Hu-Waw!Ü I still find it amazing that there exists a Japanese resto on El Grande Ave., a little less than fifteen minutes away from my house... almost near the Lopez Gate of BF. I've lived in BF practically my entire life, but the first time I set foot at BENTOYA was just a few days after my surgery, with my friend, Arthur.... It looked dubious to me because outside, it looks shady, but inside ~ it just gave me this vibe of old Japan.Ü

Food's yummy -- very Japanese, but hey, I would definitely choose to eat here any time than eat at Kitaro. They're very generous with their portion/serving size. I had to share my food with Barthur Warthur and our other friends during our succeeding visits.

One thing to keep in mind is you need to make sure you don't eat there on Sundays at around 9PM, because their service gets terrible. I was annoyed. Duart was annoyed. James was just a little annoyed. Also be prepared for the "Authentics", if you know what I mean.
*Wink Wink* When I brought my mom and cousin at Bentoya for lunch, we felt out-of-place ~ well, just a little bit because most of the customers at that time were the "Authentic Ones", speaking in their own language most of the time. O diba? Andito nako sa sarili kong bansa, na-OP pa'ko sa mga banyaga.

I just started reading Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.
One line struck me. Just beautiful.Ü

"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations,
it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

I woke up this morning with my mom telling to start packing. It would seem like I am going on a trip, but not a vacation. Whatever. My closest friends know that I need at least 5 days, a week at the most, allotted for packing. This time though, I am not packing bikinis, sunblocks, a nice pair of heels, a little black dress, and all my accessories. Things that will be in my suitcase are mostly my linen pants – fine, still with the beach feel… my pyjamas, socks, loose tops, jackets, and yeah sarongs to cover my feet – fine, still with the beach feel again. 

True enough, I am going to a trip – a trip to the hospital. This place has been my second home since February this year to the point that the people there already know me, in fact I am friends with most of them already and even they have memorized which doctor I was seein’ on that particular day and certain time.Ü That‘s the fun part…

Not sure if I am being senti here. All I know is that I am mustering every strength that I have to go on this "trip" – to a place where I’ve never been and never imagined I would be. Don't you just hate and love firsts? Honestly, everyday, I wake up, I am praying for a miracle that sort of thing that happens in movies. Whatever!

Everything happens for a reason. Good or bad, no matter how big or small, one thing's for sure – we are bein directed somewhere. The older you get, the more you realize you need a handful of good, sincere, honest, close, real, tight friends. I've just gone through so much that pulling my top up just doesn't seem like that big a deal.

From each ability, to each according to his needs... How often I've cried out in silent tongue to be saved from myself in the middle of the night too afraid to move, horrified. As I always say, the answer may be beyond the capability of my own two little hands... Right now, I offer everything to Him. 5 days to go baby.

After a month of "being Japanese", my stylist and I decided to trip on my hair again.
It's surgery-friendly, really easy to manage after post-op... should be!Ü
So, I'm not Japanese anymore. Guapo na'ko ngayon.
Meet Girl Pogi.Ü

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A message for my chismosa feeling close friends...
My doctors have not restricted me to have a relaxing time at the beach.

Beat LA.
Go Celtics!Ü

There is a new drink, I think.
May I present a new brand from the product line of carbonated soft drinks from the makers of RC Cola, not too sure about this -- *drum roll*
SPARKLE.

Cute name for a soda.
It reminds me of one of the girls who work on my nails in CANS.
Reminds me of this place that I see on the way home, along Sucat. Boys would know what I'm talking about. Hahaha.

It's probably been around for some time, but I just got to see it last week while enjoying good food at a place in BF Resort with Cho, James, and Duart.
I was so amazed with it that I had to take a photo of it. Hahaha. Silly me.

Nope, I didn't try it.
I was never a fan of lemon-ish soft drinks -- ie Mirinda.
This is a useless post :-)

For the past 4 weeks, I have been enjoying doing nothing.Ü That's right, we should spend time, find time to do nothing --- forced or not. Lovely isn't it? Tonight, when I got home, from my attempts to recover my old passwords, I ended up playing. Good girl!Ü Now, if only the "Rihanna bob" didn't require 200 points -- aka monetary donations -- the avatar would've been more ME.Ö

Time to take my meds now.... Goodnight everyone!

PS. I am in awe and in admiration with Hilary Clinton's speech, right now, during her exit rally :-)

My hair is short again, but not like how short it was during my early college years.
I cut it today mostly because of medical reasons. There you go.
Now, I really am a little girl.

Fact 1: One of Russ’ favorite restaurants | Italianni’s – Alabang Town Center
Fact 2: It has to be the one in Alabang Town Center.

What makes food taste incredible as opposed to merely good or great? Excellent Service.
It is often said that great cooking is a combination of great ingredients and technique. Unquestionably, the quality of produce and skill of the cook, both have tremendous influence on the final dish. However, incredible food often contains one additional element – service.

Fact  3: How often does Russ eat in Italianni’s in a month? | Not less than 10 times
Fact  4: In a week, Russ sometimes eats at Italianni’s 4 times!

Understanding and taking advantage of guests’ food-related habits is a sure fire way to get your customers coming back. Food can be incredible when it exceeds past experiences, expectations. By itself, exceeding expectations through service is as important as ingredients and technique. It will be harder to exceed the expectation of someone who has dined at many fine restaurants  compared to a person with limited experience. For me, excellent service always goes with food-related memories. Whether or not you have eaten at the world’s best restaurants, with super customer service, it is likely that you have special food memories that would definitely make you come back.

I only have good words to say about Italianni’s Alabang Town Center.
Food is just divine and I like it that every now-and-then, they would always have a new offering that’s not on their menu. You’re not stuck to the same food on the menu each time. And I just have to say that the Mango Panacotta is the best sweet ending. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
 
Service is just superb – from the time that they see you outside the restaurant to the time that you leave the resto and what’s more important is that they are consistent. Everyone is wearing a smile. Servers look clean and neat.; they’re warm, friendly, courteous, pleasant, alert, and are keen to details… that sometimes, they just do it without us requesting for it… Cool isn’t it? So… If you happen to be in the area and have decided to dine at Italianni’s, try looking for Len, or request that she be assigned to your table. She is just amazing – and you have to go there to know what I’m talking about. :-)

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Click on the image to see my I ♥ Italianni's apron.

I was tagged by Patchi :D
I am to post ten facts about myself.

RULES
- Each blogger starts with ten random facts / habits about themselves
- Bloggers tagged need to repost the rules and write their ten things on their own blogs.
- At the end of your blog, you need to choose 10 people you’re going to tag and list their names.
- Don’t forget to comment on their site that they’re tagged.
- You cannot tag the person that tagged you.

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Here goes mine :-D
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01. I love mango (the fruit), but don’t like mango juice, mango tarts, etc.
02. I eat buco pie, but I don’t like buco juice or even the coconut.
03. I love vinegar!
04. I have this strange and wonderful fascination with fairies, vampires, snakes, and sharks.
05. Back in grade school, I cried after reading “Impeng Negro.”
06. I am a nerd.
07. I hate it when I’m at a fast food and am made to wait.
08. I’d rather drink with friends and eat than go shopping when at the mall.
09. I believe that people are naturally good.
10. I don’t eat popcorn.

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You guys are tagged.Ü
01. Aissa Gonzalez
02. Ariane Ladao
03. Arthur Vita
04. Ben Cabigas
05. Jessica Gallegos
06. Ivy Hayagan
07. Isabel Ridon
08. Mina Seguerra
09. Twinkle Feraren
10. Vea Alvaro

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... 'til you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. --- Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

I am a person who is easy to please, except when it's work-related. Hahaha. With this post is a big thank you to my darling friends Patsy and Ian -- who have always been very caring and thoughtful despite the fact that we all don't get to hang out as much as we used to.

When I got back to work from my Baguio trip, I saw a (my) purple post-it on my monitor.  Seeing this put a really big smile on my face. It definitely made that office day a little nicer despite the stress that I encounter in my day-to-day activities and the crappiest first quarter of 2008. Hahaha. This purple post-it has been  on my monitor since Patsy placed it there :D

Simple words. Little words.
Yet they could soothe big troubles.
And no matter how simple it could be, I appreciate that act. I am making a big deal out of it because I distinctly remember that that day I was again talking about quitting, etc etc etc.

It’s peak season for real estate and everything just gets crazier and crazier each day. Thoughts that I always keep in mind… Little stones make big mountains… Little steps can cover miles… Little acts of loving-kindness give the world it's biggest smiles... Little words can soothe big troubles… Little hugs can dry big tears… Little candles light the darkness... Little memories last for years... Little dreams can lead to greatness…

Little victories to success~ It's the little things in life that bring unexpected and the best kind of happiness... :-)

Not so much suspicions probably. I'm coming to a point --- again, where I ask myself if what I am doing is what I like to do. I ask myself if I am happy. I ask myself if I can continue the current course.

I think I'm going to quit on certain things. Unless I find my passion for it, I think I will have to or risk a downward spiral into some kind of depression. Of course, whenever one wants to change one's life, one will require new plans and decisions. I've been thinking that I must be in the wrong place. There is something wrong with this picture if I don't care about it. The don't-careness easily spreads itself to all areas of one's life once one loses hope and enthusiasm.

I'm looking for that something to tell me what this is all about. So lost in the reasons of why we came here in the first place. What's on my mind- in my heart whether it be a smile shared, a hug, a purple heart, how a day at work can be exhausting, or how deathly afraid I am of needles for every single Thursday that I'm to go the hospital... are more than just things to talk about.

Seeing the words, pictures, even silly lil things are what make this fun and at the same time addictive.

Why from one day to another can I smile and be cheerful, and in the next I'm lost.
I'd never know why, but being able to just breathe it out, helps.

When I got to the bridge, the sun was in the mid-morning place, where it's warm but not overhead. It's never quite so golden and hopeful as it is just then.

I'd been in the forest, wandering from tree to tree. I didn't know I'd been lost. I'd called it exploring. Yet every detail had distracted me. Every birdsong had stolen bits of morning. Had I been exploring I would have enjoyed it. I would have wandered with lust for the tiniest bits of color. But curiosity hadn't been who pushed me forward. It was a need to move without the corresponding direction to be going.

Then, I decided.

I was back to this particular spot where I always stand and watch.
This is the fifth time that I’m standing on this very spot. People close to me know that everytime I plan or even think about going elsewhere, something beautiful happens and I stay. This time’s the most difficult one, but I really feel that God still directed me to where I should be. And I know that it is in His plan for me to stay. Things have sort of started to fall into place --- I got just need a few more pieces to get my answers.

I simply decided.

It was a moment of standing in quiet reflection -- no mirror, except my own opinion. The answer was time to leave there, time to go be a person, this person. It was time to forward to my future. 

And turned toward the sunlight I saw the bridge with the perfectly raked dirt road and the exquisite iron railing. It is this bridge that makes the act of crossing a true experience. It has called me to to stop and to notice the beauty as well as whatever is below or beyond. This bridge was bathed in the golden sun of mid-morning and it offered a luscious decision.

Take the road or take a moment at the railing.
I would just love to take more moments... Every step of the way.

A few of you know that for the past three months, I’ve been stuck in this crossroad.

Major decisions had to be made. Big steps had to be done and as days go on, I have slowly come to accept that there will be people who’ll be hurt… People I choose not to hurt, but unfortunately, it’s beyond my control.

When I close my eyes, when I look inside, I look for the hole in my thinking.
It's not the hole of what's missing. It's the whole of the vision. It's the view to what I'm feeling.

I have to wait. Relax, though it’s probably the most difficult thing to do right now.
Reflect. Look. Listen. Look again. Then I see all of the things inside my eyelids begin moving.

They move apart. They separate. A tiny hole they make.
I look through that hole and see a whole vision.
It's the way to my feelings – my future.

Today’s been a tough one. Well, tomorrow might be worse or better. So there is this pretty hole in my life right now that makes me realize the meanings of so many things. Yup, a hole – and  it’s not empty, it’s full. Just think about it. Without a hole, a house would be unlivable, a cup useless. Can’t wander in the darkness inside. Trying to deal with this hole carefully because, I am just certain that it will help me in many ways.

I am
at the same time
fascinated and frightened
by people and things
I do not understand.

Do you believe that if a man repents enough for what he's done wrong, then he'll go back to the time that was happiest for him and live there forever? Could that be what heaven's like?" --: Arlen Bitterbuck, The Green Mile (1999)

If I could steal from yesterday, I would steal possibility. How much of our lives do we lose with the decisions we make? I suppose we'll never find out, and maybe that is the better part of it. To never know the other road lest we spend the rest of our lives kicking our heads over a path we chose not to travel. Ignorance, they say, is bliss. I would like to end the past few days' sadness over. I would like to end this sadness, but it's not that easy. So many questions have risen in my brain, and no form of active (or inactive) preoccupation can drown out the screams in my head. We are made to believe that passing up a massive offer is one of the great evils you can do to yourself. Perhaps. But this previously held belief of mine has recently been shattered because i realized that this premise is only true in a world of black and white. In a world smattered with gray and red and purple, things are not as simple. We need to learn to dance around the colors each and every day. Life will not have it any other way.

When I was a child, I must have heard this question about a million times. I'm sure you did, too. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Every time this question was asked, I had a different answer every time. I must have gone through every field and every industry. I was a fickle one. I still am, though I have, in the course of twenty-five years, learned to curb some of that fickleness in order to realize my calling.

Russ, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Doesn’t really answer the question, but I want to be wiser.

Goethe's words ring clear in my mind, "There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that creates itself from the best as the past withdraws." I may not be able to steal the possibility of yesterday, but I almost forget that I have the possibility of today.

I can be a filmmaker, a writer, an artist, a model. I can be a sister, an aunt, a mother, a mistress, a wife. I can be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, an architect, a politician. I can be more or less of who I already am. But I can always stand to be wiser than ever before. The world should be forewarned. My evolution does not end here.