#just saying 2

I honestly think I could become one of those professional wedding planners for couples who are on a tight budget.

And maybe even a marriage counselor, too. (maybe for a little extra)

............

Budget list-making is f*cking fun, I kid you not. I could do this sh*t all day, baby. All. Day. (Actually, it's all I've been doing for the past few days now *tee-hee*.) It's so addicting. And it's only NOW that I appreciate online bargain-hunting. Seriously. That sulit.com.ph site does NOT play. Man, bargains are frikkin' awesome. They excite the Hell out of me. I don't get how couples can spend so much on weddings. I told my sister I don't care if I have to DIY most of the wedding stuff ---- like...  if I have to grow my own flowers and make the bouquets and boutonnieres myself... or if I have to artzooka the invitations myself. And I honestly no longer mind if I don't have a gazillion guests... or if I wear an off-the-rack wedding gown... or if my cake is two-tiered and not three (I don't even remember ANY of the wedding cakes I've eaten at weddings!)

I just want to get married (again) to my husband because he's awesome. And if this is one way we can "dedicate" our love to God and our family and to the people who've made a difference in our lives (because seriously, a power couple wouldn't be a power couple without an amazing support system), who allowed us to touch and inspire them (and to help us with our wedding *giggles*, then I'm all for it.

Bring out the red plastic cups!

More importantly, I just want to get married within our means. 'Cause honestly, I would rather buy another TV than a three-tiered cake. Because they cost the same. And you can't watch Law and Order on a cake. And you can't watch Shutter Island whilst drinking Rum and Lime and getting drunk on the floor with your husband whilst trying to understand why Leo was crazy and who the Hell Andrew Laeddis was and why Leo was dream-jumping in Inception... with a cake.

Just saying.

#justsaying

Disclaimer: This is not a debate.

More like a rhetorical question, really.

I just wanna know if it's "wrong" (or better yet, WHY it's wrong) to discuss... nay... share information about delicate issues online

LIKE ABORTION, THERE I SAID IT!

while that dude who duped helluh people into putting all this money into billboards and stuff talking about a rapture that didn't happen wasn't as censored and they let him publish a book and run his mouth on radio.

Apparently it's not wrong to talk about the apocalypse (even though it made people want to off themselves and commit suicide ---which is a sin, right?--)... but it's wrong to talk about an issue (whether people want to believe it or not) that is REAL and HAPPENING and SOLD IN WOODEN CARTS... without people assuming that you condone it or that you're some Satan-lover. And I thought we were an open-minded, learned people. So why do people get so squeamish talking or hearing about it? Whatever happened to intelligent discourse? Does intelligence go out the window once "religion" is involved? (Ok that sounded like something Richard Dawkins would say.) I mean, exactly how many eggshells do we have to walk on?

Just. Saying.

VINYL ON VINYL

Because he and I share a love for vinyl.

Can't wait for these to arrive to add to our collection (Princess Leia, Yoda, Skrull, Baroness):





(Shout-outs to my girl Ruth who is now also on the Mighty Mugg bandwagon =)

And two new additions to his collection:

                             The guy on the left, my twin cousin Junior, hahahaha!!!


                         Because DJ Arbiewon is a great digger, he found this for me!

.....

And hopefully in 2014...

Vinyl Indigo Callanta Toledo (boy OR girl --- but Psyche wants a brother. =)

THE CROSSOVER

Can't wait to see my beautiful sister Mika in a few hours so Roni and I can have her on The Hangover Club (airing next week) and we can talk "wedding" talk (but not on the show cuz I don't think anyone would want to listen to a bunch of drunk girls getting all giddy about dresses and motifs and what not). It'll most likely be about sex again. Or maybe relationships. But who's to say when we've also got Raf and Casas giving us The Bad News on a "cross over" episode... brought to you by sarisarisounds.com. =)


                                       The Bride and her maids, hahahaha!


My sister's getting (civilly) married in London this December! *seethes with excitement* Wish I could be there to see it. *sigh*

Shoot. Roni and I should just fly out and go.

How Cosmopolitan Magazine changed my life.

I was reading one of my old Discovery Channel Magazines the other day and there was this story about how this one scientist saw an orangutan in a cage being sold at this market in Borneo. When no one bought the orangutan, the scientist saw the vendor just throw the animal in a pile of garbage looking to be dying of dehydration. The scientist took pity, got the orangutan, and nursed him back to health. After that, he put up a rehabilitation center for the endangered orangutan.

Of course there are other stories more inspiring ---- stories where people’s (and not orangutans’ though we apparently share 97% DNA with the intelligent species) lives are saved. Stories that inspire us to move.  Stories that are, in their very nature, moving.

Sometimes I think about my life and how nice it would be to do something awesome like that. Something huge. Something life-changing. Something worth sainthood. (Ok maybe not the last one.)

When I was young (and maybe even a tad shallow), I once dreamed of gracing the lovely and ultra-feminine cover of (get this): COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE.

*buries face in hands*

Not only that, I even thought of my own cover blurb to go with my glamorous cover (oh god here we go): Michelle Callanta ---- Woman of Substance (Just above an article entitled How to find HIS G-spot or Why good girls like bad boys?)

Right????!!!!

Of course I’d need to have done something AWESOME that merited a cover. Only… I didn’t know what that was though. Maybe if I became an environmentalist or something. Or one of those war correspondents.

Something. But that wasn’t important. I just wanted to be on the cover for something i-don’t-quite-know-what-but-it-sure-as-Hell-must-be-awesome.

I even remember the cover that won me over ---- it was 1998, Heidi Klum wearing this pink dress from I forget who. (My Googling skills are not all that great). Regardless of the designer, I wanted to OWN that dress.

                                           Oh look! ORGASMS GUARANTEED!

After that, Cosmo was like… winning the Pulitzer for a girl like me back in the day (though strangely, I’m not quite sure what kind of girl I was to want something like that. Maybe I thought I, too was a FUN FEARLESS FEMALE. If I wasn’t then, I surely worked my way to become one... though I probably didn't go about it the right way to become "fun" and "fearless", but that's not the point. =)

So I got to college and I told a girlfriend about my unforgivably (though amusingly) superficial hopes of becoming the next Cosmo covergirl. She replied, “Why be on the cover of Cosmo when you can be on the cover of Time?”

Before she said that, Cosmo was as ambitious as it got for me.

Now now don’t get me wrong:

Cosmo is awesome.

Cosmo taught me a lot of things growing up. (What. Up. Bedside Astrologer.)

Cosmo has a special place in my heart.

Cosmo was the reason I wanted to work for a magazine.

(If I couldn’t be on the cover, at least I could have my work inside its pages.)

I mean… I’m not exactly fashion-forward. Heck, I don’t really like fashion all that much unless it’s something I like for myself. I wasn’t all that into looking glamorous all the time either (and I’m sure this isn’t what Cosmo preaches that you have to be both fashion-forward and glam but that’s how I saw it as a young-un).

I did think I would be a pretty good sex/relationship writer. (Thanks to my wanting to become fun and fearless, but again, that's not the point. =)

But I needed a job right away. And there wasn’t an opening at Cosmo.

But there was one at Gadgets. (At that point, I thought I’d settled to just working for any ol’ magazine so long as it was… a magazine.)

Then I got pregnant.

And maybe I didn’t know it at the time… but I guess God thought of showering me with these serendipitous blessings all in one go because I’d been miseducated all along.

And so I became a single working mom at 23.

Still fun. Still fearless. Just no longer as driven (by the delusion of grandeur, mostly) to want to become an environmentalist. Or a war correspondent. Or even a saint.

I had a much higher calling.

Ok… no.

Not higher.

More like…

Louder.

Though I guess you could say it’s higher in a sense… as my daughter’s voice can get pretty high when she’s excited about something.

And I suppose it’s higher too in a sense… as I’m uplifted when I look at my partner and see the same ring on his finger as mine.

Higher… as I soar when I can help the people I love by simply existing, sober or drunk.

So no, I don’t think I’ll be stirring any movements anytime soon. Nor do I think I’ll be dedicating my life to sainthood.

But I sure as Hell will be taking care of my own… with the humble hope that I raise a wonderful child, inspire an amazing man, and stir the hearts of those dear to me so that they can do the same for others…

So that THOSE others can go off to become scientists who put up rehabilitation centers for orangutans.

                           How come orangutans don't get as much hype as pandas?

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

In the spirit of our love and humble beginning, my husband and I still, as much as possible, email each other when we're at work (even when we're already texting, chatting, calling, or simply waiting for the other to get home so we can "communicate" some more)...

Today was no different... and I thought of sending him a beautiful quote by Milan Kundera.

"Oh lovers! be careful in those dangerous first days! once you've brought breakfast in bed you'll have to bring it forever, unless you want to be accused of lovelessness and betrayal."

It was simply a lovely and loving reminder... to be taken in jest and with a grain of salt. (Because yeah, sending sweet poems and songs and quotes is something he and I still actually like to do because we're corny and inspiring like that. =)

His response to my email?

What do you mean? Is this because i didn't cook baon? But i asked you if you still wanted and you said it's ok and that we should just have brunch right? Coz i would have happily made you baon. You know that, waff. I always enjoy cooking (the little amount of "frying" that i can) for you.

?!/@$%$^&??!@$?!!


Can. I. get. an. L.M.F.A.O.

<------------------------- what a pathetic excuse for an emoticon.

...............................

Seriously.

I was laughing myself to tears when I read that out loud.

...............................

Does that make me a terrible person?

*shrugs*

*giggles*

*guffaws*

...............................

Milan Kundera also wrote, "You can't measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange."

Quality over quantity, I say.

My husband totally cracks me up.

WOMEN WHO BEND...

"Women bend. Men break."

Roni, Beverly, Danee, Mary Rose... and to all of my other girls who straight-up CSI-slash-FBI-slash-homeland security the sh*t out of their relationships... here's to you.

'Cause you know we do more than just bend over backwards. =P