And they called it puppy love
Best decision of the weekend: Ludwin and I visited the Barkin' Blends Dog Cafe in Katipunan last Saturday. Ever since I got word of the coffee shop opening, I've been telling him we should drop by because he's such a dog person, and I knew it was something he'd very much enjoy.
Fun fact: I'm not a person who has a soft spot for pets. Sure, I grew up with dogs in our yard and I once had a pet lobster (which I kept poking with a ballpen, HAHA) but I was never the ardent animal lover. I've always been rather indifferent towards them. For me, okay they were cute sometimes but they were just there, not something I'd mind on my own. I acknowledged their cuteness, I respected other peoples' devotion to them, but I felt no need nor compulsion to play with them, touch them, or more so take care of them. In fact, the only animal I ever truly fell in love with were elephants. (When I first saw an elephant up close in Thailand, I was smitten. They're the nicest, gentlest creatures on the planet. But see, elephants aren't exactly animals you can domesticate, play with on weekends, and actually call a pet.) I just didn't care that much about animals.
The only ones I really cared about are the stuffed ones on my bed, really.
But in a rom-com movie kind of twist, I ended up dating a person who is crazy about dogs. Ludwin used to tell me a lot about his dog, Hooch (who just passed away recently *sniff*), and I realized how wrong I was to close my doors on pets, dogs especially! They're such fun, lovable, and loyal animals - anyone who loves dogs must surely exhibit the same kind of traits as well, right? :))
Now, we end up talking about puppies and dogs 70% of the time. He named the puppy I got from my cousin last year (Alaska, because he's white!) I nicknamed the labrador they received a few months ago (He's officially named Josh, but I call him Poopie, because he's such a cuuuuute wittttleeeee puuuuupppyyyyyy).
Which is why it was so exciting for us to have finally, FINALLY found the time to go to the aforementioned Dog Cafe. The verdict? Puppy love, indeed!
Meet Robin, the golden retriever
So like I said, the only dogs I ever really cared about before Ludwin and I got together were toys - i.e. the stuffed dogs from Ikea that everyone in our family has. On the Vistan side, we all have at least one of those golden retriever plush toy puppies from Singapore - and we all invented back stories and character quirks for each of them :)) They're so cute and huggable! They're the best kind of dogs to have! Haha! But anyway, I really, really find golden retrievers so adorable, and I've told Ludwin before that if I ever decide to get a pet, that's what I'd love to have.
Imagine my delight when I finally got to play with a golden retriever for real! Robin was so well-behaved and sweet. He kept nuzzling his nose by Ludwin's feet, and just stayed put when I started scratching his back. He was sooo cuuute! It was so nice to finally get to hug a real, actual, living golden retriever!
Skye on a high, licking his paws ardently
As for Ludwin, he's always wanted a Siberian husky. It's such a boy's dog, and I'm actually not surprised it's his favorite. He was so thrilled he got to play with Skye, the resident husky of the cafe. I expected Skye to be fierce or "suplado" even, because they look mean, right? But he was super gentle. He just kept licking his paws! And he loved nestling by Ludwin's legs. Well, it takes one alpha male to know one. :)) "Bro, what's up, I like your shoes, I will lick you to show you my appreciation!"
We really had a great time - we haven't been on any date like that before! It was so much fun just sitting there and playing with the dogs, all kinds and shapes and sizes. We didn't get to take a picture with the others we played with (like the beagle, the Chinese shar-pei, and the lhasa dogs) because some of them were "free spirits" and liked walking around the room, doing their own thing.
The place was so much nicer than I expected. The Dog Zone is a separate room from the actual cafe, which means it's really clean, hygienic, and safe. It's Php 180 for two hours inside the room, and inclusive of a milk tea or fruit tea drink. There are other options like coffee too, but you have to pay a little extra. They have very strict and particular rules for the Dog Zone, which is completely reasonable I think. You can't carry the dogs around, you can't feed them, you can't run around with them. You also can't bring your own dog. But it's perfectly understandable; you wouldn't want to upset the resident dogs by being too aggressive or by bringing in another canine who may not be as trained as they are.
I really appreciated the fact that the place smelled great. It smelled like a spa! They have a lot of fresheners and air purifiers, and the staff clean up after the dogs really quickly. They have hand sanitizers, alcohol, and wipes at hand for the customers too. That's one of my biggest issues about animals when I was growing up - I wasn't too fond of touching them because I had the impression that they were dirty. But that's not at all a concern here. You can definitely hug and carry them on your lap; no stinky dog smell to worry about!
Perhaps my only beef with the place is their food. We had dinner first before going inside to Dog Zone. We ordered chicken teriyaki and grilled pork, and we were disappointed. The serving was small, even for one person. The food was dry and seemed like it just came out of the microwave. Tasted like cheap cafeteria fare, to be honest. (Actually, mas masarap pa yung sa CASAA.) Their tea was just okay. I ordered lychee fruit tea, and Ludwin got lemon. Nothing special: not great but not terrible either. Maybe their coffee is better, since they are after all a cafe.
It was a good thing we were going someplace else after (we met up with his college friends at Tomatokick later that night) so we had the chance to eat again. Their menu definitely felt and tasted like an afterthought of the brilliant "hang out with the dogs while having coffee" idea. But then again, you don't go to Barkin' Blends to eat good food. You go there to enjoy the company of the dogs :) They deliver well on that part, and I really have no complaints. The Php 180 for the Dog Zone is definitely money well-spent, for both dog-lovers and non-enthusiasts alike.
Family picture!
Too bad Robin's face wasn't in the frame :(
Too bad Robin's face wasn't in the frame :(
We've always joked about how much we'd rather have puppies than puppy-like creatures (aka, babies LOL) because they're less of a hassle and they're so much more fun to take care of. Puppies poop everywhere and make a lot of noise too, but they won't grow up to be rebellious, hormonal teenagers! :)) We were so thrilled to play with Robin and Skye most especially because we've always wanted to have a golden retriever and a husky together. But that's grown-up stuff we're not ready to deal with yet - we still have school and work to worry about for the next eight years or so - hence, until then, the Barkin Blends Dog Cafe would have to do. Good enough for our puppy-lovin' needs :)
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Barkin' Blends Dog Cafe is located at 91 Rosa Alvero Street, J&R Concon Centre, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. (It's in the building behind Shakey's Katipunan.)
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Torrential
"The human memory is treacherous," the professor said.
That is to say, the mind plays tricks on us, so much so that we cannot always rely on its accuracy, especially for things as important as wills. Notarial wills require the signature of at least three credible witnesses, on each and every page thereof, signed in the presence of the testator and each other.
That much he knew, that much he remembered.
He also remembered how, one night in September, some twelve years ago, he received a call from a girl at 10:23 in the evening. He can still vividly recall the annoyance in his mother's voice when she told him that someone called, that a girl called, that a girl called him at this late hour, that a girl called him at this late hour in the middle of the storm.
"Hello?"
"Hi."
Of course, there were preliminaries that had to be asked. Where she was, why she was out at half past ten, why she didn't stay inside her dorm, what led her to the sari-sari store a few blocks away. He could hear the downpour from her end of the line; he could also hear the chatter of a few inebriated men.
"People are still drinking in the middle of the typhoon?"
"The human spirit is unsinkable. Or rather, the distilled spirits are."
It's been approximately eleven hours since the power went out; miraculously the telephone lines seemed unharmed. She had always been afraid of the dark; and always wary of admitting it too. But it's been three hours of hiding under her blanket, of pretending that huddling beneath the sheets cancels out the darkness outside them. She mustered the courage to crawl her way to the door, and finally out the building. She didn't have time (nor the visual capability) to put on decent clothes; she had only her hoodie on - nothing underneath, not even her bra. Which is information he didn't want her to be sharing at that instant — not because he didn't like it — but because she's a beautiful twenty-one year old girl, all by her lonesome, in a neighborhood that was not exactly known for its safety. And he couldn't be there to protect her.
But of course he couldn't bring himself to say that. At least not yet.
"So did you have anything to eat?" he asked.
"Oh shoot. See, I forgot to have dinner. That's how shit scared I was,"
"Don't you have a stash of Sky Flakes in your room?"
"I ate it all the other day after my mom sent me a jar of strawberry jam from back home."
Before he met her, he didn't think there were people who came from Baguio. He didn't think Baguio could be someone's hometown. Which is so incredibly naive of him, and actually a bit stupid too. "How Manila-centric of you," she'd say. For him, Baguio was just home to three things: the Ifugaos, the Americans who settled there, and the sunflowers. It wasn't a theme park. But he had no idea why it didn't occur to him that regular folk lived there.
Although she was anything but a regular girl.
That much he knew, and that much he eventually kept discovering long after that phone call. They got together, fooled around a lot, exchanged cassettes, held hands while studying. They made it through school, through the bar, through work. They made it to blockmates' weddings and best friend's kid's baptisms. They made it through her father's death, and through his sister's depression. They even made it to Court, before a judge, just she and him, and a few family and friends. It was raining that day too, and he almost didn't make it. But he did. They did.
And it was raining that night he went home and found their condo empty. He found her ring on the dresser. The lipstick his colleague left behind a few weeks ago lay beside it. She found out. She had gone back to Baguio, to her sunflowers, to her home.
"I miss home. All my cassettes are there," she said to him, after telling the sari-sari store owner she's extending for fifteen more minutes.
"I have some you can borrow,"
"But you listen to Boyz II Men. And Ginuwine."
"What's so wrong about that?!"
"It's... cheesy."
"Oh please, don't tell me you don't listen to cheesy music. Goo Goo Dolls? Dave Matthews?"
"Hey---"
"I'd give up forever to touch you? Ginuwine's a better poet than that Rzeznik guy!"
"You take that back. Take that back!"
And it went on for hours. No, actually just a few more minutes. (Or half an hour more? Now this he can't recall. Treacherous, indeed.) She had to go back to the dorm because the rain was starting to pour heavily again, and the ale wanted to close up shop. But he wouldn't let her put the phone down until she admitted that "Differences" was a pretty good song.
So good that, she claimed a few days later, it got stuck in her head all night. It kept her company in the dark. Enough to keep the monsters under her bed from grabbing her foot, or something. He was glad to have helped. He had half the mind to brave the typhoon and go over to her place. Knock on her door, hold her hand, cuddle with her under the sheets. Bring his brother's guitar, learn to play Dave Matthews for her. Tell her that maybe home is not a place, but a person. That Manila could be home, that he could be her home. And home meant having someone to hold, not having a place to hold you.
As if on cue, lightning flashed so brightly, bringing him back to the present.
"Where was I?" he asked his students.
"About the human memory, sir."
"Ah, yes. I remember now."
And he does, he does remember. Every little thing, every freckle, every blister, every song on the radio, every time he forgets his umbrella, every time he signs his name and realizes she was right to not take his after all. The professor still remembers. His head reminds him, the pangs of pain crawling across his chest remind him. The knot on his stomach. It's been years. She is happy now, a mother of one; he has been in and out of quasi-serious relationships since. He has taken girls home, one of them a former student, two of them other co-faculty members, none of them he has asked to be his girlfriend. He is in a better place too; time has been kind, he'd like to think, and he is thankful. But sometimes, on days like today, the clouds decide to connive with the deep recesses of his memory, playing dirty tricks on him again. And before he knows it, before he can even try to resist — cue guitars and violins swelling — it's the opening chords of Satellite he's hearing in his head somehow. Satellite in his eyes, like a diamond in the gray, monsoon sky.
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(I have Spotify and Typhoon Luis to thank for the choice of songs and the sudden impulse to write.)
Labels: fiction, finger exercises
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3 Fridays in One Week
a.k.a. The Week That Felt Like It Had 3 Fridays in a Row (and a Tuesday that felt like being in undergrad)
You know who loves silver linings and little surprises? Law students. When we learn about cancelled classes and anticipate long weekends, we celebrate like basketball champions short of lighting up a bonfire.
Wednesday
Last Wednesday, we were treated to a really fun and entertaining Succession class (prof was in a very good mood), and the added surprise of not having PIL right after. The Amber spaghetti our class ordered was serendipitous. Saktong pang-celebrate talaga eh!
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Friday
My law school love and soulmate, Clarisse, celebrated her birthday last Monday (September 8) but she decided to schedule her treat yesterday, so that we can all bring along our plus-ones.
It was my first time at the "new" Tomato Kick (which is along Malingap St. now), and I found myself in awe of two things: (1) That it literally is a house, with nothing in the interior or landscape being changed at all to fit the look of an inuman place; it looks like someone's holding a perpetual birthday party inside the house, and (2) That I am so old! The place was full of "kids" and I recognized no one. Damn. Our generation's time in UP has indeed passed. :))
It was great to see Franco and Angel again, and to just sit down together as a group like we all used to. For some reason, even though I see most of these guys on a daily basis, it's still a different kind of comfort when we're just talking and hanging out sans the agitation over acads. And with a few bottles of beer, of course. Good times.
BONUS! Last Tuesday, Ludwin took a half-day leave from work to submit his application for Master's. Since I had Evidence that day, due to certain considerations, I was not supposed to look pretty / dressed-up / kikay, hence I went to school in shirt and jeans, aka college kid get-up. That, plus our lunch at Rodic's, definitely made me feel like an undergrad all over again.
I took his phone and demanded obligatory cheesy-college-couple selfies. HE HE HEHEHE
It was the college date we never had with each other, I guess. :))
The only problem with great weeks like this is that I'm pretty sure the succeeding ones are going to be crazy hectic. But oh well. I'm taking all the small joys and victories I can get. One week at a time, Karla!
P.S. Forgive me if the blog's turning into one big photo dump lately! It's my lame attempt at making myself feel that I still have a social life. :))
P.P.S. And the ugly resolution, damn, I'm terribly sorry! It's my Huawei phone's fault! Haha! My Samsung died on me last summer, and I didn't see the point of buying an extremely expensive phone when I can get a decently priced pwede na one. That, plus I commute everyday to school, and I didn't want to be easy target for robbers. So there, grainy photos in exchange of... uhm, greater peace of mind?
__
You know who loves silver linings and little surprises? Law students. When we learn about cancelled classes and anticipate long weekends, we celebrate like basketball champions short of lighting up a bonfire.
Wednesday
Last Wednesday, we were treated to a really fun and entertaining Succession class (prof was in a very good mood), and the added surprise of not having PIL right after. The Amber spaghetti our class ordered was serendipitous. Saktong pang-celebrate talaga eh!
Block D, as in Block "Tara, Dencio's tayo after!"
The relieved and happy faces of people who just found out we have a few more days to read about the lighthouse and map cases!
Them pretty gurlz of D2016
Now don't get me wrong: we genuinely enjoy PIL class, and we like our professor (who might be lurking in the Internet -- sir, just in case you find this, hi!). But of course, we're just ordinary sleep-deprived human beings; we can't deny that we relish the thought of free time. Always.
Thursday
A week ago, our Tax professor told us that we would not be having classes on September 12, as she'd be out of the country. And since Tax is our only class on Friday... *cue Ariana Grande's song* I GOT ONE LESS PROBLEM WITHOUT U.
The girls had the brilliant idea of planning a karaoke night for Thursday to celebrate our Tax-free (hehe) Friday.
And W O W, I don't think I've had that much fun with the block since... our first karaoke session in our first year. That was in 2012, two years ago! Oh my. "We were merely freshmen..." Haha! It was crazy fun, despite the absence of alcohol. Well, we didn't even need beer to just unleash our inner singing prowess! (Looking at you, Joan Cantos!)
Official songs of the night: the phonetically incorrect Unconditionally by Katy Perry, and the forever #Abangers and #Tiwala anthem, The Tide Is High by Atomic Kitten.
The tide is high, but we're holding onnnn
Friday
My law school love and soulmate, Clarisse, celebrated her birthday last Monday (September 8) but she decided to schedule her treat yesterday, so that we can all bring along our plus-ones.
It was my first time at the "new" Tomato Kick (which is along Malingap St. now), and I found myself in awe of two things: (1) That it literally is a house, with nothing in the interior or landscape being changed at all to fit the look of an inuman place; it looks like someone's holding a perpetual birthday party inside the house, and (2) That I am so old! The place was full of "kids" and I recognized no one. Damn. Our generation's time in UP has indeed passed. :))
It was great to see Franco and Angel again, and to just sit down together as a group like we all used to. For some reason, even though I see most of these guys on a daily basis, it's still a different kind of comfort when we're just talking and hanging out sans the agitation over acads. And with a few bottles of beer, of course. Good times.
#DOG almost complete!
BONUS! Last Tuesday, Ludwin took a half-day leave from work to submit his application for Master's. Since I had Evidence that day, due to certain considerations, I was not supposed to look pretty / dressed-up / kikay, hence I went to school in shirt and jeans, aka college kid get-up. That, plus our lunch at Rodic's, definitely made me feel like an undergrad all over again.
I took his phone and demanded obligatory cheesy-college-couple selfies. HE HE HEHEHE
It was the college date we never had with each other, I guess. :))
*
The only problem with great weeks like this is that I'm pretty sure the succeeding ones are going to be crazy hectic. But oh well. I'm taking all the small joys and victories I can get. One week at a time, Karla!
P.S. Forgive me if the blog's turning into one big photo dump lately! It's my lame attempt at making myself feel that I still have a social life. :))
P.P.S. And the ugly resolution, damn, I'm terribly sorry! It's my Huawei phone's fault! Haha! My Samsung died on me last summer, and I didn't see the point of buying an extremely expensive phone when I can get a decently priced pwede na one. That, plus I commute everyday to school, and I didn't want to be easy target for robbers. So there, grainy photos in exchange of... uhm, greater peace of mind?
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Labels: law school, UP
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"Funny how sometimes, you just... find things."
THIS. This is the ending the series deserved.
*
To say that I was incredibly infuriated at the finale would be an understatement. There I was, so ready to bid this show goodbye, grateful and satisfied. I've already written down everything I loved about the show, and everything I had to say for those who no longer believed in it. And then they gave me (us!) that abhorrent conclusion to nine years of character development and effective story-telling -- all for the sake of using an old footage they shot a year into the pilot. It was a complete betrayal. They completely missed the point of the entire show. THEIR show.
I won't even go into every reason explaining why I'm so invested in How I Met Your Mother. But the most important thing to declare, I suppose, is the fact that I bought into the whole ideology of the show. I sincerely, honestly held on to the idea of the journey being the destination. Of finding hope in the struggle. Of waiting it out. Of things falling into place, eventually.
That's what I loved most about the show, I guess. I sank my teeth into it because it gives me hope. There, I said it. As completely trite as that was, I embraced the kind of faith it gave me. Everything that's happening now? It will make sense eventually. All the shit you're going through? It will be worth it in the end. That is the whole premise of the show, for me, at least. It wasn't so much about Ted actually meeting the Mother, as it was about just Ted -- a story about himself and how he got to the place emotionally to meet the love of his life. That if he hadn't loved and lost all those times, didn't have all those life experiences, and hadn't gone through all that stuff with his friends, he wouldn't have made the right decisions once he met the Mother.
I hated the ending because the show long stopped being about the Will They/Won't They situation with Robin. (At least not until around Season 3.) No. The show was about the group of friends -- of Lily and Marshall adjusting to the married life, of Robin pursuing her career, of Barney outgrowing his illusions. Of Ted making all the mistakes in order to be so completely devastated about the whole idea of love, not knowing that it's the very thing that will redeem him.
How I Met Your Mother was about all the fuck ups you make in life until it all just clicks.
Not about still holding out for this girl you've obsessed about in the past who clearly isn't in love with you the way you were with her, and who is obviously only pining for you because now you're both available and want to get laid. It's a cheap, easy ending catered to the writers who so desperately wanted to use old footage to seem "radical." Anyone who's ever seen the show's ability to rise above the occasion and break the barriers of situational comedy would agree that it was a tacky and tasteless way of ending a great show. What a great disservice to the characters and stories they've built up over the years.
(That is: I'm not saying that I prefer a neat fairy-tale ending, with no divorces or death in the picture. That, I can accept and embrace even, because this show's never been afraid to touch on heavy topics like that. If they wanted to kill the Mother, that would have been fine. What I didn't like was how they threw away all the development, growth, and learning over the years written into each of the characters, just for that ending. It didn't feel earned, at all. If they wanted that conclusion, at least make us feel that the people in the show deserved it. It didn't make sense, narrative-wise. Especially what they did to Barney, whom they regressed in under five minutes, and to the Mother, whom they merely used as a means to an unwarranted end.)
And then, there's this. The promised "redemption." I doubt this erases the bad taste that awful finale left in my mouth. It doesn't even restore my faith in Bays and Thomas. But hey, at least I'm getting some kind of closure, even though I still feel short-changed.
So yes, the alternate ending is here, in its quiet, charming way, salving the wounds of "Last Forever Part 2."
In my head, this is how the show ended. The pilot gave us the blue french horn, but the last image we will see is of the yellow umbrella. It's Ted coming full circle -- hopeful, longing, miserable, but eventually, redeemed.
"It was a long road, you might even say it was really, really, really, really long. But difficult? Nah. It was life. Stuff happens in life. Things fall apart. Things get put back together.
When I think how lucky I am to wake up next to your mom every morning, I can't help but be amazed at how easy it all really was.
All I had to do was to get out of the apartment for a couple hours so that your Uncle Marshall could propose to Aunt Lily. Go to the bar. Meet your Aunt Robin. Convince your AUnt Robin to fall in love with me. Break up with your Aunt Robin.
Go on the rebound. Go get a rebound tattoo. Go get the rebound tattoo removed. Meet Stella. Convince Stella to fall in love with me. Get engaged. Get left at the altar.
Get fired. Get beat up by a goat. Get a job as a professor. Teach the wrong class. Date the wrong girl. Date the wrong girl again. Date the wrong girl a few times actually.
Let Uncle Barney fall in love with Robin. Let Aunt Robin fall in love with Uncle Barney. Book the wedding band. Go to their wedding. Make sure the wedding actually happened.
Leave a little early. Be in the right place at the right time. And somehow, summon the guts to do the stupidest, most impossible thing on the world. Walk up to that beautiful girl standing under the yellow umbrella, and start talking.
See? Easy.
And that kids, is how I met your mother."
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Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride
I don't want to jinx anything, but lately I've been feeling really good about this semester.
Not that I'm not feeling stressed, sleep-deprived, or exhausted, though — NO. Our schedule and line-up of professors qualify this sem as probably the heaviest and most difficult yet.
But so far, I'm actually liking my subjects. And so far, I see myself genuinely enjoying them. I know, I know, am I not two years late into this? If it hasn't been so obvious yet, it's a vicious cycle of love and hate for me and law school. I was stuck in the "What am I doing here?" rut for quite a while, and it did cost me a lot in the emotional and physical department. For someone who wanted to be a lawyer for most of her life, I found it rather perplexing that I felt so bogged down by it. But, right now, I'm welcoming the change. I'm embracing the fact that for the first time in a long time, I'm enjoying the learning process again — something I terribly missed, and definitely needed.
It helps, of course, that I am surrounded by people I love. If there's anything that has remained constant in this circus that is law school, it's them.
EXHIBIT A: The Parents
We're probably the embodiment of a "hangout" sitcom. We don't really do a lot of things, other than talk and talk, and just talk some more. We crack jokes in between. We eat a lot. We make fun of each other (usually Gab, haha!) Isn't that how a typical Friends episode usually works?
Not that I'm not feeling stressed, sleep-deprived, or exhausted, though — NO. Our schedule and line-up of professors qualify this sem as probably the heaviest and most difficult yet.
But so far, I'm actually liking my subjects. And so far, I see myself genuinely enjoying them. I know, I know, am I not two years late into this? If it hasn't been so obvious yet, it's a vicious cycle of love and hate for me and law school. I was stuck in the "What am I doing here?" rut for quite a while, and it did cost me a lot in the emotional and physical department. For someone who wanted to be a lawyer for most of her life, I found it rather perplexing that I felt so bogged down by it. But, right now, I'm welcoming the change. I'm embracing the fact that for the first time in a long time, I'm enjoying the learning process again — something I terribly missed, and definitely needed.
It helps, of course, that I am surrounded by people I love. If there's anything that has remained constant in this circus that is law school, it's them.
EXHIBIT A: The Parents
"If we spin this umbrella quick enough, magiging white!"
My father, everyone.
Clingy (surprise) date with Mommy.
It's funny that even though I'm away from home for a great fraction of the year, I still feel super close to my parents. We have our own thread on Facebook, we have three-way telebabad calls, and we share links and random jokes through e-mail. We are so clingy! That's the natural result of being an only child — your default best friends are your parents. But I am not complaining. At all. I've always considered myself lucky for truly having them as my anchors, in every sense of the word. I guess it really takes reaching a certain age for you to appreciate your friendship with your parents. While I won't deny that we still have petty fights every now and then ("But I like my things messy, I find order in my chaos!!"), I'd like to believe we've also gone past the I'm-a-rebel-and-I-don't-care-what-you-say! / I'm-the-parent-here-and-I-know-better phase. (Not that we've ever gone through a dramatic stage like that; last I checked, no tattoos and weird body piercings on me. Haha.) I appreciate our relationship more now because I understand that life would have taken a different turn had they not been there for me. My life literally reached a crossroads (twice), and had it not been for them, I would have walked the easy (but not so valiant) road. But I didn't, and they held my hand along the way. And when I think about how happy I am now, I cannot begin to even thank them enough for what they did, for always being encouraging and supportive of me, for guiding me to where I should be.
Also: I'm so incredibly grateful, now more than ever, that my papa is an engineer who works in the power sector and my mom is an accountant who works in trade and industry. My subjects this semester involve a lot of knowledge on energy, public utilities, taxation, and government contracts and agreements — concepts they know so, SO well as a result of their jobs. It's so awesome that I can call up my dad and ask about a particular case, and he can tell me the entire factual history in a heartbeat. Or that I can ask my mom about something tax-related, and the next thing I know, she's coming over to bring me a set of tax books. :))
Coolest parents ever. #favoritedaughteraward
EXHIBIT B: Law School Friends
Season 3 na tayo, guys!
My law school barkada has evolved so much over the years, but something that stayed the same was that things always feel like a sitcom :)) Nice and Gab will have a little spat about something, Mico will say something funny to lighten the mood, we all tease Gab about it, the couple makes up, Gab will say something about Clarisse being her least favorite friend — it all ends well. Always. :))
And it never feels rehashed or formulaic. It's just natural, us hanging out, being our usual selves, finding something funny in the mundane. It may be boring to some, but for a place as exhausting as law school, it is such a relief to find a group of people you are perfectly okay doing nothing with. I'm serious. Finding friends as sabaw as you is probably the holy grail of relationships in law school. Everyone's all sabaw, but you've all got to find those who share the same wavelength!
A lot of things have changed since first year, but the dynamic's still the same. We had breakfast for dinner the other night, and we got to reminiscing about breakfasts we used to share back in 2012. We no longer have sleepover study sessions at Mico's now, and we've all found better footing in terms of our study habits (thank you, #STAYSTRONG digest group!) but some things never changed. And I'm glad. It's nice to have nights like this to affirm the friendship.
EXHIBIT C: This Dude Who Has A Crush On Me
And then, there's this boy, who no longer needs any explanation! Wala na nga ata ako dapat sabihin, he's been taking over my blog lately! So yun na, here's a picture of us, we had lunch last week at Teriyaki Boy, that's it.
Loljk, of coooourse I can't leave him out! Allow me to indulge, law school and his work's been transforming this relationship into a quasi-long distance one! :))
Let me just put this out there: the most underrated standard of care? The diligence of a good boyfriend of a law student. I should write a provision on that! :)) I cannot imagine anyone who is more patient and understanding than a person willing to put up with the crazy body clock, endless rants and sudden anxiety attacks of a student of the law! It's funny because when I think about it, I don't think I can date a law student. (In law school, that's called "preferring a non-showbiz boyfriend." Haha! Nasa labas ng industriya!) What a nightmare — puro reklamo about recits and tambak na readings! No other kwento aside from legal doctrines!
So, props to this guy, really, for sticking around! :))
Someone asked me to describe our relationship in my Ask box, and my answer was: we are such a love team. That is, we love each other and we work as a team :)) HOW BADUY! But it's true: we've always told each other that no matter what happens, we'll be on the same side. And what a world of difference that makes. He understands how much time I have to devote for school; I understand his stress and exhaustion about work. He encourages me; I motivate him. We always just push ourselves to do our best, one day at a time. It makes long weeks easier when you know everyday you have someone to look forward to, someone who's working his ass off the same as you, someone who's just as excited to share things with you. Teamwork talaga, not just for the relationship, but on each other's endeavors.
I say, #KathNiel you're going down. Kathryn, leave this game to big sister. I'm sorry, but believing in magic? Nailed it. And hello, I'm dating the engineer. That's always better than dating the gangster.
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Alright, I'm feeling better now. (Woke up feeling a little terrible thanks to hormones.)
Back to Tax, then! Huzzah!
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