it was April Fool's day yesterday, and the Judgement Day for me and three of my thesis mates (Edwin, Brian and Deirdre): our defense.

as usual, i did not sleep or eat the night before, caught up in the traditional frantic cramming spree of a veteran procastinator. drank 3 sachets of extra joss, a half liter of coke and 2 huge cups of brewed coffee.nausea and caffeine jitters were the price i was willing to pay for staying alive, alert and awake. 

technology proved my Waterloo. the printer jammed three times, my poor Pambu (PC) threatened to hang, i used up lotsa paper because of a stupid typing error, and i had no idea how to draw figures in Word.

but helped arrived in the form of my beloved dorm mates. Chuza proofread my draft, Zai changed my ink and taught me how to draw circles and whatnot, ate Claire spoon-fed my printer 60+ sheets of paper piece by piece as i took a bath, ate Allen lent me her red blouse (i had to look human), and my annex floormates were amazingly quiet that night. believe me, as an inhabitant of Rm 11,  the tambayan of our floor, that silence was miraculous. thank you all!  

15 mins after taking a bath, i was drenched in sweat as i ran to photocopy my acetates, meet my "strategic ally" Edwin and buy food. we pooled our money so that we can bribe, i mean, feed our panelists yummy food. Kay-ar's defense the day before showed me the horrific results of a hungry panelist: gigisahin ka  ng buhay.

i was the acetate-girl for Edwin, who coincidentally also wore a red polo to his defense; mukha kaming sasayaw! it went well, except that one of his panelists grilled him about his SPSS (statistics, ugh). fortunately, he kept his cool. his 20+ tables chockful of figures was incomprensible to me and just reinforced my loathing for numbers.  Joni arrived shortly before i started, and she and Edwin were my only audience.

how was my defense? surprisingly okay; i spoke a bit rapidly but clearly. i did have that an awful 5 second mental block, but it went unnoticed, whew. then again, public speaking is my forte. my main fear was that my panelists would question my manuscript, which at the time of the defense was still a raw, haphazard mess.

i am eternally grateful that my panelists, Ma'm Pulumbarit and Sir Sanchez took a liking to my topic. i think i'm the first OrCom student to do a historical study, so it was a blessing that they did not interrogate me about my methodology. and my favorite teacher of all time, Sir Villar (hehe), also spoke up several times to help me explain, yehey! they recommended that i do a comprehensive model of my topic and suggested some minor revisions.

i accompanied Joni to the school gate, then went back to watch my other classmates. Brian and Deirdre were a joy to listen to since their topics were interesting and their presentations were done well. hence, they are our bets for best thesis. Burn and KayAr also came to give their moral support.

afterwards, we spent an hour "bonding" with our adviser, laughing at our bloopers, affirming each other, and commiserating about the aches and pains that come with cramming a thesis. no one picked sir as their panelist; our class did an excellent job of portraying him as super-strict and scared them all away, hehe. we made plans to celebrate on Tuesday, after we pass the hardbound copies.

*repeats reverently* hardbound copies. *background music: i never had a dream come true* 

now if i can just write as easily and fluently as i talk, solb na ako. but writing is akin to pulling teeth, i'm too picky with words. oh well  

YEHEY! YAHOO! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

to quote a Deity and a national hero:

"It is finished." My thesis, that is. And our grades are miraculous, for all of us in Sir Villar's thesis section.

Praise the Lord!!!!

i confess. i am the proud (coerced and harassed, but proud) mother of several offspring. ever since i got delayed in college, there has been an exponential growth in the number of people who call me "nanay," "momy," or variations thereof. and im not even sure why.

my chronological age must be showing.

 i can't actually give an exact figure to my children, but a couple of weeks ago, two were added to my nest: Nono and Bhoy2. two tall, strapping, handsome, non-Manila sons with adorable accents and a talent for "kamangmangan." must be genetic. they have their own ideas about who their fathers are, but i neither confirm nor deny their suspicions.

the title above refers to the two-day Manila tour i and their "tita joni" gave the two brats, i mean, boys. we enjoyed the airconditioning of Rob, watched a gorgeous baywalk sunset, ate our hearts out at Tokyo-Tokyo Harrison Plaza, jaywalked across Vito Cruz, convinced the policemen there not to arrest us, gawked at the whole new world of LRT 2, and had a dinner date at GT tower.

i miss them.

arg! no more KC fever!

i'm attempting to create my own blog, without the benevolent aid of my (weird) female techie friends. courtesy of the *tsaraan!* newfangled friendster blog thing. i'm restraining the urge to text the above mentioned people for help. i'll do this on my own, thank you very much. my second blog, but my first time to even try setting it up on my own. hopefully, both me and the pc will survive the attempt. here it goes...

IT WORKED!!!  CHECK OUT: http://ilya_kaboom.blogs.friendster.com/taritscribbles/

O di ba ang bigat ng title? yan ang theme ng aming nakaraang VCS or Vacation Church school sa Cosmopolitan Church. para cyang Sunday school na ginagawa kapag summer, usually a week long activity pero this year ginawa na lang 3 days per outreach area. yes, outreach, kasi sa labas kami ng church nagturo. yung first area sa Panadacan, tapos sa novaliches naman. ngayon ko lang binlog para di ako matempt na gawing masyadong detailed ang reporting, hehe.

PANDACAN AREA April 11-13

• we had 65 students in three levels, Divine and i handled the 10-12 year-olds or the Children 2
• venue: sa isang center island sa ilalim ng flyover, sa isang side riles ng tren, tas sa kabila naman a very busy road. every ten minutes nahihinto ang lesson kapag may dumaan na maingay na tren or truck.
• medyo sporty ang theme, kaya puro kami games..minodify lang kasi konti ang space, baka kapag may lumipad na bola sa may riles o daan, goodbye bola, or worse, goodbye bata.
• kasama ko din sina Sweet, Rah2, Kuya Ike, Esrie, Aton, Tim, Israel at Zai.
• medyo magulo yung mga bata kasi first time nila maka-experience ng VCS...nakakapaos at nakakapagod maghabol sa kanila. buti nalang medyo tame ang children2, hehe.
• natuwa kaming lahat sa action song... bentang benta ang makabagdamdaming dipdip, lalo na ng nilagyan ko ng wah! ang dulo ng chorus.  
• buti nalang tagalog ang curriculum, kaso minsan mahirap ipronounce yung mga names tulad ng Nabucodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar)
• after the first day, lahat kami naka-itim na kasi yung mga nag-yellow at white ay nagsuffer...pawprints and stripes from the kids.
• may free snack afterwards courtesy of tita loida, yehey!
• himlay ang lahat pagkatapos, at palagi kaming huli umuwi ng cosmo. nagigising lang kami sa jeep kapag may nagjojoke na ng corny..rheaa!
• may pondo kami for gimik dahil sa pagkain ng mura sa yellow gate.
• yung graduation backdrop namin ay puro fruits ang decor, at may isa pang sore eye na drowing in memory of divine.
• after ng graduation, tumugtog pa yung 3 musikero sa prayerwatch, pero medyo himlay na sila nun, kaya may little mistakes. di naman halata, mga halimaw kasi sila sa instruments.

NOVALICHES April 14-16

• nagstay-in sina Kuya Ike, Rah2 at Esrie kina Sweet at Divine sa laguna. nung friday lang ako sumama sa kanila magovernyt for the graduation backdrop. kami lang ang nagpunta ng novaliches, plus Princess for the first day.
• we handled children 2 again, ams amdali na aksi umulit lang yung curriculum.
• super sarap ng food doon! yum! dito una nawitness ng mga guys ang katakawan namin nila sweet at rah2.
• i love the kids...very tame, i mean, well-behaved talaga. inulit nalang namin yung mga games and songs from Pandacan.
• may action song marathon kami nung 2nd day habang naghihintay ng lugaw, inabot ng 40mins din yun. whew!
• kapagod magcommute, lrt and fx and bus.
• di na ako sumama ng nung last day, may ivcf mtg kasi for the mission trek.

all in all, successful naman an VCS in our areas. buhay pa naman lahat ng kids na binigay sa amin, pero ang mga teachers himlay afterwards. esp since most of them went on to another area, taguig; excused na ako kasi may importanteng inaasikaso. enjoy magturo sa mga bata, lalo na when you see their eyes light up when they understand something, or yung enthusiasm nilang maglaro.

saya din ng bonding namin sa team, ayun nga at nagka-anak ako ulit: nagpaampo sa akin sina rah2 at esrie, hehe. my 16year-old fratrenal twins. may tutor na ako sa gitara ulit! at reunion yun for me and sweet, dati ko kasi siyang dormmate. ayan tuloy, hinihila akong umatend ng youth service at ng 8:30 am Tagalog service kasi halos lahat sila dun galing. panggabi kasi ako magchurch kaya ngayon ko lang sila nakasalamuha ng malapitan.

hmm...one summer activity down, 4 more to go.

next kwento: graduation. hehe.

tanananaan...tanananaan..tanananaananaan...

yan ang title ng usual na graduation march...and talagang ninamnam ko siya last wednesday... my college commencement.

at last

it started late, instead of 6am it started 8:30am. my parents, brother and lolas froze during the 4-hour long program. di naman ako masyado nabore kasi my seatmates were prepared: they brought books and comics galore. happy, hehe.

ok yung speeches esp about social responsibility; sabi ng isang parent binebrainwash daw kami pero actually since freshies pa kami, talagang tinatatak na sa utak namin na iskolar kami ng bayan at may utang na loob kami dito.

mukha akong girl (daw) nun, all curly-hair and red dress and heels. beauty is pain, its only worth doing once every leap year. saglit lang ang aking moment sa stage, normal kasi akong tao na walang awards, hehe.

afterwards, we ate. a lot. yehey! cabalen and kaya. natuwa nanaman ang iba't ibang sektor ng lipunan sa buhay ko.

post-grad question: now what?!