most of the students was able to afford the tuition fee because of college education plans. Although there really were rich kids, you wouldn't think they were rich because they were so simple and down to earth. I even knew one guy who went to school with holes in his shirt... not because he was starting a trend!
84. The school was run by the Opus Dei, a religious order known for their ultra-conservative ways, and one of their strict policies was the dress code which did not allow us to wear sleeveless tops and skirts that were higher than three inches above the knee. Because I sometimes wore baby tees to school, I would often get in trouble with the administration. I believe I was on the dress code watch list.
85. Despite what other schools think, the students are not slackers. In fact, if you want to stay in the varsity team, you have to maintain a certain GPA (unlike other schools). My friend's parents, who are also members of Opus Dei, asked one of the deans why the students have so much work load and the dean replied that they intentionally piled up the work load to avoid the students from having lots of free time, which if they did, they would spend it partying and getting high.
86. On your sophomore year, you get to choose your major. I applied to Integrated Marketing Communications, a course that was very hard to get into because aside from the 5 page application form that required you to show your writing and creative skills, there was also an interview. It was very competitive too as out of the 200 plus applicants, only 60 students were chosen each year. Thus, when the results came out, many students cried when they didn't see their names on the list. I, of course, felt honored to be chosen. Because of it being a course for only 60 students, many people from the other course thought that we were arrogant and elitists.
87. My classmates and I were 'cream of the crop' but it came with a price. We were the only course known to have such a heavy load that we were often in school till midnight, working on group projects, sleeping over our groupmates houses for serious work and even met up with our groupmates for more work and projects on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays!) and even Christmas holidays! There was a time that I didn't go home for three weeks and slept over my aunt's who lived nearby.
88. I believe the course helped me prepare for the working world and it has shaped me to be the corporate worker I am today: confident, articulate, a fast and efficient worker and a multi- tasker.
89. I was once kicked out of the classroom for talking too much.
90. I once had a boring teacher who was so spoken that even if she used a microphone, you couldn't hear her. My partner in crime Karla and I would be so bored that we would just attend class for attendance and somewhere in the middle of class, we would pretend to go to the restroom but we would never come back.
91. I met A through Karla one day when he accompanied her to school. The very next day, while hanging out with Karla and another friend, the friend asked them to set him up with someone. A thought it would be a great idea to set me up with his friend. Needless to say, the friend became my first boyfriend.
92. A month after I broke up with my first boyfriend, A and I started hanging out just as friends and in three months, we started to have feelings for each other.
93. One late night, after a movie, A and I walked on the streets of Quad, Glorietta and Greenbelt and talked about ourselves. That night, I knew he was the one for me because we shared the same dream. We both wanted to live in a condo in Makati. I was so amazed when he uttered those words because I never thought it would be possible to have the same dream as somebody else.
94. I fell in love with A because he was the exact opposite of my ex and he knew how to make me laugh and treat me well.
95. But had he asked me out when I first met him, I would have said no. Simply because he didn't have a car (hey, I don't have one either so how the hell do we go out on dates? Take a cab? At that time, I lived in Alabang!)
96. Back then, the first thing I'm looking for in a guy are: (1) Looks- he must be decent looking, observes proper hygiene, dresses well and is someone I'm attracted to physically; (2) Car- Yes, he must have a car because my dad would sure as hell won't allow me to go on dates riding a cab. Plus, I lived sooo far so a cab wasn't an option; (3) Language, Diction and Grammar- He must know how to speak English properly with the right pronounciation of words; (4) Sense of Humor- self- explainatory; (5) Proper upbringing and breeding- meaning he wasn't raised by wolves, knows his table manners and has values.
97. I'm not looking anymore. I found the right man for me.
98. When I get married, I won't change my last name. Instead, I will hyphenate my last name with his.
99. Though we do talk about marriage, I am saving up for our home instead of our wedding.
100. I have no idea what to put on this number because I want to exit with a bang... Now I have something written here!
6 Comments:
Great List! I finished in one sitting, that's how interesting it was. :)
God Bless you and A.
Hi! I've been a silent reader.. stubled upon it while blog hopping and bookmarked it as it's fun to read. We come from the same college! I would have to agree on # 85, about the misconception about us being slackers. I graduated last year, Batch 2004, and they started having GPAs to maintain (2.75 for 1st yr, 2.5 for the second yr and 3rd yr; the 3rd yr GPA though wasn't implemented for our batch as only a third of our batch met the said GPA.) And actually, I think only a little over one half of my batch graduated. (the rest got kicked out).
Ooops hehe I got carried away! I guess it's just sickening to hear that UA&P is the school of the rich and bobo. Oh well!
Anyway, I'll stop blabbing now, keep up the good work! Good luck to you!
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finished it in one sitting too. enjoyed your words greatly. felt very honored to have been mentioned. hope we can have coffee soon :) much love :)
OMG!You lived in Merville? and we went to the same pre-school! ahahahhaha!! Sacred Heart!
Wow. Very entertaining read! And I finished it one sitting as well! Cheers!
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