after all that...

well, i know it's been a crappy life, but i'm hopeful for a better future. i will be more capable of taking care of myself and taking charge of my situation after college. i'm a little scared of what the future may bring, but i know i'm strong enough to get through anything life has to offer.

so here's to one more year of agony and lessons to learn from this hard enough life! CHEERS!!!

adventures with the old Elantra III

there was a time when we visited my sister in BF Homes. i really thought it was pretty safe there until another fateful day...

my sister invited us to eat in this not-fancy-claiming-to-be Chinese restaurant in presidents ave. I brought my slr(film not digital) which was not yet fully paid and the digital camera that my uncle gave me for my high school graduation. i brought them so i could take photos of my favorite nephew, my sister's kid. they were already rushing us, so i left the cameras on the back seat of the car. we ate and talked, then stepped out.

when we got to the car, i thought we'd just forgotten to close the window. Then i realized it was broken, folded on the seat. my cameras were gone and the thief was "kind" enough to leave the tripod. it took almost a year before we could have that window replaced. Getting the cameras were hopeless.

For just a short time in my life, i experienced capturing life on film and on a digital camera. it's just sad that it had to end so abruptly. didn't even enjoy it that much nor capture the really good stuff...

goodbye to a legacy

not long after our financial crisis at home, my mom felt the need to sell some of her prized possessions, her paintings. She sold a Joya for less than what it was worth (supposedly a million or hundreds of thousands today) because it was sold by a gallery. dude, rip off! they priced it so low and asked for 40% commission! AMAZING!!! the money from that purchase gave us a little breathing space, so fine... She sold two paintings through that gallery, but we felt that they were really ripping us off so she pulled her collection out.

just recently, my mom sold 2 paintings to her friends from Church. She got to pay for part of my niece's tuition and we finally got to have most of the Elantra fixed.

adventures with the old Elantra II

when we first bought the maroon Hyundai Elantra, it was such a "macho" car. i loved it. it was just too bad that i couldn't drive yet at the time. it was smooth, from paint to how the engine ran, until my mom and brother brought it to Bicol to attend our aunt's wedding anniversary. The poor car needed an overhaul. Not long after it needed new shocks for the rear. Pretty soon, the front shocks gave way as well. The door handles of the back doors break often since their plastic-I don't know if the material's brittle or we pick the most careless passengers. The air conditioning's gone too.

Every time something gets fixed, something else screws up.

Failing

i'm in my fourth year of college... i was supposed to graduate this june. unfortunately, i failed a subject that was prerequisite to a lot of majors. So here i am, stuck in school for a whole year because majors are seasonal-they only offer majors once a year.

i hadn't failed a subject in my life before my first take of ORGANIZATIONAL THEORIES with Dr. Angeli Diaz. i studied my ass off, however there were other factors that affected my performance in that particular subject. Well, first of all, i know a lot of people will agree with me when i say it's hard to answer dr. diaz' questions the right way. Quite a number of our batch failed her course, as is true for other batches who've taken up Organizational Communication. Thank God, i got it right the next time, got a 3.0 on my second take. Another factor that made it so difficult for me was that commuting ate up my study time, but that can't be remedied. The biggest problem was not having a computer and internet at home anymore.

Back then we had a course called Writing for Organizations (ORGWRIT). There was a lot of encoding and printing involved. I had to go to internet cafes and run out to print my stuff. Aside from submitting papers late in ORGWRIT, I came in late for THEORYO. I missed parts of the discussions and made a bad impression.

I was so distracted back then. My dream of finishing on time and getting an early start on helping out with finances at home after graduation was over.

adventures with the old Elantra

From http://outoftheshadows.multiply.com/journal/item/5/11_January_2009

An unbelievable day… It was the first time I drove out of Merville without my mom, the first time I went to a formal event with Job (by the way, congratulations and best wishes to the Mr. and Mrs. Jameson and Kat Ong), the first time I met his friends from the companies he’s worked with (except Rach haha), first time I locked the car and left the keys in the ignition, and the first time I got caught and gave what we all call kotong. What a day indeed!

I woke up feeling rather queasy that day. The moment I realized that it was Sunday, my heart began pounding in my chest. This was how I always felt before something went wrong. I was actually expecting the car to conk out since it badly needed a top overhaul, but to my surprise it worked fine. The problems started after parking the car. I left the keys in the ignition then power-locked the car from the driver’s door—first stupid move. Next, I climbed into the back seat to put on the shoes looking at the keys in the ignition for a moment and realizing that I had locked all the doors. Second stupid move—I closed the door and sealed our fate for the day. Of course, Job got angry and started telling me to call my mom and brother for the spare key (which we didn’t have); I just went quiet, amazed at how brainless I could be when I’m excited. Calling my mom was a no-no really. First time on my own and what do I do? Come on?!?! So I was thinking, we’re in Manila, somebody knows how to jimmy a car around here for sure! We walked over to where his friends were at the time and Job introduced me to them then followed up with the news. Couldn’t really remember all of their names, but it was nice to put a face to some of the names that came up in his stories. Suddenly someone suggested asking the security guard for help and so I did. Lucky enough he said someone could do it; it was just a matter of compensation. Then I called my mom. I got the usual, grabe! Ikaw talaga. Hearing that again was heart-breaking, but what could I do? I just reassured her that I got someone to jimmy the car with a wire.

The car is a ‘98 Hyundai Elantra with the locks on the side, not on top like the Toyota Corolla. Jimmy-ing the car was not possible however; I didn’t lose hope right away. It was a good thing that the oldest of the three men who came to do it was pretty clever. They pried the door partially, just enough to let their thick wires through then they tried to push the lock open. That went on for an hour. In the middle of it, we thought that we would be attending our first wedding/formal occasion outside and worrying about my stupid mistake. You wouldn’t believe the ideas that were going on in our heads while slowly losing hope wit every missed attempt of the old man. Job even thought of breaking the glass again—oh hell no!!! (previous incident in Presidents Ave, BF where the rear passenger window was broken in order to get my digital camera and my Manual SLR camera). Thank God they were finally able to open the door! That service was pretty costly though, but way better than buying a new window or going home in a cab…

It was the offertory part when we finally entered the San Sebastian Basilica for Kat’s wedding. That was Job’s first mass since his college days and I ruined it a bit with my thoughtlessness. Wishing each other peace calmed things down; relief kicked in. Pictures were taken and I was finally into getting to know his friends. Things seemed to pick up then until we were on our way to the reception…

Along Quirino, two vultures stopped me and JM’s car. I was on the second lane from the left, but he was charging me with a wrong lane violation—so came the kotong. I gave the man 200 for me and the other car. What a waste, man! Could’ve given them less if I had change! HAHAHA Job said they stopped us because I was a girl. Lucky for those soul-sucking pigs I was knew at driving in their territories. I was so dismayed that I even ran a red light, but I didn’t get caught that time—weird…

Kamalasan aside, the rest of the night turned out fine. Food was good, although there was a scary dish—roasted doves, I think. Taking that in was like swallowing a shot of olive oil; it went straight to my head. His friends were really nice and especially funny. Unfortunately, there was no dancing for us except for the mommies and the dance instructors hahaha Sorry, I’m a frustrated ballroom dancer hahaha

Gave Job an apology and a kiss in the car, then he drove us home...
No repercussions whatsoever.

Yukie

Late last year, my aunt and cousin gave me their old pc. The only problem with the pc was that it turned off all of a sudden sometimes, just like the iBuddy4 laptop.

I was glad to finally do school work at home. Of course, I still had to do internet stuff either in school labs or internet cafes, but it was a load of just to be able to do school work at home.

I installed InDesign late last year just to get through Graphic Design & Production or ODESIGN. I also installed Photoshop to do a layout for my organization. That took a while. Less than a gig of ram didn’t help. It was sleepless nights for me then.