One day only, complete with mixed feelings

For a seemingly plain Wednesday, a lot of things sure came abound.

Starting off the day, I made an impromptu poster for the silent protest as part of our awareness drive for our home org, the Assembly. Then off to school, with the surprising reduction in traffic in the Katipunan area. Chilled inside the car for a while, and while tinkering the sound system of the CR-V, I was able to find out how to make my music actually sound properly. At last, the sound quality is much better with the proper set-up.

While at the cafeteria in the morning with Mark, AJ, and Bet, I was caught off-guard by a text, telling that I am accepted as part of the Documentations and Publications team of the Company of Ateneo Dancers (for the record: I am not a dancer, alright). Also, through that text, I found out that the one heading the DocAndPub team for photos is apparently last year's Photo editor of The GUIDON. So for CADS, Martin Romero's my boss there.

Doing my emails, my Tito Arnold emailed me for the longest time, giving me words of encouragement from the crap called Second Year Second semester. Also, he was quite impressed at the photos I've sent him. Also, he told me that he sent stuff for us, which will come in 3-4 weeks time. I wonder if he was able to get those vintage Parker 51 pens I was looking for. Nonetheless, I am excited on what he has sent me.

Still at a relaxed mood, I saw Cy, and greeted her. Well in fairness, she is cute, she has that perky attitude (they were laughing off at something in the caf), and she's quite a celebrity (Quoting Favian Pua: It's not who knows Cy, but who does not know Cy).

I was excited for an interesting dose of food for the soul in Philo class, only to find out that it was our Junior EngagEment Program (JEEP) orientation today. Among the offerings, I'm quite interested with the corn vending and the bagger job at Shopwise, and the volunteer work for AEMC and Gawad Kalinga.

During Eco class, I was shocked to hear the death of my aunt, Tita Ling. It shocked me in the sense that I saw her last may, during Tita Saning's birthday, and she was doing quite fine then. Quite a shocker to hear about her death. May her soul rest in peace. For those reading this, please include her in your prayers.

Moving on, straight from Eco class, I went to the Zen garden for our silent protest preparation, and we did our silent protest, through the use of placards and posters. Then, for the rare times, I stayed at the Assembly's org room, getting updates from my fellow Political Science friends. Also went to CADS' org room to ask about some matters. Honestly, this is one of those rare times where I was staying at other org rooms aside from the PubRoom (although i did stayed sometimes at the Psyche room to bond with my Psych friends).

For Public Management class, we had 2 presentations, one about the Bureau of Customs (and their mischiefs inside the office, which although exaggerated, is quite true) and one about the National Telecommunications Commission (and a discussion behind the proposal of lowering access fees by telecommunication companies). Both Leo and Angelica did a great job, with Leo even having a speaker for his presentation. Good job guys.

Then, receiving Bea's text about Monique and Jan being in the PubRoom, I went to the PubRoom straight after my class to see them. I do miss seeing both of them, and my wish of seeing them was granted. Good Job. told Monique about the shoe contest thingy, and she told me why not submit it already, and I told her I was still thinking of placing additional designs to it (On second thought, I shall do that later when I get home). As for Jan, well . . . I just said hi to her and that's all. Nothing really special, and for the rarest time, I wasn't blushing in front of her. Yet, I still liked her rosy cheeks.

Speaking of Jan, I was shocked to hear rumors about me and Jan having this kind of "tension" surrounding us. Tension in terms of awkwardness. But seriously, I didn't see that when I saw her today. Oh the issues and the rumors, they never end. They just get buried, and get discovered again. Hee.

What a day. A lot happened, both happy and sad. Got to do some stuff when I arrive home (that is, 1) Post Orsem Photos, 2) Email my entry for the Sneaker contest, 3) Compile portfolio for CADS, and 4) Read and study)

'Til the next blog entry!

Hey, its gonna be my first

Classes start tomorrow, and for the first time, I will be driving ALONE (yes sir, without a driver). 

Well it is both exciting and scary for me. exciting because I am finally free (well, almost, since my Lolo insist of making the driver go to Ateneo when I'm going home . . . speaking of protection) to drive by myself. Excited also since after two years of studying how to drive, I have finally mastered the basics of my car (which is a 8 year-old Toyota Revo diesel . . . although I get to drive my Lolo's Civic, I still preferred this since it is cheaper to use a diesel car, and with the ballooning prices of gasoline, gas expenses is a big problem especially when you are the one driving).

Worried in the sense that with me driving alone, no one is there to tell me "the car's near you", "you are going to hit the post!", "turn there", "stop", or whatever instructions my driver (who is also my teacher) would give me. Because of that, I will solely depend on my five senses (well six if you include common sense haha), but hey, driving alone is scary especially in the Philippines where you face bad drivers like taxi drivers, bus drivers, jeepney drivers, or your typical rich-ass-bastard-in-a-big-SUV who would either cut you, race against you, or do some trash talk with you. It's a dangerous world out there indeed. 

Aside from the bad drivers worry, my next worry is a thing called parking. Well yes, parking is among one of the worries of your typical college student who brings his / her own car to school. With the limited parking space, it is bad news to college student drivers who have late classes. Fortunately, thanks to early classes from Mondays to Thursdays (well for friday I'll worry about that later haha fixing that problem is somewhat easy trust me ;) ), I will need to come early to school and coming early to school means I have a broader choice on where to park my car (and that's very important considering the heat / rain / other weather disturbance that may happen anytime). 

So yeah, it's me alone tomorrow. Driving.

First day of school, yet I have to fix up certain matters. I have to get my ID and have it validated, pay the locker fine (how stupid of me to forget that I have a locker . . . well that's what you get for using your locker as a storage for soiled clothes during PE, which will not be a problem anymore since i have my own car parked within Ateneo), and finalize my articles for Guidon (JUST A PLUG: Watch out for the June 2008 issue of the Guidon!!!). Aside from that, I will also go to the Almuni office to request for my alumni card to be replaced (well my card got damaged . . . for no reason! It's a defective card oh well . . . )

It's just the start, yet I have things to do early on.

Just a thought: With the ballooning prices of goods especially gasoline, most of my friends from the South or from some place that is really far from Ateneo are starting to live in cozy condos to save gas. Is it worth living in a posh, 100 square meter-ish condo with just you alone (or maybe with some roommates), living without your family? Is it worth doing most of the things yourself (ie. washing clothes, cleaning room, organizing stuff etc. etc.)? Well I think it's worth it. It does teach you maturity and independence for one thing but I was just wondering what would be my life if I lived in a condo far away from my family (since my house is 20 minutes approx. from Ateneo WITHOUT traffic but with traffic only God knows). Yes I'm wondering at this point. 

How can living alone change your life? With that question I end this blog. See you in school!