bookworming

The sentence "I love reading" is an understatement for me.

Books are my favorite go-to-work buddy. Instead of ranting about traffic jams or drivers screaming at each other, I open a book and read on a jeepney or shuttle to work.

I have been reading the works of Cecelia Ahern and Agatha Christie for some years now. I don't know but I am already accustomed to the way they write that whenever I'm reading their book, I feel like I'm just listening to them. They are my favorite authors and I love them both!

The stories they wrote fall on two different genres. Cecelia Ahern's works were more of modern love-story-come-fantasy-fictionists. Agatha Christie, on the other hand, was known for her detective stories.

My favorite Cecelia Ahern book is IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW. (SPOILER ALERT!) It's somewhat magical in a sense that the protagonist (Elizabeth, a stiff woman who knows only three colors -- black, white and beige) fell in love with an invisible man, Ivan. While reading it, I also found myself falling for him. :P Cecelia Ahern made Ivan so lovable that everything he said was worth contemplating on. His character was so positive and his positivity was contagious.


Here's one of the things he said:

"You've come to give me a piece of your mind. You know that phrase is really beautiful. The mind is the most powerful thing in the body. Whatever the mind believes, the body can achieve. So to give someone a piece of it... well thank you. Funny how people are always intent on giving it to the people they dislike when it really should be for the ones they love."

That's what he always was -- someone who turns negativity to something good. And I love him. :)

It was a tearjerker (well, maybe for someone who cries over the shallowest things like I do). I cried buckets while reading it (and even after). Why? Just get a copy of it. No more spoiling here! >.<

As for Agatha Christie...Well, what can I say? She's a terrific writer. I love reading all her books. She never failed to amaze me (and maybe all her readers) in every book of hers that I read. One moment I thought I was a genious who knew who the culprit was...only to find out in the end that I was a fool who believed I was really a genious. :P That's what her books were all about -- stories which would keep you guessing till the very last leaf of the book.

My top favorites?

"And then there were none"
"Murder on the Orient Express"
"The Mysterious Affair at Styles"

I've read about 12 of her books and I know I have to read a lot more.

Awwww. I miss reading Agatha Christies. :( Right now, I'm reading a book by Cathy Kelly (who is an Irish writer, Oh, btw, Cecelia Ahern is Irish). I have just started so I couldn't make any feedback yet.

Thanks to my dearest friend who gave me lots of books as a birthday gift. Mwah! Mwah!

I guess I'll be writing more about books that I've read next time. :) Yay, am I starting to be a book critic too? :P

weekends

What's your ideal weekend?

As for me, weekends are special days. No matter how plain my weekend is, I still consider it special. Why? Because it's only during weekends that I get to spend more time with my family, especially with my kids.

When I'm at home, I see to it that I'm hands-on. I let our helper take her leave so I can take in charge of everything. I wash baby bottles, sterilize them, bathe my babies, put them to their afternoon sleep, cook for lunch, go shopping with the kids, stroll in the afternoon, watch TV with them at night, read them books, and sleep with them.

At the end of each weekend day, I feel listless. I really feel exhausted but happy. It's a different kind of tiredness. It's one that I'd like to do over and over again.

HAVE A HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE. :)

on heartbreaks

When you hit a neighbor's window glass and it breaks, you hear the crashing sound (and your neighbor's angry voice).
 
When a waiter accidentally loses control of the tray and all the chinaware and glasses fall on the floor, everybody in the restaurant notices.

When you wash the dishes and you unintentionally (and obliviously) drop one of them, it clashes and the sound surprises you and shocks your mother.

But when your heart breaks, no one else hears it. but you. only you. As much as the heart wants to scream all the pain out, it can't. You are the only person who hears its cry.. its call..its breaking sound. And that's what makes it painful.

What makes it more painful is the thought that everybody is trying to help you heal and hold all the pieces together, but it's you who resist. You don't want to. Not yet. Not now. Because you still want the pain to linger. Whatever your reasons are, no one knows it but you.

what make a person's heart break? 

One is, it may be caused by sympathy. When you see someone wounded, whether physically or emotionally, and you share compassion with this person, your heart breaks.  

Second reason is when someone you love dearly has to go. Wherever that person goes, it somehow hurts you because you will surely miss him/her. and it hurts more when you don't know whether this person is coming back or not.

Another may be caused by an end of something beautiful. Something important. Something you thought would never end. Something you never wanted to end. But had to.

I have had several heartbreaks before. Many, I should say. But I endured and surpassed them all. Not the easy way though. I heard my heart screamed, felt it kicked, but I couldn't do anything. I just learned that when your heart breaks, it's like picking up imaginary broken glasses. Too prickly, too painful. And when you're done picking them up, it's time to put the pieces back together. Hold for a while, and heal.

But it's been said, love like you've never been hurt. and may i add -- love like it the first time you laid your eyes upon your first crush in the first grade. :) No matter how many heartbreaks. No matter how painful the last one was, you should not force yourself to forget how to love. ♥♥♥


 

on being a kid

Today, one of my childhood friends tagged a photo of me. For a moment I thought I would see my face, beaming (and showing a victory sign), but heck, I saw pictures of round colorful objects with different characters on them. Then I realized why this friend of mine tagged me in this photo -- the round colorful objects, which were called POGS, were one of the things we used to play with when we were young.

It brought back memories. Lots of memories.

Like what I've said in my previous post, my memory got poorer but I think the things that were erased from my mind were the most recent ones. Yes, I have forgotten tons of good/bad things which happened in the past but seeing the tagged photo made me want to recall them, some, at least.

When I was young, I had a group of friends in our neighborhood. We were eight in the group. Most of us were same age, so we shared the same interest. The younger and the older ones were forced to share the same interest with us, though. :P

Summer vacation and Christmas vacation were the most fun seasons for us. Everyday, we met, played, fought (over the shallowest of things), laughed (at the shallowest of things too), sang, danced, played again, fought again... we'd only return home when we were being called to have lunch or dinner.

Aha! I have an idea. Why don't I list down the things we used to do and used to play with? Good?! That's so clever of me, huh? :P

Well, here they are:

1. POGS - If there was one reason why I was a plump kid back then was this. POGS could be collected from the nearest 'sari-sari' store (in our case, it was Aling Libay's), if and only if, you'd buy a bottle of COKE. The more bottles of coke, the more the more chances of winning (more pogs, that is). 

2. ROLLER BLADES - Chasing barefooted children is difficult, never mind chasing children with wheels. All of us, but one, had a pair of these. All but one. This friend of mine never learned how to use this pair of wheeled footwear, or any other thing which has ONLY TWO WHEELS for that matter. So what did she do while we rolled down the streets? She rode a bike with a 'side-car'. She trailed us while we happily and excitingly glided swiftly with our roller blades on. But she never minded. We were inspired by (not the Roller boys which starred by Patrick Garcia), MIGHTY DUCKS. For some time, we believed that we were them. We played socks hockey (more explanation after this item), and also had our 'roller blades lesson' which was led by the eldest in our group.

3. SOCKS HOCKEY - Since it never snowed in my country and since we were so eager to play the sport which our 'idols' played, we improvised a game of our own. One of our neighbor's houses had a big polished garage. Now you could imagine how we played hockey back then. We used a coconut shell as our puck and our very own feet as hockey sticks. More like soccer, huh? We didn't care, we still called it hockey. After the game, what we worried most about were our once-white socks which were soiled with red floor polish and the faces of our fumed moms.

4. Street games - Afternoons were never complete without us playing 'bulok', 'patintero', 'agawan-base' and 'langit-lupa'. Afternoons were never complete without one of us got pissed off and went home crying because of the game.

5. UNO STACK-O - When we're tired of roller-blading or playing in the street, we spent our 'relaxation time' with UNO-STACK-O. Well I didn't feel relaxed at that time, I was more of 'tensed' because whoever made the blocks tumble down, would get a punishment. Whatever the punishment was, I couldn't remember anymore.

6. CARD GAMES - I love gambling. not. Haha. At that time, we just played Lucky 9 or Pares-pares, One-two-three-pass, and tong-its. No money inloved. just pure fun and gags.

7. Ten-twenty. Chinese garter. And even limbo-rock. We played these with this thin, stretchable material which I believe people my age played too when they were young. These games required too much jumping. and too much calorie-burning. :P

8. SPORTS - Who would've thought I enjoyed sports when I was young. Well, yeah, I did. Every summer break, we woke up as early as 5 or 6 in the morning to jog and to play basketball. Compared to my immobility right now, I was really an active and athletic kid back then.

I experienced all the normal activities every child had to do. I must say, I enjoyed my childhood very much. I was an only child but that did not hinder me from being a happy kid. I was surrounded with happy-go-lucky friends who turned out to be responsible adults now. and of course, thanks to our cool parents  who let us do our thing with their guidance.
When I thought about yesteryears, I knew deep in my heart that I did not regret anything. I knew that I had that time of my life when I got to know myself and my friends and realized that we savored making memories together. Though some went and some stayed, I definitely believed that when you got to sit with any of them, they would tell you the same stories just like I did in here.

Us, dancing "Oh, Carol!" Oops, I was not in the picture. Maybe It was me who took the shot? Lols!

It's not my first time to write a blog. I used to do this back then but I lost my then-blog. Oh well, I didn't lose it. I forgot my ID and password. Pffft. Yes, I am forgetful.

In fact, I'm writing because this serves as my diary. I write when I'm happy. I write when I'm sad. I write when I feel crazy. I write when I'm in love.  I write when I feel alone. I write when I think I should. I write when something needs to be written down.. needs to be remembered.

I have to admit, my memory got weaker after I gave birth to my first child. And it became even weaker after the birth of my second.

I'm glad digicams came very handy. With them, people can capture special moments. Yes, sometimes pictures say all. Sometimes.

As for me, pictures remind us of the good memories. Writings remind us of how we feel during those captured good memories.

I always admire people who can creatively express their thoughts on writings. I enjoy reading stories, good or bad, happy or sad. I am  delighted to come across funny but worthwhile reads.

These things inspire me to write, to be more expressive, to not hesitate, to think that I can be an author too.

Author of an e-book about my life. :)