coming out of a 9-day hiatus from work, there were some things i realized, other things i became pensive about, and some more things i left lying around, prone to future time-consuming, brain-cell draining revisits, like bad karma on a penniless monday morning. no, wait, like re-hashed filipino soap operas with really bad acting not worthy of this person's time or attention, or filipino "superhero" telenovelas with stories copied from such big hits like "smallville" or something similar. yuck. well, summing it up, i came with two things:

one – never, ever take a 9-day vacation from work with half-baked plans of going out of town. what was supposed to be my first trip to puerto galera ended up washed away to sea like a message in a bottle. a couple of days before the said trip, with monetary expenses already budgeted and kept aside, one after another, the persons going on the trip backed out with reasons some that were acceptable, some that will prompt me to say, "why don't you just say that you can't come in the first place instead of 'i'll go, but i'm not sure'?" but laid back as i am, i shrugged it aside and i was given the idea of going to tagaytay instead. sure, i'm game. so i took it upon myself to co-organize the trip with a dear friend and invited members from a mailing list that i'm a part of and posted the details. the trip was supposed to happen last friday morning for i already have work on saturday night (technically dawn of sunday). the plan was to leave at 9am and have lunch there, enjoy the sights and go back in the afternoon. the reactions i got were from "i'd love to but i can't," to "why is it on a friday?" to "i will go only if these certain people come too…" now that last reply nearly, and i mean nearly, blew my top. why the heck are you setting conditions for you joining the trip? does that mean when you do join, you're not going to have any fun if those people don't tag along? if you want to join the trip, then just come along for christ's sakes!! eventually, that trip too was scrapped, yet to be rescheduled and hopefully, i won't be able to read anything of that sort anymore. now you may ask, what did i do during those 9 days? had my system full of alcohol specifically saturday last week, memorial day monday, thursday, and this past friday. looking at the brighter side though, i did save the money supposed to be for those out of town trips. yipee.

two – every bad ending to a love story is a sure-fire sequel to another love story with a similar, if not worse ending. case in point, in my experience (if you would call that a love story). the lisa chapter ended hanging (back-read if you want to 2003-2004) which resulted in the same with donna (2004-2005). i guess i'll just leave it at that. do i deserve an explanation why she did what happened? given the circumstances, i think i deserve to be a little selfish and answer with a resounding yes. yet, only time will tell, so here's to another open book ending. kept in a table, waiting for the time to be closed, no matter how long and to be put on the shelf for memory's sake. does this mean that i'm over donna? honestly, i don't know and i cannot say when a definite answer will come. all i know is that i loved a person when i thought i never could do such anymore.

on a late comment, i'd just like to thank armorchink for his/her comments on my entry about the movie "the da vinci code." yes, i do see your point of view, and i understand that completely. what just strikes me more is that with the catholic church, in all its power, be threatened by a mere movie? as what tom hanks said towards the end of the film, "what matters is what you believe in." i am a catholic, was raised a catholic, yet after watching the movie, none of my beliefs changed. i didn't question my parish priest, or any catholic priest for that matter. yes, it did pose some interesting and insightful thoughts on what the real deal is with christianity. but again, what matters is what i believe in. catholics/christians who suddenly turn and question their faith after seeing the film are not good catholics/christians to begin with. for me, the movie is just pure entertainment.

and finally, speaking of movies, the weekly chain of watching movies was broken this past week. after seeing "x-men: the last stand" (and i tell you, it's a darn good movie, worthy of a dvd wait) no good movies came out this past week. at least "cars" is coming up later in the week. but i still can't wait for "superman returns." the trailers are killing me with excitement!!

and another mental note: "whatever doesn't kill you, will just hurt you even more."