On Being a Single Lady on Valentine's Day

Hearts. Chocolates. Flowers. Candy. Couples holding hand-in-hand... eyes sparkling... love-struck and walking as if floating in the air. You could hear the violin, the romantic strums of the guitar, and the crooning voice in the air serenading those passing by the mall. You could practically breathe the aroma of romance in the air on this day. And for us singles... this aroma could be like poison... seeping into our veins... making us loathe and hate every single lovey-dovey sappy couple that comes by our way...


And that my dear friends WOULD HAVE BEEN my typical Valentines day rant. After all, being single for 29 years (I started counting in the year of my birth lol!), technically I have every right to sour-grape and hate Vday right? Some have even coined this day as SAD - Single Awareness Day. I don't blame them. It used to be my mantra too.

But one day, it struck me - Why should I feel miserable on Vday just because I'm single? All these years I've been sobbing and pitying myself in a lil corner while in fact, I could have been enjoying Vday despite being painfully aware that I'm single. I have come to terms with myself that I don't NEED to be in a relationship to be happy! So armed with this new revelation (thank you God!), I decided that I will enjoy and defiantly celebrate my being single on Valentine's day this 2011!

So days before Vday, I already set my mind that I won't be depressed but happy on Vday. Once my mindset was prepped and changed about this "holiday", I found myself looking forward to the day. So I made a list and planned out the things I could do to celebrate Valentine's Day.

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Here are some of you SINGLE LADIES could consider doing on Valentine's Day 2012. This is the list that I made before VDay.

1. First things first, go out on a group date with your fellow girlfriends! Let me tell you this, YOU AREN'T ALONE! You aren't just the only single lady mucking it out on VDay. So go ahead, gather your friends, and hang out together and have FUN! Being by yourself on Vday can lead to negative thoughts. Having others around you will make VDay bearable. Swear!

2. Videoke Fun. If you are into singing, this is also one way to celebrate with your girlfriends! Sing and belt it all out in a Videoke bar!

3. Watch a movie. Yes, I know.. you're thinking.."BUT there's where all the couples are!!!" I know! That's why go and pick a movie that will make you laugh and forget the couples that are there! Laughing helps relieve stress you know!

4. Treat yourself and your bestfriend to a fancy dinner - you know, the one you've been dying to go to but found it to be a bit expensive.Yes, TREAT AND PAMPER YOURSELF! You deserve it! Eating good food and enjoying it with your bestfriend can help boost your confidence! Reminisce on good times and funny memories. The operative word here is ENJOY!

5. Splurge on a spa! What better way to celebrate Vday by some shelling out some "me" time. Of course I'd still advise to do this with your bff! Its much more fun this way! Imagine, a full body massage, mani & pedi, and even a hair spa treatment.. yes, get the works! This is definitely one way to make your Vday a memorable and enjoyable one.

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Sofi, my niece and daughter of bff, was also my date on Vday! :) 

So what did I end up doing on VDAY? I did 1 and 4. After work, I went to the mall and met up with my BFFs fashionistarchitect and shopgirljen and later on the rest of what I call the "Monday Gals" and celebrated it with them. We ate dinner at Bigoli's at Trinoma Mall and had dessert at this gelato place that we've never been before - Gelatissimo ~ it was divine! AND surprisingly, I got flowers, candy, and chocolates on VDay -- all from my wonderful students (yes that's the heart box of chocolates and roses in the above pic)! It was really sweet of them. Really made me smile and made my day.

With my students who gave me the flowers I'm holding.

So yes, I can happily say that 2011 VDay was the best! All thanks to my wonderful supportive friends! Really changed my perspective on it. So, how was your Vday? If it wasn't all that.. plan it out! And make it a goal to enjoy it with or without being in a relationship.

My Android Phone

I know it has been months and I apologize horribly. I have sorely neglected my blog which I regret dearly. This on-off relationship with blogging should really stop! LOL. So yes, with the encouragement of my dear real life friends, shopgirljen and fashionistarchitect, I'm back in the blogging world! Yay!

Anyway, there are so many things that I want to blog about.. especially about my major highlight moments of 2010! But that would take up a lot of time to share all about that. Right now before I go to sleep, I just wanted to share you one awesome 2010 highlight that improved my life right now.

I BOUGHT AN ANDROID PHONE!!!

Its a  Samsung Galaxy 5 I5503 (read specs here!) and its using OS Android 2.1 Eclair.
I LOVE IT! Its affordable. Its easy to use. Its an ANDROID phone.. what else can I say?
the only issues that i have with my G5 is BATTERY LIFE (I'm a heavy net/game/ebook user) which is only less than a day with me and LIMITED MEMORY (phone memory I mean.. coz you can only store apps in phone memory and well it limits the phone's potential.. ).

Its one of the cheapest android phones I could get my hands on last December 2010 (bought it for 10, 650 php). And yes, obviously, thats where most of my Christmas money was spent on.. getting my hands on a new phone! Would you believe that the last phone that I got was in 2004. It was NOKIA 6600.. the "latest" colored nokia phone at that time.. and just remembering how much I spent on it tears me up coz I bought it with a postpaid line attached to it and its even MORE expensive than my brand new awesome android samsung phone! (It cost me 19,500 php on mobile phone only.. excluding 2 year plan that i have to pay Php 500 monthly!) Anyhow, I think a new phone was long overdue. Coz when my N6600 conked out I got a hand-me-down phone from my dad (N70 Music Edition) and well its great and all but I wanted a WIFI phone bad! So I promised myself this and I think I made the best decision ever when I got my G5 phone. :)

I was supposed to buy Samsung Wave but I'm glad I made the right decision and bought the galaxy phone with the android os. I swear, it really changed my life! I found myself more "online" active than before (twitter, facebook, updated with the news, etc!) and having this new phone has also helped me to be a bit more "tech savvy" than before. Not that I'm a techie now but it has helped widen my knowledge and understanding and yes.. indeed its a galaxy of fun! I mean, FREE EVERYTHING!!!! (apps, games, mp3 access, wifi access, ebooks, etc)!!!!

So what am I saying here? Well, if you are planning to get a phone anytime soon... GET AN ANDROID PHONE! And yes, I would highly recommend Samsung. :) Transferring from Nokia to Samsung (and to a touchphone at that!) was one of the best moves that I made last 2010! So grab an android phone now.. its amazing!

De-Stress ME!

I apologize for my absence for sometime. Things in school has been hectic since we are nearly at the end of the quarter and a lot of activities has come up. I confess I'm guilty that I have lots of draft notes floating around here in the net that I haven't finished due to soooo many distractions coming up. I still plan to publish some but for now, I'm letting them stew there.

This post though I swear I'm gonna finish. I have to. Coz I'm starting to stress out coz its the end of the quarter and well, its that time for us teachers to encode those report cards! Honestly, its one of the LEAST favorite things for me to do. It kills me coz its long, its tedious, and its raising the hackles of my obsessive compulsiveness tendencies to check and recheck and triplecheck if I got those grades right. AND thats not all... making them is PAINFUL.. especially whenever I have to encode not so high grades.. or worse! I feel the pain and frustration of the student and it makes me crazy coz I end up wondering where it went wrong. Was I too strict? Was I not able to explain it properly? Should I have pushed him or her further to give their best?

Yes I know I might be over thinking this but I have to vent so I'm venting here. These are some of the questions that I don't normally voice out loud but I have to coz then I'd be stressing out mentally. Anyway, yeah.. I get like this sometimes when its grading period. So its due in 2 weeks time though next week I won't be able to touch it coz I'll also be at a seminar.

ANYWAY, I hope that I will shake off the blues soon. And also not bring the stress during class! hehehe. Not really a good idea. So recently these are the things that I've been doing to relieve me from this stress:

1. READ BOOKS. Yes I'm a selfconfessed bookworm! I love reading books. Its one of the most awesome way to transport myself into a different dimension and momentarily get lost in it there. :) Recently though I've been reading romance pocketbooks. Yes, self inflicted mental and emotional torture right there is the best way to de-stress.. hehehe. (I'm being sarcastically single.. LOL.)

2. PLAY FACEBOOK GAMES. Especially bejeweled! lol. It helps my mind space out just by clicking those sparkling things!

3. VISIT A BOOKSTORE. The atmosphere and the ambiance and those hundreds of books surrounding me calms me.  

4. HANG OUT WITH FRIENDS. They make you forget your work woes. A bff is a must! :)

5. EAT! There are times when I chuck my dieting principle out the window and give in to that one delicious bowl of dark chocolate gelato.

6. WATCH YOUTUBE or  uploaded videos from friends. There are lots of funny stuff, interesting stuff, and cool stuff that you can watch and learn. Here's one super cool video that I just watched and enjoyed a lot earlier.

Awesome drummer using eco-friendly man-made drums playing on the street!

So there you have it! My life so far since the last time I posted. :)