let's blow out the candles!

My Fave Pic


a couple of years ago, i unearthed my "baby pics" and showed them to ricky. out of all the pics, he singled out this pic. for the next few weeks, he got a kick out of asking me to "mimic" this pose; i'd oblige and he'd laugh... i told him na isa sa favorite baby pics ko yan and he says, oo nga, ako din...

actually, i'm posting this because in about 8 hours, i'm officially 35 years old. GEEZ!!!! i'm so ancient! but i believe that our age is just a couple of numbers and i really don't feel like i'm 35 except when i look at myself in the mirror long and hard and see those faint wrinkles. buti na lang daw at bungisngis ako and "smiling face" at least i look like i'm in my late 20's...

as the virginia slims ad goes, "you've come a long way baby..." looking back, i sure have. i consider my birthday the real New Year and this is the time when i try to be introspective about me, my life and hopeful about where i'm going...

i hope to post a "questionnaire" about what happened in the past year... now if only i could find it.... a manifestation of old age, no doubt....

Tag, I'm IT!

I've been tagged by Dang :)

Random 10:
1. Love Moves in Mysterious Ways (Julia Fordham)
2. Step in the Name of Love (R. Kelly)
3. My Friend (Groove Armada)
4. What You Won't Do for Love (Go West)
5. Lately (Workshy)
6. Dancing in the Moonlight (Toploader)
7. When I Met You (Apo Hiking Society)
8. Crazy in Love (Beyonce)
9. The Way You Look Tonight (Tony Bennett)
10. Get the Party Started (Pink)

1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer? 567 MB

2. The last CD you bought is: "Songs from Home" - Lea Salonga

3. What is the last song you listened to before this message: J. Lo's "Get Right"

4. Write down five songs you listen to a lot or mean a lot to you:

1. Minsan Lang Kitang Iibigin - Ariel Rivera (my bridal march)
2. Love Moves in Mysterious Ways -Julia Fordham (sums up what happened between ricky & me)
3. Don't Know What to Do - Ric Segreto (reminds me of our McDo days...)
4. Get Right - J. Lo ('la lang, I love listening to dance music...)
5. Step in the Name of Love - R. Kelly (I love listening to this; makes me wanna dance all day and night :))

5. Who are you gonna pass this stick to? (3 persons and why)

jaymee - anong nasa iPod mo? jenny - panggulo... :) n!ce - panggulo din ;P

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy New Year everyone! I hope the Year of the Wood Rooster will be a good one for all of us! To find out what's in store for you, check out this article I found on Yehey! by Merlina Merton.

in my element (thanks nyree ...)

Your Element Is Air

You dislike conflict, and you've been able to rise above the angst of the world. And when things don't go your way, you know they'll blow over quickly. Easygoing, you tend to find joy from the simple things in life. You roll with the punches, and as a result, your life is light and cheerful. You find it easy to adapt to most situations, and you're an open person. With you, what you see is what you get... and people love that!

What's Your Element?

it's 2005!

the following day, it was back to gotcha... although we had dong & randy open the store, we came in after lunch together with my family who wanted to drop by gotcha before they went home to the province. especially my younger brother junggy who hadn't seen the store yet. afterwards, we decided to bring them to glorietta so they could walk around and maybe buy stuff that they needed.

they were impressed with the landscaping in greenbelt 3 and said that it compares to other malls they've seen here and in the states. junggy said that he prefers greenbelt to megamall because of the wide open space, trees and walkways. i do too.

then we parted ways at around 4 p.m. they didn't want to arrive in cabanatuan at such a late hour especially with the new year ahead. so ricky & i trooped back to gotcha.

after closing, we were still billeted at edsa shangrila but we went to his sister's house for our media noche. i sampled the soup they cooked using the bones of the roasted calf ala bulalo at grabe, malasang-malasa, iba talaga! ang sarap ...

after dinner, ricky played a couple of games with his nephews on the PS2 then we went back to the hotel. we watched the festivities on tv (parties of the different networks) while checking out the fireworks displays that we could see from our hotel window. we were together for the new year, calling up family and texting friends. it was our first new year together as husband and wife.

let's celebrate!

after the guests made their way to the cycad garden and got to their table, marlet introduced the entourage and when we heard the words mr. & mrs. ricardo de lucia, ricky and i came down the stairs hand in hand. as we were navigating the stairway and the red carpet, i became a source of amusement again when my veil got caught in the decorations along the aisle causing me to involuntarily jerk my head backwards. it happened twice mind you. but again, being bungisngis certainly pays off in some situations and this was one of them. although a bit embarrasing, i was able to get through it and we finally made our way to the gazebo.

whew! i felt the hunger as we sat down. but of course, we had to get some stuff out of the way. so, marlet began the program and asked the guests to pose beside ricky & me for a picture before they made their way to the buffet table. i guess it was around 7:45 p.m. by then and everybody was hungry but marlet had to make everything as systematic as possible to be fair to everyone. she also made sure she didn't call the tables in succession, she started with 1, 2 then jumped to the middle then the end so it wouldn't be unfair for the guests seated at table 18, 19 or 20.

after everyone posed with us and we posed with our parents and principal sponsors, we finally sat down to eat. it is true that you won't get to eat as much as you would like to. all the dishes were served and laid out in front of us but i only managed to sample three or four dishes. while we were eating, i was back to my frazzled self and i asked marlet about what's next, who's going to talk until she again, admonished me and told me to stop worrying and eat! so i did... after about a half hour or so, marlet started with the well-wishers, dang, raymond and giselle.

then there was the cake cutting, toast led by the best man, releasing of the doves then the garter thingy . the releasing of the doves was also memorable for us. both doves were wrapped with a cloth; they gave ricky the first one and i held the second one. as i was holding mine, it managed to wiggle it's way out of the cloth and flew out of my hands! they tried to capture the dove but it just flew higher and higher 'til it perched on a branch way up high. so, ricky and i just held his dove and we released it together.

it was a very short program and that was what we wanted. no first dance for either ricky and me nor with our parents. no bouquet and garter toss because majority of our guests were married. so marlet simply gathered some brave couples and by process of elimination, the longest married couple was left. ricky removed my garter then, we gave the couple flowers and they in turn gave us advice & tips on how to stay together just as they had. then, my mom gave a short message and jaymee spoke on behalf of ricky's parents. no dancing afterwards since almost everybody wanted to go home. but i was dancing a bit by myself; it would've been nice to have dancing ...

surprisingly enough, i didn't cry during my bridal march, when i saw ricky at the end of the aisle, when i saw my parents, when i heard the wishes of our friends. it was when everybody took turns in saying good-bye that i started to cry. my MOH (& sister) ate ynna really made me cry when i hugged her because she whispered in my ear "mamimiss kita sis..." and then she kissed me and hugged me tight.

also when rose and marlet hugged me, i cried too. i hugged them both tightly because i wanted them to know how much i appreciated everything they did for me, for us from the start of the wedding preps. rose gave me a wedding workbook as soon as ricky and i announced the wedding plans. the workbook was such a big help to me. marlet's expertise in wedding coordination was also something i leaned heavily on but her being one of my bestest friends was truly the blessing here.

and so, we were finished by 10:30 p.m. (i think, or was it earlier than that?) my in-laws brought home the left-overs and we also asked them to bring the gifts and other stuff we had. after taking care of loose ends (read: balances and tips for the suppliers), ricky & i climbed into the bridal car and made our way to edsa shang.

i was pooped but i had to take a bath to get rid of the makeup on my face and all the hairspray and mascara in my hair (yup you read it right mascara in my hair. i've got a lot of "white hair" so julie used mascara to hide them). while i was in the tub i looked back at what happened and i was truly grateful that it was finished. and to my surprise i don't miss the preps at all...

when i got out of the bathroom, ricky was fast alseep so no action on our wedding night that was fine with me since we had the next day, the day after that and the whole future for some action. i was content with having him beside me...

driven by peace?

i decided to finish this inkblot test which i started a couple of months back and finally got my results - fascinating but utterly ironic... hehehe


my inkblot

Chie, your subconscious mind is driven most by Peace

You are driven by a higher purpose than most people. You have a deeply-rooted desire to facilitate peacefulness in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with love ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to influence the world.

You are driven by a desire to encourage others to think about the positive side of things instead of focusing on the negative. The reason your unconscious is consumed by this might stem from an innate fear of war and turmoil. Thus, to avoid that uncomfortable place for you, your unconscious seeks out the peace in your environment.

Usually, the thing that underlies this unconscious drive is a deep respect for humankind. You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it. As a result, your personal integrity acts as a surrogate for your deeper drive toward peace and guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Peace, there is much more to who you are at your core.

yes father i do....

now the ceremony was a breeze. still, i caught myself fussing over a few details like, were the guests going to arrive (i noticed the pews weren't full...), would the offerers arrive and know what to bring to the altar and in what order they'd walk down the aisle? but then, i had to make myself focus on the most important part of the wedding, the ceremony.

i thought fr. dennis had trouble with the misalette. i couldn't make out whether i made mistakes, whether the format was wrong or whatever. but, we managed to get thru the opening, first reading & responsorial psalm (done by junggy... ), second reading (c/o jen ), prayers of the faithful (lead by myla ) and then the mariage rites.

now, here are some of the amusing parts during the ceremony:

1. fr. dennis decided to "personalize" the mass and asked us to use our term of endearment in the exchange of rings. at first i couldn't believe what he wanted us to do since ricky and i have a "unique" term of endearment for each other: babuy. with the sacristan in front of us holding the mike, i had to cover it and told fr. dennis, "father, our term of endearment is babuy." i'm sure fr. dennis couldn't believe what he heard but based on the sacristan's laugh, he knew it was "amusing". after getting over the term we use, he said, go ahead use it so that your family and friends would know what you call each other. at this point, i knew or rather i FELT the amused smiles and laughs from our friends in the back.

ricky, i could sense, was hesitant about saying it but i was like, "yeah, what the heck...that's what we really call each other anyway." and so the babuys exchanged their vows and put on their ...

2. after the exchange of rings, fr. dennis asked if the groom wanted to kiss the bride but we decided to kiss at the end of the ceremony...

3. during the blessing & giving of arrhae, fr. dennis decided to call it the "pig pen"; eliciting another round of laughter especially from our friends

the homily was alright but i think fr. dennis overdid the "family planning seminar". i understand the church's stand on the use of contraception but to inject it into the homily more than once was too much for me. personally, ricky and i could use the absence of family planning in the beginning; we're over 30 already and i think we need all the help we can get to produce little rickys and chies, right?

after ricky & i signed the contract i couldn't help but ask fr. dennis if there was anything wrong with the misalette and he said nothing was wrong except that the print/font size was a bit too small for him. no wonder he sometimes paused in between words and sentences. akala ko tuloy, may mga mali sa content.

while ate ynna and wilcon asked the principal sponsors to sign the contract, julie freshened ricky and me up. it was embarrasing to do it on the kneeler or anywhere in front so i asked her if we could step aside and i turned around so that my back was facing the pews. she told me that she does this even in full view of the guests especially for the pictorials after the ceremony so there was nothing to be shy about.

then, ricky & i posed for so many pictures afterwhich we had our "processional" (is that the correct term or is it recessional? anyways...) then we allowed the guests to seat themselves in the nearby cycad garden while we waited for our cue to come down the stairs ...

here comes the bride

while standing just outside the entrance to the chapel, some of the guests who arrived saw me dancing or laughing. i bet they were wondering what in the world is the bride doing? dang and bel caught me chewing gum and consequently demanded me to throw out the gum. it was so "unbride-like" on second thought, buti na lang kasi kung hindi, the video would've caught me chewing my way down the aisle .... i also turned off my cell phone and asked arnold to keep it for me. it was almost 6 and i said, we're right on time.

now, a few minutes later, i could see the entourage starting to march and i said, "this is it..." me-ann & her companion said good-bye while julie & flor kept reassuring me that they'd be around...

i approached the doors and i caught my sister walking down the aisle and my parents who were about to march down 'til the middle and wait for me...marlet motioned for me to walk and then i heard the first few lines of minsan lang kitang iibigin -- i knew it was my turn

they say that when you're marching down the aisle, you won't get to see anyone except the groom. in my case, i couldn't see ricky. actually, i couldn't see really far from where i was through the veil. and even if i desperately tried to summon the tears, i couldn't cry! everytime i see someone marching down the aisle, hear/read about the bride's march or even in the movies, the bride cries. i couldn't! now, i don't know if that was wrong but then again, i'm glad i didn't cry.

as i approached the middle of the aisle, i hooked my arms with dad and mom's and we proceeded to walk the length of the aisle towards ricky. at the end, i saw the junasan crew and riza, the secretary from the parish office who "oversaw" the sequence of events. i kissed my dad & mom and ricky took my hand and we both walked up the stairs to the altar and stood in front of fr. dennis salazar.

kung fu hustle

i forgot to tell you about the latest movie we watched @ G4 together with dong and charie...Kung Fu Hustle! truly hilarious! if you loved shaolin soccer, i'm sure you'll enjoy this one... stephen chow comes up with another blockbuster.