Kulot and Liit Do the Harlem Shake!

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible to ours, we join up with them and fall into a mutual weirdness and call it LOVE. ~Dr. Seuss

music: Harlem Shake by Baauer

Locked!

When February kicked in, the High Street people put up this Love Wall and Love Locks thingie, obviously a knock-off from the famous Paris bridges along the Seine River. The original concept is for couples to put their names on a padlock and attach it to one of the the bridges, and then throw the key into the river to seal their love forever. 

Love Locks on the Pont de l'Archeveche in Paris

Image from www.thedailymail.co.uk

In the case of the High Street love locks, couples can buy a lock for 50 pesos, which is a donation for the Bonifacio Development Foundation Inc. and instead of a Parisian bridge, they get to lock their love on a wire mesh fence that was installed along one of the walkways. I am yet to ask somebody there what happens to the keys. My guess is that they let the couples throw them into the odd-shaped pool near the huge rock fountain installation, but I will need to confirm that first. I saw many combination locks there, but personally I think it defeats the purpose. It is so much more romantic if you have a key to throw away. How can you guarantee that your love is sealed if both of you can unlock it anytime with a simple combination of numbers, right? 

The Love Locks at Bonifacio High Street

I learned that you can also bring your own locks if you don't want to buy from the organizers. I am still in the process of convincing Kulot to go there and lock our love for eternity (or at least until February ends and the promotional Love Locks are taken down!)

i carry your heart

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear

no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

i want

no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

~A beautiful poem by e.e. cummings

Keep Walking..

In an effort to somehow counterbalance the effects of sitting in an office chair for 8 hours during a typical work night, I started the habit of walking every morning after my shift. Instead of taking the Fort Bus, I let my own two feet take me from our office building all the way to Metro Market! Market! where Kulot's office is located, so we can meet up and take the short jeepney ride from there to our house together. He supports this because he thinks it's my only chance to bask in some sunlight and not be so pale anymore. Apart from the health benefits of this less than 15-minute walk, I've also come to enjoy passing through Bonifacio High Street and Serendra on my daily route home. Only the coffee shops and donut shops would be open during my usual stroll, and the place is still serene. (I am thankful that the other shops and businesses are still closed during the usual time that I pass by there, because I might just spend all my money at Fully Booked. But the "Sorry, We Are Closed" sign doesn't stop me from lingering at the store front and lovingly eyeing the wide array of books on display.)

I like the atmosphere there in the morning when the people I encounter are not in a rush, most of them just doing the same thing as I am, trying to catch the early rays of sunlight. I would pass by joggers, brisk walkers, people walking their dogs or pushing a baby carriage, and sleepy-eyed residents of the nearby condominiums on their way for a coffee and pastry run. I usually encounter celebrities too: actors, politicians, TV personalities. But none of them so far are gawk-worthy so I don't even do a double take, except for that one time when I encountered the husband of a tiny former Philippine president, who walked by me with an old-ish socialite lady. I stared a bit longer because I was wondering why they're out and about without any bodyguards, but a few paces past them I finally saw a tough- and official-looking plainclothes guy whom I figured was the security detail of that gentleman and his lady companion. The bodyguard even greeted me with the standard,"Good morning, ma'am" when he saw me looking at his boss. It was just a couple of weeks after Christmas then, and I had an inside joke with myself, wondering what the security guy would have done with me if I had come up to the First Gentleman with palms outstretched and said "Ninong, Merry Christmas! Can I have my taxes back please?" Believe me, I was tempted.

Love Month Throwback

This post originally appeared on my Facebook notes on February 15 of 2011:

Valentine's day, 2003 

I was 18, single, and desperately in love with a clueless guy. My journal entry for that day was this: 

"What's new? Yet another Feb.14 has come and gone, and I'm still alone. No matter what other people might say about being patient and letting love find you instead of running after it, I still can't erase this ugly feeling of being desolate, unwanted, and unloved. Who wants to be alone anyway? Sure, it's easy for people to say that they don't actually need someone in order to be happy, but it's quite another thing to live up to that statement. Wouldn't it be nice to spend Valentine's day next to someone very special? I'm pretty sure it would be cool to have a person in your life who's always there to offer you a hug, an assurance that you are beautiful, and that you are loved. It would be nice to find that one person that you'll forever share your life with. It simply sucks to go on like this! If my prince would truly come, then what is taking him so long!?!" 

*************************************************************

1 year later (Valentine's day, 2004)

I was 19, and it was my first Valentine's day in a relationship. It was dusk already, and before saying goodbye for the day, (we didn't have a proper Valentine's date because I had a school activity that night) my boyfriend handed me a piece of paper. When I inspected it later that night, out fell a piece of dried rose. It was still intact with its petals, leaves, and stem all flat. In his letter, my boyfriend explained that he kept this flower pressed between the pages of a book for the past year. This was the flower that he got for me on Valentine's day a year ago, but he never got the courage to give it because he was still too shy to let me know how he felt for me. So he preserved it in the hope that one day he will get the chance to give me my rose.

That was the only flower that I ever received from Critch on Valentine's day so far, in our seven years together. But it was the most special flower in the world. Looking back, I realized now that I was actually the clueless one, because while I was writing that bitter journal entry the year before, the guy that I was desperately in love with was actually pressing a lovely pink rose into the pages of a book and waiting for the right time to let me know that I am beautiful, I am cherished, and I am loved. ♥