personal space

I confess, I have a huge personal space. I am unbelievably uncomfortable when strangers are too close to me. When I go to crowded places, I secretly wish I had a temporary restraining order for all the people around not to go within a 2-foot radius of me. My only haven is the escalator -- rainbow-colored or not. I have learned to wait 3 steps before I ride one so I can decide to move 2 steps forward if the person behind me gets on the escalator too close to me. The only problem is if he follows suit and takes 2 steps forward too. Sigh, if only everyone would use the arms-forward-raise-rule taught to us in gradeschool. 

Photo from here. Check out other rainbow posts here.

dear girl going to Republiq tonight

This is a question I wish you would ask. Because when your panties are close to showing - worse, when your butt cheeks are peeking out - the answer is "Yes! They're too short!"

Rewritten...

Your dresses should be short enough to show you're a woman,

but long enough to show you're a lady.

I guess the point is a lady would leave a little more to the imagination. Go ahead and tease them with a little cleavage - and I mean on top, not your bottom! - but don't give away the whole show. Would you watch a movie if its trailer told you the whole story? Wouldn't you be more excited to watch a movie if its preview left the ending out? That's why all TV series end in a cliffhanger: to entice you to watch the next episode or season.

Believe me, I am no Louisa May Alcott. I looove wearing short dresses. Especially to give the illusion that your legs don't end! But there is a considerable number of inches between your crotch and your knees. Go ahead and keep the length of your dress further from your knees than your crotch. But please... make sure your dress does NOT end where your panties begin. A little bit of clearance (about 3-4 inches) will make a world of a difference: from shameful & tacky to sexy & tasteful.

And for that sexy illusion you were going for, bring out those platform Pradas! You'll feel on top of the world!

Photos from garancedore, i'mjustsaying and becausei'maddicted.

R.I.P., Typewriter

From the Atlantic Magazine comes this sad bit of news that the typewriter will no longer be produced, with the recent shutdown of the last typewriter factory in the world - in India.

A company called Godrej and Boyce sold 50,000 typewriters a year until the early 1990's. Up until 2009, it still produced up to 12,000 units, serving courts, the military, and other government offices. That inventory went down to 200 before the shutdown, the lowest point for a company that had been around for 6 decades.

Goodbye, Typewriter. While pressing the backspace key several times to type Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees into the shape of a Christmas tree (see related post here) is an utterly useless skill nowadays, I still appreciate the things I learned from my old manual ribbon typewriter: (1) You taught me that something so small, like my pinky, can gain strength - with exercise. (2) You taught me that mistakes leave scars with the occasional whiter speck on my paper where the liquid paper blots were. (3) When I typed too fast and pressed several keys simultaneously and the typebars got tangled, you taught me that if we don't take turns, nobody gets a good turn and nothing gets done. (4) You taught me about the importance of personal space which your carriage return so demandingly required. And finally, (5) you taught me that I CAN fix things myself - by pushing down the typebars that get entangled with impatient typing, or by reinserting the ribbon on its hook when suddenly my paper turns blank despite my perfect typing strokes. In fact, all the fix-it learning I got from other things was to depend on a bang here or there. You, dear typewriter, taught me that I can understand how something like you works, making it easy for me to fix you.

You taught me several life lessons and it's sad that you are now officially endangered species. Makes me look forward to catching a glimpse of you at my next government office visit. Rest in peace, dear old Typewriter.

Photo from Kate Spade.

Today, I am un-loving...

Today, I am un-loving that one non-timeless detail of my wedding. While my wedding was over 14 years ago, when I look back on it today, everything seemed timeless. The venue: Baluarte de San Diego, a garden by the walls of Intramuros. The colors: midnight blue and pewter. The bridal car was an old Mercedes. Our cake was a 3-tiered one without any of the (ugh) elaborate arches that were common during that time. My dress can still work today with its chic, classic style.

Yes, everything about my wedding was timeless. Except this one thing - my wedding album. Sadly, digital photography was not common until a couple of years later. So my wedding photos were printed from film on textured paper and to protect them, there is a sheet of onion skin paper in between each page of my wedding album. Yes, onion skin. Sigh. Today, I am un-loving that one non-timeless detail of my wedding.

Photo from sparklesandpretending.

the occasional dress outside my closet

I always have one or two pieces of clothing hanging outside my closet. They're usually the outfits I originally planned on wearing but eventually decided against (because they looked frumpier than I expected because of the pounds I gained here and there. Okay, this is really not the point of this post, so let me circle back...) and didn't put back inside my closet because I was lazy rushing to get to work on time.

But somehow they never look this beautiful. Perhaps if it were sheer? Or if it were hanging by the window and sunlight was streaming in like this? Sigh. I wish the clothes hanging haphazardly outside my closet gave my room the elegance & style these ones are giving these rooms. Because honestly, glancing at that dress hanging outside my closet right now as I write this post, it just really looks more like untidy clutter. :(

Photos from sparklesandpretending and everythingfab.

the ampersand

I love the ampersand symbol. I enjoy writing it with one fluid motion. I think "&" looks way better than "and". So imagine my dismay at Blogger's ampersand-recognition difficulties. My main blog should be ofdots&things.blogspot.com. But Blogger reads it as ofdots&[amp]things. So I changed "&" to "n". And for some reason, I find it less whimsical, less spirited, less special, less pretty. I feel sad that the beautiful "&" has been reduced to the unexciting, regular-letter "n". Sigh.

Photo from A Cup of Jo. 

the fairytale of marriage

Most young people think
marriage is happily ever after.
I'd never been one to believe that
Fairytale? I said, "Never!"

But right after the I-do's
as soon as my honeymoon ended,
I was proven wrong,
Marriage is a fairytale indeed.

John came home from work
and by the clothing trail,
from our bedroom door to our bed,
he had turned into Hansel, or even Gretel.

Shoe here... Shoe there.
As if Cinderella just fled.
Sock... Belt... Shirt... And other sock...
Trousers strewn across the floor and bed.

And that evening, around midnight
With his incessant huff and puff
it seemed the man beside me
had turned into the Big Bad Wolf!

When finally the snoring came to an end,
I felt a wave whenever he tossed and turned.
Seemed so much like a big Pea
on the bed of the sudden Princess in me.

And when our little one came,
during every midnight feeding,
John turned into Aurora
and just wouldn't stop sleeping.

Truly I was mistaken
because marriage has really turned out,
despite (and because of) these, to be
a fairytale I really CANNOT live without.

Inspired by The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus by Sonya Sones

As with Sones, my husband is NOT
the husband in this free verse.
Really, seriously,
this wife unequivocally swears.

Photo from theessentialist.

to brand or not to brand

I confess. When I first read eyecandy's post on her Lotion DIY container here, I wasn't very excited. I guess it's because the marketeer in me prevailed. Especially since those were product categories I work on. And it didn't help that she uses competition. :)

Marketeers spend so much time developing packaging and justifying the tiniest packaging changes to Management (read about a related post here) that the idea of throwing away the branded packaging that took countless manhours to create didn't sit very well with me.

But when I saw the same idea in non-competing categories, I realized what she meant!

Tide, Oxyclean and Coke do look better in these pretty containers!

How could I miss the fact that minimalistic designs look more elegant than the cluttered packs in the supermarket today (see a related post here)? And a marketeer like me knows all too well that with regionalization, packs nowadays have Thai AND Bahasa translations on top of the English labeling requirements! Plus, who would want their home to look like a supermarket shelf?!

So am off to Saizen and Beabi to find some cool containers for my everyday products. Handsoap and dishwashing liquid containers are on top of my shopping list! Now I wonder if I can get a pretty container for my toothpaste (and one I can actually easily transfer to from that tube cluttering my bathroom counter)?

But am NOT budging on my Neutrogena Hydroboost products! This translucent blue packaging is just too beautiful!

Photos from becausei'maddicted, greenweddingshoes, makeupstash and 101gramsofeyecandy.

dear jeepney driver

I wish you wouldn't stop in the middle of the road every 3 feet. While it's fun to play that old game in gradeschool called "Pepsiiiii... 7-Up!", playing this with you each morning makes me late for work. If you really want to play, we can opt to play Taguan (hide-and-seek) where you hide and I [don't] seek. Now that would make me so early for work! Habulan (tag) is another option... hmmm, but only as long as I'm not your passenger. So okay, fine. For the safety and sanity of your passengers, we can continue to play "Pepsi, 7-Up" as long as your Pepsi's are much longer and your 7-Up's are fewer and farther between (read: please pick up and drop off passengers only at loading/unloading zones).

Pepsi, 7-Up requires at least 2 players where one is the "it" and stays in front facing away from the other players. The "it" shouts "Pepsi" and prolongs the word ("Pepsiiiiiiiii") to signal to the other players to advance toward him. When he shouts "7-Up", the other players need to freeze. When a player is able to tag the "it" after several rounds of "Pepsiiii... 7-Up!", the "it" chases everyone and whoever gets tagged becomes the new "it".

Photo from here.

  

i'm just asking...

Do you notice the eyewear or the flower more?

I'm just asking... :D

Photos from theessentialist.

Unpoetic Poetry

I've never been a lover of poetry. I prefer prose. But I do love Dr. Seuss' books as bedtime stories for my son because the rhyming makes it much more fun to read out loud.

I'm not much of a fiction-writer either. I tried when I first discovered Willow Love. I was enthralled by the poetic bits of stories she imagined from a single beautiful photograph. But when I got myself a photo to write about, I ended up spending 30 minutes staring at either the photo or a blank computer screen.

But just a few pages of The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus by Sonya Sones inspired me to push my boundaries and try again. This time, I tried to rhyme without being poetic. And this time, I tried to write fiction without being profound.

Here's my first attempt:

We both knew it was over;

even before this one:

this latest fight

about gum.

Does it mean something

when I look back

at all we've been through

And think...

Boy, I will really miss

(maybe a bit of his hugs)

But more, so much more,

borrowing his beautiful bags.

Will not win a Pulitzer, I know. But hey, the point is I pushed my boundaries. And that was really all I wanted to do. :)

Photos from theessentialist.

the news

I confess. I don't read the papers anymore.

What I know about current events, I heard from a certain blue (non-angry) bird.

And I figure, if it's important, it will prevail long enough for me to hear about it from my mother. :D

What about you? Do you still read the papers?

Photo of Diane Kruger from stopandpicture and of the Twitter bird from here.

drive-by

Efficiency is of high importance to me. So I never go to a mall to go to just 1 store at that mall. I have to be able to tick several things off my to-do list when I make the effort to park.

So for those places with only 1 place that is of interest to me, I have mastered the art of the drive-by. I wish all restaurants had a drive-thru, but since they don't -- I place a call to that 1 establishment I want to go to, order what I want and request them to bring my order out for me. You don't even need to get down from your car! Now, isn't that efficient? :)

Some of my staple drive-by establishments are: (1) Sonja's Cupcakes at Serendra for my favorite Vanilla Sunshine cupcakes (and my daughter's Berry Delight). (2) Bubble Tea Megamall where I order Royal Milk Tea with extra bubbles. Yes, of course I love tea with dots (er, bubbles). I drive by the Basement Parking entrance ("Johnny Air Cargo exit" is how the Bubble Tea people know it) and they're ready to hand over my delicious polka-dotted milk tea! (3) Reyes Barbecue on Kalayaan Avenue. I know! Am cringing as I admit this. But hey, Aristocrat pork barbecue with java rice and achara is comfort food for me. I pass Kalayaan everyday on my way home from work. And on days when I work 14-hour days and leave the office close to midnight, I make that call to order my pork barbecue. Because I feel worse about working so late and getting home when everyone is already asleep when I go to bed without dinner (because am too lazy exhausted to reheat the dinner I missed and the maids are already asleep to do it for me)... So I place that call for my comfort food. And working late doesn't feel so sad anymore.

I have yet to try and get Bar Dolci to bring out an order of Butter Salted Caramel macaroons. Hmmm... to-do item for tonight! 

So if you're as lazy as I am and want to give my staple drive-by establishments a try:

Sonja's Cupcakes Serendra - 632-8560308

Bubble Tea Megamall - 632-6387479

Reyes BBQ Kalayaan Ave - 632-4031880

This isn't a regular service so make sure to request for it nicely. And remember to tell them to bring out change. And please tip them well! After all, they did make the extra effort of walking out of their store to hand you your order.

Photo from sparklesandpretending.

my fear of ostriches

I know it's odd. But of all the animals in the animal kingdom, ostriches scare me the most. They terrify me. Their bigness, their ugly black and white feathers (or is it fur?), their gigantic beady eyes. So you can imagine my horror when I saw these Louis Vuitton window displays.

I don't mind the ostrich eggs display.

But the ostrich? Especially this one with its neck traversing 2 whole windows!

With the ostrich's beady eyes staring at you. Creepy!

[shudder]

And anyway, don't they look prettier this way?

Vintage Hermes Mini Kelly

Kara Ross Lucis Ring Lizard & Seafoam Ostrich

I love the seafoam color peeking out. I would have preferred for the silver to be in the python material Kara Ross Lucis uses rather than in lizard.

 

Bulgari in olive ostrich

I know, this is circa-2008 on Halle Berry. But I just love the relaxed shape in the luxe skin. And the color! So effortlessly elegant!

Photos from thefashionprophet, worldofamici and purseblog.

dear girl who lets her boyfriend carry her purse

Thank you for showing me that chivalry is not dead - that gentlemen still exist in this age of equality of the sexes. I truly hope to raise such a well-mannered gentleman in my son. I hope he will grow up to be a man that opens doors for women and pulls their chairs.

Though could you draw the line at purses? It's just a waste of all the fitting you did when you bought your bag: does it look good on my wrist? My shoulder, my hand? My wrist again? My hand? My shoulder? Or even the fitting earlier that day when you chose that purse over all your other bags. Since you considered if it goes well with your outfit today and most likely didn't consider if it goes well with his, maybe you could refrain from having him carry this one thing. It just makes him look more genteel than gentlemanly. After all, even if says he wants to carry it, if he really wanted a purse, he would have bought one for himself.

But go ahead and let him carry everything else. :)

Enjoy your shopping weekend!

Photo from sparklesandpretending. 

Today, I am un-loving...

... Friday traffic.

Actually, yesterday, I got caught in majorly heavy traffic! It took me a whole hour to traverse Julia Vargas Avenue to Megamall! It was craaazy! And to think, it wasn't even Friday. Or rush hour (when I passed). Or payday yet.

And the weird thing is that there didn't seem to be any reason for the traffic. The cause of the looong, crawling line to Megamall was not at all apparent because all the side roads and even the short stretch of Julia Vargas after San Miguel Avenue was quite clear. Did everyone just happen to want to congregate in Julia Vargas for an hour?!

Sigh... I really can't decide which is worse: heavy traffic without a cause or traffic with a reason.

Today, I am so not looking forward to... Friday traffic.

Photo from sparklesandpretending.

to cuff or not to cuff?

Am still on the fence on these thick metal cuffs. They do add stylish glamour.

But I can already imagine my husband singing the Wonder Woman theme song in the car all the way to our destination. 

Photos from heritage and everythingfab.

mall nostalgia

It's funny how these random photos remind me of the malls in the 80's.

SM (Makati or Cubao, can't quite remember) had a section at the center of the department store with European-looking benches, a lot of plastic greenery and red phone booths.

Unimart had Orange Julius (that frothy orange juice) and a Coney Island ice cream scooping station. I used to get either bubblegum or orange with chocolate fudge and rainbow sprinkles.

Alimall had this Italian restaurant, Trattoria Uno, which served freshly-baked bread and had people's signatures all over their white walls. This place I miss very, very much. The bread and their seafood marinara soup. Mmmmm!

Rustan's Makati always had fabulous window displays. I remember wanting to be a window-designer as a kid because the Rustan's windows always greeted me when I hopped off the old Love Bus.

Sigh. I wonder if I will remember the malls of today with the same fondness? I love that the malls of the 80's had these charming, memorable details.

What about you? What do you remember of the malls of the 80's?

Photos from i'mjustsaying, inspirationoohaah, and foodsection.

musically-declined

My mom made me take piano lessons when I was in gradeschool. I can rock a mean Chopsticks but that's as far as I could go since I majorly disliked piano practice.

In highschool, I remember regretting that I didn't stick to it because I found myself wishing I knew how to play an instrument. Wouldn't it be great to know how to play the guitar?

Then again, who says you need a guitar to play music?

Now if only you could get away with just attitude on Guitar Hero or Rockband.

Photos from sparklesandpretending, terrierandlobster and stopandpicture.

Queen time, not Filipino time

I wonder if my boss will buy this line when I'm late again on this Monday morning?

Photo from sparklesandpretending.

dear people at Chloe

I just wanted to ask about the pant length of your Resort 2012 collection. Was the model shorter than you expected? Or are the pants really meant to cascade to the ground?

Don't get me wrong. I love how Paris meets SoCal in this collection. I looove how classic elegance meets nonchalant ease. I am especially crushing on the short-sleeve top (or coat) layered on a longer-sleeved inner. Exactly that. Elegant yet relaxed. 

But I really cannot fathom the longer-than-floor-length pants... Perhaps it is just me and my discomfort with the dirty ground. On this side of the globe, you never know what your designer pants will be sweeping as you walk. Spit, stray-dog-poop remnants, pee (sadly, over here, it could be from either dog or man) or dirty canal water.

So if you could, dear people at Chloe, would you take it up just a couple of inches?

Photos from Vogue.

Today, I am un-loving...

Today, I am un-loving... that there are no more Foto-Me booths outside every mall entrance. Why are they relegated to just children's parties and weddings nowadays? Where are they during back-to-school season when your kids need I.D. pictures? Coz waiting 1 hour for photo-developing is just too long with malls so crowded during this time. Plus, you get 4 different-looking I.D. pics (albeit, 2 could have caught you blinking!) instead of committing to 12 copies of the same goofy smile.

Sigh. I never thought I'd actually miss Foto-Me booths...

Photo from sparklesandpretending.