The Bear Bitch’s Project

I’m 23 years old and I have never lost a single thing in my entire life! Sure I’ve had my bag snatched and I’ve accidentally thrown things away by mistake and lost pieces of jewelry down the drain, but I have never really misplaced anything which I haven’t found. Why? Cause St. Anthony spoils me silly! Everyone has their own special saint: not the same way we all have guardian angels, but in the sense that we have one particular saint with whom we have a special devotion to more than the rest. It could be because of the patronage of the saint or because of an even in the saint’s life that we relate to, or even simply because our prayers are answered when we ask for it through his/her intercession. Whatever the reason, we usually have one saint who we tend to gravitate to. Though I have devotions to many saints, St. Therese, St. Dwynwen, and St. Francis, to name a few, I have always had a special relationship with St. Anthony which started when I was very young. My mom tells me that when I was really young (maybe around 2 years old or so), she would hear me say things like “St. Anthony, where are my socks? Help me find my socks!” while going around the room, and sure enough, my socks would pop out soon after that. Things haven’t changed. Whenever things go missing I just have to ask St. A and so far, he has never failed me! Some times it takes a long time and lots of prayer while other times the item pops out after a few seconds with nothing but the mention of St. A’s name! The longest it has ever taken me to find a missing item is 1 year. I have a tape of Christmas songs which I’ve played every Christmas since I was 7. One Christmas I couldn’t find it. I searched high and low but it was no where to be found. I asked St. A to help me find it but Christmas came and left but it was nowhere to be found. The next Christmas rolls around and I’m depressed cause of my missing tape. I beg St. A to find it for me and Ta-Da! The tape was in the first box that I opened. The shortest time it took me to find something was a couple of seconds with nothing but the mention of St. A’s name. My mom couldn’t find her wallet so the first place she looked was in her desk drawer where she usually keeps it. It wasn’t there so she asked St. A for help and turned her room upside down looking for it but to no avail. When she couldn’t find it, she called our helper to ask for assistance and the first placed she looked was also the drawer cause she knows that that’s where it usually is. It still wasn’t there so they continued searching the whole house. When I got home my mom told me “Bear, ask St. Anthony to help you find my wallet. You’re so malakas with him.” Sure enough, I just said “Come on, St. Anthony. Give me a hand”, opened the drawer and the wallet was right there on top of all the things even though both my mom and our helper had already checked it twice. What can I say? St. Anthony spoils me silly . . . and I love it! When I graduated from High School my mom took me to Padua to visit him and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever. I entered the basilica like a typical tourist. I took my time looking at all the frescos and sculptures and took pictures of the interesting sights. But the moment I got to St. A’s tomb I started sobbing uncontrollably though I didn’t know why. The nearer I got to St. A’s bones, the harder I cried and as I prayed I began to realize why. I was crying because I felt like I was seeing a long lost friend whom I haven’t seen in years. They were tears of wonder, joy, amazement, and so much more. If there was a statue of St. A within reach, I probably would have hugged it. They say St. Anthony is the most popular saint in the world and its no wonder why. He helps find lost things (and parking spaces), he can be at 2 places at the same time, he talks to fish, he can reattach severed limbs, what more can you ask for? If there’s a St. Anthony Fan Club, I think you should sign me up.

Ohmigoodness! I just had my teeth cleaned by my dentist for the first time in about 2 years and boy, do I regret waiting so long! The feeling of professionally cleaned teeth is better than 5 manicures and foot spas put together - and its the same price too. A really good foot spa with a manicure will probably set me back P600 and that’s how much the cleaning cost me. Something tells me that my hands and feet will soon be neglected in favor of my teeth. Why didn’t i discover this sooner?

Ugh! Today was one of those days that i call "Ugly Days". You know the kind. Its a day when you wake up and your zits are more, bigger, and redder than they’ve ever been, your skin is as blotchy as the world map and as oily as a frying pan, your waistline goes MIA and is replaced by blubber, your hair just refuses to cooperate, your nail breaks, your jeans smell like they didn’t dry properly (they smell like a trapo, to put it bluntly) and your shirts all have wrinkles in them. In other words, no matter what you do, you’re just ugly on that day. Ordinarily, when "Ugly Days" come ’round, i usually lather on the concealer & leave-in conditioner, spritz a happy smelling cologne on, cross my fingers and hope for the best  — but for some dumb reason which still escapes me until now, i decided to ditch most of my damage control today and just ride the "Ugly Day" wave out. I figured, i’m already having an "Ugly Day" so might as well give my poor face a rest and forget the concealer & mattifying cream. Well, i deserve to be slapped silly! Of all the days, fate decides to make me bump into one of my college crushes today!!! There he was all fresh looking and cute and there i was oily, blotchy, and fat topped off with a generous sprinkling of big, red zits! Arrrrrgggggghhhh! I swear, i will never leave home without concealer and mattifier ever again!

Unlike most people I know (outside my family, of course) I’ve never been particularly fond or dependent on rice. Sure, I still had it twice a day on average simply because I was a resident of the Philippines where rice is the most important thing on the table, surpassing the plate and fork, though it was always just half or sometimes even a quarter of a cup. But lately, I’ve lost what little appetite for rice that I had and started eating bread instead. And I’m not picky about it either: from cheap, P2.00 bread that’s bought from the sari-sari store which was kept in a display case with flies on the inside to ludicrously priced wheat bread with grains and nuts and other healthy things and anything in between. I eat bread with nearly everything now: longganisa and acharra, sinigang na bangus, I can go on and on. It’s simply lovely! Of course there are some dishes that call for rice like kare kare and ojinko gui and so I still eat rice with those and enjoy it no less than before but when those aren’t on the table, rise (and sometimes fries!) hits the spot more than rice nowadays and I’m pretty sure I can credit my loss of 10 lbs to my good buddy bread =o)

Bear’s Top 10 Sandwiches:

10. Cheese hotdog with lots of mayo and tomato catsup (banana catsup is just wrong!)

9. Chicken salad (made from leftover S&R Roasted chicken or Chowking Chicken Supereme)

8. Strawberry jam with cheese (just like Dad taught me)

7. Mom’s egg salad (hard boiled eggs, mayo, capers)

6. Crispy Bacon with lots of mayo (the bacon must be 2 seconds away from being burnt)

5. Melted cheese (a classic)

4. Sweet Longganisa (Pritong Pinoy is also good)

3. Lettuce, Kani, & Mango on wheat bread from Oliver’s Super Sandwiches

2. Nutella on lightly toasted white bread

(Drum-roll please)

1. Peanut butter and jelly (Goober Grape or Skippy with Welch Concord grape jelly)

I was updating my ‘In My Discman’ list and tried to add Rivermaya and Hale. When i clicked on the submit button, the picture of Charlotte Church’s album came out under Hale and the picture of a Fatboy Slim album came out under Rivermaya! I guess that means i can only put international artists on that list cause OPM artists aren’t on their database. That’s unfair! So to give these local artists their due credit, I’ve created a post just for them.

Artist: Rivermaya

Album: Between the Stars and the Waves

Personal Rating: ****

Artist: Hale

Album: Hale

Personal Rating: ***

But i just got the cd 2 days ago (Autographed pa! Thanks so much, Janette! <hug>) so the rating may go up as i listen to it more.

Yesterday (August 31) was my last day to be employed by Smart Communications Inc. and it felt odd to be leaving. Unlike school where everyone graduates and moves on at the same time, this time, it’s only I leaving while everyone else stays on, continuing the work and the routine that I had been very much a part of for the past 20 months. Sure the work itself had a tendency to be mundane and at times even stressful, but I enjoyed the company. If there was one good thing to result from ‘the breakup’ it was that I became closer to my officemates which doesn’t seem to be too good a thing at the moment as it’s now harder to leave. During my exit interview I was asked what I like most about the job I had just given up and I told them that I very much enjoyed the atmosphere. It isn’t everyday you find a job where everyone is approximately the same age as yourself and as kalog as this bunch. It was like working with your barkada. No matter how irate the subscriber was, you can always vent to each other and within minutes your head is a lot cooler, your blood stops boiling and your thoughts of murder seem to fade. It’s always hard to keep in touch with friends once you’ve left, but I do sincerely hope to keep in touch with the Smart bunch. I’ll really miss them.