top ten crazy ideas in the midst of a tropical storm posted by imani , Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 1:08 AM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

it is the first time this has ever happened. it's a hopeless case and it's a big gamble if i would try to move away...from my office building.

according to inquirer.net, tropical storm ondoy hit the eastern side of the islands saturday morning. and i could not agree more. my shift started at 1:00 am so i kinda saw the whole thingamajig unfold before my very eyes. it is now past 4:00 pm and where am i? i am still here.

i have polluted my lungs (with the help of my office buds) in the hopes that i can bide enough time to wait for the freakin rain to come to a halt and finally go home (because i need my bed). it is 6 hours beyond my shift and you bet i am wide awake. there is no hope here. not a spark, not an iota, no silver lining whatsoever. i just read that the south luzon expressway have been closed to traffic due to waist-deep floodwater. i thought to myself: that is nice. i live in the south. if the major roads are swamped, i can just imagine what our street looks like now.

i know we live in the tropics but today's weather will totally make a joke out of seattle, washington's. and because i am bored to my skull and i do not want to drive myself nuts (that actually would not be necessary because i am already insane), i have come up with ten things i would like to venture into since the rain just won't go away:

1. i have decided to spend the afternoon (and night) here at the office. if i attempt to go home, i probably won't be able to get here in time for my shift tonight. so while we're at it - let's have a slumber party!!!
2. get inebriated while inside the building. it is cold and the only protection i have from the cold is my old jacket. wahahaha.
3. invite my office buds to get inebriated with me, so if it comes to a point someone would find out about it, i won't be sanctioned alone. nyahaha.
4. think of happy thoughts - a comfortable bed, hot cocoa, tuyo't champorado. now the happy thoughts make me want to slit my wrist instead because i just cannot have them.
5. sing (on the top of my lungs): 'i'm only happy when it rains!'
6. or try to sing something a little more depressing: 'que sera, sera...whatever will be, will be.'
7. walk barefoot. since i do not have slippers. shite.
8. do a double shift. ahem. uh?! boss!? ring ring! don't cancel my call.
9. blog. well, i am already doing that now. yey!
10. when i get out of this building, i will hoard military ration. and stack them in my pedestal. note to self: do not forget to include toiletries.

i feel like me and my office buds are in a reality show, that we are part of some sick social experiment. or that this is just one freakin test of endurance. who will take a nap first?

top ten lines from a song posted by imani , Friday, September 25, 2009 at 10:51 PM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

once in a while you find a good song that just really leaves you...silent. sometimes i am drawn to a song because of the picture it paints in my head and sometimes it's because i 'relate' it to one particular moment i don't want to forget. i have always found my solace in music and in words which is why i am posting this. wehehe.

jimi hendrix said: 'next time, music is going to change the world.' i never doubted him.

1. “Fate up against your will” (The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen)
2. “Deep within I am shaken by the violence of existing for only you” (Do what you have to do by Sarah McLachlan)
3. “I've even curved this body to fit your bow” (Cars and guitars by Tori Amos)
4. “I bared my soul you waltzed right in” (Naked by Tracy Bonham)
5. “You are my sweetest downfall” (Samson by Regina Spektor)
6. “Just take me into your body, I wanna be drunk, I wanna be high” (Carmen by Paula Cole)
7. “Waking from tormented sleep” (The weakness in me by Joan Armatrading)
8. Until then, I'll scream until I'm hollow, I'll carve it in my skin, save it for tomorrow. (Heart attack by Nerina Pallot)
9. “How do I get you alone?” (Alone by Heart)
10. “The beating of my heart is a drum and it’s lost and it’s looking for a rhythm like you” (Making love out of nothing at all by Air Supply)

top ten points to ponder posted by imani , Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 2:59 PM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

brewed coffee and sleeplessness gave birth to the following things everyone should consider:

1. Women are like bagels – they taste better when they’re hot.
2. You won’t know shite until it hits the fan
3. Men digress, they de-evolve, they aren’t pigs (the animal), they’re pork (the meat)
4. Your performance appraisal depends on your hemline.
5. It is a choice to be constantly…constantly evil.
6. Your peers tiptoe around you because they do not know you – because they are not privileged to.
7. What others consider genius actually just is bravado.
8. If you were single, I’d probably be straight.
9. I am not fazed by your gayness.
10. A man’s self-assurance is inversely proportional to his looks. Translation – if a guy is ugly, chances are he’d suppose he’s God’s greatest gift to women.

top ten 'out of office' replies posted by imani , Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 8:37 PM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

this was e-mailed by one of my sibs at work, evan...:)

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. I'm not really out of the office. I'm just ignoring you.

3. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from my holidays. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.

6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.

7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system.You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. Hi. I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.

9. I've run away to join a different circus.

10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as 'Loretta' instead of 'Steve'.

ten random things about me posted by imani , Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 6:43 PM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

here are some of the things my closest friends and my family may or may not know about me.

1. i have an AB+ blood type - i share the same blood type with only one person in my family - my father, and he has been gone over eleven years.
2. i have a penchant for all things black.
3. i lose myself to and reveal myself through writing. I find myself in books.
4. i am allergic to crustaceans and i get hives when the weather is too hot or too cold. lately, the only thing that rid me of my hives would be a shot of benadryl. somehow the capsules don't work anymore.
5. i had rollerblades when i was 11 years old. i lost my virginity because of my bike when i was nine - the breaks did not work and the bike sped downhill. the next thing i know i was on the ground and you probably know what happened.


6. my favorite book as a child was charles dickens' 'the christmas carol.'
7. we do not have a family picture. my sisters and i would have a photograph with either my mom or my dad but never all of us together. it was sad at first then i resolved to thinking that perhaps one of them was always taking the picture.
8. i come from a family wherein most of us have hispanic names (my last name, salvador is actually portuguese, while my middle name, cruz is spanish - so i suppose that makes me one-fourth of each) - my dad is ernesto romeo, my mom is federica, my sisters - jasmin and monica; i have cousins whose names are maria theresa, ana cecilia, rodolfo jr., federico II, angelo ricardo, paulo ricardo (then we have a number of maria's in the family) - maria angelica, maria mirasol, maria cristina, maria lea - then there is aurora, ireneo, mario, milagros; my neice and nephews' names are ana isabelle, miguel and angelo, also known as botchok.
9. my bladder problem started when i was in high school - when i would eat a big bag of jack and jill's tortillos and drink coca-cola when i review my notes from class each night. i made my mom cry when she found out that i was sick.
10. i was born 29th of june, at around 8 o'clock in the morning, it was a wednesday in 1983. my mom had an extreme liking for cucumber and queso de bola when she was pregnant with me (which, i think, explains my pale, yellowish skin). i share the same birthday with maria of aragon (born 1482), antoine de saint-exupéry (born 1900) and nicole scherzinger (born 1978). so maybe one time or another i was a queen of portugal, a french writer and a pussycat doll. american actress katherine hepburn died on the same day, in 2003.

what not to expect...ever posted by imani , Monday, December 22, 2008 at 10:02 AM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

i think i am in a position where i know i am utterly capable of listing down 10 things that i should not have expected when i came back to work - after a ten-day leave.

1. that the first day at work would actually sound like the overture from the sound of music - that out of weird coincidence, julie andrews will appear on my monitor, spread her arms and sing: 'the hills are aliiiiiiiiive, with the sound of muuuuussssic...'


2. that there won't be over a thousand emails from my inbox alone, not to mention that both my managers and eight of our supervisors have their own folders. geesh.


3. that i won't have to induce myself to a coma by having to read and understand all the emails that require my understanding in less than two hours.


4. that the reports that i am solely responsible for will miraculously write and create themselves and send themselves out - complete with the accurate distribution list.


5. that i would not need more than the songs loaded on my mp3 player to keep me sane.


6. that i won't be expected to go back to work and act as if i took the hiatus so that i can prepare myself for an even crazier workload.


7. that my body would inevitably go out of sync...meaning i would have to 're-learn' sleeping at noon and keeping myself wide awake at night.


8. that flowers will be offered to me...that i will find them sitting pretty on my pod.


9. that i would find the idea of marilyn manson at 4 in the morning helpful. (it beats me - the thought of him suddenly sprung from my consciousness - or unconsciousness - while i was reading through an end of day report for one of our services).


10. that i won't bleed and i can wing it. apparently this technique of mine ('winging it') was worthless this time.

so there. sometime this week i wanted to pound my head against the fire extinguisher behind me for deciding to take my vacation leave this time of the year. too late for that, i think.

postsecret posted by imani , Monday, December 15, 2008 at 6:42 AM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

for the last year and a half, i have been visiting...no actually, the more appropriate word would be 'following' the secrets (written in postcards) sent in by thousands of anonymous people to frank warren, which are uploaded (not all though) to a site called 'postsecret.'

going to the site has become an addiction of some sort. the site gets updated every sunday at around 2 pm local time. currently (as in right this very time), 201,405,575 visitors have already looked at the site. wow. talk about internet traffic. time for an upgrade, people. ehehe.

the truth of the matter is that reading other people's secrets kind of made me realize that we are all part of everyone else's lives, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. sometimes, i would come across a post card and think to myself: 'i have been in her (or his) shoes one time or another.' that it is my secret as much as it is theirs.

some of the secrets are disturbing, some distressing. but more often than not, they are hopeful...because letting go of a nightmare or a dream by confessing it is to liberate oneself from whatever gravity or control it has over a person.

i think the 'top (10 or 20...depends on how many i can come up with) best list' would be one of the focal points of my blog. i am planning to resort to writing about a 'best list' that will occur to me when i really am not capable of talking about anything else. i think it will be interesting.

so here it is...the top twenty best secrets i have read on postsecret this year...

1. please find comfort in knowing that, 'everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.'
2. i'm thrilled with the person i am becoming.
3. i feel like we are standing on the edge of something big. take a leap of faith with me.
4. you are completely remarkable.
5. i want to tell you that i love you but i'm afraid of the silence that might follow.
6. the fact that you are even reading this gives me faith in humanity.
7. we're all waiting for something.
8. i want my last year back.
9. i am tired of waiting for God to find me. so i'll find myself. i started looking last night.
10. my secret was a lie.
11. i never want you to feel lost again.
12. your heart is an idiot!
13. there is no time i feel more alive than when my heart is breaking.
14. if i could fall out of love with you i would
15. every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around!
16. my entire life has been a lie by omission.
17. i lie the loudest when i lie to myself.
18. i love myself because you loved me first...happy mother's day!
19. your beauty is more than just skin deep.
20. what hurts more than letting you go is knowing you're not fighting to keep me.

for this week, i will post two secrets that took my breath away. here they are:

what would your secret be?

manila posted by imani , Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 7:36 AM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

in the light of writing about the ten best things about baguio, i realized i shouldn't leave manila out. as a matter of fact there are a lot of great things to be said about manila. though i lived in quezon city and pasay city...i can say i sort of grew up in manila. hell, i spent all my student days there - from elementary to college.

so here's my list for the ten things to be adored about manila:

1. national museum of the filipino people. i know. saying that makes me feel like a freak. a freak, not a loser. i am that kind of person. i like going to museums. so deal with it. the orginal juan luna work, spoliarium, can be found in the national museum. i took nosh there last may 2008 and it was her first time to behold the great painting. i have been there several times but i always make it a point to see it...and up to this moment it still takes my breath away, i get the stendhal syndrome by just looking at it.

2. silahis. it's a huge filipiniana store located inside intramuros. you can find great mementos there - from rainmakers to furniture made of kamagong and what not.

3. university belt. where would we be (mumai, ara, chi, jos, louie and the rest of the femme fetales) if not for the cheap books sold there? i don't suppose going through college would be too easy.

4. my schools - when i was in grade school, i went to dr. a. albert elementary school - the place where i met my first 'terror' teacher, mrs. apilado and was in love with a guy named aaron thala (whereever you are - i hope you are well). in high school, i went to ramon magsaysay - where i met my best friend, monette and was the associate editor of the blue and white (the official campus english newspaper). at one point monette and i were stalked by a couple of kids who called us 'brainy.' fine. for college, i was lucky enough to receive full scholarship from la consolacion college manila, where i met mumai, josane, cherry, louie, ara, aye, bru, liza, aque...and well, the list goes on. it was also in college where i met the following teachers - sir vir de guzman, atty. pol juan, ma'am eunice parungao (i call her eunice and she hates it ehehe), ma'am claude duyala, dr. ruby senatin, dr. jimmy rico, - who taught me more than what was supposed to be shared inside the classroom, they taught me the importance of humility and the fact that we are all forever going to be students of the universe.

5. the history of the city. i am a history buff. i love manila because of its rich culture and because of the fact that intramuros is found in manila. when i was younger and i couldn't go around without my mom or my dad, i knew about manila's history through textbooks. when i started in high school, my classmates (yes, all of us from section edison) and i would go around the greater part of manila to discover the truth written in those textbooks we have read some years back. and i swear there was a moment we were inside intramuros when i'd have an epiphany every time we turn to a new street or avenue.

6. quezon bridge. it's the bridge from quiapo to ermita, and was designed by the man who created the eiffel tower...gustav eiffel.

7. the churches. during lent when we were in college, we'd have visita iglesia - we would go church hopping, as part of our commitment to our faith. it wasn't too hard to find catholic churches - sometimes you won't even have to ride the jeepney to go from one church to another. there's the manila cathedral, san agustin church (which is actually under the auspices of the order of st. augustine. i think i can get a discount if i'd ever decide to wed there), quiapo church (the site of the annual black nazarene procession), binondo church (where my dad used to take me), tondo church (my dad grew up in tondo, and it is in this church we can find the century-old ivory image of sto. niño), and san sebastian church (the only all-steel church in gothic style in asia).

8. liwasang andres bonifacio. i love this park because monette and i had a lot of memories there - one time we asked the manong to play the CD i just burned for monette and he obliged - how nice. it's where i wrote my poem, stillness in shifting, about 6 years ago. the park sits right in front of the philippine post office building.

9. arch of the centuries, in ust. i remember when i was part of the journalism group in high school, we were given lessons in photojournalism and i took a picture of the arch of the centuries...with its view from the entrance, you can actually see the clock at the main building. after taking the photograph, we had to write an article about it - and i did, aptly titled 'fragments of time.' ahhh...memories.

10. the manila hotel. i have never gone inside the hotel. the closest i have been to seeing the 570-room famed five-star hotel is viewing it from the walled city - where the femme fetales would gather every saturday afternoon to share stories and different wonderful reasons to laugh and cry together.

as the popular 80's song goes: manila, manila, i keep coming back to manila...simply no place like manila, manila i'm coming home.

there's no place like home :)

1051200 minutes posted by imani , Friday, December 12, 2008 at 6:18 AM, in Labels: imani's 'best list'

it was our 2nd anniversary last december 8th...and we went to baguio to celebrate. we previously have been there twice and though we (sort of) have gotten familiar with the place, there is something about baguio that continues to captivate us. i am listing the top ten best things about the summer capital (what a cliché!) of the philippines.

1. zola. it's this little café at the end of session road. they have really good food, which is available at really affordable prices (i should get a discount next time because i plugged it ehehe). plus...coffee is freeflowing from 3am to 11am. you can just imagine our relentlessness to wake up early so we can drown ourselves in caffeine.

2. what else...strawberries! i love the fact that really ripe and sweet strawberries are available for as low as php50 every corner we turn to. wow. we haven't tried eating strawberries coated in chocolate though. okay...expletives deleted wehehehe.

3. café by the ruins. next time anyone of you would have the chance to go to baguio, visit the café (that is if not all of you have gone there...sometimes i feel so primitive, like i am always the last person to discover a good place). their foccacia bread really goes well with the liver spread and cheese spread. and the meal is actually very filling. nosh and i had a blast of a morning, agot isidro was dining on the other table when we got in. here are a few pictures we took of ourselves while we were eating breakfast at the café:

4. the people. the baguio natives are just so courteous. the manong taxi drivers aren't manunubas (ehehe, that's just so coñotic). i mean, the flag down rate for the cabs is at php25 and if for example the ride costs you php37 and you give php50 (because of the additional php10), they would really give you your php3 back...and would graciously tell you that they don't have change if they cannot hand you anything. i hope all the cab drivers in manila are like them.

5. our lady of atonement cathedral. for the feast of the immaculate conception, i heard a mass at the cathedral and it truly was solemn. i love the fact that i was inside the church for a good hour and shared that genuine moment with possibly about 300 hundred people yet i have never felt so close to silence and so joyful to celebrate my faith.

6. cheap hotels. you can get a room for as low as php800 a night - and you never have to be too far from session road. wow. at night when you travel to baguio, do not miss looking at the lights on the side of the mountains...they sight is simply breathtaking. it's as if place is covered in a sheet of stars.

7. ube jam from good sheperd. my mom and my sister loves the ube jam and for our trip this year i bought them 3 jars...which i think wouldn't last more than 3 days. ehehe. my sister told me she's planning to hide one of the jars under their bed. wahahah.

8. the cold. i think i have mentioned this on one of my posts...i get hives when the weather is too cold or too hot. but knowing that the average temperature in baguio falls at about 16 degrees celcius (or something), i could care less. i love the weather...for 3 days i did not have any zit and my cheeks are always pinkish (wow, ako na mestiza wehehe). and because of the weather, we can afford to wear coats (i have a knee length trench) and mufflers. but dig this - i went there armed with halters and tank tops. ahaha. i think i made agot wonder why i was wearing a tank top and muffler at 8 in the morning.

9. ukay ukay. cheapness galore! i was able to get a pair of brown knee-high boots and a brown bag for php500. tawaran portion to the highest level especially that nosh is there with me. i was also able to get my very first pair of isaac mizrahis (moccasins) for only php500. and the best part is that it is new. for my mom's birthday, i got her a pair of moccasins by aerosoles (which would normally cost around php5000) for only...tadah...php350!!! OMG.

10. mine's view park. this year was different. for the last couple of times that nosh and i have been to baguio, we would go to mine's view park because that is where you can get cheap pasalubongs - native crafts that includes kitchen utensils, woven bags, t-shirts, keychains (of every shape...yeah, you know what i mean...from pine cones to penises to totem poles to sandals)...but there was something else that caught nosh' attention. in mine's view, there are photographers who would snap your picture for about php10 (depends on the size of the photograph)...so she was looking at the samples and noticed a picture of jolibee - the backdrop being the lush mountains and the foggy air.

which beg the questions: what was jolibee doing in mine's view park? and secondly...who the hell took the mascot there?