Thursday, August 25, 2005

yo momma's a good lookin' babe

did i ever tell you that my dog kitty's favorite song is "summertime" by the gershwins? when she was just a handful of dirty fur with the uncanny ability to bite with deadly accuracy, i discovered that singing (or in my case, caterwauling) that song a la janis joplin on crystal meth calmed her down.

she would lie on the floor ("summertime-tahm-tahm eh-hend thuh livin's eee-hee-zzeh...") belly up ("fish are jumpin' naaaaa-hoooowww...") and i'd rub her tummy ("and thuh cowwwtuhnoohown... cotton's haaaa-aah-high... oh so ha-ah-hay..."). by the time i sing about singing ("one aawf deez maw-nins... yo gawnnuh raaa-highs up seee-hee-ngin'...") my little dog is snoring like a middle-aged man in grave danger of dying from a bangungot.

i never thought i'd actually wake up at 3 or 4 AM desperately straining to hear her snore. you see, i was supposed to go drinking with a friend last night but right after dinner, when we were about to hie off and guzzle the first of many bottles, my dad called to ask how she was. we'd been on pregnancy labor alert for the past few nights now because as of last night, little kitty was beginning to look like a white hairy dirty watermelon with teeth, tail, legs and who knows how many nipples.

so i called kuya at home who said i'd better skeddadle back from wherever i was because she'd been hiding under beds all afternoon yesterday and asked to be put in her whelping box several times. she looked just about ready to burst. eek. very scary thought. so we rescheduled the boozefest to wednesday next week and i took a cab home.

when i got there, true enough, she was in her box whimpering and heaving. definitely the beginnings of labor. so i packed some bags and with the help of kuya, brought her to a 24-hour animal clinic on kalayaan ave. to make a long sad story short, she gave birth to 4 puppies, one of which died because it came out breech. they had to cut her open because even after 2 hours of heaving and straining, she couldn't make those damn puppies pop out. good thing we decided to operate because the vet discovered that her uterus was just about ready to rupture from all that straining.

in short, my baby could have died. am so thankful for the skill of the vet and the prayers of those who didn't think praying for a dog was a stupid idea. when we got home, kitty was still groggy and shivering from all the drugs they pumped into her. she was so doped up she didn't snore at all last night. all i could hear were the thin wails from the three puppies pushing against her wet dirty fur. i was so afraid the little buggers would mess up the stitching on her belly.

so it looks like kitty and i will have to wait a few weeks before we can sing/snore to that gershwin song again. she hasn't had a bath in since last week and her tail-end is still a bloody mess. still, this momma dawg is one good lookin' babe, mainly because she's still breathing. yay! ptl!

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

off the top of my head

stuff i like right now, and i use the term like very loosely here. just a random list of good things.

1) a meeting that ends earlier than expected/scheduled

2) nice weather, perfect for wearing my burgundy leather sandals (with the white stitching & the grommets) bought on sale at linea italia ages ago & which still look good even after years of walking/running to class

3) sipping a free can of coke lite on a hot day, looking out at trees, long shadows on grass, sunlight on bright green leaves

4) the purple butterfly cathy gave me that night we had dinner at bellini's and all the good thoughts it carries on its little yellow poster painted polka dotted wire-and-stocking wings

5) seeing a note from richelle and a banana-flavored fortune cookie from 6-yr-old nikita tacked on my office door first thing in the morning after 2 days of migraine, vomiting and awful awful menstrual cramps. the fortune: "Calm yourself in the face of adversity. You will prevail in due time."

6) knowing that i am blessed with a family and many many friends who love me & that i can count on Him who knows & loves me the most

7) a good workshop session in a CW class (everyone had useful constructive comments and suggestions to make) despite having the usual wanker reprobates showing up an hour late

8) that weird electric blue sheen on the surface of this water bottle that came free with my laptop backback

9) orange Stabilo highlighters

10) a bubble wand thingy that i got from my cousin's wedding last month (actually, i swiped four of those from the giveaway baskets they were passing around)

11) finding old treasure that's been in front of me all these months! wrote a CNF piece a while back about spending Christmas behind bars when i was fourteen or fifteen. i had included a detail about a balsa wood bookmark made by a man who is most likely still in prison right now. he could even be dead. found the thing in a black mug on my desk together with a slew of other bookmarks. crucial details in the narrative can be found on the back: my catholic high school had us visit lifers in prison on feb 2nd 1993, the man i wrote about signed his name as "NO2Y SALLE" and the note scrawled in that depressing hall at the new bilibid prison in muntinlupa goes: "PARA SA'YO KA BOBBY ROLDAN, / ISANG MUNTING ALA-ALA MULA SA ISANG KASAMA. / MABUHAY KA!"

12) nasty blogger bugs that make you lose forever certain parts of your post that you *know* you are better off not posting. i refer to the icky gushfest about a certain cute boy i had spent quite a few minutes writing and which just magically disappeared when i tried to publish this post five minutes ago. thank goodness for faulty technology!

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

scaling walls and crushing ice

crap stolen from JP's vlog. gawd knows where he gots it.

10 years ago: holy banana! this was 1995, undergrad, the AI years. most of it was a blur; too many things were happening. transition period from the AI friends to the years of debauchery with my gatula buddies. then again, things that i remember happening in 1994 most likely happened in 1995. does it really matter? could this be the year that A did his whole "run to the woods" routine? i remember having to hold his very sweaty hand for most of that year. muntik yata akong napasma. but he's still a sweetie and we're great great friends. oh yes we are.

5 years ago: Can EDSA 2 really be 5 years ago? shee-ite. what a mess that was. lots of fun seeing the same people (V, B, R and P) over and over again for three nights in a row. the biggest street party i've ever attended. got drunk among heaps of trash on the ortigas flyover going to rosario. saw and talked to P the super-cute classmate who drove me home every day one summer (1995? 1996?) right near the portable toilets. i nearly swooned and R said i did a shoddy job pretending i wasn't clappy-happy to see him. but my favorite part really was when most people had gone home and P (who i think wanted a bowl of goto) and i just sat there on the steps of the shrine waiting for morning and maybe some good news to arrive. it didn't take long. first it was dark and there was this tiny rabble with candles and stuff. then the light slowly changed until we could see in front of us again and then it was time to go home.

1 year ago: oh dear. this one has to be about the time i dated a peter jackson lookalike. yup, very hirsute. you could shave his back and there'd be stubble 5 hours later. but he did have lovely manners. let's call him the falcon and wish his girlfriend all the luck in the world. she'll need it.

Yesterday: Fell asleep in my office trying to read the oscar wilde Dorian Gray ebook on my palm while my dad used my laptop to check his team's latest scores on nba.com. Not as productive as i hoped. had merienda with P, B, G, J at CK. the sans rival gave me a migraine and so went home and watch crappy TV till midnight.

Today: had lunch with R at likha diwa. on his laptop, he showed me his family tree and some pics of our 2001 pinatubo and galera trips with J and R. had been checking my mail in my office with j lurking somewhere in the background when R called to ask how i was and that we could hang out while i had lunch. but not at default CK as he and the other R had just been there. needless to say (and embarassingly i say anyway), i went all giggly the second he ended the call. sheesh. quelle embarassing! but still. if you saw him, you'd have a crush on him too. cute kasi eh. am very tempted to post his pic here but i think i will allow myself a tiny shred of self-respect. for now. nyahaha!

Tomorrow: Dinner at Tajma with A, B and R. tsk. medyo pathetic yata. we all have a crush on him. even the other R does. he's super super cute and a genius and plays piano and says Charing! in the most hilarious long island, ny accent. ok i'll stop gushing now.

5 snacks I enjoy: cheesecake, sans rival, glazed donuts, pita with hummus, samosas!

5 bands/artists that I know the lyrics of MOST of their songs: dave matthews, the sundays, liz phair, jobim (english translations), easy and the forces of evil. this last one, i'm not very proud to actually mention here. note that such claims are rarely ever true.

5 things I would do with $100,000,000: put it all in the bank and live off the interest. use the interest to spent my days idling away on some island or other. will travel and buy all the books i want. probably blow some of it on nice little gadgets. will spend the rest of my days writing and consoling myself with shopping and travel in the times when the writing doesn't work out very well.

5 locations I’d like to run away to: the hypothetical island that R wants to buy somewhere in palawan, that cemetery in paris where victor hugo and jim morrison are buried, the lovely little cemetery on a hill in sagada (esp during easter sunrise and todos los santos), that cemetery in before sunrise where drowned people are buried, that deserted strip of beach in mindoro that E, L, S and I visited in 2000.

5 bad habits I have: i waste a lot of time. i flirt unconsciously with the wrong men. i drink too much when i meet new people. i yank at my bra even in public. i constantly check for the inevitable oil slick that forms on my T-zone.

5 things I like doing: reading, fiddling with my palm, going online to read junk, kissing my dog, eating out with friends.

5 things I would never wear: thongs. high-cut panties. bangs. pointy shoes with stiletto heels. those icky gladiator sandals that lace up to your shins. ewww.

5 TV shows I like: CSI. hey arnold. that wacko travel gameshow on national geographic. hmm, am at a loss here. ok let's add nigella and queer eye.

5 Movies I like: before sunrise, before sunset, next stop wonderland, in the mood for love, amelie. the first three i feel compelled to watch over and over again. they just kill me.

5 famous people I’d like to meet: Michael Ondaatje, Dave Matthews, AS Byatt, TC Boyle, Jesus. really really.

5 biggest joys at the moment: my laptop. my palm. my lovely pregnant dog kitty. Bizu. R (hee hee). actually just going out with people i like makes me feel pretty OK.

5 favorite toys: my laptop. my palm. my lovely pregnant dog kitty. R and E. not together though. i wonder what E's doing now... probably still in boracay.