Wrestling match

I have a huge wrestling match in my head right now - actually, it's more like Royal Rumble than Sunday Smackdown.

(Commentator): "In the first corner, Richard the guy-who's-long-hair-is-much-more-gorgeous-than-mine!"

(C): "In this corner - Gilbert the Soda God!"

(C): "And last but not the least, Edsel the one-night-stand-from-Boracay-trying-to-do-a-comeback!"

My dating calendar started to become bustling about 2 weeks ago starting with Richard (initial transcript of the story under the blog entry called "Full Circle"). The day before our supposed date, Cathy, Jewel and I met up for our last gimik with Kestrel before she flies to London the following day. We thought about Dish and agreed that that's where we'll go when Cathy saw her old friend Jun. Jun recommended 77th Street in Mother Ignacia cor Don Hem, the place where Cathy hung out during her college days.

77th Street is where I met Gilbert. At first I was digging his friend Warren who's the perfect shoo-in for a Harry Potter look-alike contest. Jun found a way to get our group & Gilbert's group to chat when Warren announced a couple of minutes later that he needs to go home. Gilbert was supposed to go with Warren but decided to stay. Gilbert's just a year older than I am and works as a brand manager for a juice and soda company. I found him to be intellectually stimulating - we're both in sales and marketing that we had a lot of shoptalk. At the end of the evening, or should I say morning?, we were tight. We texted after I got home and never stopped since then.

The next night, Gilbert wanted to hang out with me at Jun's art film film-showing gig or in Saguijo wherein the band of his college friend Tom (also met him together with Gilbert, Warren and all their other friends) was supposed to perform. I wanted to go with him at either of the two events but it was just so unfortunate that I already have a prior commitment - a date with Richard.

The first time I went out with Richard, I was excited but that night I just didn't enjoy it as much as I though I would have. I'm thinking maybe I'm acting like a 5-year-old that ditches his/her favorite toy in favor of a newer one that just caught his/her eyes. I'm rationalizing right now that Richard and I would be better off as friends. Also in my head - Cathy's words of wisdom/foresight on Richard having a daughter and how I'd fit into the picture. I hate the feeling that I'm shortchanging Richard (which I admit I am very much guilty of) but I figured that he'll always be there. We started out as friends, after all. I know I sound like a selfish bitch but what would you have me do - cheat on both Gilbert and Richard? I've been down that road before and it ain't a pretty picture.

To make things even more complicated, Edsel texts me out of the blue saying he just wanted for us to hang out. As if I'm ever going to believe that! The last time we were together, he vowed to make it up to me in bed as he couldn't get his dick up from consuming one too many beer. At the back of my mind, I'm wondering if he already split up with his girlfriend.

Boys, can't live with 'em; can't live without 'em.

Haywire

I was hanging around the lounge area in the office with two of my co-workers when we got to talking about having the blues for no apparent reason. The topic had hit a nerve within all three of us that what followed was a semi-serious discussion, more like a probe, about the possible causes.

"PMS?" Sol said

"Music (the guard downstairs was listening to one of 'em "bakya" stations that play sappy love songs one after the other)? Time of the day?" I said.

"Having nothing to do?" quipped Hannah

Whatever the causes are, it's never easy to snap out of that frame of mind wherein you're just so depressed at a flick of a finger. I'm thinking that I'm already acting this way, what more if I get pregnant and post-partum depression hits me? Would I do an Andrea Yates (An American convicted of murdering her 5 young children a couple of years back. Her lawyers claimed that she suffered temporary insanity when the killing of her offsprings were taking place. I think she's now locked up in a mental facility somewhere)?

The rational side of me's torturing myself for not knowing the stimuli. I'm having a hard time understanding why the hell can I not pinpoint the cause of my mood swings. Maybe it's the birth control pills I'm taking. But then again I've always had the artistic temperament. I'm just going around in circles that I should just stop babbling.

Hitting the Motherload

I was non-chalantly checking my e-mail yesterday when I got a message from Tickle. They were having a survey and to entice people to answer it, they promised a month's access to their premium site for free. I completed the survey thinking it's some sort of ploy but was I in for quite a surprise. It turned out to be true!

I checked out the made-by-people-with-Ph.D's-test section and it turns out that I answered quite a lot of them. Good thing the thought of ordering one of their personalized reports never crossed my mind as they were very expensive (they're $19.99 a piece and there's about 50 or so tests at the present time). I now have free access to all the results that I could not get to in the last 2 - 3 years and I've been very busy downloading them. It's nice to know how much I've grown in just a short span of time.

I find some of their tests silly but some are very insightful. I particularly love The Ultimate Personality Test and a couple more that deals with understanding my psyche. I'm now able to unravel the what's and they why's of myself that pop up in my head every now and then. I just adore the tests about one of my favorite topics - sex ;p

Haha, do I have news for the girls when we meet up later!

===================================================================

After reading Cathy's recent post, the lightbulb in my head popped up - everyone of us has a distinct relationship pattern whether it be in dating, pre 0r post relationship stage. Some people may be aware of what theirs are (mine would be older guys), some people don't. Psychologists argue that if we're not aware of our relationship patterns, we are bound to go after the same thing albeit in a different form. I'm thankful though that my pattern is very trivial compared to people in very bad relationships. When I say bad, I mean abusive relationships - mental/psychological, verbal, physical or a combination of any of those.

I've never been in any type of an abusive relationship and heaven forbid I'd be in one. We've all seen in tv or heard from friends or neighbors or through the grapevine about someone being a battered girlfriend/wife. I wonder what's running in their mind when they continue to stay and suffer instead of fleeing to safety. Are they even able to discern the vicious pattern that they seem to chase?

If there's one thing I hate about gender relations is violence against women. I hate it when a husband hits or mauls his significant other (girlfriend, common-law wife or spouse) and the people around them, even authorities, refuse to intervene for the reason being 'away mag-asawa/mag-boyfriend lang yan' (it's just a lovers' quarrel). In India and some Arab countries, it is perfectly legal for the spouses to physically maltreat their wives if they are unhappy with them. It's even worse when women inflict suffering on their fellow women such as the chronicled cases in India about a year ago wherein mother-in-laws burn the spouses of their son if they don't like the way they do things.

Full circle

Woke up around 4 am so I could be in the office by 6 as I am scheduled to be in my company's Pampanga branch in time for the 8 am session. I almost blew my top off when the driver arrived 45 minutes late. If I knew that it'd happen, I'd have spent about 30 minutes more in bed. He was able to save himself from getting into serious trouble by getting us to our destination in the nick of time, otherwise I would've made it sure that Ms HR Manager know about the minutest detail. Besides he also had a valid excuse - he was only informed of his assignment the night before; the driver that was supposed to take us to Pampanga bailed at the last minute for some stupid reason.

Work was so-so and I was as happy as hell for the session to end by 3 pm. We were back in Manila by 4:30 and I'm just couldn't wait to meet up with the girls at Megamall. I hung out at Booksale (where I happen to find the perfect gift for my friend who loved Snoopy) til Jewel arrived. Cathy's over at the food court with the cosplayers when Jewel and I got there. Stayed a couple of minutes for chitchat then proceeded to Galleria to meet up with Kestrel.

In Galleria, I met a couple more peeps from the cosplay community and we spent hours in one of the cafe's upstairs to talk about their plans for the next cosplay. They want to do Trinity Blood and they even enticed me to do Monica de Argentto. I would really love to do it since I already looked the part with my pixie haircut but my schedule's kinda crazy so I don't know if I'd still be in the country (my job entails a lot of travelling both here and abroad) by the time another cosplay event comes up.

I eventually got lost in Kimmy's (did I spell it correctly?) very passionate discussion on the anime and decided to check out the store downstairs. Cathy joined me when I told her of my plan. Great idea - I got to acquire the pair of shoes from God Save The Queen (People Are People) that I've been lusting after for the last couple of months. It's a pair of strappy stilleto sandals with an ornate silver filigree and rhinestone design located at the heels and near the ankle strap. I bought it for Php 1,600+ from an original price of Php 3,000. It kinda sucks though that they only give a 45% discount for credit card transactions instead of the full 50% discount. Oh well, at least I got what I wanted. I'll update the picture at a later time.

I'll tell you the full details of our little window shopping venture on my other blog - www.msshopaholic.blogspot.com. By the time Cathy and I got back, only Rain, Jewel and Kestrel were left on the table. We decided to take the action to Eastwood for the main event - talking. After all, the once-a-month meeting idea came forth from our desire to cultivate our little discussion group about the taboo topic of sex (at least in the Philippine context). We settled on Ebizu where we spent a good couple of hours happilly eating and talking our hearts out.

When we were still in Galleria, we saw this guy (or was it gay?) that had the most beautiful rebonded hair. I thought it was my friend Richard (from my old office) so I texted him if he was in Galleria as well. We were about to call it a night (that was around past 1 am already) when I got Richard's reply - he was at home and then asked me where I was. I told him I'm out with friends and I got this message from him - He missed me liked hell and that he'd want to see me tonight. Since he lived near the area, I agreed to meet him (it'd take him 15 mins. to get to where I am). It's been like what, almost six months since I last saw him and the last time we were together, we were slowly headed to the dating route until it was abruptly cut short by my resignation.

I told the other girls about the date and got quite a reaction from them. Cathy jokingly called me 'bitch' for ditching her (we live in the same area and we always take the cab together on our way home) since she didn't have any money all of a sudden due to the loss of her wallet earlier that evening. It was only in Eastwood that we discovered the loss and that really dampened her spirit big time. Anyhoo, Kestrel went ahead while the other girls waited for my date to arrive before they went home.

The date was great - in fact it was my ideal date - going to some quiant place to talk. There was a big revelation on his part (he has an 11-year old daughter from his previous ex) but mostly, we did some catching up on what happened to us after I "abandoned" him. It feels weird to be back in the dating circuit. The last time I went out on a date was about a couple of months ago with a psychotic, stalker-type Saudi Arabian diplomat (I only found out about his tendencies after I decided to stop seeing him).

Let's see what happens with Richard and me in the next couple of weeks...

blog update

If there's one thing I have a knack, some even comment to me that it's my natural talent, for is bargain hunting. I just love to shop (that's why the number one word that pops up on my friends' heads when asked to describe me is shopaholic) and it is bordering dangerously close to addiction. Anyways, I thought about creating a separate blog dedicated to my passion in life (other than writing). Besides, I need the practice if I want my boss to consider me as a columnist in the Lifestyle section of the newspaper that their family owns.

The url address of my new blog would probably not be a big surprise - www.msshopaholic.blogspot.com. Jenni Epperson, you better watchout because there's going to be a new uber shopaholic in town. I love your show Jenni but I hate your hosting skill.

The Gloriagate Thing

I just updated my blog about several hours ago but somehow, the current crisis the country is facing compels me to write about it. My boss’ dad just handed in his courtesy resignation from GMA’s cabinet and is now holed up in his old office talking to a lot of politicians. Yesterday, last year’s Vice-Presidential contender was his visitor discussing about I don’t know what.

The television in the Admin office is open only during lunch break under normal circumstances. Today, however, it’s been open for the last 5 ½ hours and we’re tuned into channel 5’s live video coverage of the developments with the President’s political firestorm. Ms Ressie, our H.R. Manager, warned us that we might have another president by the same time tomorrow. I just saw former President Cory Aquino finish her statement, her appeal to GMA to resign from her post. This was preceded by the same call from the Makati Business Club, considered to be the most powerful business group in the country.

Well, that’s Philippine politics for you. Because of both EDSA I and II, people are now overly zealous on taking to the streets and rally for a leader’s ouster that easily. What most people don’t realize is that even if we change the leader, there’s not going to be any real reform because the problem really is in the stymied system of governance that we have in the country. The problem also lies in us as a people – everybody wants to be in power with no real political platform to speak of except to look after their rear ends. Add in the Manana habit, the preference for quick fixes and the crab mentality and you have a whole lot of mess to deal with.

Another problem that I see with the Philippine system of governance is that those in power are very much detached from the people whom they are supposed to serve. Just about the only time politicians voluntarily associate themselves with the hoi polloi at a snap of a finger is during election time.

The anchors talk about national, especially in the political aspect, cleansing and renewal. How do you cleanse something that has been entrenched in our consciousness for the last one hundred years or so? Let’s say the President does step down and we start from scratch to build a new system of government, what would be the guarantee that we, as a people, and our leaders not go into a relapse?

I stare outside my window and see people going about their business. Would they be able to comprehend what the political leaders and the intelligentsia are saying? Would they even care or are they too desensitized what with the way things have always been?

African Debt Relief

The G8 Summit's in Scotland and the topic on everyone's lips is the discussion on Africa's debt relief. I'm praying that that's just exactly what they'll do. It's the least that the developed economies can do to help ease the wide spread suffering that they've unleased on that continent.

The African continent, as a colony some 50 or 60 odd years ago, were nearly sucked dry by their colonial masters. Many were shipped to both the Old World and the New World as slaves, treated as nothing more than mere animals. By the time that they were "liberated," their colonial masters haphazardly demarcated each of these newly forged countries' territorial boundaries in neat, straight lines. They've failed to account the different tribes that might not be compatible living together in such close proximity to each other, eventually leading to tribal wars and even genocide on such a massive scale. Remember Rwanda?

Of Marriage and Vices

Several days ago, I received text message from my old grade school classmate Gerald. We've been flirting with each other since late last year but nothing's really happened since our schedules just don't jibe. His one-liner of a message dropped a bombshell as it said 'P're, ikakasal na 'ko! (Dude, I'm getting married!)' Now that I look back on all our previous conversations, he always jokingly tell me that I should look for another job -- as his wife. I just laughed at him thinking that he must be on some kind of substance whether it be drugs or alcohol or both. I knew him as the happy-go-lucky guy who don't seem to be serious about anything. Apparently he is serious but only on the marriage front.

Memories of my first unofficial ex-boyfriend come flooding in. When I broke up with him, he was totally devastated and revealed to me his plans of proposing marriage to me as soon as I graduate from college (we were dating for about 13 months at that time). Me, married? He must've mistaken me for another person because I've always been very vocal about my decision, even vow if you could call it that, to not get married. Sure, I do dream of having a kid/s and being with someone in a long-term relationship but just not married.

I don't know what it is with me since I don't come from a broken family. My parents would be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary by October of next year. My grandparents from both sides of the family celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries in December 2003 and July 2004 respectively. I'm certainly not commitmentphobic. Marriage, as a concept, to me just seems very intangible. It's just a piece of paper and it started out as a way to forge alliances between kingdoms and consolidate the properties of the rich folks.

Most of all, what I don't get would be the way people react to my statement. They dismiss my opinion as naivete talking. They tell me that I'm still young but that I'd change my mind when I get a little older. They add that maybe I just haven't found "the one." If I could borrow a line from Madonna's song 'Papa Don't Preach' - I maybe young at heart but I know what I'm saying.

Now it seems very clear to me that I'm definitely a Carrie - the one who's not the marrying type. And just like Carrie, I can't seem to restrain myself from giving in to my shoe fetish. I just bought for myself my must-have shoe of the moment. It's the gold strappy sandal with rhinestone accents that Lizzie Jagger's modeled for the Mango catalogues. Barely a month ago, I was able to acquire Greyhound's white round toe cut-out pumps after lusting after them for the last year.

War of Nerves

I'd hate to be called a 'man-basher' but at this point in my life, I firmly believe that men are natural born assholes. I have this one particular guy in mind and to put it simply, things are bound to get very ugly if and when our paths cross. He was a Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde type of guy - he looked like your typical boy-next-door and was a popular figure in campus. Deep inside, he's probably the horniest son-of-a-bitch that I know what with all his one night stands.

I blame myself for being struck by the stupid stick and fell for him even though I knew that he had a girlfriend at that time. He kept on telling me how unhappy he was with his girl and that served as his rationale for cheating on her with me. Things were going swimmingly well between the two of us because we simply clicked. We came from almost similar backgrounds and we pretty much agreed on everything. The fact that we were together almost everyday made the bond even stronger. It came to the point that he was thinking of leaving his girl for me until one of our acquaintances discovered our affair. Our acquaintance, having experienced his dad having three separate extramarital affairs, talked my Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde ex-boyfriend into choosing which girl should remain in his life.

Having started our relationship as friends, he told me that he'll let go of both of us to do some soul searching. That was April 5th 2003. I just don't know why that stupid date is still stuck in my head. We were inside his car talking about our predicament. It looked like it was taken out of a movie. He said he was confused but that he loved me very deeply yada, yada, yada. Being the big sucker that I am, I told him that I am willing to let him go since after all, I am the other woman. We were a weepy pair at that time and I even gave him my ring, saying that he keep it and then come back when he's free.

Shortly after we parted, he was sporting my ring and everyone around him was mystified about its significance. We still hung out and talk about stuff until we eventually lost touch. He was busy with school as he was in his senior year preparing for his thesis and I was busy with work. There was this one time though that he texted me out of the blue asking me if I wanted to have sex. I said yes because the sex was good and besides, I was unhappy with my boyfriend at that time as well. After that incident, we went on with our lives. I forgot about him being in my friendster list.

One day, I was going through my Friendster to have it updated when his picture caught my eye. My curiousity got the best of me so I immediately double clicked on his profile. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the word "Married" on his relationship status. That fucking milksop! I felt betrayed, I mean we were friends and he should've had the decency to tell me to my face that he was going to break if off with just me!

I now have a war raging inside my head on whether or not I demand for him to give me back my ring. His marriage is the finality to our predicament and there's no use for him to keep the ring. On the other hand, it could also serve as a token of our time together. The question is, would he want to acknowledge the fact that we were together at one point in time?

I've asked numerous friends about what I should do but I am still undecided at this point although, I am leaning towards the getting back my ring argument. What do you think I should do?

Pet Peeves In Public Spaces

I find it interesting now to ride the jeepney. Gone are the days when the only thing you would normally see would be people blissfully enjoying their short but oftentimes turbulent slumber. As a kid, it has always been a source of fascination as I pondered on how in the world they were able to manage to achieve quite a feat – disregarding all the different smells and noises that surrounds them in order to sleep.

Today, however, the jeepney patronizing species is very much worlds apart from those of my yesteryears. Just the other day, I happen to meet two of them. The first one was this student with a really long and straight black hair. Hands down to her for managing to turn our mode of transportation into her very own salon. She kept on brushing her hair with what seemed like an improvised comb – someone must be looking for a missing piece on their hair styling kit. You have got to give it to her as she kept on undoing and redoing the way she tied her hair into a ponytail, always making sure that not a hair was out of place. What was her total styling time? More or less, about 15 minutes non-stop.

The second specie is a lady that I sat next to. She seemed normal at first but when it came near the place where she’s supposed to get off, she took out a small vial of perfume from her handbag and started to liberally apply the fruity scented liquid all over her torso. From her neck to her wrists, it even reached her back and then back again to the former. It was a good thing that my nose is nowhere near the sensitivity of Felix Unger’s (Jack Lemon’s character from Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple). Felix’s allergy would have acted up, he would have politely told her off, try to move to another spot or do all three. Another saving grace was the fact that she used a roll-on fragrance vis-à-vis a spray-on.

The week before, right across me was a lady that must have thought that the jeepney was her dresser at home. She changed her gigantic pearl earrings into a pair of large hoop earrings and continued putting on her jewelry from her silver necklace with a small, faux diamond-encrusted crucifix up to her bracelets. Much to my surprise, she didn’t stop there. She proceeded to fixing her make-up from her face powder to her lipstick. It wasn’t so much amusing as dangerous. It’s as if she was yelling to the snatchers in the area to pick her as their next victim. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
For the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking about whether the traffic situation in the country is that bad so as to accustom people to make the public domain an extension of their dressers. I am not entirely sure if that attitude is a peculiarity to us Filipinos but somehow, I become even more convinced that it is with every passing day. I’ve taken the bus in New York and Los Angeles and never have I seen anybody doing what I have observed here in Manila. I guess we’ll just have to bear with it and see what happens.

Friends and Lovers

Saturday evening. Megamall Megatrade Hall 2. I’m all alone in my company’s booth staring blankly at everyone who passes by until I thought about using my time wisely by updating my blog. The booth across my company’s is still blaring Christina Aguilera’s take on the old Motown classic ‘Carwash.’ It must’ve been my thousandth time to hear that damn song since I sat in this chair about 9 hours ago. I’m still lucky though because Mobile Carwash’s sound system is much louder than that of Binalot Express’ and it completely drowned Binalot Express’ stupid company jingle.

One more hour to go before the driver would pick me up and stash my stuff in the office vault. I was bored out of my mind when I saw my friends Drex and her current girlfriend Cher who happens to be in our high school clique. I was elated that I finally got to see them in such a long time although it kinda feels weird knowing the two of them are already a couple. What is it with friendship and love? Friends can become lovers but lovers can never be friends. Is it really meant to be that way or could that notion ever be broken?

I tried to befriend an ex once but it just turned into one ugly mess. Apparently, he still has his hopes up that there’s going to be a reconciliation. He became infuriated when he found out that I hooked up with someone. He’s tried every trick in the book to win me back – pleading, bargaining, threats – you name it.

The next day, we met up at our other barkada’s house for a get together. It was such a blast. I’ve forgotten how much fun it is to be these people. Everybody dished about their careers, their lovelives and/or lack thereof. I was giggling inside because I the rest of our barkada is clueless about the romance between Drex and Cher. It’s amazing how they’re able to camouflage their affection.

Just the night before, the three of us were drinking in this quaint little watering hole called BBQ Joes in Marcos Highway. It’s most likely one of Cainta’s best kept secret – the food was great, the liquor was superb and the ambiance is very homey. I was kind of an outcast that night as Cher and Drex was very much lovey-dovey throughout our stay.

Hot Cousin Joey

I remember the day that my boss happily announced his cousin Joey's planned vacation to Manila. He beemed with pride as he was telling us that he'll be in the country to try his luck in the Philippine modelling industry. I was like thinking 'Oh great, another one of those spoiled and lazy Fil-Ams trying to make a quick buck!'

My boss, knowing that I am the only one unattached in our group started to tease me to his cousin. There was this one incident wherein we were going back to the office from a presentation that we did for this very beautiful socialite with equally beautiful daughters who joined showbusiness. I was staring outside the window when he suddenly quipped that I have one month. I was bewildered by what he meant. I asked for some clarification and he uttered just one word - Joey. I kinda felt like dying in embarrassment. How many bosses in the world would try to hook you up with his blood relative? I mean, normally, as soon as you get out of the office, the last thing that you would want to happen is be associated with your boss in any way.

My boss brought his cousin to the office shortly after his arrival and damn, was he a mighty fine lad! He was cute with a boy-next-door vibe. Most Fil-Ams I know are very articulate but he was quiet, mostly kept to himself if he don't know the people around him and exuded a sacrificial lamb image in my head. I used to take my boss' "Joey quips" with a grain of salt but now that I've seen him, my hesitation just flew out the window. I mean, I have his cousin's (his own flesh and blood) blessing don't I?

Went out with him in group gimiks with my boss, my boss' wife and my co-workers but nothing really happened. I'm normally the type that makes the first move but I listened to my higher wisdom and just waited to see if he'd hit on me as well. I'm really not sure why. Maybe it's because at the back of my head, my unconscious still can't get over the fact that his cousin is still my boss. Pretty soon, everyone in the office followed my boss' lead - inserting 'Joey' in almost every conversation.

When I did try to make my move, everyone was kind of taken aback and dubbed it as 'the Discovery Suites incident.' Friday night and we stayed at Discovery Suites for an overnight stay. Angel was tired and still had an early class the next morning so she went back to our room to get some sleep. Thinking that I'd be alone going club hopping, I invited my favorite accomplice and party companion Cathy. As it turns out, my boss was planning to explore the Ortigas nightlife. Went to Phi Bar in Metrowalk and had a fine time chatting and enjoying our drinks. When we got back to the hotel, Cathy had to go home to Paranaque all of a sudden. I was still a little too hyper after some Jagermeister and Red Bull so I texted Joey if he wants to hang out. We met at the lobby and planned to hit the Starbucks in Podium when the concierge informed us that it is already closed (this was about 3 am). We ended up hanging out in Joey's suite (wherein he shared it with his cousin, his cousin's wife, their 2 kids and the kids' nannies) just talking about random stuff while watching whatever the hell's on tv. I eventually went back to my room when I got a little too sleepy.

Lunch time, I'm still in the hotel nursing my hang-over. Over in the office, Angel's having lunch with our boss, the H.R. manager and our firm's bookkeeper. Our boss asked her for comments on the gimik and eventually asked her about what happened to me after we got back from the bar. She told our boss that I hung out with Joey in their suite until 6 am and everyone automatically assumed something funky happened between us (nothing happened, I swear on my grave). Our boss immediately called his wife and jokingly told her that she's not a good mom as she wasn't able to keep a close eye on her kids as there was one "na nakalusot" (who got away). Me and Angel both though that they knew I hung out in their suite so were both shocked as well by their reactions.

Moving forward, I just had an impromptu date with Joey this afternoon. He's helping his cousin with this one project that we are trying to acquire so Joey came in the office today. Lunch time came and my boss/his cousin was in a meeting in another part of the Metro. There were 4 of us that headed to the mall - me, Joey, Ms. Ressie (Ms. H.R. Manager) and Ms. Ethyl (Ms. Bookkeeper). THey stopped by the ATM and just told us that they'll follow us. I texted them where we (Joey and I) were and they ended up going to the restaurant adjacent to our location, peering over the windows to spy on what we were doing. Too bad that they don't know Joey's going to be leaving for Chicago by the 15th! To think they were crossing their fingers that there'd be some sort of progress on the 'relationship' they were hoping would bloom.