.:Discoveries:.

I found Pomelo's weblog yesterday, and it was just a revelation to me, to say the least.

Admittedly, there are a lot of things the both of us don't know about each other. We've only been acquainted since November of last year, so it hasn't even been a year yet. Nonetheless, I've been extremely grateful for every opportunity that has been presented for me to get to know her better.

One of her recent posts, talking about Coco Lee’s song, “Magic Words”, is just really wonderful. I guess she’s right. I feel the same way about that song. No matter how bad my day is, no matter how horrible I feel, just hearing from Magic Words from her just makes me feel so alive again.

Every new day that comes is a new opportunity for the both of us to gain an insight into each other's being more. I love her so much. That much is obvious. It sometimes gets to me that I can't write about her as much as I'd want to, that I can't shout out to the world how lucky a man I am to have someone like her simply because of the remote risk that her family might catch wind of the fact that their daughter has a non-Chinese boyfriend.

Looking at her blog, I just can't help but smile. Gyn and I started off on a pretty interesting note, as she noticed my eyes while I noticed her mini-skirts... heh. Seriously, the song “One Hello” would be pretty apt for the both of us. Turns out that the moment I started talking to her, she began to notice me. It's flattering in a way, especially since she initially thought I was going after her blockmate, and not her. In one of her archives, she was talking about meeting her crush in school. I don't think I would've figured she was referring to me had I stumbled onto her blog back then. I’m honestly amazed how it all began, really.

I simply can't help but be grateful. Against all odds, despite her initial misgivings about the setup as she knows her family wouldn't approve, here we are, still together after two months. I know she’s been making a Herculean effort to meet me halfway on things. It’s an effort that I sincerely appreciate.

I love her so much, and I want this to work. God knows I’m doing everything I can, but only time can tell if we’d really last. In the meantime, I am thankful that we continue to go through this road of getting to know each other better. She is a wonderful human being whom I learn to love more and more with each passing day.

.:Mini Review: Pump Magazine:.

I don't know how to put this, but the magazine just simply feels like FHM with different segment names and horrible production values. I think the editor-in-chief did a Rob Liefield by ripping off something he used to do himself.

Truth be told, the articles felt just like FHM. Same approach sans the off-beat intros to interviews, same format, even same writing style for a good chunk of the articles.

In fairness to Pump Magazine, their first issue wasn't so bad, but I know for a fact that it could be better. At the very least, they simply could've innovated some more as they really ripped off so much from FHM that one realized that since they don't have a single original segment except for the X-Rated Challenge, then the fact that they didn't rip everything off makes them a stripped-down version of FHM, especially since the quality of their paper and pictures reminds me of 10 Mag. Yes, I do know about that magazine, and yes, I really do concern myself with the articles a lot, so I can quite be finicky with what they have to say. For a magazine priced as much as FHM, they sure feel shoddy in direct comparison to the latter.

All things considered, I can only hope the magazine gets better with time. I won't be picking up any of its next issues unless the change becomes apparent.

.:Din-Din And A Birthday:.

Needless to say, I was glad to have found the opportunity to have a fine dinner with Sean, Clair, JM, Dom, Sacha, and Tita Harvey at Crocodile Grill. This was just right after I met up with Pomelo, although we didn’t get to stay on long, mainly because of the rallies going on in Ayala. I’ll talk about that later, but short as my time with Pomelo may have been, we certainly made the most out of it. She is sooooo gorgeous…

So yeah, the dinner. We were at Crocodile Grill, and having fun with conversations all around. The gay innuendo was still flying around, but all in all, it was good. I felt embarrassed when Sacha started ribbing me about Ching around Tita Harvey, though… that just isn’t the kind of conversation you toss around a dinner table with someone’s mom…

I certainly enjoyed the dinner. The food was great, as we had Crispy Tadyang in addition to our regular orders, plus a few more. Needless to say, the food was simply splendid. Everyone enjoyed the company, and bonded with each other quite a bit. I did have a memorable comment that sort of stuck out, though… heh.

Still, it was a great time. Too bad the birthday boy, Ranulf, wasn’t there. He would’ve certainly enjoyed it.

Despite that, Ranulf had me and Jac mini-celebrating his birthday in Cheesecake, Etc. It was a good time, really. Ron has been quite a revelation of a friend to me in recent months, as he has been spot on with telling me a lot of different things.

Happy birthday to you, jabroni. =)

.:No Separation Anxiety This Time?:.

I decided to skip on this week’s suman post, but I’m still in a bind, regardless. =P

Seriously, I think since I had to pick between writing about my best friend who will be leaving for Canada for a full two years or writing about suman, I definitely would pick the former. I haven’t written a post that is dominantly about Sacha in ages, but this occasion just screams for it, I guess.

And so she’ll be leaving. And she’ll be gone for two years. The realization has sunk in a long time ago, but unlike the last time when she disappeared for six months, I don’t seem to be as affected as I was the last time.

But don’t let that fool you. Sacha is my best friend. I care about her a lot, and of course would terribly miss hearing from her personally on a regular basis. I would certainly miss those random moments where the two of us would hatch a hare-brained plan at the spur of the moment to get the barkada together, fetching the Just Geeks League (Lol.) from the darkest of libraries, to the coldest of radio stations, to the depths of Eastwood, to the farthest of Baguios, and to the mazes of Dumaguete. I would definitely miss hearing that inimitably anime voice that makes Smurfette seem like Sean singing bass. I’d miss her again on my birthday celebration, as she’d obviously miss another one of them, making it four successive invitations she inadvertently turned down for one reason or another.

Yes, there will be a lot of things I would miss about Sacha once she’s gone. But in the end, I know it’s because she’s doing it to blaze the trail she was always meant to. Who are we to get in the way of that? Like all of us, Sach was born for greater things, and she would naturally choose the better things. In the sense that I know all too well that she won’t regret her decision to go to Canada for two years to take her Masters, then I’d be too happy for her to go through Separation Anxiety all over again.

A lot has changed for me since she came back from Japan, and I don’t really have to enumerate those changes. I don’t even have to mention the most important change with regard to her. You all know that. The bottomline is this post is less about me saying I’m going to miss her than it is about me saying that wherever Sacha may go, she’d still be that amazing, breathtaking, and enchanting human being I’ve known for five years. I’d still hear from her. She’d still be thoughtful enough to send postcards to her friends. She’d still care enough to comment on someone’s blog or LJ when he or she feels too depressed and finds a severe drought of cyber-hugs.

Even if she didn’t, we’d still know that her heart’s in the right place, anyways.

Godspeed to you, Sach. Blaze that trail, and do us all proud, most especially yourself, your family, and the one whom He gave to you.

You are blessed to have what you do. In turn, we are blessed to have someone like you.

.:Stressed Out Again:.

I had a deal that was supposed to net me $800. It was supposed to jumpstart me out of my financial woes.

And then the guy’s dad forces him to balk from the deal.

Eff you. You have no idea what you just did. You just put me in a stranglehold, you bastich.