The Misadventures of Roni G!

14 November 2005

the first of my last days in school

school started yesterday. but thanks to my sembreak-like schedule, i stayed home, i got no class during mondays. as for tomorrow, it'll be officially my first day. the first of the my last days in school.

maybe i should stop making friendster my daily habit. it's a hard habit to break. but something has to give. maybe i'll just contain myself and limit my online time. if this would make the road to graduation on cruise mode, then it'll be worth it.

'til the next misadventure...

11 November 2005

scary movies

yesterday, a few friends wanted to drink and i obliged. we had another dvd movie marathon with our good ol' pal SMB light. someone suggested that we should watch something scary. and from a recent trip to the pirated dvd capital of the philippines, we chose from recent titles and decided to watch Dark Water. it was already past midnight and we turned all the lights off. this should be fun: a post halloween scare-fest.

midway through the movie, we were getting restless. the story took so long to develop. maybe this is like The Ring where the fright is at the end. we waited for a few minutes more for something scary to come out but nothing came. one friend even fell asleep and had to rewind to the scene he had missed. what a letdown.

thoughts of ghosts and monsters scare me. i'm a chicken when it comes to scary movies. i was never a fan of scary movies until i saw The Ring. Sadako scared the living hell out of me! after The Ring, there came a bunch of scary movies from japan or if not, thrillers with a japanese theme. and i think it's getting old, this is proof. i wasn't scared at all and there was no after movie anxiety.

The Eye was a visual treat. i remember having two of my friends, both female, one on each side of me ripping my uniform-off out of fear. there was also a scene in an elevator where an old man appeared with only half of his face. we looked to our left and saw an old man who looks like the one on the big screen sitting by himself. we just ignored him and after a few minutes we looked again and saw that he was gone. scary. turns out he just changed seats and moved two rows forward.

The Ring, on the other hand, was a different story. after watching a last full show, i came home late, around 11:30. everybody was asleep but thoughts of Sadako still lingered. i can't sleep. i was scared to look at the reflection of a turned-off tv. but at the same time i was scared to turn it on. Sadako might come out! then at around 1am the phone rang. i shouldn't answer the ringing phone. but i gathered myself and answered the call. all i heard was silence. i was going to die in 7 days. i waited for my seventh day. good thing nothing happened and no one came out of the tv! whew!

08 November 2005

the sight of the finish line

the 7th of November was the scheduled registration day for graduating students, and i'm one of them, finally. i'm now officially a graduating student. for the past 2 years my name has been included in the list of graduating students. 2 years of people on the list leaving me behind. the only reason i'm in this list was one or two major courses that were courses of graduating students.

this will be my last semester in the college. and i'll make sure of that. with only 5 units left to pass, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. the banners are waiting for me on the other side. i can hear the screams. i can feel the love. i know i shouldn't get ahead of myself but i just can't help it. and i know that if the going gets tough, just the sight of the finish line would give me the second wind i need. besides, i'll have the ultimate defense to failure... prayers. i'm bulletproof.

thoughts of post-graduation should be my concern right now. but on the contrary, it's on the bottom of my list of "to ponders." right now all i am thinking is the glory. the hardships and the trials are almost over now. it's been seven agonizing but gratifying years. two years beyond the standard. two years wasted for some. but to me, two years that will make my graduation a little bit sweeter.

see you at the finish line!

04 November 2005

letters (dusting off the cobwebs II)

further cleaning and rearranging, i found some letters...

remember the highschool recollections? the retreats? remember the letters of friends wishing you a happy retreat, goodluck, blah-blah-blah? it's really funny how many letters you will receive with only a small percentage of them coming from the heart. others write goodluck letters for the sake of receiving letters themselves. who wouldn't want to read a sack of letters right? makes you feel popular. but there are those that are really heart-warming, i felt bad because i couldn't return the favor for i'm not good at writing or giving letters. now i realize that it really doesn't matter how good your letter is, as they say, it's the thought that counts.

here are a few letters:

...RON...

Hi! Sana eh.. masaya ka ngayon at excited ng magretreat... naalala ko pa dati yung mga gumigimmick tayo.. ang saya.. sa Hard Rock.. sa Studi.. sa E.K.. sa Starbucks.. sa Quad.. sa Bahay ni Gareth.. (nandun ka ba non?)
..yung mga panahon na crush ko pa si.... Sa madaling salita,
MISS NA KITA!!!
...Sino na ba ang special someone mo?...
a nice guy like you will surely find Love...
Love will come your way.. Wait and see...
..if ever troubles cross your path i will be here to Listen
and comfort you...

TAKE CARE ALWAYS....

HAPPY RETREAT!!!

KC

thanks mommy KC! you're the best!

here's another:

Ron Gilbert;

Happy Retreat!
Hope you succeed in your endeavours.
Ingat lang sa tsiks ha! pogei kapa naman
aral muna at basketbol sabi ni Dad MoN.
Ingat palagi at magdasal.

Francis Gil
Tatang

i laughed while reading this! can't help but utter: si tatang talaga o...

in the bulk of retreat letters, there was one with a different subject. it was a christmas letter from my good pal gene:

r
o
n
i,

thanks for being a true
friend all these years... =)
Basta, come what may
I'll be with you every step
of the way.
Merry Christmas chong! and
may you have a happy,
fruitful & blessed new year!!!
love you ron! =)

- gene

there's a few more nice letters but maybe i'll post them some other time. my fingers are tired. then something caught my eye. a folded piece of paper, obviously a page torn-off a math notebook.

RON

P600 ko!

HINDI KA
PUPUNTA SA LANGIT

DE ROB

i'm innocent!

dusting off the cobwebs of my room and my memories

arguably, today was the most boring day of my sembreak. i could watch another dvd movie but the 3 dvd's i watched yesterday was more than enough for me. i could lift weights or maybe clean my room perhaps. cleaning and lifting weights are my options? just a testament of how boring this day was. so i chose to clean my room today and next thing i knew i was having blasts from the past...

there's this cabinet in my room where i keep my past stuff like old highschool and college books, notebooks, etc. with the first semester over and another just around the corner, i had to make room for the things of the second sem. to do so, i have to throw out unimportant stuff jamming up the cabinet. i don't know why i keep things that are not really necessary, even those ready for the garbage can. but for some reason or another, they're there. now it's time to throw them out.

the task was simple: pick something, decide whether to the trash can or for keeps. and while scanning through an assortment of things, i found some pictures of my 16th birthday. i remember there was a party, but i forgot about the pictures. a lot of people were there, old classmates and friends. but looking at the faces, i can't help but wonder where they are right now. for the 20 or more visitors of that night, i can only account for less than 5 of them. that's alright, i guess. after all, an estimated 75% of the visitors just came for the free booze!

30 October 2005

the life of an ex-intern

ahh... sembreak. three weeks of 3am bedtimes and all day cable tv. this is the life. or is it?

my sembreak was cut-short to 2 weeks; 1 week was spent on finishing my internship. three days of doing nothing, staring at the tv screen, and surfing the net, i'm thinking there must be something better than this.

for the first time in my college life, i'd rather be somewhere else than home sweet home. for years i look forward to vacations, sembreaks, or holidays so i can stay put and spend all day thinking of what to do the next day. play ball, listen to thousands of mp3s, channel-surf, download some more mp3s, eat, sleep, watch dvd's, i can do anything.

the first week finishing the internship was an eye-opener. there is something better than this lazy-boy kind of life. i was learning, logging-in time (as required by the PRC), and assisting the pharmacists and clerks, all at the same time. and it was fun too. my sembreak time was maximized to its full potential.

how sad it had to end this way. there were new interns and we were with them for less than a week. but in that short span of time, we all clicked, adding to the things i miss about my stay at MDH. well, some good things never last...

for now, the text world will do. it's better than nothing. and for what its worth, i now have at least 6 new textmates. for the remaining days of nothing-to-do's, texting will now be my pastime. i just hope i don't exceed my plan's limit...

29 October 2005

SM Valenzuela NOW OPEN ...to jologs!

SM Supercenter Valenzuela opened its doors to the public yesterday october 28. only a few minutes walk from our house, shopping has never been this close to home.

9am, a few hours short of my 10-hour sleep, my mom woke me up. sasama ka ba sa SM? my thoughts were like: sleeeep... more sleep... and so i slept some more. i woke up a couple of hours later, went down and saw what i thought was my sister. sumama ka ba sa kanila sa SM? it was my mom, she's already home from visiting the new SM. some of my relatives were still at the store, but the huge turnout of people was too much for my mom.

from a post by derob in Derob In Dinoland, i kinda had an idea of what the place looked like. it was small, only half the size of SM Manila, and with only 4 cinemas. but how crowded could it be? how small was it? what were the stores inside? i have to see it.

5pm i went with my sister and my cousin. we took a tricycle, and in a couple of minutes we were in front of the supercenter. and they were right. i think half of valenzuela inhabitants were there, or even more. the number of people bothered me only a bit, what bothered me most was the kind of people i saw. jologs everywhere.

now i respect them, after all we are all equals. who am i to look down right? but some of them just dont belong. students, mostly gradeschool and highschool, still in their uniforms, were all over the place. i think department stores are not supposed to allow GS & HS students in uniform inside their stores. well ok, maybe their classes were over, i'll let them go. but i just remembered my mom saying that she saw students in uniform too. my mom went there 9am to maybe 11am. do the math.

SouthBorder was scheduled to play. well, that didn't help to decrease the number of people. the steps leading to the door were full of tambays sitting casually on them. and as we were about to enter the place, we heard a voice-over announcing that the band was about to play next. the steps became almost empty as the tambays rushed to the stage.

as we walked, i saw tambays sitting on the floor, left and right. children were running around as if they had no parents. scanning the stores, i wanted to see where the cinemas were. it's on the third floor and still tambays were there sitting on the floor for no apparent reason. my sister was wearing a skirt and i saw one of the sitting tambays, crouching down and trying to have a peek on what's underneath. i looked at him with a mean glare and he looked back as if he was doing nothing. maybe he didn't realize that my sister was with me coz i was so far back. so i just stared at him, caught up with my sister and blocked his view.

after buying a couple of things, i wanted to go home. my feet were surprisingly tired given how small the place was. we went out through the other end, and surprise, surprise. punks, with their extra small black shirts, fit denim pants, and their "too-much-gel" hairstyle, crowded the steps on the way out. how i wish i had a couple of bodyguards with me. that way i could tell them off not worrying about getting beat up.

i wouldn't mind an hour of travel to shop at a more decent department store.

28 October 2005

blessing in disguise

we came in with a "let's get this over with mindset." a day short of three months later, it's over, but how we wish we could do this internship all over again...

the idea at first was to finish this board exam requirement as soon as possible. the word on the campus was that Manila Doctors Hospital offers a shortcut. 640 hours for only 480 hours logged-in. perfect. with less than a year 'til the boards and 960 hours of internship to go, the offer is impossible to resist.

yesterday was our last day at MDH. no more early wake-up alarms and no more automatic shutdowns. no more duties, no more drugs, no more bin cards to fill, no more pending requests, and no more pigeon holes. but as with the old adage, you'll never appreciate these things until you lose them. a truth that is a hard pill to swallow.

my body is delighted that it's over, but my heart is definitely not. there were days that the word "tiring" is an understatement, but the people made it so worthwhile. finishing our time at the hospital is like taking-off for another country and leaving behind your family.

and i do consider them my 3rd family (next to my good ol' friends). i can't help but wonder how our next internship would compare to this. MDH has raised the bar so high i can't imagine another workplace so warm. i even appreciate the MDH people that were kinda mean to us, people we didn't like. at least they made some days interesting.

and as for those people that left footprints on our hearts, we thank you. not only did we learn a lot, we also gained friends along the way.

to mai, gemli, annerly, sarah, benjo, malou, juhvee, queenie, ruby, ina, nancy, donna, papa doms, she-an, net, sharon, joy t, joy o, yeyen, k, raegan, eve, all the clerks and other i might have missed, may God bless you all!