Slow Motion for Me By: thepulpyorange No comments

In this fast pace life, I am slow. End of story! Taaaddaaahhh!!

I intended to post this entry past the deadline. Why? Because I'm slow. (Yaaaay! 2 points) 

Yes, we are at it again, making life hard and complicated. Hahaha! It's something we imposed to ourselves, so carry on, let's do the blogging one more time. 

Actually, I'm having a hard time to pick something from my head when there's none to pick (Chosss!). Lots of ideas coming in, though I don't know how to begin, or how to attack it, and eventually end it. So I always go back to nothing. Maybe things are just like that, they will boggle your mind up, confuse you with a lot of stuff, and eventually slow you down until you just don't feel doing it. 

However, I realized that slowing things down, is beneficial too. Especially, pag dumaan si crush (laaaaaaah!), when things are just too crazy, and the world seems like different, though as much as we want to have a full halt, that's not, never, ever possible. We all have a life to live and mess up. I'm good at the latter, got PH.D. for it. Slow a bit down to see the bigger picture, to witness how this crazy stuff leads to a perfect, orchestrated plan, how to shift your gears to be back in a smooth driving road. 

I consider slowing down as a gift. There's nothing more precious than to have a conversation with oneself. Self-check of things so you'll come up with the best ninja move. I also love, how slowing down can make others keep up. To support you in your plight. To know who will be there, forget those who don't care.

Slowing down is a mercy from heaven. It's a decision that will make one wiser and prolly end up with a better maturity. I realized it's not about who finished it first, what matters its how you enjoyed the race and how you learned to keep up and how you stood up and decided to finish the race. 

I think that's it. I think, I'm done with this. Yes to slowly but surely. Winks!

O

Beginning By: Unknown 1 comment

Okay, here goes. I admit it! I just chose the word and not the number!  What a beginning! So what? It's still the word that matters here and not the numbers.
So how do I begin? Did you even get the meaning?  Oh my..I'm not very good with beginnings. Have you ever tried opening your mouth and nothing comes out but your breathtakingly breathtaking bad breath? Well, oftentimes it happens. (when you don't brush your teeth) What I'm trying to say is that it's really hard to begin with something you've never done nor experienced before.

So, to begin with..let me share to you my beginning. It happened last March 15, 2010 at exactly 4:00 pm. That was when I saw my beginning.

When I heard her first cry, saw her dimples, I was brought back to life. The reality came rushing in like a tidal wave. I did it! With a powerful, dreadful, (lukot na paper look) PUSH! She was so precious, so little, so cute, so angelic, so lovely, so kempertush! (Nevermind the meaning, I just like saying that last invented word) I can't believe she's mine!
By the way she is Yellow Zoe Sagarbarria aka Dilaw, Zoeta, Zoepao, Piday liit.



I literally thought it was the end of my world when I found out I was pregnant. I felt like a failure. I wanted to die. I blamed myself too much. I didn't know how to begin dealing with the truth that I was going to raise a child on my own. It's such a shame I felt that way but it just didn't matter anymore when I laid eyes on this gift of life. So beginning that day, I began to be grateful.

To date, Zoe is already 5 years old and 10 months to be exact. She is beginning to fight her own battles at home, school etc. And I am beginning to be scared for her to see and experience the "cruel world". But since my love for her has no walls, no ceilings, no floors, I will never burn her wings.

Tonight, as I end this blog, I realized that this is just the beginning...

Because Words Can Mean A Lot of Things By: itserinne 1 comment

Game On! By: thepulpyorange No comments

For the love of words, phrases, sentences to a paragraph. For the love of ideas that keeps twirling-swirling inside my head. For the love of blogging, oh yes! Finally, I'm back! For the love of friends, eh anu pa nga ba?! game na!

Seat Matters - Taza Mia By: thepulpyorange No comments

"San tayo punta?"

The question that haunts me, (OA much?! LOL!), where are we going?! where are we going?! and Dora answered... TO THE MOUNTAINS! while the map from her back pack sings... "I'm the map! I'm the map! If there's a place you need to get. I can get you there i bet.I'm the map!" Hahaha! kidding aside, that would be the usual question from my cousins whenever we get a chance to catch each other during weekends at our parental home. Most of us work our butt off in the city where traffic jams and air pollution are the main attraction. hehehe!

I love the fact that I've got people around who I can tagged long just when my mood strikes for a cuppa, especially now that there are a lot of coffee shop and tea house in San Pablo to hang out and just chill. My younger cousin,whom I really envy because she already knew how to drive(someday!), picked me up around 0730pm. As soon as we took off, we realized that we need another crazy soul to officially consider our night out, the retards gimik. So we collected the crazy soul from his work and headed to a new discovered haven.

Taza Mia is conveniently situated along Maharlika Hi-way just before Max Restaurant, if you're coming from downtown. A cafe beside the shell station. Actually this isn't my first in taza, my younger but not so little cousin Elaine, discovered Taza Mia with her high school friends.

For that, I think they've been in operation for quite sometimes now, I remember when the only coffee shop that we love to hang out was RCC near San Pablo Medical, however they shut it down. Di ko lam?! Bakit nga ba?! And since I'm a repeat guest, nonetheless something in them is quite nice that's why a second visit is necessary. 

It's cafe. Basically they offer caffeine beverages, hot cuppa and some flavored ones. Cold drinks and frappucinos are available in their list. They have the usual drink as well, like fruit juices and sodas. If I remember it correctly, I had a caramel frappe on my first visit and Madagascar Vanilla Cream on the second. In terms of coffee, I like it sweet, reason why I'm more of a Starbucks lover than any other commercialize or popular coffee shop. I love it with a lot of whip, jellies and caramel. More of kids type.

Pasta, rice meals, pastries, sandwiches is on their menu as well. I tried their German sausage which I didn't like. Though I don't know if I'm the right judge of that. Sausages in Earle's Delicatessen suits my taste but not this.

Moving forward to pasta-ses?! Toinks! I think my dear cousin is a pasta lover seeing her plate cleaned up til the very last sauce means an approval. I remember her eating every bacon bits and sauce when we had our first visit. A bacon pasta, though I forgot the exact name of it in the menu.  Then for the latest visit she ordered ham carbonara that she barely finished. I ordered Tuna Pesto with toasted bread. When my dish was served, it wasn't that pleasant in the eyes. The pesto was so thick that I thought it was Tuna LAING Pasta. Though in fairness to them, I suspect that the Tuna made it somehow thick (wala akong alam sa cooking, choss lang!) , it tasted fine, nothing extraordinary, just okay. For the crazy soul that we collected, he's always the rice guy, so I wasn't shocked when he ordered the crispy porkchop meal with extra rice. Clean plate for only some minutes, however he always have a clean plate everytime we hang out or even a simple event in our family. He's that takaw! :) 

In terms of prices, their food range to 100-150 while beverage would have to be around 100. So 200 bucks would give you a decent meal in Taza Mia. I'm not a fan of their food but I love their secluded and comfy place. Though it's a bit noisy since it's along the highway especially if you prefer seating in their open area. 

Taza Mia is a good hang out place with their free wifi and comfy seats. I love it big and spacious when it comes to seat, though number on my list would be couch, especially when I can do my indian seat. As long as it's comfy. I like! :) So seat matters! And I believe that it's always been who you are with, though I'm a lot older compare to my cousins. Seating with them makes me feel a kid once more or more on their age range. hahaha!and I believe in world peace as well. *winks!* 

Oh and by the way happy 25th day of the month! Ciao!

Documenting A Week Of Fan Girling (Part 1 - The Wait) By: itserinne No comments

DISCLAIMER: This is going to be a really looooooooooooooong post. My fangirl feels are currently overflowing even if it's been 3 days since the event. C'mon 3 days is actually not enough for me to come down from Cloud 9. I'd probably have a month of hang-over from this. I kid not.

   I've been sooooo hyped about this event from the time they announced that it's actually going to happen. During that time the line up wasn't fixed and they keep changing it. I don't really mind if they change it a few times as long as I still see the names of the groups I'm really dying to see (the last phrase is true, go ask my friends if you need proof of my undying like). Then  the final announcement came and my fan girl heart was about to burst. So I took to Twitter to start spazzing with fellow fangirls like me.

Confirmed!!

   So the dates were set and I'm so hyped I forgot that you have to have money to be able to buy a ticket. Ha! And as I was never a fan of planning ahead, I've put up actually buying my ticket last minute. After we came back from our trip to Bangkok that was when I began to panic. I don't look it, but I was thinking of ways to actually acquire a ticket (selling my kidneys was one of the option ^.^) and I was thinking that it was meant for me, I'd be able to go regardless.

   And thanks to my lifesaver, Hazel Belleza, I was able to get the ticket I wanted. VIP Platinum is the closest I can be to the stage without me actually going broke. It's a lucky ticket and I wouldn't trade it for the most expensive ticket at the concert. Read along so you'll find out why.

Proof Shot!

   I wasn't kidding when I said that I was spazzing from the time that I got the ticket until the actual event. It just gotten a bit worst when it was a week before the event. I was on a high the whole week, regardless if I don't get any sleep, I'd still be hyper. and it felt like nothing can make me mad or sad or anything. I'm oozing with positive energy the whole week that upon recalling it I felt like I went crazy during those days. And I didn't care, I was excited!! Psyched to see my Baozi and my Pineapple.

   A day before the actual concert there were a few mishaps that made me stay awake. Aside from the fact that January 18, 2013 is the first time that my biases stepped into Philippine Soil (11:30 MNL to be exact).

Kim Sung Gyu, Kim Myeong Soo & Lee Sung Jong arriving at NAIA

Kim Sung Gyu being escorted out... Haha! Ahjusshi there isn't any trouble anywhere. And LeaderGyu are you actually wearing a mesh shirt?!

.

Hello there you gorgeous Human Being you

Kim Myeong Soo, Lee Sung Jong & Lee Seung Yeol

I would be ogling them too if I was on the same line

Myeong Soo was asked by the Immigration people to take off his glasses for identification. I bet manong just wanted to verify if he really was human and not some walking mannequin. ^^

  

 Infinite arrived with U-Kiss and Tahiti for the press conference that afternoon. EXO was also supposed to be boarding the same plane as them but there was trouble with immigrations. You see, 4 of the 12 EXO members are Chinese, 3 of them had a problem with their VISAS, apparently you have to have a VISA if you're Chinese and visiting the Philippines (a pretty little detail their management actually forgot and had to fix last minute). I was about to flip a table when I read this on Tumblr because the reason why I was excited to see EXO is rumored to not be coming anymore. And a few rumors about EXO-K being harassed at the ICN Airport by vapid fangirls and some netizens started blaming EXOPh fans to be the one doing the harassing when they haven't even stepped foot here. Anyway, enough of the ranting. They were able to board the plane first and the other half of EXO (EXO-M) arrived the following morning.

Kyung Soo-omma at the airport looking adorable

    The following pictures are not mine credit to the original owners. Check the watermark. I'm spamming EXO airport pictures because there's just a lot of them. (Infinite's arrival was so guarded only a few people were able to see them *sobs*)

Kyung Soo being Kyung SO.O

Uri Leader Kim Joon Myeon with Omma and his giant son

Another Omma & Appa pic with their youngest, Oh Se Hun and Kim Jong In

Oh TheHun (It's actually Se Hun but since he has a lisp he says his name that way, it's an inside joke with EXOTICS)

Omma what did you see now?

Kamjjong, I mean Kim Jong In and a wild Chan Yeol

   The next day at around 11:30am, EXO-M arrived, they were supposed to be with Girls' Generation but I believe they arrived later in the afternoon. Pic Spam Time!

Lu Han and Kim Min Seok aka Xiu Min (Sleepy Princess Lulu and His Baozi)

Kung Fu Panda Huang Zi Tao is not amused

 

Kris, EXO-M's Leader (Duizhang, the airport is not a runway... Please)

Kim Jong Dae, aka Chen aka Danshing Masheen, looks happy

My adorable Baozi

Zhang Yi Xing aka Lay aka the real Dancing Machine

Look how organized these kids are... Joon Myeon Appa really needs to learn from Duizhang on how to discipline his kids

Yeah I know you're cool Wu Yi Fan, go away!

  The last one to arrive is Girls' Generation. I'm not a big fan of them. I mean I listen to all their songs but I'm just fond of Seo Hyun and Tiffany. Another Pic Spam!!

Jessica & Yoona

Tiffany, Seo Hyun and Soo Young(?)

Sunny & Hyo Yeon

Yoona

Seobaby!!

Sunny, Hyo Yeon & Jessica

Jessica

 January 19, 2013. D-Day. Woke up at 7am to prepare. (No, I'm not posting a ridiculous picture of me wearing that canary yellow shirt so they'd know I'm an Inspirit). We were supposed to meet at around 7am but I decided to be fashionably late for the fanchant practice since I know I wouldn't be able to follow it anyway. I'd be so busy screaming my head off to actually remember which part we're supposed to sing and which part we'd have to recite their names (Kim Sung Gyu, Jang Dong Woo, Nam Woo Hyun, Lee How Won, Lee Seung Yeol, Kim Myeong Soo, Lee Sung Jong, INFINITE Nekkeo Haja!).

   I arrived at the venue at around 10am (I didn't get lost! Yey! I rode a TAXI.) and was having a hard time finding my group, turns out they were just at the entrance for VIP and it was just right there were the taxi driver dropped me off, I was just stupid to walk further down and they saw me already (Who wouldn't, hello? Canary Yellow shirt, remember?). It was awkward at first because I've only been speaking to one of these people through Twitter and the rest are complete strangers. I'm not good with strangers, I tend to look stiff and a bit of a snob. But since we're all people with the same goals and aspirations (Meh! Lame, I know...), we bonded automatically. For the sake of seeing oppa (even if I'm older than OPPA) sing and dance and do fan service. 

   I haven't had breakfast yet and was so unprepared that I haven't even thought of buying food before going to the venue. Fortunately, I'm not the only one who's hungry. So three of us decided to go to McDonalds to buy food while we wait. While walking, that's when I realized that it was a really huge event. I mean a lot of us are closet KPop fans so I wasn't expecting a huge turn out. And the tickets are expensive. And these are kids, mostly teens but... Where the he*l did you get money to buy SVIP?!

This is just one side, the seaside entrance. That guy wearing a wife beater actually looks familiar. Cosplayer maybe...

   Four hours later, after we've learned the fan chants and practiced a few dance steps (to impress oppa, of course), everybody started standing up from their seats. I thought they were asking us to line already, it turns out that EXO is doing rehearsals (They're the last group to do rehearsals because EXO-M has to rest a bit and eat and stuff). There were a lot of tall kids with me so I mainly listened to know who was practicing. But when they started playing EXO songs, everybody started singing along (Me included).

Park Chan Yeol, can you not...

Kai and a high Chan Yeol

Idiots during practice, Ooh there's my Baozi being squishy...

I hate you r/n... Stop being cute...

The chaos that is EXO

Chan Yeollie!!!

Another Chan Yeol-Is-Cute moment

Byun Baek Hyun

   (More practice pics here if you're interested)

   We were fangirling outside, and there was someone recording the practice session. They were so hyper and cute and squishy and I need to stop (Bantay Bata 163?). The practice didn't last for long and we were impatient to get into the venue already since they said they would let people in by 4pm. It's already past 4 and everyone's not in a good mood because there wasn't any line and those who were there early was pushed in the back of the line. I didn't want to add to the chaos so I just stood there patiently waiting for us to be ushered inside. At around 5:30pm we were asked to form a line. My newly acquired friends and I got separated and decided to just meet up inside the concert venue so we could find a decent spot. The line was chaotic (to put it MILDLY), there were people who were supposed to be the first to enter the grounds that got pushed too far back, we started to think they'll be entering the Gold section (that was a joke, haha.).

   When were finally able to get inside the venue, our bags were inspected. They don't allow professional cameras since they have hired people to do the pretty pictures you only see on professional blogs. But a few fans (those who took super HD pictures you'll see later on Part 2) were able to hide their cameras in I don't know where and was able to bring them inside. We weren't allowed to have pens in our bags as well, mine got confiscated and they were newly bought pens *sobs* but well, not going to make a scene just because of a bunch of pens.

  They stamped our arms with basically nothing, it's actually a glow in the dark ink which I didn't have time to take a picture of because 'feeeels'. When we entered the venue all three of us (Chin and her cousin, I forgot to ask her name) went fan girl crazy, literally. It was so surreal being there and thinking that any moment you'll see them perform. 

  Here are the pictures I took of the venue.

This is how close we are to the stage, see the cute oppas over there? they were cheering for INFINITE ^.~

A landscape view of the Platinum Section

The GOLD Ticket section

The LuMin/XiuHan Banner that luminous.net prepared for Xiumin. Oh and that part of the venue is SVIP sitting. Only a few people bought tickets for that. Why should I be sitting when I can run around and follow oppa instead.. ^__________^

A fellow Xiu Min fan. I wanted that towel but wasn't able to find one.

   End of Part 1 (told you it's going to be long). Part 2 Would be the spazzing part, don't read if you can't stand keyboard smashing 'asdfghjkl' type of fangirling. I'm currently writing all of these on feeeeels so don't say you haven't been warned.