Name Game

I frequent my Friendster account every once in a while and noticed a list for "top searches in my network". Topping the list was "the meaning of my name". Really, how a name makes the person--or how the person makes the name! Meaning of the name comes in only secondary... the main event is deciding on WHAT name.

I remember minor arguements and discussions when deciding a name for my kids...AND my cats! Criteria? As a parent, It would range from a favorite name we have in mind just in case we had kids, to a combination of both parents' or grandparents' names, to a favorite artist or singer or president, to names of trends whether in fashion or movies, etc. As a pet owner, it would range mostly from physical characteristics of your pet, to favorite icons, or expressions, and trends, to the first thing that comes to your mind. And while we're at it...

I have 2 names.. Reia Paulina.
Reia (reeya) was given by my dad... for "Rey", spanish for king and Paulina from both grandmothers: Paulina and Carolina.

My kids names are: Andrea Mari Mikaela and Tristan Diego Romano.

• Andrea from my paternal great, grandaunt,
• Mari from both of our (Nikki's and mine) moms.. Marie Sharmaine and Maria Ceres ; and
• Mikaela, from St. Michael since my mom insisted a name based on the catholic calendar (hence, Sept. 29th, Andee's birthday is also the feast of the 3 angels.. one of which is St. Michael)

Tristan Diego Romano V.

• Tristan from his dad's name Tristan Cesar III,
• Diego from a favorite name since high school, and
• Romano, I don't know where his dad got it.

Diego is 'the fifth' for obvious reasons and I'd say a male's point of pride...Tristan Sr. (greatgrandfather), Tristan Valentin Jr. (eldest son), Tristan Cesar III (a.k.a. Nikki, Andee's and Diego's dad), Tristan Nolan IV (third son) and finally Tristan Diego V.

And for some of those who say that, whoa... poor kid! giving them a hard time at school writing down their full names! LOL well.... Andee managed and actually enjoyed it, writing her full name, I mean. As with Diego, hmmm..I'll know next year.

20 bits of info about me

There are perks for being a frequent diner at Kusina ni Karina... you get tagged! LOL now I try to think back more than 3 decades for those 20 bits and am now jotting them down in my scratch pad...

1. Spicy food! spicy food!
2. At 5'5" I am so totally, totally underweight at 95 lbs
3. My maximum weight during pregnancy was a whooping..drumroll pls... 125 lbs.!
4. I melt at a simple "I'm sorry" and totally forget everything!
5. I love qwek-qwek (boiled quail eggs covered in orange batter deep fried and served with spicy chili vinegar sauce)
6. I'd rather cook all day than clean the house.
7. I collect paper napkins and tissues from fast food outlets and restaurants (yes..lots of Jollibee varieties!)...since 1987
8. Got a perfect score of 100% in art class (was it 4th or 5th grade?) for a popsicle stick project... a one bedroom, two-storey dollhouse with basic furniture etc. Gave it to a good friend, Vivian Mariano.
9. Highest grade in High School - Statistics /attended remedial class for Algebra.
10. Highest grades in College - Psychology of Learning, and Industrial Psychology / flunked and repeated Phil. Constitution & Taxation class. (duh?)
11. Dubbed 'crush ng bayan' at work in Splash Island...(umm...it was a 'female-employee-challenged waterpark' )
12. I've never been to Boracay!
13. I have an exact pink cardigan that Hermione wore in HP3 (wicked!!! :-))
14. I have yet to re-claim my driver's license for "Yellow Lane" traffic violation.
15. I admire Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (hey, keep your opinions to yourselves!)
16. Appeared in Korina Sanchez' TV Show, Balitang K as spokesperson for Warner Bros.' Bean Bag Collection (2000) only to discover a huge hair clip attached to the collar of my uniform after the taping!
17. No to beer. Yes to tequilas and margaritas. And coffee. LOL
18. I'd like to have a ragdoll kitten.
19. I am a Cafepress and Blogger addict.
20. This list took me almost 2 hours to finish.

That was hard! But it was fun! Not really 'bits' though..

TAG!! --- scratches to --Cak, and Gel! Now, update your blogs please :-)

Road to recovery

I am now undergoing a tremendous recovery from my initial shock of unemployment. Thanks so much...

• to my blogging friends for those comments, emails and PMs;
• to my cat Tygra who still makes me laugh when he falls from the mahjong table while he sleeps and still manages to get on all fours in time;
• Diego who never fails to steal a kiss while I sit staaaarrriiing at the computer, and
• Andee who keeps on asking me to draw this and that and argue that her small letter "F" in calligraphy does not look like a small letter "B" (oh yeah it does!!).

So far I've kept myself busy tweaking and doing a major shop make-over for JustCATS , and getting my other stores up. Doing new designs for the holidays. I also recently just set up a blog to complement our Yahoo Group (SSAM high school batch 85). Well aside from that, it's still job-hunting galore!

:-(

It's final. I am out of work.

Gosh, it took me around 20 whole minutes staring at those first two sentences before I could continue. My mind's not working. I feel all beat up. The company decided to close apparently because of miscommunication between the company's owners and their Canadian partners. No there wasn't any bad blood between the two. It's just business.

What do I do now? Maybe I should pursue a full-time 'career' with my cafepress store and do something about that average 2 sales/month, or finally get the my online stores the attention they deserve. Heck yes...but, no. With two growing kids and no savings whatsoever... how can I? It was my choice in the first place-- leaving a good job at a big call center because of better pay. And now that choice only lasted 9 months. (sigh) Wrong move Reia... how can a start-up company be any better with a globally known call center?

Now I feel stress creeping up behind me again. Headaches to the max. It's like my head's going to burst any minute now... and tear ducts are waiting for any opportune moment to unload...

An Apple a day

This morning, my kids, Andee and Diego, and my 5 year old nephew, Jaki (short for.. hold your breath..James Kirk, son of my Star-Trek-fanatic-of-a-brother, Baron) were painting with watercolor in the living room. While watching them, I got hold of one of Andee's' chinese brushes and started to paint the first thing that comes to my mind.

Wallah! For all you psychologists out there (forgive me..as a graduate of the same field myself, I can't decipher this on my own..) I present to you my 1st watercolor piece after 18 years. I was trying to remember during my Psychological Testing class about drawing tests and color interpretation. Hmmm... I see not much (not much?!?) dark or glum colors...so probably that deep breathing exercise last night indeed cleared (again, for now..) my thoughts.

And an apple?!? Well.. I think it does help take those blues away.

Cry for help

My whole week was bad. It was downright terrible. Stress at work and here comes the danger of the company where I work with shutting down. I feel depressed. No time for myself. No one to talk to. Peace and quiet at home was next to impossible. Too old (?) to look for work (yeah, since most Philippine jobs have a maximum age limit of 30, unless I'd settle for call centers AGAIN which is the last thing I wanna...). Lots of financial obligations, etc. etc. etc.

The stress is getting so physical and I can really feel the discomfort. Headaches. Back and neck pains. I get hot flushes (left side of my head, starts with my left ear actually..) every now and then...is that stress related or am I getting old?!?!

I cried buckets the other day, glad a good friend was there. She has yet to convince me to listen to those hypnosis theraphy downloads thingis about gratitude, confidence, etc, that could help and liven me up. "It's only 28 minutes, Sis!" Yeah. 28 whole minutes. It's short-- but way to long for crying..no,..wailing! I could picture buckets and buckets of tears again. Eyes and nose all swollen and red. She eventually managed to have me do deep breathing exercises instead.." to clear yourself of those negative vibes..etc...etc.."

Well, it did help. For now...

Up, up and away

While eating breakfast this morning, my 3 year old son, Diego, who was doodling in the living room, began shouting at the top of his voice calling for his yaya (nanny). After a while, Yaya Delia, his nanny, went to the kitchen giggling. I asked why, and what Diego wanted. She said, in Diego's words: "Yaya, a-tayo bird ko!" (Yaya, my 'birdie' is standing up!). Oh my! I laughed, then in a snap, I began thinking.... yes, I know that 'it' usually gets up in attention during mornings... but now, thinking about it makes me quite, I don't know, in tagalog terms "nababagabag". My little boy has really grown up!!!! What do I do now?!? I am panicking here.

I remember last weekend while watching tv (I can't remember what show it was) Diego began complaining and shouted "mama,mama!a-tayo,a-tayo!" (It's standing, it's standing!) I had to calm him down and give him his toy. Whoa..so this comes with being a mom. Seemed easier with my 7 year old daughter when she asked how she got into my tummy. Thoughts come in and out of my head..oh no! I was thinking of questions my little boy might ask in the future... or a bit anxious as to what he might 'discover' next.

My random thoughts were put into hold when Diego came into the kitchen laughing.

"Maaaa...ma! baba na birdie ko" (Mama, it's down now!).

Pretty handsome in pink!

PINK.
I like looking at guys (straight guys, mind you!) who wear pink. On my way to work today I saw this guy waiting for a ride. Nice pink long-sleeved shirt! Had my eyes glued to him. I find them to be more masculine... and BRAVE enough to wear that color, amidst all conclusions that pink is feminine AND/OR effeminate.

Had I read it somewhere during my merchandising career stints that the color pink originally was intended to be worn by males? Yes, males. As in men. Macho. Gentleman. Hombre. Lalaki. Papa. The logic apparently behind it is that this color, when worn by the male specie, sends out a signal to the ever vulnerable female that makes the latter fall for this shade. Hence, 'physical' attraction. The guy then gets his catch.

Whether myth or fact, yeah... it gets me. LOL well, he smiled first.

P.S.
.... and that was that (sigh!)

Freedom in weeds

About 18 months ago, my brother Carl (Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikisapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, One Night in Purgatory) asked me if he could use my pressed flower art for a new graphic novel he and his group of very talented artists were doing. The title was Siglo: Freedom. The novel featured Filipino comic and graphic novelists at its best and a collection of comics stories about the Philippine experience of freedom.

Each set in a different time and place in Philippine history (and future), from Jolo in 1913 to Manila in 2004, the 10 tales in "Siglo" tackle a different vision of the quest for freedom, told through the writers' and artists' unique perspective. Staged in black-and-white and told mostly in English, each tale showcases the creators' diverse strengths and distinctive storytelling qualities. (full review)

It was only recently that I've learned that the novel was a recipient of a Manila Critic's Circle National Book Award tied with Mar Ravelo's Darna. There were several pressed flower or botanical art pieces that Carl used for each of the novel's chapters, as well as for embellishments for some of the novel's pages.

The picture of my work above is featured on a spread inside the novel and is my rendition of Freedom entitled "Against the Wind", done on a 30x22 recycled paper. I used mainly weeds found on vacant lots, a few bougainvilla flowers (not a good choice since these fade in time), and narra pod shells. I will be posting every now and then, some of the pressed flower/ botanical art piece that was used in between chapters. For the meantime...enjoy! :-)

Btw, stay tuned for Siglo:Passion. TBA

Orange and Lemons

I have a huge crush on this Filipino band Orange and Lemons' lead vocal. See the one in grey? He's got this great voice! I don't know if he is Clem Castro or Mcoy Fundales. I know they've been around and won an MTV Pilipinas Award for best video (2005) and NU Rock Awards’ Best New Artist for 2004. (Thanks to Pinoy Big Brother or I'll never get to know that they existed!)

Can anyone tell me? Guys with great voices are wow!

The weekend that was...

Andee celebrated her 7th birthday last September 29th. There was this Fun Day event at her school and I accompanied her. I would want to throw her a birthday party with all her friends, but honestly I couldn't find time to plan it all and besides, raising two kids really had my hands full with all financial obligations. I promised her a trip to Star City Amusement Park, with Diego and her dad (she pleaded..oh well) on Saturday (that was yesterday).

But as unfortunate events would have it, Diego was rushed to the hospital because of frequent vomiting. I had to leave work earlier. It turned out, after series of tests, that he had Urinary Track Infection (at 3 years old?!?!) Anyway, we spent the night at the hospital. His dad, Nikki, came over. Diego was a brave kid. He just yelped a simple 'Ouch!' when the intern inserted the intravenous needle. It was nice to see his dad show concern, for a change.

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Star City, the second time we went out as a family, ever. I enjoyed it and I knew the kids did too...they were with their dad.