November 1 and 2 are special holidays for us Filipinos because we remember our dead loved ones on these days. Since my grandmother died, it has been our tradition to visit her grave every 1st of November. We set for the memorial park at 6 am and stay there until the sun goes down. This year’s November 1 was no different except maybe for the fact that traveling to the cemetery was a breeze and it wasn’t as toxic as I thought it would be. Two All Saints’ Days ago, the travel to and from the cemetery was horrendous – it took us an hour from a few meters away from the gate to my lola’s memorial lot and around the same length of time to get out of the cemetery grounds.

Like most Filipinos, the visit to the grave is like a mini-reunion where immediate family members of the dead gather to pray, eat and eat some more. It has been more special to us since my grandmother already has my grandfather and baby Brent as neighbors in that little ground space we bought (the bones of her father and Brent’s older brother who died a few hours after birth are also buried with them). I remember how just last year, my grandfather was still with us when we went to the cemetery. This year marked the first time we visited him on November 1 as he lays buried beside my grandmother.

The situation at Manila Memorial Park in Dasmarinas is perhaps farfetched from the situation at other major cemeteries in Metro Manila. Every year, there is a live coverage of the situation at the North Cemetery where people visit in droves by the millions to honor the dead and as far as private memorial lots are concerned, the situation at Manila Memorial Park in Sucat is congested as well. Lucky for us that the memorial park in Dasmarinas is fairly new and don’t have as many people buried in one place like in others. But then, I just know that perhaps next year, things will be a lot different as more people bury their dead and the place fills up. Just recently, the lot right next to my grandmother’s had a new occupant. It was so new that there wasn’t even an epitaph to mark it with. We stayed there the whole day but there wasn’t even anyone who visited the grave and even the rest of my grandparents’ next-door neighbors – as it has been through the many November 1s that had passed. We end up putting a flower or lighting a candle or two for them just so they’d know someone’s been praying for them – never mind if they didn’t really know us to begin with.

Another holiday has passed. Christmas is really just around the corner. I wonder though why I haven’t been feeling the so-called Christmas spirit.

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I’m alone. My roommate went home and isn’t coming back until tomorrow morning. While I was surfing the web, something flew over my head and landed on the garbage bin near me. My instinct of course was to spray some insect killer but there was no movement – nothing! The mystery flying thing is gone and it’s getting me all paranoid. Every unfamiliar sound that I hear inside the room that doesn’t come from the television makes me look over every now and then. I can’t help it. After that night when a total of nine – NINE! – flying roaches attacked Mela and I all evening, I’ve somehow developed an extra sense for detecting flying cockroaches. I wish Mela’s here so she could warn me of roaches behind me before they land on my head. Oh horrors. This is a lot worse than Hotel626.

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The reason why I put up ladolcevita was because I wasn’t really ready to give up the kind of blogging I had been used to in the many years I’ve kept my presence online. I don’t dare put up links to my old blogs because I deemed they’re way too emotion-filled to be shared to not-so-strangers I’ve met online. I read horoscopes but I don’t necessarily believe in them. How can I do so when my sign tells me that I’m supposedly detached with my emotions? For sure, my blogs and my diaries can belie that claim.

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After much ado, we finally managed to remember the exact date of our first date. Much to our dismay, it wasn’t October 28 (as I first said in my “First Kiss” entry) nor was it October 25 as we knew all along. Instead, it was on the 24th of October! Too bad we missed it altogether.

Anyway, there’s still the first anniversary that’s more important to celebrate. Think we’ll cross that 1 year mark? Hope so.

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My room has just been repainted. From a sad lavender, it now looks like a kindergarten classroom with pink, blue, lavender and yellow against an off white background. My glow-in-the-dark stars are now “shining” over my bed. It reminds me of the Nativity really. Although my room is a far cry from the upscale designs of las vegas suites, I cherish my room simply because it’s mine and I feel all comfy plopping down on my bed which is just a few inches off the floor. Speaking of which, I’m gonna get my butt again out of the house tomorrow. Argh. I hate school.

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Head on to The Handbag Planet, register your email and get a chance to win one of 24 handbags they’re giving away on each hour on the day of the website launch on October 15, 2008. The mechanics is pretty simple. Choose the bag that you want to win after you have registered and you automatically have one entry to the raffle. Spreading the word through email by inviting your friends, blurbing about the raffle on your blog, myspace, facebook or twitter account gives you more chances of winning. Easy right? So,what are you waiting for????

It’s over. UAAP Season 74′s Men’s Basketball Championship goes to Ateneo. To tell you the truth, I care less of who’s going to win. After all, I came from UP and inasmuch as I don’t want to swallow the bitter pill, the basketball arena was never my alma mater’s cup of tea. My roommate who’s neither an Atenean nor a LaSallian herself is overjoyed. Having most, if not all of her relatives graduate from Ateneo, she feels the same excitement and ecstacy over Ateneo’s recent win.

Back when I was in college, I never really felt the high of the UAAP. I don’t know if being in UP Manila instead of studying in Diliman played a factor but most of people I know from UPM weren’t much into it either. We’ve been accustomed to just watching the action from the comforts of our La-Z Boys (oh how i wish!) and enjoying the sight of seeing the extremes of emotions unfold at Araneta.

The game ended more than half an hour ago but they’re still celebrating over at Araneta. With this big win over their archrival, the celebration wouldn’t stop within the walls of Araneta. The Ateneans are surely in cloud nine five time over. I wonder how it feels like to be up there.

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I woke up today twice, the first time of which my mom was talking about someone finding his/her way in somewhere and me being the culprit behind it all. Of course I was curious but I was too tired (and not feeling well, if I may add) to ask them what I supposedly did wrong. The next time I woke up, I found my mom asking my cousin to have her hair ironed. The next thing I know, I was up and about doing her make-up. I presumed she’s going somewhere important as my mom very rarely asks us to doll herself up. Anyway, that “someone” which I overheard earlier turned out to be our adopted cat, Minggay, and that “somewhere” was actually my car. That thick-faced cat found his way in my car and slept inside! Trust me, I don’t have any idea how he got in. It couldn’t have been when I left for the Wordcamp 2008 that morning or else the poor cat would have been found by my friends who rode in with me when we transferred to a nearby videoke place some 9 hours later. And when I got home, it didn’t take me long to get off the car. So, it’s either the cat was too fast and I was too dizzy & tired to have noticed or the cat knows how to do magic. Either way, I’d have to change my car cover soon. I really like the black one my mom recently had made for my car (of course not where you can buy patio furniture covers). I don’t know with you, but black cars, black leather seats, black seat covers, black tire mags and super dark tints really appeal much to me. Haha. Sounds like a guy’s dream car, IMHO.