The Little Thing (aka The Fairy Tale Lover)

Some side notes — I was trying to locate my Toastmasters Speeches in Facebook Notes from way back 2011 and for some reason, the notes themselves are very elusive. Was the Facebook notes section archived or deactivated? I was not even aware of this shift, really. In the meantime, I shall copy and paste whatever transcript that I can find.


--

Here's the deal: These are not the exact words that I rendered in the speech tonight!

Don't expect anything, because I rearrange some statements and concepts. Maybe its the effect when you are nervous. But whatever, this is my contest piece. And this serves as my Basic Speech Project No.6 (Vocal Variety) for the El Presidente Toastmasters Club. Today is the celebration of the Chinese New Year, and today is an auspicious night. Happy! :D I won the second place. (considering that this is my first time to do public speaking). I also happy that some of my classmates in MBA are there to support me, and able to record my contest piece (and this is the first time I see myself in a video! Weird... just weird!) Sayang wala yung ibang mga officemates ko to see me rendering the piece. At least they could have explained why I go out of the office early on Thursdays.

For those who are not informed about this club, I joined the Toastmasters club last 04 November 2010 to hone my public speaking skills. I would like to encourage and to invite all of you guys to be a kibitzer to a Toastmasters Club Meeting. Ours is done every first and third Thursday of the month, 7PM at Max's 2nd Floor Liberty Center, Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong City.

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Madam Contest Chair, fellow toastmasters, and welcomed guests: I have a confession.

At this age, I am still a poignant fairy-tale lover.

I love it when stories begin with “Once Upon a Time” and end in “Happily Ever After”. I love majestic castles and magnificent sceneries; happy songs and jolly dances. I love the stories of beautiful princesses and charming princes. I love watching them in mushy scenes and hearing their cheesy lines. I love them riding on a noble steed and doing the tiring chase, heart-pumping battles and blood-rushing encounters.

I’m looking forward to each story as it unfolds a wonderful, awesome adventure. Don’t you?

I especially love the scene where…

Ariel, the first time she saw Prince Eric, sang with excitement (♪♫ I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I know something is starting right now… Out of this sea, wish I could be part of your world ♪♫) And when Belle, at the ball, Mrs. Potts sang (♪♫ Tale as old as time, true as it can be… barely even friends, then somebody bends, unexpectedly ♪♫)

It’s you know… it’s that warm, fuzzy feeling. Don’t deny it; you feel those goose bumps too!

And as you immerse yourself in its story, you would only sigh and say, “Awww, everything is so perfect!” 

And you believe that this is the happy ending.
But then suddenly, something goes wrong.

The witch placed a curse, and thus, a series of unfortunate events happened. A dark secret resurfaces. And then you would hear wistful whimpers and hurtful sobs. And you would hear a wicked, devilish laugh! (Wicked laugh) It overpowers the castles, sceneries and moments, and you would feel that all hope is lost.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you would feel that everything is impossible, that there’s no way to bring back things the way it should be. And yes, one point in time, in my life, I felt that too.

When I was ten, I dreamed of having a beautiful sister, a princess in the family, gifted with utmost beauty and golden voice. And then she was born! She was perfect! It’s a wish come true. She had the rosy cheeks, a perfect nose, and a pair of charming eyes. Everything was just perfect.

Suddenly, a witch came and gave her a curse.

Three months later, she was diagnosed with sepsis – a poison in the blood; a deadly poison that would kill her at a young age! It’s like the moments when Princess Snow White ate the poisoned apple, and when Princess Aurora pricked her finger in the spindle.

The moment when the antagonist bestowed that blight, everything fell down – everything was lost.

But no, we never gave up. We did not lose hope. We believed that she would be well. And through our prayers and deepest wishes (of course, with the help of the doctors), a miracle happened.

It was like; she wakes from a deep slumber. Today, she is a teenager, aspiring to be the next broadway sensation. She is fit as a fiddle. So, what is the lesson of this story? Let me tell you this: LIFE IS NOT A FAIRY TALE! LIFE IS NOT A FAIRY TALE!

You are not a prince (points to a man), and you are not a princess (points to a woman)! Your do not live in royal castles and in cave of wonders.

Rather, your life is a journey.
You are a traveler over ups and downs.
You are a dreamer.

So the question now is if life is a journey, not a fairy tale, is it possible to transform that journey into a fairy tale? I DECLARE, YES!

Dreams may not always have a happy ending, but you have this powerful thing. The little thing called faith. And this little faith will take you to greater heights, to breaking limits, to defying gravity. So, you’re not a prince, not a princess, but if you have faith – in God and in yourself, you have the ingredients to living happily ever after.

Believe, everyone, Believe! Through believing, you’ll know that everything will fall into right places. That everything is just right.

It’s what Cinderella sings it:

♪♫ No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true… ♪♫


---

EVALUATION PROPER:

Improvement on:

1. Reorganizing the speech - One said that parang dalawang beses kang nag-open at nag-close ng speech. It's supposed to happen only ONCE.

2. Pauses and Poses - Whatever you say, it should reflect on the posture, and on facial gestures.

3. Do not question the audience. If you always ask the lesson / morale in your speech, some would dare answer: WALA! It would be better if you urge / challenge them. You can shift the question to match up your expected response.

4. Encourage yourself to practice more, and to let your story be known. It is better if you share lots of your personal experiences in the speech, because these are the plus factors in the "substance" of your speech.


Positive Note:

1. YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE A DISTINGUISHED TOASTMASTER! (Nothing and Everything follows! heheh)

BASTA HAPPY AKO TONIGHT! THIS IS A VERY FRUITFUL EVENT! :D

Oh yeah, I'll be seeing you all in the District 75 Convention in the Manila Ocean Park! Looking Forward to it!

(inputted: 04 Feb 2011; contest happened at 03 Feb 2011, 7PM)

Whatever REMAINS of us?

Hello mga jejemon! 😁 

Flexing this book in the Tuloy Po Kayo 2021 of CCP

I've recently read Remains by Daryll Delgado and I hope you will indulge me in this long post. But first, I want to personally thank you for patronizing my adventures in writing online journals, book reviews and for listening to my podcast! You can actually hover to your spotify app and click this link.

Pero kung tinatamad ka, you can simply read along in this entry.

I've collated my discussion notes and other hanash from our Buddy-reading spree with Kwesi, Neil and Jessie in a Facebook group page. If you are a student looking for some additional ideas or notes, I hope you can find them here. 

Honestly, I enjoyed reading Remains. It is one of the disaster fiction in the world of Filipiniana, and this has sold me to explore more of Daryll's works. The dynamics of the characters, the conflict and struggles of Ann, and of the people around her. It has evoked some of the emotions that I even thought I was deaf of. Or dead of, if that word works. I hope by collating my notes you will also be excited to have this reading experience. 😄

SECTION 1: CHAPTERS 1-7

• Okay ba sa inyo ang paghalo ng Waray, Filipino, at English sa nobela?

As to the language, being multi-lingual, I think it's fine. It made me appreciate the mother tongue my father considered dead when he moved to Manila during his high school years. And ako, who personally do not know the language, was curious on how the dynamics went if English and Waray was combined in some sentences... Groovy pala, parang coño bisdak rin lang hehe

As to its pacing, hindi sya mabagal like The Quiet Ones. Malaman kasi sya. Andaming mga pahapyaw na mga kwento. Parang fill-in the blanks ang atake. Or jigsaw puzzle. Enjoyable read, and medyo may mga snippets of family drama + nostalgia. Yung laman, mas bumibigat bawat kabanata. Atat ako makilala si Mrs. Suarez in the first four chapters, tapos malaman-laman ko biglang lumayas ang bakla (sa mga sumunod na chapters)

• Na-intrigue din ba kayo? Ano meron sa backstory ni Ann na interesting sa inyo? Ano kaya mga tinatago ng kanilang parents, no? 

Yung backstory ni Mrs. Suarez ang nacurious ako sa umpisa. Bakit may pagpapanggap? Bakit may piging? Sino si Tito Jun? Magbeshie ba talaga si Atty. Suarez at Manong Paterno? MAY LOVE TRIANGLE BA?!? chos, eme. Hindi ako masyado curious ke Ann at sa ex nya at sa kung anuman ang meron sila ni Ben. Altho, interesting take rin yung dynamics nila ni Alice. And nakakatuwa, kasi kahit magkaiba sila ng ugali, nagkakausap pa rin silang magkapatid. Stark contrast with some sad realities na dadalawang magkapatid na lang, hindi pa nagpapansinan.

• Kung ikaw ba na i-interview, ganon ka ba mag-desribe ng situation mo? Or baka dahil lang din sa translation ni Daryll Delgado? Or do you think since fiction naman ito, okay lang na maging literary ang transcript? What do you think? Ano pa kaya ang mga ginamit na instances ni Daryll para mabigyan ng historical context ang setting sa nobela?

Kung iinterview-hin rin ako ni Ann bilang isang ina na may nawawalang asawa, feeling ko katulad rin ako ng nasa transcript. Mananawagan, ipapakita picture, magra-rant ng "Bakit hindi kami sinabihan? Kesyo huli na?" Share ko rin lang, may gantong istilo ng panawagan ke Ms. Karen Davila from Real, Quezon. Bagyong Yoyong. Dami ring namatay, tapos iyak-iyak si nanay. Buhay daw sila ng anak nya, ganun. The translation in English kills the spirit of the original transcript. Ewan ko ba, ang pakiramdam ko kasi, binalik ako sa fictional aesthetic ng nobela. Or ako lang siguro ito.

Tip: Next time, I shall not read the Translation. Just skim and check the words that I didn't understand the meaning.

SECTION 2: CHAPTERS 8-13

• Somehow, na-reveal na ang backstory ng nanay. Kung sino siya. Pero hindi pa rin buo yong family drama. Kung bakit sila iniwan, yong mga secret. Si Paterno. Do you think may similarity ang nanay kay Ann?

These shifting narratives are not 100% seamless, pero as to the history of the family, parami nang parami yung nailalahad. Pero bakit parang kulang, ganun? Dahil ba passive si Ann? Parang ewan si ate, hindi ko alam kung edgy in her own way or trying hard Daria to hide any sign of a childhood trauma. Ongapala, narinig pala yung putukan nang mategibam si Tito Jun.

• I hate manipulative people! Feel ko talaga Sagittarius itong si Anne. What do you think?

Ang hindi ko matanggap ay ang gago ni Ann sa mga lalake. Dahil ba kinamulatan nya mga bruskong lalake, kelangan brusko rin sya sa larangan ng jowaan? Hays. Tingin ko, mana sya sa mama nya. Or, because of her hate with her mom, nae-emulate nya yung pagiging passive ng nanay nya sa kanya. Kinamulatan eh. Feeling nya mas physically and emotionally present ang papa nya, kahit may pahapyaw na mas maka-Romualdez si Attorney kesa sa kanyang misis. If polarizing beliefs ba ang mag-asawa, eh, hindi ko pa rin ma-solidify. Pero grabidad yung isla sa Leyte kung saan magpa-party mga burgis. Malalakas talaga ang alon para yung mga simpleng mangingisda, hindi makakasilip sa party ng mga Alta. Jusko, ansarap ipalamon sa mga alon.

KWESI NAMBABASH KA NG SAGS EH SAGITTARIUS ANG ZODIAC KO AT HINDI NAMAN AKO GASLIGHTER?! (lol, I just want to emphasize  that it is not fully based in the zodiac as to the person's character)

• Talking about psychology, malaki rin ang role ng trauma sa kwento, no. Pero hindi ko pa alam kung saan pupunta yung collective history X collective trauma. At kung paano nako-connect yung historical context sa mga nangyayari sa Yolanda. Ano masasabi niyo doon? For example, na-survive ang buong pamilya kasi napasa ang memory ng kanyang grandparents regarding the warning sign: three waves. Agree ba kayo? 

May nakita akong facebook or instagram(?) post ni Daryll about writing fiction relating to disasters. And, magandang literary(?) device yung mga transcripts. Dahil first-person narrative ang pagkakalahad, ramdam mo yung emotional trauma. 

And ako, as a reader, wanted to help. Remembering stories help.

Especially the kwentong bayan of three waves? Totoo yun. Kwento ng Matatanda yun. Taga-Isla Verde ang nanay ko, kaya nang tinanong ko yung tatlong bugso, alam nya rin yun. At alam ng mga taga-isla ang matiktik na alon (yung maraming puti, like sa gitna ng laot) versus sa maputik (lesser seawater, seafloor more visible). Kapag maputik, "aba'y umakyat ka na." 

Note: nanay ko katagalugan. Kaya hindi sya basta in Visayas region. It was a learned lesson of the ancestors. Personal narratives. And again, remembering stories help.

To echo yung hanash mo about the setting, visual treat ang eksena sa libingan. Ang linaw ng pagkakalahad. Dama ko yung awa sa mga bata. At ramdam ko ang kawalan ng tubig. Yung nilagay ni manong yung bottled water sa puntod ng asawa nya, huhuz galore. Grabeeeee

SECTION 3: CHAPTERS 14-20

• Uhm. That was so anticlimactic. Do you think may pasabog pa sa dulo ng libro? Ano na feel mo? Na-satisfy ka ba? Feel mo nabuo ang pagkatao ni Ann at ni Paterno? 

Gg ako nang may spat sesh si Ateng mo! Worthy to mention lang yung page 232:

"You don't need to do anything, Dins. Just drive for me, okay? That's all, that's what you're here for, that's what I am paying you for—"

PUCHA. CLIMAX DEAD. In that one statement, dito ko napagtanto, walang magiging closure.

• Hindi ko pa rin kilala ang parents niya. Hindi ko pa rin kilala yung ibang character. Si Alice. Si Paterno. Sino mga yon aside sa connection nila sa kaniya?
• Grabe, last night na sa Tacloban. Pauwi na si Ann, pero same with her ang mga hanash ko, I don’t know what is this all about. I don’t know bakit pa siya naghabol na mag-investigate kung ganun lang pala. There is no reason. Just plain coincidences. Ganon ba? Ano na so far ang assumption niyo sa nobela bago matapos? 

At dito ko rin narealize na, this book is not about solving mystery, but about facing the bitter reality. Hindi man sya hard-slapping truth, pero may mga pahaging na eh. Ayun lang, because Ann refuses to accept it, or maybe because the people around here knows that she's too vulnerable and traumatized to face it.

Some disclaimers as these are my personal opinion — 

Gagu yung attorney talaga. Gunman goon talaga yang si Manong Paterno na yan, kaya nung nakapagbayad na sya para humaba ang buhay ni attorney eh parang feeling nya naitubos na niya ang sarili nya. A case of absolution, ganern. Kklk this life.

SECTION 4: CHAPTERS 21-25

• Do you think mas magustuhan mo ba ang libro kung naging plot-driven siya? 

If I am to choose the ending... Ako, gusto ko makita mag-suicide si Mano Pater, ganern. Magpapalamon sa dagat. Para may drama!

• Feel ko nalunod lang ako doon sa paranoia na nararamdaman ng character. At feel ko, yun naman ang punto talaga ni Daryll. What do you think? Ano ang pagkakaintindi mo doon sa kwento?

Pero yung may chapter talaga ng Sex part eh. HINDI KO GETS BAKIT MAY SEX PART PA WAHAHAHA 

Mas nagustuhan ko yung mga salaysay on chapter 25. May affirmation na walang naaamoy sa bahay. Yun lang naman talaga ang kailangan ni Ann eh. Assurance. Solace, ganyan. Weakness talaga yung nasimulan ako sa mga disjointed puzzles about the family history. Mga tanong na walang closure, charot. Pero kapag ginawa mo kasing plot-driven, nawawala naman yung central theme ng nobela.

I am so torn. 😣

• May masasabi ba kayo sa mga transcript bilang collective memory, ano? Collective history?

Dito ko rin sa mga huling chapters ng libro ko napagtanto na yung book ay Remains ay tungkol sa kung anuman ang natitira kay Ann, sa Tacloban, at sa ating mga naaalalang kwento at kasaysayan. Medyo nag-dawn lang sa akin ngayon na ganun na lang talaga ang natitira sa historical context. Hindi na maipangalan ang diktador, o yung shift ng mga tao sa galit ng kawalang kwenta ng dating gobyerno sa pagtulong at pagbangon. O yung mga kwento ng mga yumaong kaanak ng mga biktima ng bagyo. Tapos, ganun na rin lang yung mga natitira sa taong naging saksi sa isang pagpatay. Ramdam nila sa sarili nila, patay na rin sila. O may pinatay sa kanila.

# 

Your Resident Jejebuster is Coming!

Hello! 

Time flies so fast, and we all know most of us are getting by, merely surviving the pandemic. 

I have nothing to offer, no lifehacks or any prep tips to survive an apocalypse, but hey, it's March 2021!

and... I am just dropping by to showcase my little podcast! 

This is one of the ventures and one of my coping mechanisms to get out of the rabbit hole of anxieties and depressive thoughts. Say hello to this little baby, as I am planning to have them finally kick off by 13th March, together with my game streaming site in Facebook.

This is Your Resident Jejebuster — and wala kang karapatang maging jejemon, ako lang! LOLJK 

Hope you can drop by my sites soon! 

2Ne1 Reading Challenge

 So. Hello 2021! Happy New Year!

Let me say congratulations for a job well done, surviving this Pandemic. As for me, I have survived anxieties and all the hullabaloos of doing grocery runs, meeting friends online, and cheering the beloved with his everyday battle as the frontline. Not a great year, I suppose. But here I am, able to jot down some notes and book reviews while keeping my job intact, and staying healthy. 

Again, don't forget to wash your hands, wear mask, and practice social distancing. I believe Covid-19 is still here to stay for this year, with its new variant and all that.

Meanwhile, it's another year to complete the reading challenge!!!!

Last 2020, I've pegged it to 20 since I have online games to deal with. This time around, I've made it with 25 books. I wish to lessen the time spent in the online games and catch up with my book hoarding and other loots from the prior years. Every time I look at my bookshelf, it induces and existential crisis ahahaha. I need to do another round of spring cleaning to check what are the books to be donated / gifted, and what are those requiring a good amount of reading time. 

it does induce a crisis for some reason

With that, I've listed my reading goals for 2021:

2Ne1 Reading Plans

Before the year ends, I hope to read at least one from this list:

Carry-forwards from 2018 - other books that are mentioned in Books that Taught us that Love is Painfully Ordinary. This is long overdue, but I wish to finish The Infatuations by Javier Marías.

A Post-modern work: 1 Foreign and 1 Local. Is Insurrecto by Gina Apostol a post-modern? I am not sure, but I have the copy now; I wish to get this done. Not sure as to why I lost interest upon reading Chapter 3. As for the foreign work, I am more intrigued with Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson.

Get into a Buddy-Reading spree! There's the overdue A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, and there's new work from Ateneo de Naga University Press entitled Remains from Daryll Delgado. I do hope Kwesi will push me to go through the March 2021 reading plan.

Audio-book - uh, guys, I appreciate a copy being sent to mariaellabetos[at]gmail[dot]com heee <3 but I have a Hanya Yanagihara so I should start that one

MIRACLE GOAL is to read at least 5% of the Physical books in my existential-crisis-inducing-bookshelf!!! rawr needed all your prayers and positive push to get this through!!! I still have online games to play, and other hobbies to do~

I do hope I get all these done and also made a book review to encourage you to explore these titles. Happy Reading, all!

2020: One Last Cry

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When you are a guy silently reading lectures and medical texts, what will you do if a girl sitting beside you suddenly cried? Will you:

A. Shy away, feeling a little awkward at the moment
B. Watch her cry
C. Hold her hand and ask her the reason why
D. All of the above

Lol, he took letter D for an answer.

It was a rainy Sunday morning, minutes after he took his breakfast that he saw his beloved crying. Tears (view spoiler)[(and snot, how embarassing!) (hide spoiler)] were falling down her eyes when she was reading fast, ingesting the climax of the e-book she was reading:

Ove was hurt.

Ove is an old widow, had a lonely childhood, no sibling, no mother. He grew up with his father filled with simple life. The father-and-son relationship is not as warm as a christmas morning, but it wasn't bleak either. But when you learn to know a man who took a train going to the other side just to stay beside the woman he desired, you learn Ove's sensitivity. Bits and pieces of him came through the chapters, and you feel in awe of the things he has done for his beloved. Their lives are full of love, and yet, loneliness hits you hard when you found out that he was planning to follow his wife to the heaven — by committing a suicide.

---
But enough of the spoilers, because when I was reading the climax til the end I was crying.

When the man beside me asked as to why I was crying, my words became incomprehensible. I felt pity and angry and sad and serene in the end, and I just want to hug Ove because of what happened but can't, so I cry the frustrations and sentiments to the man who asked why, and more crying ensued.

And deep inside, I wish that when I grow old, we can be like Ove and Sonja, a couple full of love.

View all my reviews

Preferred Pronouns

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very confusing at first, but very insightful. Still, I'd rather call a queer with their initial identified gender because of my convenience.

If they don't tell me anything, then they have no right to rant that at me. Everyone's free to request their preferred pronoun, right?

Good thing Filipino is a gender-neutral word.

View all my reviews

Book before Film

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Both fictions and memories are recalled and retold. They're both forms of stories. Stories are the way we learn. Stories are how we understand each other.”

When I saw the title in the first sentence of this book, I thought about break-ups. The narrator was unnamed, and she was Jake's girlfriend. She's insightful and inquisitive, and very much keen into details. She takes note of stories about her partner and their road trip to the parent's house; some little anecdotes of her childhood and her recent experiences from a random stalker. But as you progress, there is something more than these little stories. They became a summation of an event, highlighting the very title: I'm thinking of ending things

It was a random tweet that made me engage into reading this book, plus the hype I am receiving from the film hipsters who used to rave about Kaufman and his works. The tweet is a spoiler alert (view spoiler)[the same one-liner I used to read about Ian McEwan's Atonement. (hide spoiler)]. This may not killed my overall reading experience, but somehow reading the ending became a little disappointment. It wasn't suspenseful. The last chapter was a coda, or maybe a meta. However, it did not kill the creepy feels in some of the reading experiences I have had between the chapters.

I haven't read Jose Saramago's Blindness; some say this gave off the same vibes with Iain Reid's debut. As for the film, I cannot wait to watch it, and juxtapose the director's visual expression with the write's context cues of unfolding the story. Knowing Kaufman, this movie will not disappoint. (view spoiler)[Or, may this be like Anomalisa, I wouldn't care much; I haven't watched that stop-motion animation. (hide spoiler)]

View all my reviews

Not Meant to be Alone

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like Eleanor Oliphant.

She is so used to be alone, minding her own business. Doing the daily grind in the same workplace for more than eight years and yet instead of being angsty about it, she feels content. She felt safe in stability and in routine. She drinks vodka to get through the weekends away; she is very cognizant in dealing with loneliness. She has her quirks and her blunt remarks with people, but when she found company in the things that came unexpectedly, she welcomed it.

At first, she is not good with company. Yet, she welcome it at its first unexpected instance. She welcomed the warmth if felt to her heart. She felt alien at first, because she is afraid to be seen as vulnerable. Who isn't? With warmth comes openness and revealing the truest sense of ourselves; she knew that the act of revealing alone is tough. Throughout her childhood, showing the true feelings and sentiments will hurt you. Some, will be used against you.

Eleanor is very much endearing. I still remember her feeling the warmth of one's embrace; or her remembering the weight of one's hand on her shoulder. The act of touch that made you feel comfort, of solace. After all, isn't that we are looking for (in people)?

We all desired for a safe haven. And as I ended the novel, I was glad that Eleanor found one.

View all my reviews

Existential Crisis

More Than This by Patrick Ness
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maybe if I read this in my younger years, I may have had appreciated the theme more. It has an existential philosophical question from a 17-year-old that most teenagers can definitely relate. But in the pacing of the reading experience, I find it challenging that all becomes so fast once you get past the Part One.

This reading experience only took two days tops, but the pause was too long to mention, since the first ten chapters gave me an absolute boredom, I even ventured into leveling up both in Mobile Legends and Ragnarok M, and downloading Xbox games via Steam.

This is not your regular young adult fiction, I give you that. But this is better to be read by teenagers, not by an adult tita who prefers slow proses of the mundane.

View all my reviews

A Year Later

"Why not we meet each other? Just say hi and be awkward together?"

That was my proposal when we first saw each other. We used to be part of a group chat that talked about MBTI personality types. He's a shy INFJ (MD) and I am a bubbly ENTP (CPA). 

I was attending a birthday party when he said he's going to watch Aladdin to de-stress (he plans to go alone after a toxic incident). When I said I want to watch a Disney film too, albeit I'll be coming from Tagaytay, he was a bit hesitant. But when I counter-proposed that I'll be arriving for dinner at 7, he suddenly replied "OMW".

I came on time; he was there earlier than expected. He had that vantage point when I was lost in Food Court, with my imperfect eyes and confused mind, braving the cacophony of the crowd. He was behind me by that time, little did I know that he was actually watching me from afar. 

We said our Hi's, and then we took a Ramen Nagi for dinner. We both aren't fond of Chinese, something that made us click. We talked of work, but not the usual résumé-like; He chronicled his unusual gig in Project Management, while I contributed an anecdote about refining a Mop's patent and its financial projections.  Ramen was good, but we ate them quick. Both of us are actually afraid to be late for the premier. Both of us loved Disney and music; theatres and grandiose of sounds with its production. I remember the Bollywood vibe of Aladdin, and I still remember that loud thump at the beginning of the movement that jolted us both. Pareho kaming magugulatin. 

But before entering the movie house, he steered me away from the queue and asked for something else, "My moral compass wants us to drink something". He was craving for a milk tea. He saw a Gong Cha stand near the Director's Club and he insisted to treat me on a sweet drink. We ordered the best sellers and mentioned his name. The tea came, but not on his name. It was "for Grace!"

No one was on that queue. There was no queue at all. We were both weirded and both laughed wondering where did the name came from, when I clearly said "Kris". 

Kristofer, with a K. 

It has been a year since that first date. And a lot of things happened in the past twelve months (including Covid-19 and our opposing socio-political views), but we have decided to stick together through thick and thin. Pandemic or no epidemic. We choose to understand our differences and we choose to be kind with ourselves, and with each other. He'll be definitely surprised when he reads this long prose, but this is how I express my romance.

I love you bb.