it was ahia Marvin and Angelique's wedding today. :D The ceremony was held in San Sebastian Basilica and the reception at Dragon Gate Restaurant. Pearl flew in from Minnesota for the weekend just to attend her brother's wedding. Of course, we are glad to see her, but we wish she could have stayed longer. :(
I love weddings... i love the ceremony, the walk down the aisle, the declaration of love for and commitment to each other before God and the entire community. i recently realized that i do want to walk down the aisle, in my stunning wedding dress, with a gorgeous groom waiting at the end. But not exactly the whole marriage thing. hahahah. Sabi nga ni Balqui ah madali lang yan, kahit ngayon magagawa natin yan, punta lang tayo ng simbahan. Kung hindi naman ako magmukhang baliw nun di ba? Sabi nila Les, Tans and Li, pwede rin rent-a-dress and rent-a-groom, tapos kunwari photo shoot. hahaha.
Seriously, weddings give me hope, that there is such a thing as happily ever after. I'm a bit of a cynic, see. I keep thinking how can you stand to be with the same person day in and day out, waking up next to that person, bad breath, unruly hair and all? And that's just scratching the surface, let's not go into the emotional rollercoaster, getting along with the person, his family, differing beliefs, compromising, etc, etc.
So I find myself attending the first of many weddings in a long time. And I see beacons of light. From the bride and groom deciding to love each other and spend their entire lives together, to the older couples, parents, sponsors, grandparents who serve as evidence that the decision is worth it, finally, the newly engaged couples willing to take the risk. Of course, not forgetting the children who are sooo cute and adorable (as long as they don't throw tantrums, that is).
After the wedding we decided to hang out at Pearl's. It turns out that Marv and Ange will be living next door. Pearl gave us a tour of her bro's place. And in the master bedroom was Marvin carefully helping remove the pins from Ange's hair. It was such a husbandly thing to do, that I never really imagined that this was the same ahia. Can we have a collective aaaw?
To Marvin and Angelique, Congratulations and Best Wishes! May you have a blessed life together :)
Recently I feel like i haven't been doing enough for our country. Which was why I volunteered to be part of PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) for the May 14 elections. I got the morning shift which started at 630am 'til 1230pm. This was fine with me since I'm a morning person.
Woke up bright and early yesterday. I got to the polling place 630 on the dot. Got a bit lost since i thought the entrance was near the nursery, had to go around to get to the HS gym.
I was still a bit unsure on what to do when i got there. Sure i had a primer, but it was the first time i was doing this. I volunteered in the past for NAMFREL quick count but this is different. Due to the limited number of volunteers we only had 1 person per precinct. I was tasked to watch over 285A and B. Luckily there weren't that many voters for that precinct, nor were that many incidents. A little after lunch Sr. Hermie came to take my place. Unfortunately she couldn't stay 'til the end of the counting. So she asked if I could come back. I was still a bit tired since I slept late Sunday night, but I said ok.
I went home, slept for about an hour then asked my brother to bring me back to Xavier. When I got there Atty. Santos asked if I could also collect the 6th copy of the electoral returns. This means I wait until all the counting was done for the precinct and get deliver the ERs to NAMFREL. So I became an instant NAMFREL volunteer, too! :)
Sadly less than 60% voted. I was a bit tearful, and a lot frustrated, when they were tearing the unused ballots in half. I kept thinking it's such a waste. But that's just me. On the bright side, since we were counting less than 200 votes, I figured it wouldn't take that long right? As usual I'm wrong. :( We locked the ballot boxes around 145am. Almost 19 hours in the polling place, x ballots, and my aching hand from all the writing.(I sincerely hope we get to implement electoral process automation) Fun part though was affixing our thumbmarks on all the ERs. All the pollwatchers were like little kids as we eagerly marked the ERs. It relieved a lot of the fatigue, woke us up, too.
I have a reinforced respect for the individuals who tally our votes. It definitely isn't easy. Kudos to all the BEIs (Board of Election Inspectors). We were lucky enough that our BEIs were friendly and helpful. They answered all our questions and had a ready smile on their faces. The other pollwatchers that i was fortunate enough to be with made my task so much easier. We all managed to keep our humor even cracking jokes while counting the ballots. Yes, i would even call it FUN :)
And this is the result of all our hard work: My deepest gratitude to everyone who exercised their right to vote, to those who were involved with making this election possible and successful, and for being given this opportunity to serve.
To those who weren't able to vote, there's still the next elections. See you all in 3 years. :)
After a year of slacking off with minimal physical activity, i'm certainly making up for lost time. The past 2 weeks (starting April 27) has been my most active in a looooong time. Went swimming during our offsite, was able to get into our gym program and went to the gym 2x last week. I just love the benefits hogwarts provides for its employees! :D And after a year or so of not playing badminton, i signed up for the sportsfest! Magmaganda ba raw ang lola? Good luck na lang sa amin... sana magaling yung partner ko kasi siya yung sasalo lahat. :P At first I the thought of joining never occurred to me, but most of my teammates are joining so... PEER PRESSURE!
Tryouts were last night and to prepare for that we played the night before. Two consecutive days, buti na lang nag-yoga ako nung Sunday at medyo na-stretch na ang muscles ko. Still, this morning i could barely get out of bed.
In spite of the aching bones, i really do miss glowing (as opposed to sweating) and getting back into the 'active lifestyle'. Medyo nabigla lang yata ako at kahit tulog e pinagpapawisan pa rin ako. hahaha.
ok, corny title but i did feel like a grizzly while doing the different yoga poses. But i'm getting ahead of myself...
Attended a yoga class at Gold's gym yesterday. (Thanks to Hogwart's Fitness program :D ) Yes, i was awake by 8am on a Sunday so that i'll be able to attend the yoga class at 9. I've always wanted to try it, as a child i'd look at our yoga book and try to imitate the different postures. Of course I was able to do them since i was still young and was much more flexible then.
Fast forward to yesterday, ok I'm sure i'll be able to follow, albeit slowly, right? Let's see, i haven't done any regular physical activity for the past year (aside from exercising my digits by typing on the keyboard), and i've remained cooped up in the house, or office. Any stretching my muscles were getting were from the kneading our suking masahista was doing.
And any delusions i had on my flexibility were quickly shattered when the instructor bent to touch his toes. As i tried to follow his lead i could hear several of my bones creaking. Yes, creaking, the same sound that rusty hinges emit. hahaha. Suffice it to say i couldn't maintain a touch-your-toes pose.
As the hour progressed our poor bodies got more twisted and tangled up. After a multitude of other poses, some i could do, most i couldn't, i ended up a sweaty, panting stick.
A day after, my back is still sore from all that stretching. Hmm, can't wait for the next session! :)
