Parchment and Quill is a blog of a young lass who wishes to share her thoughts and experiences to those who may take interest in her day-to-day living.
Feel free to read and leave comments.
Enjoy!
In a week's time, my family and I are moving. After 13 years of living in the same 66-square-meter condominium unit, we are finally moving to a bigger and better living space. A new place to call "home." I'm excited! Very much! Why? Well, it's really because of one reason: I will finally get my own room. How about that? After 23 years, I can finally say, "I have a room!" Hahahaha!
Yes! It's definitely something to look forward to.
In a day, the month of June ends. And if you haven’t noticed it yet, I had no blog entries for the month of June...until now.
Sorry -- I’ve just been too busy the whole month, I barely had time to really sleep. But today, I am making an effort to post an entry. Yes, even as I am working in the office at this very moment, I am really trying to compose an entry in between my mental blocks with writing articles for the magazine.
It is now 4:00 in the afternoon. I’ve basically finished all tasks for the day. But my mind keeps wandering back to the articles I’ve submitted to my editor. At the back of my mind, I can’t help but think if what I’ve written is good enough. Great, after a year of working in the magazine, I still have doubts on my capabilities as a writer. But I think that’s just normal. Then again, maybe I’m just being too hard on myself.
This is bad. I’m just beginning my blog entry and I’m finally sending off negative vibes to people reading my blog. Tsk tsk tsk. I should really stop doing that. So ok. Let me go to the great things that happened this month.
June 6: Mama and Papa celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary As a married couple, my parents have been together for 33 long years. But what’s more impressive is that they have been each other’s sweethearts for 43 years. Yes, they became a couple when they were still in second year college and have never separated since. Ah yes, now you know why I’m such a hopeless romantic. I love my parents’ love story.
For the first time, Kuya Rom, Kuya Miguel and I went all out for our parents to give them the wedding anniversary of their dreams.
We arranged everything for them. With my Kuya Rom in Los Angeles, it’s up to Kuya Miguel and me to take care of things to be done here. We reserved a hotel room for Mama and Papa at Hotel Celeste in Makati. We gave them pocket money to spend on their date. Kuya Miguel and I met up with Mama and Papa the next day where we ate lunch at Amici and then went to Starbucks for another hour of bonding session.
June 14-21: Tita Connie, Tito Monching and Tina visit Every time we have a balikbayan, the Franciscos can’t help but go out and eat. It was like a fiesta in my Lola’s house when we ate there for lunch. My Lola can still cook, I tell you! She can still whip up delicious food in the kitchen. At 90, she’ll stop at nothing to prepare a full meal for her balikbayan daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
That night, we all went to Julie’s Ihaw-Ihaw at By the Bay. Mmmmm…seafood galore! Oh yes, I’ve definitely gained back the weight I lost when I was confined in the hospital the month before.
The next weekend, Fathers’ Day, we all went out and ate at Luk Foo in Sucat. Definitely ate a lot! Good thing I wasn’t wearing a belt. Hahaha!
Tuesday came...the day before my brother’s birthday. Once again, the Francisco family had a dinner gathering at Dad’s in Glorietta 3. Who wouldn’t be full? It’s eat-all-you-can! Haha!
o O o
Written on June 30, 2009
June 24: Kuya Miguel's birthday It’s another family day for us as we celebrated Kuya Miguel’s 28th birthday. Just a little birthday celebration for our birthday boy. We ate dinner, courtesy of Kuya Miguel, of course. As usual, we talked about random things. We even talked about who among us siblings would get married first, who would give our parents their first grandchild. Nice!
I bought my brother his favorite cake, Brazo de Mercedes, and gave him t-shirts he liked as my birthday gift. Yes, simple shirts make my brother happy. Of course, his original birthday wish that he wanted me to give him were Playstation 3 and a 32-inch LCD. Ouch! As if I could actually afford that. Oh well, Kuya’s happy with my gift. That’s what matters.
June 27: Alla's post-birthday celebration Alla celebrated her birthday last June 22. As a celebration with her barkada, Alla met up with me, Euki and Janchang at Powerplant Mall in Rockwell, Makati where we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Yummy! From starters to the main course, all I can say is, “Sarap!”
After eating dinner at CPK, we decided to stroll around until we ended up eating desserts at Crepes & Cream. Oh yes! My craving for crepes have been satisfied, all thanks to the birthday girl. I distinctly remember that the last time we went out was a post-celebration of my birthday. That was two months ago. I swear, I am not used to going out wearing pants anymore if my company is my barkada. Hahaha! More often than not, I am wearing shorts or miniskirts than pants or pedal pushers. But I love it! I really do.
Yey to Alla for turning another year older!
Yey to great food!
June 28: Till next time It was the last day of vacation for Tita Connie, Tito Monching and Tina. Once again, it was foodie galore at the House of Lola. From breakfast until dinner, we ate and took pictures and ate and talked about anything and everything.
Unfortunately, that “anything” got me worried. It was absolutely no holds barred for my relatives to ask me. And ask, they did. It’s not as if I didn’t know what they were going to ask me. It’s just that...more often than not, I find myself being unprepared for the predictable question. That time was no excuse. I was still caught off guard when I was asked, “May boyfriend ka na ba?”
Hooboy! And I don’t know if you noticed but that particular Sunday was absolutely dehydrating! It was such a hot day, I went to Lola’s house wearing shorts. Note: I never wear shorts when going to my grandmother’s house. But I had to make an exception. It really was a very hot day. I wasn’t alone -- my cousin, Ate Kriselle, came to the house wearing shorts.
Their flight was scheduled at 10:00 in the evening. Since my relatives checked in early, they didn’t have to go to the airport three hours before their scheduled flight. *Sigh* It’s really heartbreaking to see them leave. It will be a couple of years before I get to see them again.
o O o
11 o’clock in the evening. Well, I guess I should be wrapping things up now.
All in all, those were the highlights of the month. Though I didn’t include the memorable events at work, let me just say that work has been very tough, but still very much enjoyable!
Oh yeah…
Happy anniversary to me!
I’ve been working as editorial assistant at SEAIR InFlight magazine for one year already!
That’s it!
Till next month. I swear, I will be updating my blog as frequently as possible.
My Tito Bert just arrived two days ago from Canada to visit Lola Bait who’s going to celebrate her 90th birthday on March 14. So when we were on our way to Parañaque for our family gathering, I anticipated we will be talking about Tito Bert’s birthday on Thursday, Lola’s birthday on Saturday, and about my cousin Ate Chrissy’s upcoming wedding in July.
But I was so wrong! Though the discussion about the birthday celebrations and the wedding came up, the day was mostly about my relatives asking me the question I feared to answer. I wouldn’t call it torture...but it did feel like I’ve done something that was out of the ordinary.
Conversation # 1: With Tita Estie Tita: Ano Margie, may boyfriend ka na ba? Margie: Wala po. Tita: Marami bang lalake sa inyo? Margie: Meron naman po, sa IT department. Tita: O, eh di pumunta ka dun sa IT. Margie: Same office po kami. May kasama naman po akong lalake sa office. Tita: Ganun? Eh di mabuti. Bakit? Wala ka ba magustuhan? Margie: Tita naman, trabaho po. Tita: Ano ka ba? Ok lang mag-boyfriend...kaya magpaligaw ka na.
Conversation # 2: With Tito Bert Tito: Ano na ba ang balita sayo? Margie: Nagtratrabaho na po ako. Eto po yung magazine namin o. (sabay labas ng InFlight) Tito: Aba, eh di nakakapunta ka kung saan-saan. Margie: Opo. Tito: Mabuti naman kung ganun. Eh may nakilala ka na ba? Margie: Po? Tito: Manliligaw? Boyfriend? Margie: Naku, Tito, wala pa po. Wala pang nagkakamaling manligaw. Hehehe... Tito: Nagpapakipot ka ata eh. Ang mga pinsan mo may mga boyfriend at girlfriend na. Ate Chrissy mo, ikakasal na, 29 na yun. Margie: Eh Tito, mag-23 pa lang naman po ako sa April. Tito: Baka naman ayaw mo magpaligaw. Imposible naman wala ka pa nakikilala. Margie: Tito...si Papa nga po, hindi ako pine-pressure eh. Tito: Tahimik lang yan si Nany pero maniwala ka sa’kin, gusto na rin nya magka-boyfriend ka. Ganyan ako sa Ate Chrissy mo.
Conversation # 3: With Lola (talking in Spanish; translated in Tagalog) Lola: Malapit ka nap ala mag-birthday ano? Margie: Opo, 23 na po next month Lola: May boyfriend ka na ba? Margie: Naku Lola, wala pa po. Hindi ko pa po iniintindi yun. Lola: Alam mo ba? Kami ng lolo mo, nung kinasal, 23 ako tapos lolo mo 27. Wala man lang ba nanliligaw sayo? Margie: Lola naman, nakakapressure naman yung sinabi nyo. Lola: Ang ibig sabihin ko lang, bakit di ka pa magpaligaw?
OH. MY. GOSH.
I never would have thought I would be hearing these things from them.
Why? Why is it that all of a sudden everybody’s interested in my non-existent love life?
