Last night I went for birthday dinner #4 at Bubba Gump in Greenbelt 3. I've always seen it around, and I've wanted to try it out sometime, and of course we've all heard it in the Forrest Gump movie, but last night was my first time there.

And it was a really really good first time!

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Maybe it had to do with the fact that I loved seafood, or maybe it had to do with the company I was with, but whatever it was, I had a great time.

We began dinner with All-American Cheesy Fries. I don't think I've ever seen so many things—yummy things, don't worry: sour cream, green onions bacon bits, and cheddar cheese sauce—on top of french fries. (Unless you count our childhood experiments.) Not that I'm complaining. Haha!

And then for drinks I had Speckled Lemonade, which is lemonade with mashed strawberries in it. It sounded interesting right off the bat, but when I tried it, it was way better than I expected! The strawberry and lemon flavors complimented each other so well and didn't over-power each other. And I loved it when strawberry pulp made its way up my straw. Haha!

Moving on to main entrees.

"I'm Stuffed!" Shrimp. The shrimp eats crab meat. Hehe. Kidding. But, really, it's a large shrimp (in Manila standards, I guess) stuffed with crab, baked in garlic butter and topped with Monterey Jack Cheese. Getting hungry already? I know I did when I saw it on the menu. And the dish itself did NOT disappoint. The crab-shrimp was tasty and melts in your mouth!

Up next was the Fajitas. We got the Chicken and Shrimp one, but you can get it with only shrimps on it. It comes with flour tortillas, salsa and sour cream and black beans. Now, I never liked black beans, but with this dish I loved it. Maybe I got a little less than most would put in their tacos, but still. I ate black beans! Congratulate me.

The fajitas is also served with guacamole, but I didn't notice it because it wasn't on the same tray. Hm. I wonder if our server made a mistake, or if it was meant to be like that. They should keep it in one tray, methinks, because some of my friends thought it was coleslaw and ate it by itself. Haha!

Oh, and we had House Salad with Oriental dressing. I LOVE IT. Period.

...No, wait, I take back the period.

I love it because the veggies were so very fresh, and the crutons were toasted just right, and the whole bowl (and contents) was cold so it was refreshing, and the dressing was yummy! I usually prefer vinaigrette over Oriental dressing, but Bubba Gump's oriental salad rocks. I dunno why, but it does.

Aside from the food, I'd like to say a little something about the place.

I LOVE THEIR DECOR! It's a mix of vintage American stuff, quotes from the movie, quotes from...I dunno where but they have that Forresty feel. It was so very cozy, the seats were comfortable, and the service crew is nice.

They have an interesting system for calling waiters. They have two car plates on each table: a blue one that says "Run Forrest Run" and another that says "Stop Forrest Stop". If you want your waiter to come and assist you in any way (get your order, water, utensils, take a photo of your group, or whatever) you just flip the car plate to display the "Stop Forrest Stop" one, and a server will come in seconds. How cool is that?

Needless to say, I had a really great time with friends at Bubba Gump. We stayed there for three or so hours, and I think that, if only it wasn't almost midnight and I still had to go back to Quezon City (which is about an hour and a half's travel from Greenbelt), we would have stayed a bit longer.

There's a Bubba Gump in Trinoma, too, though, so don't be surprised if one of my posts is about me going for Shrimp again. Haha!

Sunday, August 31, 2008

wishlisting :: September '08

It's that time of the year again when I make my birthday wish list. And you know what's the best part in making a wishlist? It's crossing out some of the stuff I listed last year because I already got them already! Woohoo!!!

This is updated from wishlisting :: September '07.

Music: The Eraserheads catalog on CD to replace my cassette tapes. And I also (especially) want the Fruitcake book which I can find nowhere now. A Beatles songbook (sana yung Jingle, pero OK lang kung hindi). Kumpas. ARGH that album rocks. Thanks, Ana!

Oh, and I want my violin to be stringed (and tuned) again.

Eheads list:

• PopU! (nyehe. Wish ko lang)
• Ultralectromagneticpop!
  
• Circus
• Cutterpillow
  
• Fruitcake EP
  
• Fruitcake
  
• Banantype EP
  
• Stickerhappy
• Aloha Milkyway
• Natin '99
• Carbon Stereoxide
• UltralectromagneticJam
  
• Anthology 1
  
• Anthology 2
  

Movies: Groundhog Day, Kung Fu Panda, Clueless and the Disney movies (from Little Mermaid to Mulan) on original DVD. And TokiKake. And Spirited Away. And Howl's Moving Castle.

Techie: MY OWN CAMERA! A new monitor for my PC. And a flash drive. And a TABLET. And my own Macbook (or, fine, at least an Asus EEE PC.)

Books: Pride and Prejudice. Spiderwick Chronicles. The books borrowed from me but were never returned: The Four Comedies by Shakespeare, and This Present Darkness. The Mediator series (and Jinx, too!) by Meg Cabot. How to Draw Manga. Check out my Shelfari account for my book wishlist.

Houseness: I still want my room to be repainted...someday. I've also been looking at moving to an apartment of my own.

Studyisms: Japanese lessons again, violin lessons again, cello lessons... All (or any) of that fit my schedule (and my wallet).

Saturday, August 25, 2007

wishlisting :: September '07

So my birthday's coming up. Wishlisting~ Both possible and impossible, material stuff and cyberspace things... Shyeah. I used to do this every Christmas. I realize that I never did this for my birthday (I think). So...yeah. This is Wishywish 2005, updated. I'll update this whenever I remember something.

Needs: I want my room to be repainted already. I want new glasses, too. @_@ An' refills for my make-up kit... and new clothesssssss...

MeWant!!!: Nodame's Tote bag. (the one in this page is cheaper)

Music: The Eraserheads catalog ('cept Ultraelectromagneticpop 'coz I already have that). Including (especially) the Fruitcake book which I can find nowhere now. A Beatles songbook (sana yung Jingle, pero OK lang kung hindi). And their anthology, too. Sugarfree's Talaarawan. Oh, and I want my violin to be stringed (and tuned) again.

Movies: Groundhog Day on DVD. >_< Techie: MY OWN CAMERA! A new monitor for my PC, and a flash drive. And a TABLET. and a LAPTOP!!!!

Books: The Mediator series (and Jinx, too!) by Meg Cabot. The books borrowed from me but were never returned: The Four Comedies by Shakespeare, and This Present Darkness. And a new book to read. Hm. You know what? Check out my Shelfari account for my book wishlist.

Art: Fanart for my stories... MY art for my stories. Hehe. I want any one of the "How To Draw Manga" books. I still have to get the authors down. And that Digital Art book... Arrr.

Manga/Anime: TokiKake original DVD. And Spirited Away. And Howl's Moving Castle.

Studyisms: voice lessons, Japanese lessons again, violin lessons again... All (or any) of that fit my schedule (and my wallet)

Blah: A massage. Or at least one whole day to goof off. By myself (or with friends). Basically one WHOLE day of just... being enjoyably useless.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

birthmonth aftermath

To say that my brithmonth was eventful would actually be an understatement.

Seriously.

I suppose I've had September days that have been full of surprises and gifts and little joyful moments, maybe, but I don't think I've ever had a more September month.

First on the agenda: I got sick. Yep, I was slammed and stuck in bed for my birthday. After a couple of days, my fever let up. I then experienced on of the things I hated most in the world: being weak. It was that stage after getting sick when you're not quite well yet, but you're not exactly sick anymore, either. It's that stage where you don't have to be in bed, but you can't do anything out of it, either. It was absolutely annoying and frustrating, but I had to deal with it.

During the time I was sort of sick, I went ahead and worked on my pending translation jobs, and began cleaning up my room. No, not just tidying up my room, but doing a major overhaul. I mean, come on. I had a week of staring at my discolored ceiling, and too much time to think of things I can do to do my room over. Although my walls, unfortunately, have yet to be repainted, I had moved some of my furniture, removed some of my stuff, and put some clothes on sale.

It was a long-overdue chore, and I suppose it's good that I got sick so I finally got around to doing it. Something good came out of that horrendous week, I guess. It was predictably tiring yet incredibly refreshing to purge unnecessary stuff that I've been holding on for far too long. And I'm glad I did it.

After that ordeal, things began to happen one after another. I got a big translation project, I found out that one of my brothers is already a lot more popular than I had thought, my family and I went out to watch RockEd, we had a blast of a birthday party and an awesome Dine & Jam, and... I began to look for another job.

Yep, I finally decided to look for a new job. A couple of days later, I applied for a job. A few days after that, I got an interview appointment. A couple of days later, I had my interview.

And then I got in.

Yes. I got the job. In a matter of days.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, I thought that my oh-so-eventful birthmonth was going to end there. What with the many things that had already happened.

But, I was wrong. Typhoon Milenyo came and blew everybody away, making us cherish daylight, and enjoy "candlelit dinners" with family. It was sad, in a way, but it was still a good time, if you only look at it in a different light.

So...yeah. That was my September 2006.

Surprising? Maybe.
Tremendously fun? Definitely.

Monday, September 05, 2005

the aftermath: shout-outs

Wow.

And here I thought my "birthday month" had ended already, seeing that it started in July. My cellphone still won't let me alone, the second wave of gifts come in, and more exclamations of "Wow, dalaga na siya~!" resound around me.

No, I'm not complaining.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who sent me the hundred birthday messages, greeted me to no end, and kept my phone busy the whole day. My wording may be harsh, but I love you guys.

My love goes out to my best friends Sara, Beth and Loraine for being so loyal to great me every year. And not only on the phone, but also in my chatterbox. And I'm sure I can count on you to bring me my gift, too. XD Kidding.

Salamat kay Fin, kahit pa chikkatext ang gamit mo. Thanks din kay Andrea: sana maalala kitang igreet sa birthday mo at hindi ako ma-late. I also would like to thank Lenina, who greeted me a "belated happy birthday" in August. Hehe. I wanna say "YO!" to KUYA Patrick. You surprised me by tagging, dude. I didn't think you were reading my blog.

Uh...yeah. I won't enumerate everyone else, because I'm not sure if they're gonna read this (plus there's too many of them and I'll likely forget to mention someone, and I might hurt some feelings).

Thanks, y'all!!!

*bow*

Sunday, September 04, 2005

bente-uno

The thing about my birthdays is: I tend to look back and see how I've changed within the past year.

No, I have NOT grown taller, despite what everyone says. I haven't gained weight; I alternately lost and gained weight within the year. Thankfully, my eyesight hasn't gotten worse. My fashion style has slightly changed. I've started drawing again. I've gained a handful of incredible friends in my senior year in college. I've spent more time with my best friends than I have in the last four years.

I'm working now, and I'm loving the Language more and more. I think I've become more responsible, though I still have a LONG way to go. I've discovered that there's more to multi-tasking than I thought. I realized that there's more to discipline than I thought. I think I can now distinguish the difference between dreams that'll remain dreams, and visions that can become reality. I think I've learned to take time to smell the flowers. I think more now. Or, at least, I think so.

The thing about "special" brithdays is: I tend to look at myself, and wonder why on earth I'm not what I expected myself to be when I've reached that age. Like, for example, when I turned 16. Before, I looked at 16-year-olds and think tall, gorgeous girls wearing skirts to parties. Fun. Boyfriends. Freedom. When I turned 16, I felt like I didn't even take a step away from 15. Not that I had a problem with it. I wasn't exactly chained up, I had lots of fun, and I was still gorgeous.

Before, when I looked at 18-year-olds, I saw college girls with lots of money, living in their own houses with their sorority sisters, they'd have total control over their lives, did what they willed, and be totally mature in the eyes of the world. When I turned 18, I didn't think I was anywhere far from 16.

And today, I turned 21.
It was the day when my cellphone was ringing nonstop.
It was the day when my older brother became my twin again.
It was the day I thought nothing could go wrong.

00:00 - Attempt not to laugh too loud as Sara sings me a hilariously special birthday song.
00:02 - Collapse on my bed.
06:00 - Wake up with a smile.
07:30 - Wait for the taxi we called.
07:45 - Try to keep smiling even if the taxi comes late.
08:00 - Arrive in church to set up; be greeted by 40 people in less than an hour.
10:30 - My mom's shoulder starts to hurt again because of the airconditioning.
11:00 - My mom and I have a misunderstanding, which explodes to a big one.
12:00 - We're still "talking" outside UP Film center. Me eyes are starting to feel numb.
12:30 - Kuya Tim and a friend come to the rescue. I continue to bawl my eyes out.
12:45 - Mom and I have had our breathers, so we go out to lunch and talk it over.
14:30 - I collapse on my bed.
17:30 - I wake up with a headache. Take two Paracetamol tablets and start cooking.
18:15 - Order in two pizzas.
19:00 - Float in Pizza Pasta heaven.
21:00 - Watch as Kuya Tim plays Sims on my PC.
23:00 - Gently kick Kuya Tim outta my room so I can sleep.
23:30 - Get up again so I can blog.

So that was how my day went. Now that I look back, it wasn't super duper spectacular, but it wasn't dullsville, either. It was...nice. My family was nice enough to be with me the whole day so I won't fall into a contemplative mood. If I had, what would I have thought? That I still feel like I'm 16? That I don't really feel like 21?

Well, now I'm thinking about it. And I noticed something: I didn't feel like it was my birthday. It started out fine, went downhill to terrible, then went back to something like a normal day. And, for some reason, that was OK.

Because the rest of the year was AWESOME, anyway.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Come to me, my pretties...

Time warp.

That's what I'd like to call it. Although the date don't say so, my birthday was last week. Really. Or at least I FELT like it was my birthday: I got a bunch of stuff from my mom. I mean a really BIG bunch of stuff that I've wanted, looked for, and hunted down for soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. There's this shirt (and a wallet) I've only seen in sketches I made of myself. There's that necklace I also only saw in my imagination, and actually gave my character because I wanted it to so much if it existed. There's a really cool pair of earrings we saw in a bunch of boring ones. And, of course, there's the Zen. The tiny Zen that I could hold in my hand, and you won't even know I was holding something. The one that arrived in the stores a mere hour before I bought it. MY Zen.

Man.

I felt like everything I wanted (or a LOT of 'em, at least) marched right up to me and jumped into my pocket.

... What a weird mental image. Rargh. I'm not thinking straight anymore...

Here's a little something about me. When I'm EXTREMELY excited, I can be:
(1) happy, jumpy, and talking-non-stop-at-uncontrollable-volumes,
(2) TRYing to speak, but can only manage to let out a gazzillion incomprehensible exclamations, or
(3) smiling dreamily while staring into space

I was planning to write a REALLY long blog entry, but...well... I guess just writing about it made me so excited about my stuff again. I think I'm in between #1 and #2 now. Yeah.

^______________^