I have to say, I was such an easy kid to babysit when I was still a shortie.  I blame the adults lack of parenting for encouraging my irremediable couch potato habit.  Lolz, I guess whatever it takes to keep kids inside the house and out of trouble wouldn’t be given a second thought.  

It wasn’t just Sesame Street that I was hypnotically drawn to. There was The Muppet Show, Jim Henson’s Storyteller (which I am planning to search all episodes of to keep as a collection), TMNT, and all those 80’s animation & sit comms that seem to be making a come back in big format at the box office these days.  I’d like to think that Sesame Street was an elemental tool to the formation of my personality.  It was the foundation for my learning.  I enhanced my vocabulary, improved my math skills, and exercised my cognitive skill watching the day to day episodes.  Sesame Street’s such a big influence in my life that I would sometimes count things the same way The Count does (emulating the voice and laugh intermissions), I’ve developed a love for rubber duckies (and yes, I sing the Rubber Duckie song in the shower sometimes), and in bouts of boredom, I’d still be able to sing some songs from different episodes (I love singing The Aligator King with my cousins).  I’m going to make an effort to look for and collect the episodes of Sesame Street that I grew up with, just so I could pass it on to the next generation (be it for my nephews, nieces, or my own kids) ‘coz I think watching Vintage Sesame Street produces cool smart kids, like me! HA! I’m just kidding, I am without a doubt a big dork but I turned out pretty OK! :p

♪♫Sunny day, keeping the clouds away…♫

When I pick my scents I want to make sure they’re not too main stream.  I like my choice of perfumes to have some sort of esoteric quality that will allow people in my life or people I meet to remember me whenever they get a whiff of that scent.  I want them to go “ Hey, that smells like Gail” when they smell freshly cut grass & banana leaves, or a pomelo fruit.  Yes, grass! :D 

I have fallen in love with Gap Grass ever since I was given a bottle over a decade ago.  I’ve owned each and every one of the Gap Grass bottles, from the short stumpy one, to the tall frosted one, and now the tall clear glass cylinder.  I was disappointed when Gap decided to discontinue its production years ago.  But I’m pretty ecstatic now that they’ve brought it back. 

When I couldn’t get any bottle of Gap Grass I settled for Gap’s So Pink.  Pink is a bit more of a seller than Grass but I just couldn’t seem to resist the flowery citrusy aroma.  There was a time when I tried Gap Heaven too but I prefer Johnson’s Heaven baby cologne.  I prefer my scents to be a little light and not overpowering, the kind that allows you to spray it all over yourself and still avoid asphyxiating whoever’s nearby. 

My phone has a funny but surprisingly accurate Ap that describes you and your preferred scents.

Gap Grass: If you love the freshness of nature, this grass scent is for you.  A blend of fresh grass and floral scents, the true power of its fragrance captures the real essence of nature itself.

Gap Pink: If you are loveable and soft, this sweet, fruity scent is for you.  This mixture of citrus and floral scent gives off a uniquely subtle and sweet scent and a fresh, soft, enchanting aroma.

…of course, later on as I kept inputting a lot of other perfumes I noticed how this application plays with its adjectives…kinda redundant actually. Lolz!

I just needed to post this so when I get toreview my posts over the weekend I’d remember to re-stock my perfume supply…I’m about to run out L

June 6^th.  Today is supposedly my Grandmothers birthday (although my family’s been debating about this since we’re all not sure if it is indeed the 6^th or 7^th), she’s been living with The Creator for about nine years now.  Today, me and my clan La Familia David put to rest the remains of my Aunt Christine, she was 51 years old.  She is now reunited with my Grandparents, my Aunt Len, and my Dad.  Although it is sad and with no question, very difficult to be saying farewell to family members you love and care about, what I’ve realized is that we’re all still very lucky and immensely blessed to HAVE family.  We are a very tightly knit clan, and I believe this is all thanks to my Grandmother.  She has trained and reared her children (and grandchildren) to be helpful, generous, kind, and supportive with one another.  Through years of observation and living with them I have observed how everyone tries to share in each others burden to try and lighten the load of grief or sorrow.  We support each other in any way we can (the size of the gesture does not matter, whatever support is given will always be appreciated).  We rejoice and celebrate in each others joy and achievements.  It is my Grandmothers legacy that we are indeed a very loving family.

I belong to a family similar to a pack of pachyderms.  Elephants, to be more specific.  Elephants are very protective and caring of each of the members in their pack, especially their young.  If you’ve heard the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child”, this very much applies to Elephants and to my family.  When I was 9 and lost my Dad to cancer, I may have been orphaned of a father but I actually gained extra mothers & fathers.  From then on, my Aunts and Uncles helped bring me and my brother up, contributed a great deal to our education, and   raised me into the person I am now.  It is certainly true that God will never leave you empty handed.  When you lose something, He replaces it with something greater. 

 On this rainy afternoon, I’m sad only because I will be missing my Aunt.  No more conversations and bonding while wrapping Christmas gifts, no more coffee dates with the “Tres Marias”, no more gushing over kikay stuff.  What I am optimistic about are the many miracles God has in store for my Uncle & cousins.  I believe and trust that God has something very beautiful planned for this family.  For now, I miss my “Lola” and I’ll be missing my Aunt…but I’m happy that they are where they need to be, and I’m pretty sure we’ll eventually have a grand La Familia David reunion where there is limitless joy and peace.

(BTW: This is another reason why I love Elephants, they remind me of my family)

I still watch cartoons at my age…and I’m old (please don’t ask how old!).  But I’m lucky ‘coz I live in an age where it doesn’t matter what your age is, nobody will judge you for what you watch.  If and when time permits, I spend time updating myself on episodes or webisodes of Phineas & Ferb, Fairly Odd Parents, Totally Spies, Pucca, Ni Hao Kai Lan, Spongebob, & Penguins of Madagascar (some of my current faves).  I also buy DVD copies of the “more mature in content” series of Simpsons (of course!), Family Guy, and American Dad.  I also try to stay tuned to the young adult sitcoms.  I used to watch Lizy Maguire & Hanna Montana (**blushes** teehee, yes I watch her show :”>) but I’m currently keeping tabs on Victorious (This is why I have a girl crush on Ariana Grande) and sometimes I-Carly.  I’m kinda bummed that they discontinued Dave the Barbarian (It was sooo friggin’ heeelarious, bring it back pls!) & Kimpossible, it’s a good thing they’re re-airing episodes of Kimpossible on Disney now.  So yeah, I love me my cartoons…or to be more PC and grown up about it, let me say…I LOVE MY ANIMATED SERIES ,-p

^__^ 

I can sometimes be numb minded when it comes to speaking in Filipino, or even English.  It’s not that I can’t speak Tagalog well (Yes, I speak Tagalog VERY WELL…now, if any of my close friends are reading this…don’t you dare roll your eyes! :p), it’s just that I tend to group words in the same category in a weird way.  I have a penchant of assuming Tagalog words that start with the same letter are the same.  I say Batangas, Batanes, Bulacan, Bataan and think they’re all one place.  Like if I were to say I’m going to Laguna next week, but what I really meant was I’m going to La Union.  I just don’t know why I keep interchanging them.  I always, ALWAYS say “maginoo”(gentlemanly)  instead of what I really meant… “magalante”(generous), it’s almost like it’s ingrained in my head that ginoo = galante!  The worst thing about this “speech impediment” is that I’m pretty confident in using the words and coming up with its own meaning.  Sometimes when I hear a Tagalog word used and if I like how it sounds I try to use it in future conversations w/o even finding out the actual meaning.  This usually leads to disaster in social settings.  I remember, this one time when my best friend kept using the word  ”henyo”(genius) on me I wanted to incorporate this word into my conversation so bad that on one of my blind dates, I wanted to comment on how “mabait”(good) the guy was but instead, I said “ang henyo mo naman”…It came out like I wasn’t paying attention to the conversation at all & I just blurted out some random compliment to make it look like I was participating or listening (yuck! but, then again, it’s a blind date so it was bound for disaster anyway :p).  

Sometimes I sound funny when I’m exchanging stories w/ my friends ‘coz my vocab usually ends up all over the place.  What I’m absitively, posolutely grateful for is that my friends actually understand me (who’da thought!?).  So even if it means furrowed brows for my friends in trying to get the context of my speech…they always get what I mean, they know what I’m talking about…and I love them for that! ^___^ <3 <3 <3

When I’m in a pissy mood or feeling in the dumps ice cream, frozen yogurts w/ my favorite toppings, and gelato will usually change that.  If I’m in a sour mood with you & when I think of you as the devil, treat me to some frozen delights and you’ll be an angel in my eyes again. =)) haha! How easy is it to please me???? :p

I miss Gelato!!! I would love to have some now for some relief from this dreadful metro summer heat =c

L.A.S. could stand for LEAKY ASS SYNDROME or LAZY ASS SYNDROME. Both apply! =))

I have a sensitive tummy. If I eat something that doesn’t agree w/ me I’ll be shittin’ for days! (gross, I know, but it’s the sad truth :[ )

I get lazy to move around especially when its hot.  I don’t like to sweat too much that it’ll allow me to stink so rather than moving around in the heat I just want to stay put & stay cool and calm :D Laaaayyyyzzzzeeeeee!!!!

…not really :p One of the reasons why I rarely blog is because of my OCB with grammar.  It’s something that developed when I was tasked to be an editor for a magazine at one of the company’s I used to work for.  That’s why every time I try to post or submit anything w/ paragraphs typed, I make sure and double check that my sentence construction and vocabulary is decent enough to read without having to have the reader wrinkle their foreheads, have their brows meet, or have them scratch their heads at wondering what I meant by what I wrote.  It is, in truth, disconcerting to be reading a piece that seems interesting at the beginning but when you hit a mis-used word or a mis-constructed phrase the pleasure from reading has been sullied by an ill-composed sentence (imagine reading a piece w/ multiple mishaps!).  Now, I’m not claiming to be a pro at writing, God no! And to be honest, I’m a pretty lame speller (:”>), I’m not even one to use highfaluting words to try and impress you with my vocabulary or to make it seem like I’m really smart…No!  My goal in writing is usually just to get an idea or my point across to the reader in the easiest way possible.  I want to make sure that my idea is brought across so effectively that it sinks in to your brain the same way a tick burrows itself into flesh, and in my opinion the only way that can happen is by making sure the delivery is clean, simple, and direct to the point.  I wouldn’t want my readers to have to cringe when they hit a bad sentence and I try to avoid having them needing to take out a dictionary to check on the meaning of a word.  So if you find me posting a piece with some grammar lapses, that’s just me being lazy (and that’s a different story :p haha!).

I have this obsessive compulsive behavior with smell.  I DO NOT LIKE STINKY THINGS, PLACES, or PEOPLE! (who does anyway, right?).  I think Durian is revolting because of its pungent aroma, no matter how everybody convinces me on how good it tastes, I will not eat it!  If I smell something bad in my surroundings I splash a lot of cologne on me or slather on some scented lotion so I can smell myself instead.  As much as I love riding trains, if I can avoid it, I never ride the MRT during rush hour because of the high possibility of being stuck in a pool of sweaty people.  I actually also have a thing for being in super crowded places, I do not like being caught in situations where I have to be closely surrounded by strangers allowing them to sweat on me.  When I’m next to someone who has a weird strong odor I take out my Poy-sian for comfort. (Poy-Sian is the Vietnamese equivalent of a Vicks inhaler, only difference is that it’s 2-in-1 ‘coz its an inhaler at the top & ointment at the bottom…which, by the way, in case anybody’s interested, I sell. Haha! Shameless plug :”> ).  So if you see me w/ an inhaler stuck up my nose that means I’m not happy w/ the stench of my surroundings or w/ the personal odor of whoever’s next to me :p :p :p

I rarely look at people when I walk or move around.  I zone out while walking trying to stay centered on my personal space & the noise around me.  I guess it just comes w/ the parenting I got growing up.  As a safety measure my Grams & one of my Aunts would say “when you’re walking down the street avoid looking into peoples faces, try to avoid eye contact, ‘coz once you do, the vulnerability in your eyes & face will give you away as an easy victim/target”…or something to that effect :p.  I’m thinking this is one of the reasons why others see me as detached & cold…I’m not, I promise.  I suppose you can say I’m just a wee bit too over self protective. :p

It just reminds me of the beach and summer!