malls, memories, and menagerie...

Here's a rundown of my activities for November 17, 2006:

I. Location 1: SM Bicutan
I went to buy a dark green polo for the anniversary celebration. After almost an hour of searching, I finally found a lone dark green small-sized polo in SM Hypermart. At 350php, it was definitely a bargain. To add a little happiness to my day, while I was queued at the counter to pay for my shirt, the woman in front of me told me to cut in front of her since I only had one purchase while she had a cartload of goods. I thanked her gratefully, paid the cashier, thanked her again with a smile, then walked away. It made me happy to think that there still are some good people out there...

II. Location 2: Alabang Town Center
Nuel went out on his first official gimmick with his friends and so, being his beloved older brother, the task of watching him fell on me. I had been planning to hang around in Powerbooks as soon as he and his friends met up. Lo and behold, as soon as Nuel and his friends got together, Steph appeared clutching her tripod. I ended up hanging out with her for the time being, which was just as well because it spared me an extra hour of boredom and lonesomeness. Never mind the fact that I stopped by Olympic World three times in a span of an hour. Haha! Later on, Steph and I met up with Alex and JN. Then, when all three of them left, I met up again with Nuel and his friends at Timezone. (By the way, I also bumped into Anton, Philip and some other people from SCTC, a co-teacher from my practicum days in Seton, a fellow English major, and Kuya Mario.)
Mrs. Garcia, the mom of Nuel's friend, talked to me today about working in her learning center as an assistant supervisor until I am able to find full-time work in the school that the Lord wants me to be in. Although I'd very much prefer to teach in a conventional school, I immediately saw that her offer was one worth taking. Why? Well, first of all, I was a student under the A.C.E. program, so I don't need to undergo any training since I already know how the whole thing works. Second, I badly need a source of income since I really don't feel like I should be leeching money from my folks now that I've graduated from college. Third, this short experience as an assistant supervisor adds meat to my resume. I didn't need any more convincing. I told Mrs. Garcia I was interested in her offer, but working in her learning center would have to wait until my family moves to BF Homes on the 15th of December (hopefully). While I am not sure yet how this whole thing is going to turn out, I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to leave my bum life soon.
After what seemed like forever, Mom finally showed up to bring me to church and take Nuel home...

III. Location 3: Bread from Heaven
This became my fourth consecutive day in church for anniversary practice. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent for hand-mime, Thursday for praise and worship. This time, it was the general rehearsal for the hand-mime. Just when I thought that the mime was going to go smoothly, I wound up leaving the church more confused since I was given something different to do at the last minute. So I completely messed up during the practice since the new hand formation I had to do hadn't sunk in well enough to completely erase the old one from the recesses of my memory. I wonder if I'll still have time to clean it up before the performance. Oh well...

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It's frustrating that I had to give up the Silver Quill Awards night for my practice. I wouldn't have minded if it hadn't been for the fact that the article I wrote for The Menagerie last January entitled "Making the Cut" was among the four nominees for Best Short Feature. Did I win? I don't know. I'll probably find out on a later date or something. I'm not counting my chickens, seeing as the others competing for the same award are really good writers. It's good to know though that what I wrote and how I wrote it was appreciated by my own peers, and that's already an honor for me. It just sucks to know that I couldn't be there to find out for sure. Kinda makes me wish I had the ability to be in two places at once.
Just a thought on writing. I started writing around the age of six, imitating the way books were written. At six years old, I had no knowledge of paragraphs and quotation marks; also, my grammar and spelling were still developing. However, as time passed, my love for writing grew along with a big improvement in my writing style. When I bagged the gold medal at the first Jr. Students Convention for short story writing at the age of eleven, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. I really know that writing is really going to be a central part of the plans God has in store for me.

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Chatting last Wednesday was different. I did not put a smiley in any of my chat windows. It didn't matter whom I was talking to. The fact remained that I did not use any smiling emoticon at all. This is highly unusual for me, but there it is. Was there a reason? Yes, of course there was. Because I just made a difficult decision that day, one that I had been pondering on for several weeks. Hopefully, it was the best one. I've tried everything else.

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Adding quotations from different books will be something I'll be doing quite frequently in my blog nowadays. Here's the latest one on my mind, still from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson.

Ms. Wormwood: Calvin! Pay attention! We are now studying Geography! Now which state do you live in?
Calvin: Denial.
Ms. Wormwood: Sigh. I suppose I can't argue with that.

If Calvin really lives in the state of denial, maybe he and I are neighbors...