The New Reading List

Because the Book Hoarder struck again, I now have a new reading list to contend with:

From the old list
1. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
3. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
4. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
6. Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

From the Powerbooks Powerbarter (aka the Guilty Pleasures)
7. Toxic Bachelors by Danielle Steel
8. Up Close and Personal by Fern Michaels
9. The Long Walk Home by Will North
10. The Debutante Divorcee by Plum Sykes
11. Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding
12. Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself by Judy Blume
13. Diary of a Mad Mother-to-Be by Laura Wolf
14. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
15. Wives Behaving Badly by Elizabeth Buchan
16. The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith

From the Fully Booked sale
17. The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld
18. Brown Owl's Guide to Life by Kate Harrison
19. The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax
20. Why Men Want Sex and Women Need Love by Allan and Barbara Pease

From the Powerbooks sale
21. The Position by Meg Wolitzer
22. Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

From the National Bookstore sale
23. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
24. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

On the borrowed list
25. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella


Whew! Now that I've struck out two out of 25, I wonder what I should read next. I need some light reading-- Her Fearful Symmetry turned out to be a tad disturbing. :O

Update: 101 Things in 1,001 Days

It's now August, and the last time I posted an update was in April. So it's high time that I reevaluate this list!

START DATE: 01 January 2010

END DATE: 28 September 2012

READING AND WRITING

1. Write one journal entry every day for two weeks. (0/14)

2. Write one blog entry per week for one month. (0/4)

3. Finish my reading list. (7/12) --The list has grown to 24! Oh no, oh no!

4. Write a short story.

5. Write a poem.

6. Read "Pride and Prejudice" then watch the movie again. --I just bought myself a copy of the book, so that's a step!

7. Read five books I already own on TIME's All-Time Top 100 Books list

- Animal Farm

- Catcher in the Rye

- The French Lieutenant's Woman

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

- To Kill a Mockingbird

8. Read three books from my Gabriel Garcia Marquez collection. (0/3)

9. No buying books until I've completed my reading list. --I broke this. :( See previous entry.

10. Come up with five books I would recommend to anyone. (2/5) --I would recommend "The Time-Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult.

MOVIES

11. Finish watching my VCD and DVD movie collection.

12. Watch the whole series of "30 Rock". --I ended up finishing the first season of "Modern Family" instead, and buying the first season of "The Mentalist" and a boxed set of CSI NY. Yikes!

13. Watch "Terms of Endearment", Academy Award winner for Best Picture on the year I was born.

14. Watch five Academy Award winners for Best Picture:

- Casablanca

- Gone With the Wind

- Kramer vs. Kramer

- Amadeus

- Rain Man

PHOTOGRAPHY

15. Own and maximize the features of an SLR camera --This is almost happening, hopefully this month! *crosses fingers*

16. Learn something new from the Digital Photography School once a week for six months. (0/24)

17. Have photos from travels printed and organized in an album per trip.

18. Join Project 365.

19. Take more pictures of family and friends.

Still unsuccessful with Project 365, and I haven't been able to take photos lately. But I'm working towards getting that SLR, and it's not even going to be a joint purchase anymore! I'm looking forward to photography dates with M though, who is equally excited for me and is talking about going to parks and other places where I can practice shooting. :)

ARTS

20. Re-learn how to play "Tarantella" on the piano.

21. Learn a popular song on the piano.

22. Be able to play three pieces from memory. (0/3)

23. Learn more Photoshop tricks.

Still nothing from this part of the list. :(

TRAVEL

24. Visit three new places in the Philippines. (1/3) --Bantayan, Cebu

25. Go on at least one trip abroad.

26. Go on a beach trip. --Check! I went to Boracay over the summer for work, and to Batangas with M and the girls!

27. Explore a city I've never been to.

FOOD AND HEALTH

28. Eat in a new restaurant once a month. --The tight budget still rules. :(

29. Eat vegetables once a week for a month. (0/4)

30. Sleep before midnight every night for a week. (0/7)

31. Enroll in a gym and work out for a minimum of three months. --Still zero motivation for gym, but I'm now trying to start a routine of walking in the village at night for 30 minutes.

32. Try eating kare-kare. --I tried it once when we stopped over for lunch on the way to the Batangas beach trip. It was okay.

33. Learn to make five different fruit shakes. (0/5)

34. Finish my jug of water everyday. --There are days when I get to finish my jug!

35. Have some cotton candy on a random day.

36. Learn how to swim.

37. Cut down on sweets. --This has been working, largely because my tummy doesn't tolerate chocolate anymore. :(

FASHION AND BEAUTY

38. Buy ten dresses. (5/10) --3 dresses for the Boracay trip, 1 for date night, and a black dress for an event.

39. Update my wardrobe. --This has been happening steadily.

40. Grow my hair to ponytail length before getting a drastic cut. --It's at ponytail length now!

41. Wear my hair differently once a month.

42. Learn how to put on eye makeup.

ORGANIZATION

43. Clean up my office email.

44. Clean up my personal email.

45. Do a general cleanup of my room quarterly. --The first quarter cleanup happens tomorrow! :)

46. Do a general cleanup of my office space monthly. --I was able to a massive cleanup when my allergologist told me that the number one culprit for my allergic rhinitis is dust mites.

INTERNET

47. Get all dishes on Restaurant City up to Level 10. --This is becoming more difficult to do, as the game keeps adding new recipes to learn!

48. Use the computer for only two hours a day during the weekend, twice a month for a year. (0/24)

49. Go for an entire day without Facebook once a month for six months. (0/6)

50. Submit a secret to Post Secret.

51. Greet all my Facebook friends a happy birthday-- even the ones I don't know. --I've been doing this as best as I could, although there are some days when I neglected to check the birthdays section.

WORK-RELATED

52. Get to work by 9:00 A.M. everyday for one week. (0/5) --I've been coming to work everyday before 9AM, so I think I can strike this off my list. :)

53. Update my resume.

54. Get promoted. --CHECK! :D 

55. Get a raise. --CHECK! :D

FINANCES

56. Get my bank account to 100K by the end of this list.

57. Save all spare change for 1,001 days.

58. Make a budget and stick to it.

59. After computing for my expenses budget, withdraw everything and deposit into my savings account.

DRIVING

60. Be able to drive the big cars.

61. Take a different route to work once a week.

62. Take a different route home once a week.

63. Conquer my fear of driving in Makati by driving around on a Sunday for no reason.

FAMILY TIME

64. Get home in time for dinner twice a week for one month. (0/8)

65. Treat siblings out to lunch/dinner, just the three of us.

66. Have a sleepover with my cousins.

67. File a leave on my parents' birthdays. (1/2) --Didn't file a leave on Dad's birthday because he wasn't home anyway. I would've ended up hanging out with my mom, haha!

68. Go on five random weekday mall trips with my mom. (0/5)

69. Bring home pasalubong for my family on a random day. (0/3)

70. Have a Scrabble night with the family.

MELBERT

71. Go on an arcade date.

72. Watch DVDs together for an entire afternoon.

73. File a leave that coincides with his day-off and go on an unplanned, spontaneous date.

74. Go on a videoke date.

75. Go on a fancy dinner date. --CHECK! We got a little more dressed up than usual and had dinner in "The Chocolate Kiss" in UP Diliman. :)

76. Go on a trip together. --CHECK! We went to Bantayan with my officemates and Batangas with my college girlfriends. We hope to hit Bohol someday.

FRIENDS

77. Catch up with an old friend over dinner or coffee. --CHECK! Still need to work on keeping it up though.

78. Make a personalized gift for friends this Christmas.

79. Have a videoke night with the girls.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

80. Give 12 "saw this and thought of you" gifts to people who are not Melbert. (0/12)

81. Treat an officemate to lunch for no reason.

82. Buy fries and a drink at a drive-thru and give to a street kid on the way home. If not, to the neighborhood guard.

83. Leave a very generous tip at a restaurant.

84. Send a "just thought of you and hope you're well" text to ten people. (0/10)

ME-TIME

85. Take a birthday leave. (1/3) --Granted, the birthday leave wasn't exactly on my birthday, but still.

86. Have a massage monthly for a year. (0/12)

87. Pray every morning and every night.

88. Write down something I'm thankful for everyday.

89. File a leave just to stay home three times. (0/3)

90. Go to Ateneo on a Sunday for some quiet time. (0/3)

91. Take an afternoon nap during weekends twice a month.

THE FUTURE

92. Decide if I want to take graduate studies or not.

93. Have a list of things I would like in my future wedding.

94. Have a list of random things about my future.

MISCELLANEOUS

95. Write an entry for each day in my Starbucks 2010 planner. --CHECK! My Starbucks planner has my daily to-do list, and I feel naked without it.

96. Watch a concert. --CHECK! Watched Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Jojo last March. If all goes well, I'll get to watch Boyz II Men with M this coming Friday!

97. Finish a coloring book.

98. Vote wisely in the 2010 national elections. --CHECK!

99. Get braces removed.

100. Join the lotto.

101. Get a henna tattoo, just because I've never tried it. --CHECK!

The return of the book hoarder

It was bound to happen: I finally broke my promise to not buy any books until I was done with my reading list. In fairness, here's where my book list stands:

1. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
2. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
3. The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes
4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
5. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
6.The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman
7. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
8. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
9. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
10. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
11. The Diary by Eileen Goudge
12. Old School Ties by Kate Harrison

So I had four more books to go before all hell struck loose. By "all hell", I mean "before all bookstores decided to go on sale and have 80% off bins". Gaaaaah...

I kinda already cheated with the Powerbooks Powerbarter, which had me trading in eleven of my old books for eleven new-old books, whose titles I don't even remember now. (Classic sign of a book hoarder.)

Then I hit Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street, which held an exclusive sale for discount card holders in honor of its anniversary. I was able to get The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld (hardbound edition) and Brown Owl's Guide to Life by Kate Harrison (trade paperback edition) from the 80% off bin and The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax and The Don't Sweat Guide for Couples at 20% off. Thank goodness their anniversary sale ended yesterday!

Powerbooks was up next, where I ended up getting two books again, The Position by Meg Wolitzer (hardbound edition) at 80% off and Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner (trade paperback edition) at 40% off. The Powerbooks sale ends on August 15, so it looks like I should steer clear until then.

Then I dropped by National Bookstore in Shangri-La yesterday and was surprised to see that all imported books have a 20% discount. Apparently, the annual Cut-Price Booksale kicked off last July 30 and runs until August 22. I already had My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares in my hands, and I was really thinking if I should get it already (trade paperback at P420?! A steal, my mind screamed). Good thing my parents called to say we were leaving, so I dropped the book like a hot potato and ran out of the bookstore before I could change my mind.

Thing is... I can't get that book off my mind! Waaaah! And it even has five star reviews on Amazon! That's totally not helping! Granted, the cover available in National is different from the one that's on Amazon (which is also the trade paperback edition available in Powerbooks), but it's also P224 cheaper. Oh no oh no oh no!!!

That means that with my new acquisitions... 11 books from Powerbarter, plus 4 books from Fully Booked, plus 2 books from Powerbooks, plus the 4 books carried over from my previous reading list... my book list is now up to 21!!! Thank goodness I'm starting to read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger!

[Edited 07 August 2010] So I couldn't resist. I ended up getting a copy of "My Name is Memory" by Ann Brashares because I saw a copy in National Bookstore SM Megamall: it was the last piece, had the same cover as the one in Amazon, and was still cheaper than the one in Powerbooks. Original price was P675, so with the 20% discount, I was able to get it for P540. Then I also took the chance to get the P99.00 edition of "Pride and Prejudice", just so I could somehow move along on my list of 101 things in 1,001 days. So... that brings the book list to 24, including the book I received for my birthday! Yikes!

June already?!

For that matter, it's June 14 already. Meaning half of the month has already gone by. How time flies!

I've been terribly remiss with blogging, I know, but there isn't really much going on in life right now. It has been a cycle of going to work early, coming home, and ending the day by talking to M on the phone. There have been a few highlights, and those are:

1. I voted for the very first time in my life, and I'm proud that I really voted for someone that I believed in. Even if many people are strategic about their voting choices (i.e. "I believe in Candidate A, but I think that Candidate B has a bigger chance of winning."), I didn't let this sway my choice. In the end, even if my bet had only 500,000 people voting for him, I'm still proud to be part of that number.

Now I hope that the 13 million people who voted for our new President will really stand by their choice and not scream "People Power" the minute he makes a misstep.


2. My phone got stolen. And if I'm not mistaken, this is the very first time I've had my phone stolen. Ever. The incident made me discover that when faced with a crisis, I don't cry and I don't make a fuss. I end up feeling all numb inside, and maybe that's what "shellshocked" really means. And in the end, I console myself by beginning each sentence with "At least": at least it wasn't my work phone, at least it's easier to rebuild my personal contact list, at least I wasn't harmed, et cetera.

Now, with a new line, a new phone, and a new number, a new era also begins. Now, I have in my phone book only the people that I really care about. Now, I take on the new responsibility of paying for my own bill monthly. And now, I don't have to worry about unwanted people suddenly calling me up! A big bonus is that I really love my new phone!


3. I got promoted! Of course, with that comes a raise! Yay! :) I've yet to feel the effects of my new salary, but at least this brings me a step closer to my new camera. It also pushes me to really take stock of my finances and be wiser about saving up. I will need to sit down and do some number-crunching once I get my latest payslip. I'm also looking forward to the new responsibilities that await, which definitely includes training the two new members of our team.


I guess that's the top three so far. Haven't read any new books nor seen any new films, and I really do need to work on getting through my list. I hope the second half of the year brings new things as well. Ciao! :)

The Exercise Dilemma

I have never had a good relationship with exercise and any form of physical activity.

As a child, I was never allowed to really run around with other kids, and my games were more of the creative, indoors type. I always dreaded Physical Education classes-- I was no good at sports, and had two left feet that didn't do me any good at those different folk dances. Not only that, I hated having people watch you look awkward, get sweaty, and basically make a fool of yourself for an hour thrice a week.

Almost two decades later, I find that I haven't outgrown this. I don't want to go to the gym because it bores me. I don't want to workout in my room because I'm deathly afraid of doing things wrong and injuring myself. I don't want to join any classes because they remind me of PE classes all over again, yet when I attempt to do something solitary like walking, I still feel like people are watching and whispering about every move I make.

And while my head knows that exercise (or any form of physical activity, for that matter) is important, my body somehow doesn't want to follow. It has helped somewhat to be handling Women's Health Philippines for work, as the magazine really espouses that women should find a form of activity that they enjoy doing so that they will always be motivated to exercise. But I realize that there just isn't any physical activity I enjoy doing.

One of these days, I will have to wrap my head around the idea that there are just some things that you have to do, even if every fiber of your being is screaming "NO!!!" :(

Acoustic Memories

The radio dial was on 93.1, and it being a Wednesday, long-forgotten and much-missed tunes of the 90s blasted through the airwaves. And as I listened to an acoustic version of John Mayer's "No Such Thing", I was transported to another time and place-- college at the Ateneo.

Acoustic was a big hit in college, with John Mayer and Jason Mraz getting heavy rotation on our playlists. In the local front, we swooned when Paolo Santos crooned "Moonlight Over Paris" and people either loved or hated MYMP's covers. Those were the days when it was normal for my friends to be toting around their guitars, jamming a three-hour break away. It was a carefree time when I could just chime in and sing my heart out as they plucked and strummed on their guitars.

Those three minutes of my day were a throwback to simpler days. I miss. :(

Update: 101 things in 1,001 days

Edited on April 21! :)

It's April 1, meaning the first quarter of the year is over. I thought I'd see how I've been doing so far on my list. :) 

START DATE: 01 January 2010

END DATE: 28 September 2012

READING AND WRITING

1. Write one journal entry every day for two weeks. (0/14)

2. Write one blog entry per week for one month. (0/4)

3. Finish my reading list. (3/12) --It's now 7/12, yay! :)

4. Write a short story.

5. Write a poem.

6. Read "Pride and Prejudice" then watch the movie again.

7. Read five books I already own on TIME's All-Time Top 100 Books list

- Animal Farm

- Catcher in the Rye

- The French Lieutenant's Woman

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

- To Kill a Mockingbird

8. Read three books from my Gabriel Garcia Marquez collection. (0/3)

9. No buying books until I've completed my reading list. --Still successful with this one! :)

10. Come up with five books I would recommend to anyone. (0/5)

I haven't read anything in a long time, but I'm happy to say that I've been so far successful in not buying any new books. There's only been one addition to my list, as I was given The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows as a birthday gift. It has a very unusual title, and what's more intriguing is the rave reviews I've been hearing!

As for writing, it's not on my list, but I was able to attend a free Creative Writing seminar on Travel Writing. Even if the seminar turned out to be a refresher course on writing descriptively, it was still very helpful. I'm also looking forward to attending the two-day iBlog Summit on April 16-17. Yay for learning!

MOVIES

11. Finish watching my VCD and DVD movie collection.

12. Watch the whole series of "30 Rock".

13. Watch "Terms of Endearment", Academy Award winner for Best Picture on the year I was born.

14. Watch five Academy Award winners for Best Picture:

- Casablanca

- Gone With the Wind

- Kramer vs. Kramer

- Amadeus

- Rain Man

Haven't been able to accomplish anything on this part of the list yet, although my DVD collection has grown to include the Pixar collection. I've so far enjoyed watching Cars and Wall-E again. Just tonight, I watched a little-known movie by Renee Zellweger called My One and Only. It was a little disconcerting to see her playing a mother, and I didn't quite enjoy the film, but at least that's one film off my list. I'm looking forward to picking out a movie to watch after work, just so I have something to look forward to all day.

PHOTOGRAPHY

15. Own and maximize the features of an SLR camera

16. Learn something new from the Digital Photography School once a week for six months. (0/24)

17. Have photos from travels printed and organized in an album per trip.

18. Join Project 365.

19. Take more pictures of family and friends.

You may have noticed I've been terribly remiss in Project 365. It's not as easy as I thought it would be, and I thought that taking photos would be second nature for me. Apparently you can lose yourself in going through the daily motions of living, and it becomes a struggle to remember to photograph something meaningful. I hope to be able to take more photos though, especially since I'm seriously lusting after an SLR camera now, and am annoyed to see many people just toting it around as if it was a point-and-shoot. I would hate to think that these people have an SLR and just shoot on Auto Mode. As the Facebook page says: just because you have an SLR, it doesn't instantly make you a photographer.

I've recently taken concrete steps towards getting an SLR-- done my research, found out how much it costs, and now I know what model I want and how much I'll need to get it. Thankfully, it's turning it out to be a joint purchase between M and I, so yay for having faith in the future! :D

ARTS

20. Re-learn how to play "Tarantella" on the piano.

21. Learn a popular song on the piano.

22. Be able to play three pieces from memory. (0/3)

23. Learn more Photoshop tricks.

Alas, nothing from here. Except maybe the Photoshop tricks, thanks to my patient artist friends, who are generous with their time and talent. :)

TRAVEL

24. Visit three new places in the Philippines. (0/3) --I visited Bantayan, Cebu last February, so that's 1/3!

25. Go on at least one trip abroad.

26. Go on a beach trip. --I'll be going to Boracay next week, and hopefully to Batangas over the summer.

27. Explore a city I've never been to.

FOOD AND HEALTH

28. Eat in a new restaurant once a month. --Alas, the budget does not allow for this. :(

29. Eat vegetables once a week for a month. (0/4)

30. Sleep before midnight every night for a week. (0/7)

31. Enroll in a gym and work out for a minimum of three months. --The motivation is at zero. :(

32. Try eating kare-kare.

33. Learn to make five different fruit shakes. (0/5) --I learned that one apple makes two shakes, and you should go easy on the water.

34. Finish my jug of water everyday.

35. Have some cotton candy on a random day.

36. Learn how to swim.

37. Cut down on sweets.

FASHION AND BEAUTY

38. Buy ten dresses. (3/10) I bought three dresses for my Boracay trip, and I have my eye on one more!

39. Update my wardrobe.

40. Grow my hair to ponytail length before getting a drastic cut.

41. Wear my hair differently once a month.

42. Learn how to put on eye makeup.

ORGANIZATION

43. Clean up my office email. --I did this! I was able to organize everything into different mailboxes, but I think I could still do a better cleanup job. :)

44. Clean up my personal email.

45. Do a general cleanup of my room quarterly. --The first quarter cleanup happens tomorrow! :)

46. Do a general cleanup of my office space monthly.

INTERNET

47. Get all dishes on Restaurant City up to Level 10. --This is becoming more difficult to do, as the game keeps adding new recipes to learn!

48. Use the computer for only two hours a day during the weekend, twice a month for a year. (0/24)

49. Go for an entire day without Facebook once a month for six months. (0/6)

50. Submit a secret to Post Secret.

51. Greet all my Facebook friends a happy birthday-- even the ones I don't know. --I've been doing this as best as I could, although there are some days when I neglected to check the birthdays section.

WORK-RELATED

52. Get to work by 9:00 A.M. everyday for one week. (0/5) --I've been coming to work everyday before 9AM, so I think I can strike this off my list. :)

53. Update my resume.

54. Get promoted.

55. Get a raise.

FINANCES

56. Get my bank account to 100K by the end of this list.

57. Save all spare change for 1,001 days.

58. Make a budget and stick to it.

59. After computing for my expenses budget, withdraw everything and deposit into my savings account.

I computed my entire expenses budget until the end of the year (that is, the things I have to pay for and save up for on a monthly basis), but I haven't been successful with #59. Also forgot about #57, I think now I have some use for that piggy bank that was given to me as a Kris Kringle gift.

DRIVING

60. Be able to drive the big cars.

61. Take a different route to work once a week.

62. Take a different route home once a week.

63. Conquer my fear of driving in Makati by driving around on a Sunday for no reason.

FAMILY TIME

64. Get home in time for dinner twice a week for one month. (0/8)

65. Treat siblings out to lunch/dinner, just the three of us.

66. Have a sleepover with my cousins.

67. File a leave on my parents' birthdays. (0/2) --I'm filing a leave on Mom's birthday! :)

68. Go on five random weekday mall trips with my mom. (0/5)

69. Bring home pasalubong for my family on a random day. (0/3)

70. Have a Scrabble night with the family.

MELBERT

71. Go on an arcade date.

72. Watch DVDs together for an entire afternoon.

73. File a leave that coincides with his day-off and go on an unplanned, spontaneous date.

74. Go on a videoke date.

75. Go on a fancy dinner date. We're going on a dinner date this Saturday! Not super fancy because I realized that we're not really fancy people-- no point in paying for a really expensive meal that has really small servings. :p

76. Go on a trip together. --We went to Bantayan together! It may have been with my officemates, but it's a start. I hope we get to go to Bohol also, this time with his officemates. The Bohol trip has been revised to maybe Boracay! :D

FRIENDS

77. Catch up with an old friend over dinner or coffee. --I had dinner with a good friend of mine from college and we ended up talking until midnight. We vowed to have dinner with each other once a month. I hope we get to stick to it!

78. Make a personalized gift for friends this Christmas.

79. Have a videoke night with the girls.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

80. Give 12 "saw this and thought of you" gifts to people who are not Melbert. (0/12)

81. Treat an officemate to lunch for no reason.

82. Buy fries and a drink at a drive-thru and give to a street kid on the way home. If not, to the neighborhood guard.

83. Leave a very generous tip at a restaurant.

84. Send a "just thought of you and hope you're well" text to ten people. (0/10)

ME-TIME

85. Take a birthday leave. (0/3) --I decided not to take a leave on my birthday this year because it fell on a Thursday, and it seemed like such a bummer to have to still come to work the next day. So I decided to come to work, leave early, then file for my "birthday leave" on Holy Wednesday instead, heading straight into the Holy Week break. :)

86. Have a massage monthly for a year. (0/12)

87. Pray every morning and every night.

88. Write down something I'm thankful for everyday.

89. File a leave just to stay home three times. (0/3)

90. Go to Ateneo on a Sunday for some quiet time. (0/3)

91. Take an afternoon nap during weekends twice a month.

THE FUTURE

92. Decide if I want to take graduate studies or not.

93. Have a list of things I would like in my future wedding.

94. Have a list of random things about my future.

MISCELLANEOUS

95. Write an entry for each day in my Starbucks 2010 planner. Since I've decided to make my Starbucks 2010 planner the keeper of my daily to-do list, I've been successful with this so far!

96. Watch a concert. --I watched the Timbaland concert with Justin Timberlake and Jojo as special guests. So I hit two birds with one stone: I kept my promise to myself that I wouldn't pass up the chance to watch Justin in concert, and I crossed this off my list. :)

97. Finish a coloring book.

98. Vote wisely in the 2010 national elections.

99. Get braces removed.

100. Join the lotto.

101. Get a henna tattoo, just because I've never tried it. I got not one, but two! One that looks like a bracelet on my wrist, and another on my right shoulder. I found it funny that my relatives thought it was a real tattoo, and one aunt actually asked, "Did it hurt?" :))

There are still many things I have to do on this list! I hope I do better at crossing things off over the second quarter. :)