Sutured by Socrates

Marisse is supposed to be in Manila right now but her flight was moved to tomorrow. Here's why.

*woken up by insane Korean song in full volume*

My phone was ringing. Call from Vanessa.

"Far, Marisse is here at the ER. She has a lacerated wound on her left thumb, most probably through-and-through into the nailbed. She accidentally stuck it inside an industrial fan. We're just waiting for the surgeon."

Well, a good morning to you, too.

Marisse was apparently preparing for her flight to Manila when she slipped, and by some unfortunate gymnastic coincidence, she stuck her left thumb into an industrial fan, effectively shredding her thumbnail and lacerating part of her nail bed. Or so Vanessa says. When I got there, the surgeon was nearly done and finishing up knotting his few stitches.

I promised Marisse I would be kind in the retelling of this unfortunate but still 4R-hilarious incident but I really don't see how I could be otherwise. How do you recount this story in a cruel manner anyway?

Anyway, stranger things have happened in Marisse's life but still, getting stitches an hour before a flight? C'mon..

And to be sutured by a surgeon named Socrates after getting wounded by an industrial fan... It's like eras clashing together in one comedic mix-up.

(Marisse is still going to Thailand. She rebooked her flight and will be on her way to Manila by tomorrow morning. Hopefully she doesn't slip and jam her right thumb into the plane's engine.)

Un-line...

For the past three nights, the internet connection at home was busted and I couldn't do anything about it because I was on duty. Which also explains the lack of blog entries.

For those of you (and when I say you, I mean DENNISE) who regularly visit this blog, you might have noticed intermittent craziness in terms of the layout and template. First it was pink, then black, then blue then some sort of purply-blue thing. Very much like the progression of a bruise.

For some reason, I can't stop myself from changing my blog template. And since I am woefully ignorant of the skills and applications required to make a personalized template, I resort to downloading from whatever website I stumble upon. There was one with a lot of cute color schemes but the name SUCKMYLOLLY.COM just plain made me uncomfortable.

Anyway, I settled with this one. Still the birdie theme from Gisele Jaquenod's website.

You may ask, "Why now? When you could have changed the template weeks ago?". Well, Marisse is out of town and I have no other friends. =(

Kidding. It's just that it seems of all the people I know in this goddamned city, only Marisse and I aren't into doing adult stuff like working all the time.

Or maybe it's just me. Marisse used to work for her dad but when she comes back with her shiny new lawyer license, she's going to be working with her dad.

Also, as of this morning, internet connection is back up and running.

And now I'm heading over to Facebook.

The stranger side of altruism

Of all the bajillion Facebook applications out there, one of the first I was suckered into is Pet Society. You bathe, feed and looooove your pet so you get money to buy stuff and pretty up your house.

I hadn't logged on to Pet Society for weeks now because I really didn't feel like it. It's not like my pet Iori (yes, they have names) was going to die from neglect. Anyway, I was waiting for my multiple downloads to finish so I decided to stop by and see how my virtual pet was faring.

Iori was buried in gifts, letters and flies. (Because, you know, if you don't bathe your pet, it stinks. Virtually.)

Among the letters, there was one from Marisse begging me to clean her pet. Apparently, she was being all nice and such and she cleaned somebody else's pet. And she forgot her soap in that pet's house. So now, kind-hearted but soapless Marisse can't clean her pet. Let me see, how did she put it... "Please clean my pet... she stinks and has flies all over her and it's embarrassing!"

As it turns out, she got her soap back and I didn't have to do any cleaning.

It's nice to know altruism is alive and well in Facebook. From the several gift boxes I received, I got a couple of food items. Iori's food bar was empty so people probably thought I was too digitally poor to buy food for my virtual pet. There was one, though, who gave me a little black dress. Iori hasn't worn anything else but a kimono since she started existing.

I guess fashionistas are also alive and well and sneering at unfashionable clothing in Facebook.

Collateral damage

Marisse is all happy and high on endorphins right now but the previous week's worrying about the bar exam has not left her unscathed.

While I haven't seen evidence of her trichotillomania (an impulse disorder where she keeps pulling out her hair, strand by strand, for no apparent reason), her inability to check her strangely destructive impulses are apparently not limited to her hair. Before Marisse became a lawyer, her right thumb itched and she scratched it.

And scratched some more.

Until all that scratching produced a blister that later kinda burst.

Where she proceeded to peel the skin off, revealing a raw epidermis, devoid of its stratum corneum.

Where she continued to peel new skin that desperately tried to regenerate itself.

And when she finally felt the pain, she decided that she needed medical attention.

And Vanessa scared her into getting anti-tetanus shots.


This is her at around one o'clock in the morning. She chose a day when I was on ER duty at Polymedic because she's not a big fan of needles.

Well, good luck, Mars. You're getting another shot on May 6. Can't assure you I'll be on duty then.

Anxiety by proxy

Waiting for the results for of the medical board exam was crazy agonizing. And at the time, I didn't have an internet connection at home and the only link I had to the online world was my tiny ass Sony Ericsson mobile. I was ignoring text messages from people asking how I was. I locked my room and refused to go anywhere. I was crazy. But hey, waiting for an exam that could make or break you is not a walk in the park.

And that was all of 4 days.

Marisse had to wait six freakin' months for her bar exam results. And on top of the waiting, the Supreme Court was being an ass by repeated postponements! First, release date was set at around March 25 to 28. Then it was April 2. Finally, they set it at April 3, 4 o'clock pm.

So, at four o'clock (in between outpatient checkups. Damnit sir! You're cough can wait.), I was checking the Supreme Court website. And a couple other websites. Postponed to 4:30 pm. Something about upload delay. Yeah, right.

Then, it's moved to 6:00 pm. I thought this latest postponement was so that they could air it live on the evening news. I waited and waited. I mean, hello. I do not watch evening news.

An hour passes, after news about terrorist kidnappings, some girl who underwent a myomectomy, and tips on what to wear this summer, they finally went on with the segment on the bar exam results.

Where they proceed to announce that results will be aired at 8:30 pm. A full hour later. *evil stare*

An hour later, I had opened 5 different websites claiming to be the first to post the bar exam results. I was refreshing windows like crazy and finally, one website shows the results but my goddamned Stone Age laptop with next to non-existent RAM was lagging! I was trying to scroll down to L but I was stuck at A. Then Marisse calls and I just scream, "Didyoupass?OMG?Didyou?". Apparently, she hasn't seen the results yet. The Supreme Court website was down or something and she was getting paranoid because nobody was calling to congratulate her. So, I promised to call her with the results once the piece of shit masquerading as my laptop cooperated.

Within 5 minutes from that phone call, I saw it.


I called Marisse and just generally screamed a whole lot of gibberish with an occasional, "You passed!". Then off to Facebook to scream a whole lot more to other people.

So, anyway. Today is the day I finally have legal counsel. ^_^

Congratulations, Marisse! Doubly proud of you!

Thirteen

I will never again doubt the power of Marisse's optimism.

I'm not really a fan of American Idol in general. I'm not even a fan of the Davids (Cook and Archuleta) although God knows how many fan bases they have both here and abroad. There's only one reason why I'm following this season of A.I. (Do you know that a month ago, I would not have known that people refer to American Idol as A.I.? It has always meant artificial intelligence to me.)

Anoop Desai.


I don't really care overmuch if he sings all that well. I just think he's cute. I mean, it helps if he's a good singer so I can gawk at him on American Idol that much longer but I'm afraid my fandom is rather superficial. I just think he's yummy eye candy.

Anyway, as most Idol followers know, he wasn't voted into the top 12 but he was the only one assured of a spot in the Wild Card group.

I was watching that episode last night and the last 2 vying for the last spot on the top 12 were Matt and Anoop. Matt is Marisse's bet (although the girl thinks Anoop is cute, too.).

I was fairly certain that Anoop would get in if only by his sheer popularity. But then Marisse goes, "But Matt is so good! What if they decide to make it a top 13?"

I mocked her optimism. I laughed at her.

Then they announce that Matt was the one to go to the top 12. It was like someone dropped a house on me. What?!

I was busy bitching when all of a sudden, Simon goes, "We've decided to make it a top thirteen."

Hala.

Do not mock Marisse.

Choco Banana Dreams

I might have mentioned that I went on a 4-day roadtrip last December. I've put off writing about it because I needed time to think about what I would write so that it wouldn't sound so much like a documentary. Then, I decided to just upload the music we played during the roadtrip and make it a ROCKumentary.

I'm kidding.

Always wanted to say ROCKUMENTARY. And SMACKDOWN. And BATTLE AURA. Doesn't bode well for 2009.

Aaaanyway, I'll try not to sound like Discovery Travel and Living. But I will have to use adjectives, proper nouns and pronouns. Some superlatives here and there.

It was supposed to be a 5-day roadtrip but it got delayed by a day because Earle (owner of wheeled conveyance) had to work. We were in the outskirts of Davao City by nine in the evening so we had to eat at a roadside eatery. They were about to close and had nothing else to offer us except fried catfish. A lot of fried catfish.

(Clearly, there was more than enough catfish to go around.)

Then an hour of hotel hopping and finally, we checked in at MY HOTEL. Yeah, not very imaginative.

So, 1 day spent on the road, eating a gazillion catfish and sleeping in an unimaginative hotel.

Ooooh, forgot to put down the roadtrippers.

(Earle with the head on the table, Paulo standing, Marisse the girl,
Ramon the vile friend. LOL! I'm behind the camera.)

Earle: The Driver
Unfortunately for him, nobody else knew how to drive so...

Paulo: A Man of Few Words
But he's starting to open up. He answers to direct questions. Formulates sentences...

Marisse: The Churchgoer
Seriously, even while on a roadtrip, she got up at 3AM to attend the dawn mass.

Ramon: The Adorably Vile Friend
No roadtrip is complete without criticizing other people. Whether they be pedestrians, people we actually know, or the person sitting beside you in the pickup truck. And Ramon is the king of bashing.

And then there's ME. Roadtrip DJ. Hey, they might not have liked every song but I'm sure it was a multilingual cultural musical experience.

Okay, so Day 2. We were in search of the legendary white beaches of Glan. First time I've heard of it. Sounds like something from Lord of The Rings. "Arwen Evenstar met Aragorn in secret at the legendary white beaches of Glan."

(It was raining a bit and since it was nearly nightfall, we left after an hour.)

Well, this beach was not found in maps of Middle Earth. It was apparently somewhere in Sarangani, past seven mosques. Pretty much like Boracay. Minus the people, restaurants, hotels and gift shops. And boats, sandcastles, beach flags, photographers, tattoo parlors, ice cream stands... Okay, so maybe it's just the white sand. But it's actually finer than the sand in Boracay. Earle, Marisse and Ramon were exfoliating with it.

I'm getting distracted. Watching The Nanny reruns on Hallmark.

We spent the night at Sydney Hotel in General Santos City. We also went to Fagioli where I found my Choco Banana Dreams. Not much of a coffee person but I tend to frequent coffee shops for their non-caffeinated drinks. And the Choco Banana Fagiofrappe at Fagioli was awesoooooome. Which is why I had to have another one the very next day. Which led to Ramon's taunting that if we didn't go to Fagioli, Earle would be crushing my Choco Banana Dreams. *snerk* It was kinda funny. There were other coffee shops in Davao City (Firenzo, Blugre) but nothing came close to my Choco Banana Dreams. *drool*



Swerving back to topic. Did I mention Ramon's been vomiting throughout the entire roadtrip? *evil laugh*

During our last night in Davao City, we had dinner at Yahong while Marisse went to some sorority party. The girl managed to bring a dress and a pair of heels in her backpack while I had nothing but slippers in my big ass SUITCASE. Only proves that just because you're friends, it doesn't mean you have the same priorities in life.

Anyway, after dinner, we all met up at Firenzo (coffee shop) then went to Rizal Promenade, this place with bars and a live band. Also where I encountered the pitcher of mai tai. (See previous slightly drunken post).

Jeez, it's the 6th The Nanny episode in a row. There's a marathon?!

I'm not sure if this is exclusive to Filipinos but here, when people get drunk, they go somewhere to get soup. Go figure. So we did get soup at this place called Bulcachong. Catchy.

Then we went back to MY HOTEL and my slightly under the influence self read aloud my letter to Ramon in high school. Always nice to see evidence of my craziness during my tender high school years...
After a 6-hour trip the next morning, we were back in Cagayan de Oro. With no Choco Banana Dreams.

Finders-keepers

Not.

Marisse, Dennise and I were shopping in the city's bargain district, looking for clothes that were dirt cheap but not exactly dirt cheap-looking, when Marisse spots this shirt/blouse/top.


Yes. Well, while I may not be the best judge of fashion sense, clearly, this was the work of some disgruntled clothing factory employee who decided that he has had enough of minimum wage and decided to piece together cloth scraps and came up with the article of clothing shown above.

We're going shopping again next week. Because while there are a couple more versions of that shirt where that came from, let's face it. We are cheapskates and we wear dirt cheap clothing. *hehehe*