Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Aftermath to the Modern-Day Princess Ball

*Please click the image to enlarge! ;D
25th Birthday Party invitation

First, as always, Many Happy Returns to uchihayukiko, who shares this day with me. ^_^

So I decided to unwind and at the same time celebrate my birthday this past weekend.

I was apprehensive to do it at first, since I was just going through so much at work. Then, of course, there was my godmother's all-too-recent and unexpected demise. Her death prompted me to seriously consider cancelling the party; it just wasn't right considering that the customary 40 days of grieving hadn't even passed yet.

But then I realised, it's EXACTLY the point ... my dad told me everyone in the family thought I wouldn't live past my 1st birthday. But fast-forward to today, exactly 24 years after that measles attack. Who knew, right?

Besides, I wanted to feel a bit special. While I do enjoy my work, I wanted to have some time to commemorate all other things that were awesome about me. It sounds shallow, true, but if you really REALLY know me (or follow this journal with regularity), I tend to dwell on all my negative points and all the negative events in my life. It's rare I decide to focus on the positive, which is exactly what I did last Saturday, March 14th. It's bad enough that even some relatives forget when my birthday is. I like to think I matter, even to me at least.

So after a lot of panicking, I decided to push through with the Modern-Day Princess Ball. I made a list of what I needed and what I could ask my close friends to help out with. After some false starts, I finally managed to shop for many of the items needed for my birthday. However, true to form, I had had no time for the bulk of preparations. I made sure to invite 30 people (all my Povedan friends, the YRT gang, some of my friends from college and cosplay who I felt would be available that time, and my current co-workers ... whoops, sorry I forgot my former co-workers X_x) in the hopes that there would be 25 of them present, in tune with my birthday (hahaha ang drama).

Saturday morning arrived. I began my day at the wet market buying fresh ingredients for the summer vegetarian spaghetti I planned to cook. pan_de_kuneho arrived to assist me with the decorations. mithlin_megil was supposed to help out as well, but she had gotten quite ill the night before, and was therefore in no condition to do so.

Dad stopped by to help out, but it was only after some arguing that we managed to agree on how to hang the decorations. xfridays_childx called him for some urgent matter, then he turned over the phone to me so she could send me some valuable big-sister advice. ♥

As the day wore on more and more people cancelled. I began to panic since almost half my invitees couldn't make it. pan_de_kuneho was such a sweetheart for putting up with me all that time. It was good that chocolatedazed arrived when she did - I began to panic less, and pan_de_kuneho had someone to hang out with while I finally took my long-deserved bath and began freshening up (!).

While pan_de_kuneho helped me out with the curling iron, crimson_azalea of the Kaka Fun Club (KFC) called and tried to prank me saying that she, ube and _freud_ wouldn't be coming over. However, they arrived right in the middle of the call with presents, chicken and alcohol in tow. XDDDDD Add to that the fact that lovediesel/A of SentiGRAM got lost along the way to the house, as did G of SentiGRAM. Good one KFC, I was just about ready to snap your heads off! X3

The two SentiGRAM girls arrived separately with help from both chocolatedazed and pan_de_kuneho (man was she overworked!). lovediesel was armed with balloons and her Victorian Maiden dress, which was a pain to fit into, but somehow we managed it. G looked smashing in her dress! ♥ Then Ana of Reach Out Otaku arrived as well, and quickly changed into a flaming red dress of win. Xtin (our Venus from our Pretty Guardian Sailormoon cosplay with pan_de_kuneho) arrived as well. My room became a flurry of chaos, with people lending each other dresses, accessories and shoes. Then my superior at work (who's also a senior of mine in UP ICTUS, as it eventually turned out) arrived with two of my officemates. She couldn't resist peeking into my room, and ended up doing make-up for some of my beauty-challenged friends (!!!). It was too bad she had to dash off to another dinner before we had our own, but at least my officemates Orthia and Angeline stayed on.

Last to arrive was Ivy of Reach Out Otaku, who brought boxes of brownies and food for the gods from Becky's Kitchen. She also had her Handycam handy, perfect later on that night when the karaoke session was under way. (BTW she just got engaged ... congratulations and best wishes to you and your fiance! \^0^/)

Finally some of the attendees forced me to have dinner. After some false starts everyone who was present sang me Happy Birthday, and then people began digging into the spaghetti and fried chicken. It wasn't long before everyone huddled around the chocolate fondue fountain armed with platefuls of fruit, which made me LOL. We nearly had a crisis on our hands when I had the chocolate fondue thinned with water, which caused the fondue fountain to clog up a bit. Good thing cooking oil helped loosen up that situation! Meanwhile some of the Povedans were going crazy with one of the programmes on my laptop. XDDDDDDDDDD;;;

When everyone had finished dinner and most of dessert, I had a little game of "How well do you know me?" To my surprise it wasn't lovediesel - who has known me longest - who knew the most, but it was ube! Then I awarded some prizes, in the form of cute tiaras: Early Bird went to pan_de_kuneho, lovediesel won Best Dressed thanks to her VM outfit (which she quickly changed out of once she won the award since it was getting stuffy XD;;;), ube received the prize for the game.

Soon it was karaoke time. The KFC gang was being uncharacteristically shy but pan_de_kuneho, Xtin and chocolatedazed in particular showed no such inhibitions. dXDDDDDDDDDDDDDb So in the end, ube, _freud_ and crimson_azalea mixed the lemon-lime gin with lovediesel assisting them with the taste. In between it all we all tried to get the YM up and running in my laptop, which was tough because my internet decided to conk out. We ended up stealing a neighbour's connection, hehe. XDDDDDDDD Thus were finally able to get jactinglim and ericvids on board, where they witnessed among other things pan_de_kuneho and Xtin dancing to chocolatedazed's rendition of "Sha-la-la" (yes, THAT "Sha-la-la"). XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD It was too bad janipanda couldn't seem to connect to our webcam chat no matter how hard we tried. ;~; I'm holding out for Ivy to put up all the videos on Youtube. X3

We finally called it a night around 11:30, after some screencapping insanity from our Singapore-based friends. The remaining guests helped clean up, though lovediesel did most of the work. It was then I realised that I forgot to give most of the guests who left early their giveaways. Whoops~! XP Sorry about that guys, let me know when you're free to meet up and claim them alright?

Now here's the part where I thank everyone who helped make the Modern-Day Princess Ball possible:

Firstly, many, many thanks to lovediesel and xfridays_childx for the ideas. Thanks for the balloons too, lovediesel!

Thank you very, very much pan_de_kuneho for being the earliest to arrive, helping out with the decorations and overall set-up, curling my hair, giving my other guests directions via the telephone, and putting up with my panic attack when people began cancelling en masse that morning. You are made of so much win! I owe you big-time. ♥

Thank you very much lovediesel and chocolatedazed for sleeping over and helping me fix the venue once the party ended. ♥ Thanks for bringing food and the eating implements as well, chocolatedazed !

Thank you very much ube, _freud_ and crimson_azalea for bringing food and drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), for mixing the alcohol, and for getting me presents even when I hadn't really expected any from you. Thanks also to ube and _freud_ for being kaladkaring katulong the Saturday prior to my birthday and helping out with the preliminary shopping.

Thank you very much to my UP ICTUS sempai (senior) and current superior in VPRI, who dropped by for a spell to bring in my other officemates and who also very gamely did make-up for some of my girls. ♥ You are made of too much awesome. ;~;

Thank you very much pan_de_kuneho & pan_de_kunehofor being sports while waiting for us to fix the internet connection and YM, and for celebrating with us DURING the party all the way from Singapore complete with cake and alky. ♥

Thank you very much to everyone who attended - SentiGRAM (though we were missing R ;~;), Kaka Fun Club (though we were missing Cesca and transient_freak), the YRT gang, the PGSM gang, the ladies of Reach Out Otaku, and my current officemates. I hope I didn't miss anyone! ;~;

To everyone who couldn't be in the party physically for any reason, thank you very, very much for your greetings and well-wishes. ♥ I appreciate those a lot.

Thanks to everyone who remembered for making my 25th birthday memorable! ♥

I wonder what will happen in the next 25 years... v^~^v


PS Pictures are up! More links to be added as they come. ♥

1) chocolatedazed = http://aoyukihikari.multiply.com/photos/album/94/Joy_Hime-gyaru_Party
2) jactinglim = http://jactinglim2.multiply.com/photos/album/38/Mai_Hime-tachi
3) lovediesel = http://kismet0225.multiply.com/photos/album/211/Joys_Hime-gyaru_Party
4) Xtin = http://sailorsenshi8.multiply.com/photos/album/24/3-14-2009

Sunday, March 08, 2009

These past 2 weeks have been crazy.

1) Hongkong began as a disaster but at least the weekend evened out. We arrived early at Chek Lap Kok Airport but we couldn't take a ride into the city in time for our meeting. Some of us went ahead to present while the rest, myself included, just caught up with them just in time for lunch (courtesy of our contacts at HK) after arranging for check-in at our hotel. Then the weather was too cool and too rainy for comfort (stupid CNN said it would be clear skies through the weekend! XP), but Disneyland was all sorts of fun (considering how small it is) and clubbing at Lan Kwai Fong was ... well, unforgettable. XD; (Sa mga nakakaalam walang manlalaglag. X3) Did not get to shop as much as I'd wanted though, and I kept getting the group lost and late and stuff, bleh. XP

2) My godmother (Dad's sister; also the proud new grandmother whose picture I posted here 2 years ago) died of cancer two days before I was supposed to fly out. I was numb for the next few days, even with the clubbing and Disneyland craziness. I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come out.

3) Made a couple of stupid decisions especially on Wednesday. Backlogged to the max pa. Did not even get to buy tickets to the final set concert of the Eraserheads. Need to rectify everything ASAP. Shet. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDX

4) Shopped for stuff for my birthday yesterday (Saturday). I honestly wasn't sure I should celebrate it the way I wanted to considering the death in my family lately, but I decided I was turning 25 only once and I wasn't going to celebrate any more birthdays after that so I may as well celebrate life. Besides, it's one of the few times I'm going to see my all my closest friends (hoping to make 25 for 25, lol) from all walks of life. I was in such a bad mood earlier since I was supposed to do some leftover work before I left and then again when I got home but Anthy died so I asked markpoa's younger brother to fix it. He's cool. (Thanks for fixing my PC!) Very glad I had Neko and Sherry, who even went the extra mile by patiently waiting for me while I de-stressed by watching the Charice Pempengco concert, with me or I would've gone nuts. thank you girls! ♥

Also: Francis Magalona died due to complications brought about by leukemia on Friday, 6th March. An acquaintance/semi-friend of mine (who's also a co-worker's sister) is a nurse at Medical City, where he breathed his last. While I am still somewhat embarrassed to remember dancing to his song at age 7 (which has gone on to show that I can't dance but I still do it anyway), I admit I enjoyed his songs as a guilty pleasure. Francis M was 44 and is survived by his wife and eight (8!) children.