back to badminton

I haven't played badminton since the company tournament on November. Three months of sloth-hood equivalent to a five-pound weight gain was cut short by my Other Mother's invitation to play again.

Paulie and I last Sunday played two hours of badminton in a court near SM Manila. We are the Scream Team, we win and we scream. As tumitili talaga ko when I play, malakas pang sumigaw kesa pumalo—takot ang kakampi. Think Maria Sharapova. We won a total of four games against two other male-female couples. Not bad of a recovering lazy-ass.

One of the teams we beat was a "mismatch couple." The girl was a Kristine Hermosa knock-off; the guy looked like a sidekick. Go figure. She's even taller than her boyfriend, and was really nice. Sidekick was very competitive and obviously disgusted when a tandem of a bald gay guy and a fat girl outdid them by two games.

As L said: "You don't have to be pogi or rich when you're a guy, you just have to be sweet and you get the girl." So true. Or be a rockstar.

I hope Mother and I would have more playmates so hindi naman kame nanghahamon sa court on Sundays. Any takers? Now if I could only wake up earlier on Tuesdays and Thurdays to play with my officemates...

Andrea Shapapova in 2005 MRP Cup (left); two years and a gazillion pounds later (right)

We had lunch at Karate Kid (bottomless rice and bottomless punch galore) at SM Manila and I bought three pairs of shoes (patent-leather white ankle-strap wedges; patent leather red flats; and a chunky cerulian cork-heel sandals). I so love SM, they really have cheap stuff. Those shoes are equivalent to just  two plain Havaianas, or one pair at Schu. I think they're also the only mall that holds Wacoal sales, I got two pairs of lingerie, and a couple of boylegs in Megamall at 50-percent off!

A funny bit: Paulie had his head shaved on Chinese New Year for good luck. Britney Spears had her head shaved the next day for reasons no one cares about. Once a diva, always a diva. Pero nauna pa ring nagpakalbo si Paulie. Hehe. Belated happy birthday, dear.

Happy birthday mama! Kamusta ang hacienda?

kids these days

Maw recently gave birth to healthy baby girl and I was a doting tita again. She was supposed to deliver on Feb. 22 by C-section for the most auspicious date (her husband is Chinese), but she labored too early. Thus, my new niece Davis Leigh, who shares birthday with her daddy.

I have a new toy. A cute pink, soft stuffed toy. 

She's so pink (there's no more obvious adjective), chinita, and looks exactly like her father. We have the same long skinny hands and nails and I suspect she never got anything from her mother. Mahina ang dugo namin, so my relatives say. We also suspect that she would have bad feet like her mom. Nice hands, not-so-pretty feet—good enough tradeoff.

I don't really like babies but I love her!

My mother has eight sisters and one brother. And my only tito has fours daughters and NO son. There goes the death of our family name.

My cousins and I look like our dads, with mostly no semblance from the mother side. So it's very easy to spot whether kids of the same mother have different dads (like me and Maw), or who among us is adopted (might look like the kapitbahay). In effect, my cousins and I practically look like a series of in-laws.

She looks sooo bratty and masungit. Too early to tell but I guess someone will be taking my place as the main moodswingera. Can't wait till Leigh's old enough to wear really nice clothes and shoes, makeup and funky accessories. Welcome my new Barbie.

Leigh's kuya Weiland, on the other hand, is growing up too fast. But that's the stagetita in me speaking.

Maw taught me how to spy on his cellphone and I wonder if all mothers—or mother-figures—snoop around their kids' things/lovelife. I think they do, my mum did that to me when I was younger. Maybe till now. I doubt mothers can outgrow that indefatiguable curiousity about what their youngling are up to.

Since Maw is on maternity leave and is unusually sprightly for someone who just gave birth, she had more time to observe. Not snoop, she says. Observe.

And part of this observation is tinkering with my 12-year-old nephew's phone. I visited Leigh on their flat last week and Maw handed me Wei's phone: "Ang daming babae ni Wei, grabe."

There was someone named Chi, another is Shasha, and there was even an ALLEN! And all of them are saying "I love you" to him and according to his sent messages, he says "I love you" to them, too.

Sasha said: "Nahihirapan na aquo xa atin, i'm alwayz crying. Ayoko na, baka dapat na talaga tau maghiwalay... auquo ng umiyak... tulad ngayon. Juz always remember Be, that I miz u."

What the hell? That from a 12-year-old high-school freshman? Be, as in Bebe? Dude, I first said those things when I was already 23! These kids really freak me out, and the text language make me want to hand them a dictionary and sign 'em up the fictional "Save the Vowels" foundation.

What's with the K's becoming Q's and S'es becoming  Z's? Is this the counterpart of the mandatory H in the '90s when I was a Bhing, Maw was a Lheng, and our cousin was kuya Bhoy?

So we snooped on observed  Wei's Friendster account. We found the "Chi" girl and she looks like me when I was 12—fat, pimply and curly—like a Jessica Zafra "Mini Me." Maw was laughing hysterical: "Idol ka yata ni Wei eh."

Wei recently updated his profile and a certain "Shakimark" gave her a testimonial. I checked Shakimark's page and naloka talaga ko! The 11-year-old girl was wearing a tight tummy-baring half-shirt, pink makeup, ironed-straight hair, and posing a la Lindsay Lohan! And she was actually wearing a bra! My god, mas malaki pa yung boobs ko sa kanya when I was 12 but my mum didn't buy me a bra till high school. And she didn't even have breasts yet!

I screamed in my office seat: "My gosh, mukha shang pokpok!"  I would have loved to post her pic but she might be your sister or niece, and I might be accused of child pornography, so never mind.

I hope Leigh won't do a Nicole Ritchie when she grows up, and I hope Wei won't get a girl knocked-up before college. These kids just made me feel so old, damn. I am so over adolescence.

first year on a sad note

One year later and we're back at the starting line. I planned many surprises, many gimmicks for that day. I was so excited to reach the one-year mark since the our first "monthsarry." This is my first—and technically longest—relationship after all. But then there were changes and we got stuck with a fast-food dinner.

Girlfriend-hood takes more than 12 months to get used to. I am an only child, my father's dead, and my mother spoiled me stiff so I have no idea of being liable for someone, of taking care of somebody, or being committed to another person.

It was not easy for this moodswingera who throws tantrums on a whim. It took a lot of getting used to (it still is). In the same manner that I am not too easy to handle. I am a handful, but I could be the sweetest temptest you'd know. I'm grateful to him for knowing how to take care of me.

Happy times are aplenty and so are devastating ones. We have around 300 photos together, and some videos (no scandals, sorry). We haven't been to many places and were not together often, but we managed.

I honestly don't know what's in store in the months to come. One year later and we're still discovering major incompatibilities and still trying to resolve them. He's a good man but we are soooooo different, and when those differences get in the way they become trouble; they only become healthy when both parties learn from each other and adapt, but somehow, adjustments can be really tedious and tiring, and infinitely frustrating. 

Whatever happens I'm glad I found someone who loves as much as L does, and I am glad, most of all, for finding a friend in him.

Don't be sad yet, we're still together.

valentine striptease

A YM conversation with a virginal anonymous friend you wouldn't even think is capable of stripping, lest dancing while stripping:

kitten: ano plano mo sa valentines?
anonymous friend: wala!!!!!!!!!!!
kitten: ok lang yan, makipagdate ka muna ng makipag-date.
anonymous friend: akala ko kase busy ako that day for work, may nag-aya dati. di ko naman inapprove akala ko kase may out-of-town racket.
kitten: oy pare tignan mo tong storya samin, may bagong bed and breakfast sa tagaytay:
"Rooms are named after seven emotions, what she called the “seven processes of falling in love”: I Lust, I Dare, I Desire, I Dream, I Escape, I Surrender and I Love—and in that order, she stressed.
anonymous friend: punta kayo ni L jan!
kitten: mahal dude, 5k a night---cheapest room na yun. sayang maganda pa naman at eto ka:
"STRIP POLES ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST"
anonymous friend: hahahaha. wow. i've always wanted to do a striptease.
kitten: wahahaha. ako nagawa ko na. charing.
anonymous friend: ako dati, kay *************. kaso simple lang.
kitten: may pole?
anonymous friend: shempre wala. pero parang exciting yung may pole.
kitten: magpapayat muna ko. baka malaglag ako sa pole, maging PALO-SEBO!
anonymous friend: asteeg pag may COSTUME!
kitten: baka naman pwedeng swimsuit lang?
anonymous friend: maganda pag maraming layers para maraming tatanggalin, tapos may MUSIC.
kitten: oo, tipong cueshe no? "lagi na lang umuuulan... " tapos saktong umuulan pa non. naks.
anonymous friend: o kaya yung pang-beer house na kanta. "would you be my number two.... parang mali."

How about you guys, what are your plans this Valentine's? Last year, L and I just had dinner---at Chowking Pasong Tamo. Wahehehe. It was a heavy workday and we just had time to be together during my dinner break so a feast of congee and rice toppings it was. The next week I was surprised with a bouquet of long-stem red roses delivered in my office. It was in a long, BIG box and when I got home my mum asked: "Ano yan anak, MAGIC SING?"

V-day falls this year on a workday, too, and we'll probably just have chicken drowned in gravy at KFC. I dare not brave the Valentine's Day crowd in major malls. We could always have love day any day anyway.  

(Erratum 021807: "We could always have love day any day anyway" is so not true. We can't. We won't. Another rushed Vday spent in Chowking sucked big time.)