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Summerfriends.

Circa 1995. Looking like real nerds in this pic.

I’ve always had good memories of summers. Often, my summers were spent studying some ‘art’ form, whether it be visual, martial, or dance; traveling; or simply going out with friends. I read, I hung out with my cousins…yup…summers form one of the best memories of my childhood.

One of those good things that came out of my summers was being a part of a barkada from one summer workshop I attended. We called ourselves ‘summerfriends’. (I know, it’s soooo original) That’s our picture above, circa 1995. During summer of ‘95, we painted murals, took photography classes (or at least tried in vain to listen to the teacher), hung out a lot, and gossiped about this ‘mean’ girl who wore really skimpy shorts (in 18º temperature!) to class. We listened to E-heads, Rivermaya, and the Cranberries belting out ‘Zombie’ in the background. We talked about high school/grade school crushes, first kisses, and first boyfriends.

It’s amazing how one summer could be the start of something really nice. Ten years later we are still friends! Yun nga lang, I could only count on two hands the number of times we really went out..hehe. Siguro make that 4 hands--hindi naman kami ganun ka-loser.^^;; We usually meet during summers, Christmases, debuts…hmmm…you could call us ‘holidayfriends’. Since we don’t meet that often, we usually notice the big changes in each other’s lives: for example, who’s going out with whom, who gained weight, what happened to the guy we saw last Christmas, who had a baby (yup, we have two ‘summerfriends’ kids), where did we all go for college, etc.


Circa 2001. Celebrating Roanne’s birthday.

Without fail, there we usually meet up at least once a year to keep in touch and to be aware of what’s happening with each person in our barkada. However, last year, we weren’t able to really meet up as in one collective group. We were all busy with work.

However, the chance for us to meet came very recently. We just attended the wedding of one of my “summer” friends. She’s the girl at the leftmost side of the pic circa 1995. Up to now, I still have a hard time believing that one of who I consider barkada already got hitched. But, anyway, she’s now a mrs. and I guess I should start the countdown on who would be next to embrace married life.

We are all really happy for her -- I honestly believe she found the right guy, (even at first impression her last boyfriend seemed like a jerk) and I’m excited to become a ninang to their firstborn child and third summerfriends baby.

…ah…to be wed during summer.

The Anatomy of a Girl.

Just got my chest xray earlier. My current office required us to submit the results of our x-ray - JRP's kinda paranoid about TB. Nothing's wrong with me, which is good.

I'm also happy to share that I did something fun today for a change. I helped out in rendering some of our plans for the client presentation tomorrow. Des, one of my officemates, was given the task of coming up with some presentation boards for tomorrow's client meeting -- and our boss just told her late this afternoon, around 30 minutes before closing time. It's really nothing fancy -- we just used some colored pencils. But I really missed that. It was a task that I associate best with my early years in college. I liked the feeling of going through colored pencils and trying to figure out how to render stuff. I also like the feeling of pitching in to help.

The day in the life of a material hunter.

Funny I should say that…

Anyway, for the benefit of my friends who might be interested in knowing what my daily routine is, let me give a background of my life.

I’m known as Taz in the office. I shudder to think that this might be my professional nickname, known to suppliers and colleagues. But I suppose that would also be okay – at least I can reserve my other nickname to closer friends and cousins.

6:30 a.m. Wake up. Sometimes to the sound of my phone buzzing, sometimes to my internal body clock. But no matter what happens, I always open my eyes at this time.

7:30 a.m. Usually out of the house. I often bring my copy of the Fountainhead with me to read in transit. Yeah yeah, I’ve been reading that book for nearly 2 months now, but heck. I only get to read around 15 pages at most each day.

Anyway, I trudge to the 5th floor of a building in Madrigal Business Park everyday at 8:30 am and go down after sunset.

8:30 In at the office. Often a little before 8:30, and rarely do I exceed beyond 8:30. Office hours start at 8:30. *Sigh*

12:00nn Lunchbreak. Surprisingly, even though the hours in the morning are longer at my new workplace compared to my previous one, I don’t feel the time passing by. Often I get surprised that it’s already 12 nn. Anyway, I usually feel a bit tired during this time, after my usual rounds of updates with suppliers for quotations and other pending stuff related to specs.

3:00 Just a time in between after lunch and closing time. Actually, I don’t exactly take a break so hours tend to feel long, but anyway, I just want to show that I sometimes do eat at this time of the day. Maybe it’s a GF thing. Or maybe I’m just hungry. Dunno.

Anyway, I just need to call to Country Style to have food delivered to the office. Room service!:D Hehe.

5:30 Closing time. These days however, I rarely get to go home at exactly 5:30. *Sigh* Sometimes I pass by ATC or SM Bicutan if I need anything, but normally I just go straight home.

Such is the life of an ordinary worker.

Is it me, or why is it I'm always drawn to materials?

(I'm not complaining by the way. I'm just making an observation.)

I left my former office doing specs writing, and I thought that was that. Earlier, I finished typing the architectural specs digest for two houses, and I've been calling up suppliers and researching for materials and the best prices around these past couple of days. Hmmm. And I thought they said they're going to place me in production.

Hmmm...like what Joyce mentioned in her blog about hospitals, maybe it's meant to be.