Sunday, March 31, 2013

Staycation


Garden + Swimming Pool + Banig + Cloudless sky + Sunshiney sun + A good book. Oh, and did I say SUN? :)) SIGHHHHHH. Nothing more to ask for. :)

But wait, there's more! May bonus pa :) Spiked fruit shakes + slack line setup! (Salamat Xtian sa pagpapahiram, sa bahay muna siya!)





Thank you Lord! :)

P.S. I enjoyed this Staycation concept so much that I did it twice this past Holy Week. More practice needed for making shakes, and MUCH more practice for slack line tricks!

Friday, March 22, 2013

A Tribute to Beer

Sometimes it just helps to have a beer in hand.

I don't mean this is a drunkard kind of way, but just to admit that once in a while, those cold, bitter bubbles can be the saving glory to a seemingly downward-spiraling day, week, month, or heck if you're overly dramatic about it, you even sometimes think it salvages your entire life! (Even if just for a fleeting moment, ha ha!)

Oh SMB, how do I count the ways?

When teacher/boss/designated authority gives you a stare worse than that of the eye of Mordor, you help numb the fear;

When even as a girl I feel like I'm choking on imaginary balls out of nervousness, you inject me with just enough courage to take the first step (bahala na what happens to steps 2, 3, and so on);

When the day's drained me dry and left me in a stupor, you revive my system and turn back time;

Like when the Videoke machine is running out of a playlist, you find ways to get those hesitant fingers to punch the song numbers;

Or when I'm being unnecessarily timid and anti-social, you urge me to stand taller and push random words out of my mouth;

When I don't want to listen or I don't want to remember, you always make the perfect excuse;

When someone threw me crap (or made me feel like crap), inviting me to retaliate, you help me forget;

(Ohhhh, YES, how very adept you are in helping to forget;)

When I'm listening to a song or watching concert (live or recorded), you heighten my senses that gives me goosebumps all over;

When I'm sitting on the beach in my bikini and the scorching sun is high and all I hear is the sound of crashing waves...you're there with me, and you just let me be;

When the company is strange/awkward, you totally manage to break the ice;

Especially when the group's quiet -- somehow, at least one part animal bursts into an entertainment number cum conversation piece to last the night, kudos to you!

Then when the group's loud and rowdy, you never fail to make them even louder and rowdier!

And when I'm all by myself, acting lonesome and friend-less, sinasakyan mo ang drama ko at tinutulungan pa akong mag sulat sa blog kong ito.

Monday, March 11, 2013

T'was a Good Run

I mean that literally.

Tonight I ran (okay, jogged) around UP after over a month. Aside from not running for a while, I have to say that I'm far from being a strong and happy runner, doing it only for the sake of cross-training. It has always been a struggle for me -- physically and mentally, and I'm sure this has become especially true since I started declaring my aversion for it.

For me, practically every run is a battle with my pride: Do I slow down or speed up? Do I turn here or there? Do I take the short-cut or the "long-cut"? And the answer is almost always a compromise -- something just enough to get my heart rate up, but never to push myself to my running limit. And I would adamantly justify to myself, "Why would I need to push myself this hard in running, anyway?! I'm a climber, not a runner!"

Just some of my conversations with myself ;)

But tonight, it felt different. Despite the humid weather, I was able to keep a steady pace and actually do three rounds in the Academic Oval without feeling tortured! My breathing was calm, and I was able to recover on the downward slopes, enough so that I didn't have to struggle and slow down on the flat and slightly-upward slopes. I even went faster on my second and third rounds, even if I thought I was going slower (reverse psychology?) Best of all, my side stitches didn't act up so much, and just stayed in a teeny tiny corner of my tummy, which I think played a huge part in not screwing up my breathing.

Before you think I'm gonna get more into running, let me tell you that I'm NOT. I'm just writing down tonight's experience for the sake of documentation, to remind myself that I can actually enjoy running (when my side stitches aren't twisting up my insides).

Because tonight also reminded me of how running can provide a different exercise; a relaxing kind where I don't have to think or strategize, as opposed to climbing where it sometimes gets aggressive and agitating...Running, as it showed me tonight, let me keep my gaze in one place, my heartbeat steady, and my thoughts float to wherever the breeze took them.

I only wish to feel that feeling again, and not let this be a one-off, like how we usually wrap-up once-in-a-lifetime experiences with the bittersweet phrase, "T'was a good run."