Real Life 50 First Dates...

Do you remember the movie 50 First Dates where Drew Barrymore keeps on forgetting the present because of her amnesia so her husband, played by Adam Sandler, had to convince her every single day that he is not a stranger and they have been married for years?  Well, I really liked that movie.  It was so hilarious and kept me and my husband laughing for a while.  After that, I sort of wondered is the movie real?  Is there someone living that sort of crazy life?

I’m sure those of you who watched the movie wondered the same thing and now our questions have been answered.  Michelle Philpots is the woman living that life.  The 47 year old wife wakes up everyday with no recollection beyond the year 1994.  She has no idea what she did the day before whether it was something trivial like buying truck accessories or something important like marrying her husband, Ian.  Her  unfortunate condition was caused by two car accidents.  Doctors diagnosed her condition as anterograde amnesia, which is characterized by the loss of ability to create new memories or recall the recent past.

So how does someone like her live a normal life every day.  Just like in the movie, each morning her husband tries to convince her they’re married by showing her their wedding pictures.  Ian is luckier than Adam Sandler in the movie though because unlike Adam who had to convince Drew he’s not a stranger, Ian and Michelle met way beyond the accident so Michelle still has a memory of Ian.  After that Michelle tries to move on with her life with the help of post it notes that she had put up for herself to read the previous day.  Technology has also helped her tremendously.  She gets alerts from her mobile phone calendar on appointments and daily duties.  Every new acquaintance is logged in for future reference.  When she ventures out she is assisted by the sat-nav programmed with details of local shops and her own address.  Living with this condition has its perks too, it seems. A joke doesn’t get old on Michelle.  She can laugh at the same joke every single day.  For her, there is also no such thing as a repeat on TV.

Wedding Invitation Tips...

Weddings can be nerve wracking. There are so many details that are needed to be ironed. Even when sending out wedding invitations you need to do with great care.  Here are some guidelines that you need to know before you send out that wedding invitation.

1. It is tradition that the wedding invitations are done by hand and not printed. You can hire a calligrapher to do this work for you or if you have a good penmanship you can choose to do it yourself.
2. It is just proper that you send out the invitations at an early date so that the guest can have time to respond and prepare for the wedding. Also a last minute invitation is bad taste and gives out the impression that you hadn’t planned on inviting the guest all along.

3. I have seen couples opting for bridal registries for their gifts. While this is practical for the couple because it will ensure they receive the gifts they most need some people are still not familiar with this concept and might frown upon it.

4.  Lastly, keep in mind that some people would want company so if you’re inviting make sure to include the spouse or the guest’s child in the invitation or if your guest is single leave a space for his/her date.

That’s it, folks.  Enjoy your wedding but don’t forget to send thank you notes after.

Iron Man 2...

Last Friday, we watched Iron Man 2 at Megamall.  I liked the first part a lot so I was looking forward to watching this one.  We arrived at 4:30 and found out that the movie will start at  5pm so with only 30 minutes left to eat we decided to take out some food instead.  Hubby asked the cinema staff if food is allowed and found out that yes, food is allowed except for rice and spaghetti.  Coincidentally, I wanted to order spaghetti that day so I had to eat the spaghetti just before we went inside.
We arrived at the theater in the nick of time.  We started munching on our food as soon as we were seated.  I was a bit apprehensive Z won’t like the movie.  Those who have small children know how embarrassing it is if their children gets bored in the middle of a movie.  During the first part when the characters were just talking Z couldn’t care less about the movie and was playing with his chair which in turn was making some noises.  I tried to stop him and good thing he listened but when the movie gets boring again he starts playing with his chair again.  So that’s why all throughout the movie I was silently praying that it will have less talk and more action scenes because action scenes he likes a lot. The problem was when he can’t understand what’s going on he starts asking questions loudly.  Whew, it’s really hard watching a movie when you have a young kid in tow but Z is getting better and better and we’re predicting that this year (well, until just before our baby is born) we’ll be watching more movies.  After that when our baby is born we won’t be able to see the inside of the moviehouse again in years. )

First Day of VBS...

Today is the first day of Z’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) which was held at St. Francis Square.  We arrived at the mall as early as 8am and it’s past 5pm when we got back home, no wonder my feet are aching.

So proud of Z who was unfazed even though there were hundreds of kids in one place.  One year ago he would have been crying and refusing to participate upon seeing that kind of crowd.

So as early as 8:30am we were able to leave Z alone and me and hubby were free to do whatever we wanted.

First stop was to go to the bank to process my Eon card.  I’m so happy that I can finally apply for one.  Unfortunately, when we arrived at the bank it was closed.  We forgot it was holiday!  Arrgh!  There was nothing to do but laugh at how foolish we have been.  Fortunately, we will be going back everyday until Friday for Z’s VBS so I have plenty of time to get it done.

With nothing to do until 11:30 we stopped by Starbucks.  I quickly tried their old-fashioned glazed doughnut which I heard tastes really good.  My verdict: it was good the first few bites but for health reasons don’t even try finishing the whole doughnut in one sitting.  I think I got an upset stomach right after eating all of it.

Next, we went back to the mall to look for maternity clothes.  I walked around for an hour but didn’t find anything I like.  After VBS we went to fetch Z.  Found out he cried a little because it was too long for him.  Yes, 3.5 hours may be a bit too long but hopefully he’ll get used to it.  Anyway, his Dad tried to bribe him so he won’t cry the next day.  So our next stop was Toy Kingdom!

You won’t believe how long we were at Toy Kingdom today.  We might have broken our previous record because today we were there a total of 3 hours!  Can you beat that?!  Anyway, the reason why we spent three hours there was because of this.

Z tried it around the store for hours.  He liked it that much.  Of course we wanted to buy it for him but we just bought a pretty expensive toy for him a few months back so we just let him try it for as long as he wanted.

By 3pm we were out of the toy store.  We bought new school shoes for our incoming prep student.  Last year, we bought a cheap pair but by half the school year some of the black had faded away so this time we bought a pair of Chicco shoes.  Good thing they were on sale.

By 3:30pm we were already famished so we dropped by KFC.  On the way home I was able to grab a book on sale at National Book Store for only P50.  Entitled “Fit Forever” this book by Jeanne Ernst promises to teach me some moderate exercises I can do at home (even while sitting) and also some good eating habits.  Let’s see how I’ll fare.  Day 1 starts tomorrow.

So that’s the end of our long and tiring day.  We’re going to go back there tomorrow but hopefully we won’t stay too long next time.

More People Dissatisfied with Agua Bendita...

I’m really disappointed with the teleserye, Agua Bendita.  We used to watch it every night and still watch it most nights but frankly, me and my boy don’t pay much attention to it anymore.  We’re losing interest fast and that’s because the role of Agua is too much of a doormat.  She’s too good to be true and it really get on my nerves while the character of Bendita is too “salbahe” for my taste.  People who stumble on my blog because of my Agua Bendita post can’t resist to speak their minds too and a few months back I already made a post about a reader’s comment on Agua Bendita who left a long comment about her dissatisfaction of the said teleserye.  Just yesterday, I received another long comment  from Cammie which I think deserves some space in my blog so I’m going to publish it here.  I hope the production team behind Agua Bendita would be able to read this and get some insight on what the people really think about their teleserye and make the necessary changes.

I wholeheartedly agree with your reviews. “Agua Bendita’’ promotes self-pity and victim mentality. Even the theme song itself (hanggang kaya aalis ang paghihirap niya?) just gives the viewers the whole ‘’poor me, I’m a victim, there’s nothing wrong with me and the world is so unfair and cruel’’ kind of thinking. An even BETTER protagonist should be able to:

A. Fight Back- Agua NEVER does this. If she did, I personally would’ve loved the show more. All this is teaching our kids that defending themselves against injustice is a bad thing. The reason why corruption and injustice are so rampant in this country is because people forgive too much and are too passive to intervene. If we teach children that it’s a good thing to let people do horrible things to you and not fight back, what would happen if they end up with an abusive spouse, smuggler with a knife or a corrupt official?

B. Have Resilience- Anaylze the lyrics of the theme song. Is that what we want our children to sing to themselves? Seriously, the song is the most pathetic one I’ve heard in my life. It not only promotes self-pity, but unconciously avoids people to do anything about their situation. And the song is not the only thing bad here—the entire show is about how good Agua was, how pityful she was, how many problems she had. ZERO RESILIENCE, man.

Is that what we want to teach our children? To pity themselves too much? Of course not! We want to let them know that through integrity, intelligence and courage, we could survive the most unpleasant ordeals of life.

C. Avoid Victim Mentality- And replacing it with an open-minded survival mentality. All this show does is to satisfy a person’s oppressed feelings by making him or her think that he or she is the ‘’good’’ victim when in fact, there are times (I’m not saying that this happens everytime) when our own actions are the cause of our problems. Everybody has good and bad points. (See letter D for more) One of resilience’s greatest enemies is self-pity, which is brought upon by victim mentality. If all of us see ourselves as survivors instead of victims of our problems, our country would be in a much better state.

D. Have Flaws-Seriously! Agua is 100% perfect. While others pity her more for this, it just annoys me to no end. If Agua had some flaws, I’d love her better. Instead, the show makes her some sort of perfect little angel who commits no sins, when in fact, all of us humans do. Take Santino from May Bukas Pa, for example-even though he was the typical ‘’miracle’’ boy, he had the tendency to do what he wanted and at some points he even disobeyed the priests. Does this make him a bad protagonist? Not at all! Quite the opposite, it makes him a better, more human, more lovable, more relatable and less annoying character than Agua.

On to Bendita. Honestly, I feel that she’s an even better character than Agua! Not because of her bratty, selfish behaviour—but because of the depth she had. She had a lonely childhood with fighting parents and a constant struggle for attention, and was taken care mostly of a greedy grandmother, and though these do not excuse her ugly behaviour, it reflects real life instances where abused children abuse other children. However, also in real life, when we fight with other people we tend to see ourselves as ‘’victims’’ and our enemies as the ‘’abusers,’’ when most of the time, fights occur because of faults from both sides. What does this show teach our children? If you have a fight with someone, you’re the good one, you have done nothing wrong and you should pity yourself and not look in both sides of the situation. And the way Bendita’s actions go unpunished. Thing is, in real life evil deeds do go unpunished, however, evil deeds also get imitated. There are too many Benditas in this world. Let’s not add more.

The point is, if Agua made mistakes and acted more like human (despite her liquid-like appearance) her character would have much more depth. And child viewers wouldn’t see the world in black-and-white. Because the world isn’t like that—good people could do bad things,and vice versa.