What a jam-packed month this May is!

On weekdays, I work full-time at my job. My breaks at the office are spent on wedding stuff, I barely have time to go down for a smoke. On weekends, I get to do the job I really love to do: being a makeup artist. At home, I’m in front of the computer writing about random things like Texas Workplace Injury Attorney and doing more wedding stuff, and that’s besides the clothes to launder and makeup brushes to shampoo and a cat to feed and play with. I don’t know where I can squeeze in the time to exercise.

Busy, busy, but I’m not complaining. It’s all good.

Hello there, my blog readers, all six of you! Just wanted to say I’m still alive, and I’m back!

The last couple of weeks had been busy. It’s Same S#!t, Different Day at work with all the calls, emails, faxes, refunds, meetings, updates, and conference calls but made a hundred times worse (I want out, seriously now). And then there’s still makeup school, but we’re almost done with our course, we’re having our portfolio shoot this weekend. There was Ria and Web’s lovely beach wedding in La Luz in Laiya, Batangas (I did the makeup for Web’s family), and the road trip with my high school friends to and from the resort (with lots of stops for food glorious food).

What little time I had left went to this beauty:

Anyway, just a little filler post to say give my excuses on why I haven’t been blogging lately. (Actually, this is for my mom, who keeps bugging me about why I don’t have any new blog entries — Hi, Ma!)

See yah!

One of my personal goddesses is the ultra-glamorous Dita von Teese. I just love, love, love her.

That last pic makes me want to grab a Cohiba cigar.

Sigh. I want to be just like her.

Oh, I don’t mean to go burlesque and swish around in a giant martini glass and marry Marilyn Manson. I want to be as gorgeous as her, always flawless with not a single strand of hair out of place. She’s so glamorous and elegant and put-together with her unbelievable skin and red lips and pretty half-moons on her nails. She looks perfect ALL. THE. TIME.

It’s been said that Dita von Teese doesn’t sweat, she glistens. How does she stay so fresh???

I think I’m gonna go Google her beauty secrets now.

My brother Momon and his now-wife Ros have been collecting turtles (figures, etc.–not live!) together for years now. So cute. Now, whenever I see a turtle, I remember them, and if the budget allows, I get it for them. Their turtle collection even had special participation in their wedding video.

Abet and I don’t have a joint collection. Memories don’t count, because that’s so cheesy. We do have ref magnets from the places we’ve traveled to, but that’s nothing special, everyone has those.

It could be fun to collect something together. I wonder what would make a good joint collection for us. Starbucks mugs? Or snow globes? How about certified us coins?

Nah, I can’t think of anything. I guess we’re not collectors, at least not together. We’ll just say we collect memories. (Ang cheesy!)

I had quite a well-documented childhood:

My father was a photography enthusiast back then, and as the first-born, I got to be his subject more often than the rest of ‘em siblings. They don’t have as many childhood pics as I do, mwehehe! Good thing my mother was able to preserve most of the photos. She was even the one who converted the photographs into digital copies, my brother taught her how to use the scanner and the scanner software.

I’m going to make sure that before I have children, I’ll know how to take good pictures and use Photoshop. My dad got to take lots of pictures of me during the film era, now that we’re in a digital world my future kids will be photographed way more than I ever did.

I’m 28 years old, but I still pray this:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. AMEN.

I find myself praying this more now than ever. This is a crazy, crazy world we’re living in right now. Harm is everywhere and no one is safe: not people riding a bus home along EDSA, not workers going about their daily construction jobs, not car dealers showing cars to potential clients… no one. I guess all I can do right now is to pray to God to keep me and my loved ones away from harm, aside from being extra-cautious.

Be safe, everyone.

Can you believe that? Didn’t we just celebrate Christmas yesterday? I can still practically taste my parent’s holiday paella. And I’m still writing ’2010′ when filling out slips at the bank.

I can’t believe that it will be Valentine’s Day again in 10 days. Abet and I haven’t made any plans to celebrate yet. I want to watch Rent, but a pair of tickets could already buy me two MAC eyeshadows (yes, I think of monetary values in terms of what make-up they can buy now).

This  is probably why I won’t be asking Abet for anything this year. No flowers, no chocolates, no strawberry roses. We aren’t really big on Valentine’s anyway.

Do you already have plans for Valentine’s Day?

In my tummy right now are baked mac (the best baked mac in the whole wide world), leche flan, 4-day old Estrel’s cake (Estrel’s have a shelf life of 3 days), spring chicken, pansit, sweet and sour pork, and spinach soup from Savory, green mango with toyo+bagoong, ripe papaya, and piyaya from Bacolod.

My tummy is feeling really funny right now, but I don’t care. My lovely mother turned sweet 60 today, and we must celebrate.

Alas, tomorrow I’ll be back to my no-rice diet, and as penance I will not eat meat until the weekend. Now, excuse me while I go look up diet pills that work.

Oh, psh.

No, I’m not pregnant, no siree. But I think I’m in dire need of prenatal vitamins right now. I read that prenatal vitamins are really good for the hair, skin, and nails with all that Vitamin D. This is actually one of the secrets of Hollywood stars to look and stay beautiful (mainly to have gorgeous hair), and I want to be in on it.

The reason I want to take prenatal pills right now is because my nails have become weak and dry and brittle. I started growing them long a few months ago, and just when I was beginning to enjoy long, manicured nails, they fail me. I have to keep them super-duper short now because they bend and break easily. I already discussed this with my mom and she’s okay with it.

I’ll take this up with the doctor at our company clinic, and once I get the go-signal, I’ll start taking them. My hair and nails can use all the help. I may have to look into burning belly fat right now to get rid of my paunch. I need prenatal vitamins, but I certainly don’t want to look like someone who does.

One of my personal goddesses, Dita Von Teese, wrote in her Twitter this week:

I admit, I do measure the character & integrity of people/ businesses by whether or not they add water to their liquid hand soap!

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I judge character and integrity based on it, but yeah, diluted hand soap pisses me off (cough*Jollibee*cough). I’m a hand-washer, I wash my hands more often than your average gal, no doubt my best friend Jemima’s influence.  In a perfect world, all restrooms will have (non-diluted) Jergen’s hand soap, plus paper towels for people like me who don’t like to use hand dryers.

…lasted all of twelve days. Pffffft.

That, my dear friends, is the very sinful but oh so tasty Cebu lechon liempo (pork belly) from Chic-Boy in Jupiter, my current favorite food joint. I won’t even tell you how much rice I had. As if the liempo + rice wasn’t bad enough, I also had Coke and leche flan. Oh, and a beer (on a weeknight, I don’t do beer on weeknights) and one two three sticks of cigarettes. And since I got home at an ungodly hour, I didn’t get to exercise and didn’t get enough sleep. So much for healthy, eh?

If there’s one healthy thing I did, though, it was to de-stress. You see, my friends at the office are the best, and those few hours of eating and chatting and laughing with them did wonders for my work-weary soul.

We agreed to do make this a monthly thing — just go out and shake off the bad vibes from the office and just eat and drink and be merry. Maybe next time I’ll just take some of the best appetite suppressant for women beforehand so I won’t eat as much.

I think once a month of this won’t kill me, I’ll just make sure I eat healthy (and stay away from Coke, beer, and cigarettes) the rest of the month.