Photo of the Rock Garden in front of Lyle's school.
So desert-y, eh?

View additional photos I took today of sights around me.

Today, as I was browsing my Friendster account, I noticed that sis Mae uploaded a picture taken of all of us together at her wedding:

Left to Right: Jona, Anne, Telle, Sis Leah, Romell, Sis Mae & Mon, Myself & Roan, Lhot and Lloyd

 I, of course, grabbed the pic and added it to the existing "Mae's Wedding" album under "Friends" in our Photo Gallery.

You know, I don't really cry at weddings like some people do. They just make me wistful.

I was married once, back in 1999, and it was a very simple affair at a chapel in Reno, Nevada. We didn't really think things through and through back then; it was just one of those, "Hey, why don't we get married this weekend" kind of impulsive banter with each other. The next thing I knew, we were shopping for wedding rings and driving up to Reno with my cousins as witnesses. I suppose I was in love at that time, and love makes you do crazy things sometimes. That marriage lasted till about the time we separated in October 2004, and finally divorced in January of this year. That marital union produced a son, and he's turning 6 this July.

Yes, weddings make me wistful because I can't help thinking about how when I was younger, I thought marriages lasted forever. That when I walked down the aisle, it was "for better or worse, till death do us part". Apparantly not.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever going to get married again.

"I've called you 3 times since I woke up an hour ago, how come you weren't answering?" Roan complained in a just-woke-up, I'm-kinda-cranky voice.

I have this thing against answering "Unknown" or "Private Calls" because they're usually spam calls, but unfortunately, the bulk of Roan's calls come out as "Unknown" because of the phonecard he uses for his long distance calls to me. Sometimes his calls have a local number attached, since the phone company prolly routes the call locally here.

"You didn't wake me up this morning," I pouted.

"I know, I'm sorry. I sent you a text message around 5:30am your time, did you get it?" he asked.

"Not at the time you sent it, but I read it when I woke up. Good thing I had my alarm set this morning," I told him.

"Yeah, I was waiting for exactly 7:30am your time to call so I could wake you up, but I fell asleep by 10pm here," he said apologetically.

I heard his dad talking to Rociel in the background, so I told him to go enjoy his brunch with his family, take his time with them before going online for our daily chats. He doesn't have a working PC at home, so he goes to a local Internet cafe near his home everyday to be with me. The costs really add up, considering he hardly misses a day of chatting with me for several hours -- another sacrifice he makes on his part that I wholeheartedly appreciate; a large portion of his paychecks goes to his efforts just to be with me.

"Ok, fine," Mr. Cornbip agreed. "I'll be with you later. I love you mahal. See you."

Our company will have a trade show booth at the Ad-tech San Francisco (April 26-28) and the Ad-tech New York (November 6-8) conventions to promote our newest innovative "buy and sell flat-rate text advertising" product, and we had shirts made for this event. I was tickled yellow when I found out that the shirts were in one of my favorite colors.

I had my co-worker take a snapshot of the shirts before they FED-ex'd me my small-sized ladies version (v-neck, no buttons):

Nice.

Roan's breaktimes at work usually consists of a phone call to me just to say hi, and today's call was one I awaited a bit anxiously because of the fact that he was transferred just today to another workplace -- from the Heritage Hotel to the Westin Philippine Plaza.

It was his first day at the new location, and I'm glad to hear that he seemed to be adjusting well (as I knew he would, since he's pretty much like me who can adjust well to new situations, new environment, and new people). He said the place had a really nice ambiance (another thing I already knew because I've gone there several times before on my visits to the Philippines), but had fewer people compared to his previous work locations.

Most of the times, I really appreciate his efforts, his calls, his time online with me, his ways of constantly communicating with me every few hours. But on rare occasions, such as this one when we talk about how are day went or how our day is going so far, I can't help but feel even more depressed because I really feel how far away he is from me. He talks about what he's eating for lunch when I'm already getting ready for bed; when it should be us talking about where we're gonna grab something to eat together, or I should be falling asleep on his shoulder just about now.

Sigh, I really hate this huge distance between us. This is my first long distance relationship that seems to be working out so far; my first attempt at it with my first serious boyfriend didn't work out at all (this was back when I went back to the U.S. after college). It really does take two commited individuals to make a long distance relationship work, and so far, we're both holding on and we'll be celebrating our first anniversary next month (whew 12 months, can hardly believe it).

I don't know, it's late and I prolly just need to hit the sack right now. He's called twice since he started work today, and I found myself irritable when I was talking to him. I hated myself for asking who he was having lunch with at his new workplace, if they're boys. "Sus, oo naman shempre mga lalaki," he responded as if I'd asked a silly question. (Sheesh, but of course I'm having lunch only with my guy friends, no girls)

"Love you, mahal," he said, "call you up later again. Pero get some sleep okay."

"Love you too," I replied, albeit a little sad.

It's just a serious case of those "missing him" blues right now I guess.  

Gotta have the stuff that keeps me functioning throughout the day!

Added the "Family" category in our Photo Gallery, photos of our immediate and extended families, as well as very close family friends will go here.

Added my Second Grade class picture to my BIO page. Can you guess where I am in this picture?

Phone log around Saturday evening March 25 PST, and Sunday morning March 26 Manila Time 

Him: Mahal, it's 26 na here, happy 11th monthsary!
Her: Oh? 26 ba anniv natin? I thought 25
Him: Gago ka talaga! Nakalimutan mo no!
Her: Hahaha, no just kidding, you're usually the one bad with dates kaya I'm just making sure naalala mo pa
Him: Sus sira ulo! Palusot ka pa...
Her: Hahaha, hindi nga, happy monthsary din mahal

We usually spend 2 days on monthsaries because of the time difference. Mahal, it's 26 na here kaya happy 11th monthsary to us!

 Cheers to many, many more to come!

You Have 1 New Message!

From: Roan

Super ehem! Love you? Love you more? Miss you? Miss you more? All d above are not enuff!!! Kulang pa lahat yan para iparating sayo kung gaano kta kamahal. EHEM!!! Mahal n mahal kta Katherine

10:53am 3/24/06

You Have 1 New Message!

From: Roan

Kanina p ako 2matawag sayo di ka sumasagot, papunta n ako sa work. Puta di ko na alam kung nasan ka na.

9:45pm 3/24/06

Got the "Him" section completed; the Guestbook, the Photo Gallery, and this Blog now functions as they should. The Contact Us section is also completed; just trying to get the gdform.php to redirect to the correct page once the contact form has been submitted. I've got it set up to e-mail me the information, but somehow the landing page/redirect just isn't working yet. It goes back to the homepage once the contact form has been filled out, which is not where I want it to go.

I also still need to complete the content for the other sections, then it should be ready for a soft launch.