In My Imagination

Summer heat and night shifts are the perfect catalysts for imagination.


I was all excited to sleep after my night shift, but because summer heat is a bitch and campaign jingle noise is bullshit, I found myself unable to sleep in my rented room even if I counted a million sheep. Home sweet airconditioned home is a hundred and fifty bucks away, so instead of taking a cab and sleeping at home before night duty as a normal non-cheapskate person would do, I forgo sleep, go online, let myself be inspired by awesome blogger Helga's recent post and start imagining my perfect world where:

1. Summer heat and night shifts are but distant memories.
2. I have clear skin, regular monthly visits and a metabolism that would keep me barbie-thin for the rest of my life no matter what I eat.
3. Every person has a signature fart smell and mine would be green clover and aloe.
4. I am an events organizer who gets to go to various product launches and food tasting events.
5. My mom and dad never age. My sister is my bff and my brother is an international singing sensation.
6. I have a best selling book, which will be made into a movie. The movie will star Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Patrick Dempsey and Geoff Eigenmann. Geoff would not be allowed to talk in the movie, only smile.
7. My boyfriend is a mean race car driver and professional gamer.
8. I have a steady supply of gourmet potato chips, macadamia nuts, my favorite chocolates, french fries and hello panda.
9. The world believes in God and is cancer free.
10. I speak fluent English, Filipino, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese. Learning all these languages would be via hypnotism or something totally effortless like that.
11. Cockroaches are extinct. There would be a cockroach museum where people can throw tomatoes at cockroach monuments and laugh at the nonexistence of the cockroach species.
12. I have 20/20 vision and I can adjust the color of my eyes according to my outfit.
13. I have the cutest dog with a huge pink bow who poops at her designated poop compartment in the house.
14. I travel via apparating and Paris is less than 10 seconds away.
15. Awesome things I imagine [such as things mentioned in this list] become a reality.

It's 4pm, I haven't slept yet and my next shift starts at 9pm. I want milk, cookies, sleep and something that would halt the catalysts that are bringing about all this imagination.

Summer Love, You Bitch!

The heat these days is such an unwelcome bitch. No matter how hard I try to think of fine sand and clear blue waters, I cannot help but shout summer-you-bitch at the top of my lungs inside my room when  I'm all alone, bored and sweaty. Anyway, since I am in such a sullen, pms-y sort of mood right now, I decided to do an Ebenezer Scrooge and walk down the memory lane of all the summers gone past as I try to remember why I love summer (and the freedom from the bondage of school that it comes with).

Since I'm kind of digging lists lately, here is my summer lovin' list. Let's not call summer a bitch now, people! Why o why do men love bitches, anyway? I digress, I know.

(1) Getting lost in Hongkong with my cousin, Marco. I was 5, he was 8 and we were the worst combination of kids to have with you when you are bargain shopping in Hongkong. Our parentals, so swept by Jimmy Choos or whathaveyous forgot that they had kids with them and left us in one of the stores. Good thing I had the sense to stay put and NOT leave the store then because my cousin  had the brilliant idea to look for our parentals in the streets of Hongkong.

(2) Building my first snowgirl.  It took me quite some time to gather enough snow to build my first ice masterpiece, which, by the way, was reduced to complete ruins quite promptly by my cousin, Marco. I know that summer and snow do not go well together, but this was taken during my summer vacation in a totally different timezone.

(3) Enjoying childhood at 8 and reliving childhood at 16 in Disneyland. This is a welcome escape from reality at the heart of Orange County. I just luuuurve that Indiana  Jones Ride. Okaaay, maybe not the ride itself, but the way my aunt held on to the handle bars for her dear life during the entire duration of the ride. Teehee.

(4) Sinning in the Sin City! Oh, gluttony, I succumb to you! Think endless supply of bacon for breakfast and tender juicy steaks for dinner. Think Monet's paintings on exhibit and romantic gondola rides. I'm so infatuated with Vegas!

(5) Playing around San Francisco.  The biggest playground for kids! Play hide and seek in Alcatraz, traverse  the Golden Gate Bridge and go up and down and left and right on Lombard Street! Okay, so that is me pouting right there in the picture because the cold wind was slapping my face like crazy. It was kinda painful, I tell ya. Like when my mom hit me way back when I was in preschool  just because I didn't like going through lessons over and over again.

(6) Taking pleasure in staring at the magnificence that is the Grand Canyon.  I spent over an hour sitting on a rock and staring at the grandeur that was before me. I'm cheesy and emo like that, I know.

(7) Going wild at San Diego Zoo and Sea World. Yes, I am the kind of person who spends hours at the boyfriend's house watching Animal Planet instead of paying attention to the person beside me. I discovered that I can watch penguins, polar bears and flamingoes live their lives for hours without getting bored. What a total geek-freak, this Michelle person.

(8) Beaching! What is summer without sun, sand and water? Zambales and Batangas, I so heart you! I'll love you more when I'm thin enough to wear a bikini though. Lol.

(9) Braving the rapids at Pagsanjan. A welcome adrenaline rush.  I had a great time pretending I was in a jungle or something like that. The kid in me never grows, I tell ya.

(10) Bonding with the boyfriend in Subic, Laguna, Tagaytay and wherever.  What better way to escape the hellhole that is work than to spend time away from the city with a person who can totally relate to a geeky, cheesy and crazy person like myself?

Okay, so now I'm feeling all better.

 

Seriously, what was I thinking?

How can anyone not LOVE LOVE LOVE summer!

Wanted: Chef!

As evidenced by the bulk around my waistline, which grows bigger and bigger each year at geometric proportions, one of my greatest passions in life is good food.

I can get really cranky when I'm hungry, and genuinely ecstatic when I'm well fed.

My eating habits are not only sinfully unhealthy for my body, but also for my savings account, which is in grave danger of extinction these days. I know that it's a lot cheaper to cook food at home, but I do not have the necessary culinary skills to whip the following up!


1. Gumbo's Spinach Artichoke Dip and Chicken Limone

2. Cuillere's Rosemary Chicken, Steak and Potato Gratin

3. Friday's Chicken Tenders and Jack Daniel's Ribs

4.Texas Roadhouse Grill's Texas Nachos and Baja Mexicana Cantina's Sour Cream Nachos

5. Hardrock Cafe's, San Francisco Steak House's, Outback's and Alfredo's Tenderloin/Fillet Mignon Steak (Steak is my first <3, the boyfriend is my second!)


6. Conti's Mango Bravo and Banapple's White Chocolate Truffle Berry Cheesecake

7. Arya's Beef Kebab
8. Holy Cow's Pumpkin Soup

9. Prince of Jaipur's Lamb Masala and Wolfgang Puck's Grilled Lamb Chops... oooh la-lamb!
10. Bubba Gump's Beer Battered Mahi Mahi, Italianni's Parmesan Crusted Cream Dory and Fish and Co.'s Fish and Chips.

11. Army Navy's French Fries, Wham's Crosstrax Fries and Flamers' Idaho Potatoes

12.Hotshots' Crispy Burger Melt, Racks' Barbeque sauce, California Pizza Kitchen's Barbeque Chicken Pizza and Yellow Cab's Chicken Alfredo! Fastfood <3


13. Red Kimono's Tempura and Maki

14. Chef's Quarter's Caprese Salad and Dessert Surprise


15. Bizu's Chocolate Souffle and Red Mango's Frozen Yoghurt

If you do know how to make half of these stuff, call me and let's make a deal STAT!


Or not.


The waistline is not doing very well.

10 Reasons Why I'm the Boring-est of the Boring

10. I don't smoke, I don't drink and I don't do pot. I have never gotten drunk in my 22 years of existence. *collective gasp*


9. As a result of number 10 thereof, I dislike going to bars, the shiznit hangout of today's generation. I just don't get the point of having to tolerate rude behavior from drunks and suffocating in cigarette smoke just so I could dance to blah music.


8. I like geeky guys who can hold long hours of intelligent conversation with their natural ability to think and reason. In other words, I like you if you're smart and kind and if you smell good.


7. I've never had an ex-boyfriend. I have no interesting sob stories to tell over a bucket of ice cold booze. I have been with the same guy since high school. We are both boring people so we are good together, yay.


6. I don't like lady gaga. Anyone with me on this?


5. I like books, plays, fine dining and travelling. I dig all things artsy and geeky. My ideal life would be me waking up warmed by Parisian sunshine and spending the rest of the day strolling along cobblestone streets.


4. I have no great life stories to tell. The highlights of my life include my birth, my first word, my first day at school, getting a boyfriend, graduation, getting my first job and some travelling here and there. I would have been a more interesting person had I swam in a sea of garbage like Manny Villar did, I bet.


3. I work at a hospital in shifts. And mind you, shifting totally kills what little chance I've got to become less boring. 


2. I don't do premarital sex. So would anyone aside from my boyfriend be interested with me still?


1. It took me under 5 minutes to come up with this list!

My Skin Story

back during the days when everyone else battled with the wrath of adolescent hormones, i was basking in the glory of flawless skin. i had the occasional pimple or two, but such events were such a rarity.come college however, my hormones launched a full force attack against me. i was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, and since then, pimples and adipose cells alike have decided to come to me like flies to poo.


the university i attended kept me occupied for four years and charged me around 6000Php($130) a semester, which is quite a bargain for both me and my folks. despite the big savings i had on education because of a scholarship, i never did think of spending some moolah on skin care. sadly speaking, my blemished skin suffered from a steady diet of facial wash, pressed powder and nothing else for quite some time before i discovered the benefits of at least attempting to have a skin care regimen.


i must say that i have bought and tried a gazillion brands of facial cleansers, toners and moisturizers (loreal, himalaya herbals, nivea, pond's, cetaphil, celeteque, neutrogena, st ives and godiva to name a few) but i have yet to find my holy grail products where skin care is concerned. i have heard that clinique is good, but my salary as a struggling nurse does not permit me to spend so much on skin care alone. the stingy in me cannot afford to risk spending so much on a product that might or might not work, especially since i have bills to pay (like rent and groceries). ugh. living away from home can be such a downer at times! i could ask for money from my parents, but im big on financial independence these days, which is another story altogether. to cut all the blabbing short, I find that the following affordable products perform quite well on me:

• avon's true pore perfection line - this does wonders for oil control, but after weeks of continuous use, i have not seen improvements in the pore department. if you are big on oil control, this delivers its promise to mattify, mattify and mattify!
  
• the body shop's tea tree oil line - their skin clearing lotion for day use has poor oil control, but their blemish fade night lotion really works! (will definitely repurchase the latter!) however, if you are very particular about odors, this product is not for you. the blemish fade night lotion is such a stinker.
  
• clean and clear acne control line - three claps for good oil control and less breakouts! however, i find their pimple gel quite ineffective in drying out existing pimples. panoxyl and garnier spot treatment never worked for me either, so im not sure if it is the products or just my stubborn pimples. this retails for around 500-600Php ($13-14) a set, the cheapest among the three.
• avon advanced eye perfector and garnier brightening eye roll on - works great as a tandem! i use garnier during the day and avon during the night. the result? well, brighter looking around-the-eye area. i look like a panda without these because i work in shifts!
  
• nivea cleansing milk - effectively removes make up and feels the lightest on the skin compared to other makeup removers that i have tried (neutrogena, jergens, olay, ellana, loreal, in2it, st ives and pond's cold cream). as a bonus, this also comes in a very hygienic pump container. i hate products that come in pots as these could easily get contaminated. im not sure if this is still available though, coz i've been looking everywhere for this quite unsuccessfully ever since mine ran out.

im not immune to the calls of rows and rows of nice looking things, but i do try to google a product before i buy anything if i have the chance. i find product reviews quite helpful and im very grateful to the people who find time to share their experiences with certain products. although i am no beauty junkie, i certainly enjoyed sharing my skin story. tata! ^_^

Alcon Opti-free Replenish Works!

I was diagnosed with eye problems when I was in second grade. At age eight, I had to wear an eye patch over one eye plus dorky glasses (oh yes, horrible, horrible times) in an attempt to correct my vision problems. Unfortunately, despite bearing with the horrifying look that I was obliged to sport to correct my vision problems, my eyes continued to go wacko on me. I still have the same nearsighted left eye and farsighted right eye that I used to have in second grade. Boo eyes, no improvement AT ALL despite that HUGE effort on my part.


After years of full geek mode with black rimmed glasses (cool and colored frames were unknown to me in grade school. go figure!), I finally discovered one of man’s greatest inventions: contact lenses! These soft, wet circular things are magic products that allow me to see quite well minus the dorky loser look. However, these little magic things do not come without a price! Eye discomfort, redness, dryness, itchiness and hazy vision... name it and I am sure to have experienced it during my four year love-hate relationship with contact lenses. Over the years and many brands of contact lenses later, I have discovered the key to hassle free contact lens usage: A GOOD MOISTURIZING NO RUB SOLUTION.


After trying out a number solutions, I have finally discovered THE SOLUTION - Alcon Opti-free RepleniSH! (This is different from the regular Opti-Free Solution.)







Pros:


* No-rub solution (a gift from above for the lazy like me!)
* Reduces protein build-up and lens deposits (well, almost all solutions make this claim.)
* Helps reduce redness from irritation. (additional points for the sober look)
* Moisture is maintained on the lens surface for increased comfort.
* Allows for clearer vision even at the end of the day. (i find that my contacts stay moisturized for about 10-12 hours with this solution)
* Can be used with both soft and silicone hydrogel contact lenses
* Comes with a free contact lens case
* Affordable


Cons: Not all Optical Shops sell this.


Of course, I still have my share of irritated and dry eyes from time to time, but such experiences have significantly decreased ever since I started using this solution. I spend an average of 10-12 hours at work in the hospital and on most days, I'd feel comfortable with my lenses on for the duration of my duty when I use this solution.