November Update (plus Maroon 5)

Hi, I'm blogging from work. It's quiet around here because almost everyone are off today because it's the day after Thanksgiving. I have the option to take my "floating" leave too but I decided to use it on New Year's eve instead. Hopefully, I can leave early today so I can stop by at Best Buy coz it's BLACK FRIDAY!!! Yup, this is the time of the year were everyone goes crazy because of price markdowns of upto 80% off! I need to do some Christmas shopping too.

Thanksgiving
Last night, we went to Darwin's aunt to celebrate Thanksgiving. They served traditional American food such as turkey, baked potato, cranberry jelly and also some Filipino pansit and crema de fruita. We just hanged out and watched TV then I went online to chat with my mom and bro



Baptismal
We went to Emmett and Andrew's Christening on Nov 10 and 18 respectively. Darwin is the godfather on both events.





Bowling night with LaLa girls
I met up with my college friends last Nov 17. The meeting place is at Mads' house in Eagle Rock. I havn't seen them for a long time and it's nice to catch up and know what's going on with them. Update: Tins is gonna have a baby soon, Mads is busy at work and Ollie just had a new haircut. We had dinner at Yang Chow which is one of the famous Chinese restaurant in Pasadena. It is zagat rated and there's are pictures posted on their wall of famous people like Michael Johnson, Conan O Brian, etc to name a few. But the most famous one is in Chinatown were Jackie Chan filmed Rush Hour 1. We reminisced about our RELS teacher and how we hate him because of his out of this world opinion about poor people from the province that goes to Manila. He's blaming them for populating Manila. It's actually their choice to look for better opportunity right, but when they get to Manila, there's no job for them. So, I guess the government has to think of ways on how to solve the problem and not blame the people who wants to try their luck. Then we remembered this Sociology teacher of ours who discussed American culture and based his view on American movies. I come to realize that that's the quickest way on how you'd understand American culture but most of it are inaccurate. Like I thought Americans get the good life but really, you will only get it if you work hard for it. Not everything here is free. I thought they give out health care to everyone but only the privilege one (mostly the working force) have it and it's sooo expensive. Also, people here are so independent and dont rely on others to run errands for them.


After dinner, we headed to Jewel City Bowling in Glendale. I got the first strike on first round but never got another strike until the second game. It must be beginner's luck and the only practice I had was Wii Sports. =P It was a fun night. They're planning to do ice skating and kart racing but I think I wont be able to go because of my busy schedule.





Date Night at Santa Monica
Darwin and I decided to unwind at our fave spot, 3rd Street Promenade on Nov 16. We're supposed to put up a Churros business there but it didn't go through because the city and health department didn't approve the carts that Promenade will provide to the merchants. It's good though because it will be a stress-free month unlike last year when we had the puzzle cart and experienced how hard it is to maintain a business when you have a full time job.

We saw the infamous couple of my fave show The Hills... Heidi & Spencer. She's prettier in person and we're about the same height. She looks tall in TV though. They both look nice too. I wonder if The Hills is a "scripted" reality show. My classmate from photo class actually confirmed that it's all scripted even during Laguna Beach days. I still love to watch the show and all the drama. I love their outfits esp all those dresses!





Maroon 5
We went out with our fave couple, Chris and Janet to watch Maroon 5 at Staples Center on Nov 8. We got the sweet spot! We just got their on time and Phantom Planet were already playing. Their last song was California. The next front act was The Hives.. I dont know any of their music =P My bad! Then Adam sings "If I Never See Your Face Again". Here's the setlist:

If I Never See Your Face Again
Makes Me Wonder
Harder to Breathe
The Sun
Can’t Stop
Secret
Shiver
Wake Up Call
Sunday Morning
Won’t Go Home Without You
This Love
–Encore
Little of Your Time
She Will Be Loved
Sweetest Goodbye

They actually have the same setlist all throughout their tour. At least they played all my fave songs esp. Little of Your Time!








Santa Clarita Marathon - Nov 4
We made it! I was not expecting that I'd finish the 3 mile run in 45 minutes. The only training I had is the treadmill at the gym and the actual run at Balboa park 2 days before the race.

After the race, we had breakfast at Vivian's cafe in Studio City. Love the banana pancakes there.







Cinespace
Celebration party for my cuz AJ who passed the Respiratory Therapist (RT) board exam last Nov 2. Yey!



Does it look like I wrote this in a hurry? Yup, our First VP is already here. Darn! Back to work.

Easter Weekend

I was off from work for 2 days (Tuesday and Friday) which is good coz I was able to do spring cleaning and do some errands. I went to the bank to fix something on my account then bought stuff at Target for the easter egg hunt.

Wednesday, I went to St. Lourdes church 30 minutes earlier to confess coz last year, it took me 2 hours to wait at St. James of Borromeo coz of the loooong line. I know we have to sacrifice and all but that's just too much. It's a waste of time. So while waiting for the priest, I did the way of the cross. I used to do Visita Iglesia (see Visita 2004 and 2005) but since all the church are closed, I decided to just do everything in one church =P

I donated clothes for charity work


Saturday, I finally finished burning all pictures from last year. I have 8 GB of pictures so I have to burn it on 2 DVDs. I didnt even know I have that many until I dedicated 3 hours of managing all my photos. I also have a backup on our external hard drive then I have ofoto, yahoo photos and flickr.. talagang safe noh! So, while doing it, I'm watching the home videos which I transferred from VHS to DVD. I always laugh everytime I watch the music video I did with my brother. I think I was only 12 years old and we're singing "Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt n Pepa. My dad directed that scene and it aches a little when I heard his voice.

That afternoon, Darwin and I went to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica to unwind. It's been a while since we went there so it's all good. We had a quick bite at Stefano's then we went shopping. I bought a striped top at Banana Republic and a cute top at the $15 dollar store. Afterwards, we went to Amoeba Music in Hollywood and I got myself The Matrix Collection DVD. I was actually having a dilemma on either getting that or Grey's Anatomy Season 2. But since I just saw the latter, I decided to get the Matrix.




Racks of DVDs and CDs.. this is heaven for me.. haha

LA City Lights @ Sunset and Vine


Sunday, we had an easter egg hunt at Tita Zita's house. It sort of a reunion too and there's a lot of food. Andrew is so cute picking up all those easter eggs. He actually liked the one I gave him. It's the yellow bus in one of the eggs.

Andrew's visit (1yr and 6mos old)

Here's some pix of Darwin's cute nephew. He grew up so fast coz the last time I saw him was back in November. He knows "hello", "apple" and I thought him how to say cow but I dont know if he'll remember it when he comes back next week. He can do "gigil" and he never gets tired walking. He's sooo funny when he baby talks. He sounds Chinese.

Andrew is wearing my sun glasses

Me, Andrew and Mommy Liz

Playing Wii

Me and Andrew

Spinning with DJ Buzz