Ara's finally uploaded her photos from the sleepover! Although I think she may have set it to be viewed by friends only. Preview pics below, in no particular order. Sasha uploaded hers here.
Here's to the next party! I may not be with you guys all the time now, but I EXPECT to get invited to the next one!

On the way home in the car:
Jammi: I'm hungry, you want to have Smokey's?
Kari: Ok!
(10 secs later)
Jammi: Let's have SEx nalang
(long pause....)
.
.
.
.
.
Kari: Ok.

Of course she meant Sinangag EXpress. It just took me 5 seconds to realize it. Everytime I'm in SEx, I'm reminded of the time I took my husband and his american stomach here. He spent the next day projectile vomiting. It was insane! The WHOLE day! Para siyang mamamatay.

I've been riding with Jammi the past two weekends and we've been ending each weekend with a snack around BF.

Next weekend will be our last weekend together for a long time. I've been asked to make the ATC branch my home store once again (after a year and half of separation). This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's much closer to my house and will no longer have to pay for toll and P45 parking, but I will miss the Rockwell team immensely. I've spent the last 3 months with them and they are a great bunch of people.

My mall tours will still be in effect so I will get to see them every now and then. Besides, there are still clients in Rockwell who insist on having me shoot their kids. I will still have to appease these people. I've emailed most of them yesterday informing them of my move and three of them have already made advanced appointments. Talaga nga naman...

On other news, I want to see this!
They're showing it at the Landmark Embarcadero Theatre on Oct. 19, I want to go!

If my managers complain about how much email they get from me on a daily basis, they should see how much I get from my bosses.

Photos to be updated here as soon as everyone else has uploaded theirs.

LAST NIGHT WAS FUN!

Rockwell (plus Niki) slept over at Jammi's house in Hillsborough. It was a long and hilarious night of pizza, late night swimming in freezing cold water, movie and video games!

We had a LOT to eat! We came fully prepared with a sh!tload of chips, dip, cookies, coke, rum, gin and FOUR party sized pizzas!

Jammi enlightened all of us to the joys of playing Guitar Hero! We now all want our own guitar! Kahit yung cheap knock-off lang sa Ruins ok na! It was so much fun! At first I didn't want to play but I soon realized I can follow a beat pala!

We swam around midnight in their backyard pool and despite the freezing cold water, we all managed to have loads of fun and pictures! They all had a chance to mock the managers outside of work and they couldn't pass up the chance to pick on me. :(

Seriously though, I was so mean last night, picking on Jammi and Bea the whole time. They love me still anyway :)

We watched 28 Weeks Later in Jammi's THEATRE ROOM! When she told us they had a theatre room, I was like, "Oh, really? Ok..." When we all got inside, all our jaws dropped. It was seriously a theatre room. Sound proof, wall to wall screen, a projector, lounge chairs, a couch and sound surround. HOMAYGAHD! I WANT THAT ROOM!

We slept at 4am last night (or rather, this morning). Macy and Caren had to wake up at 9am since they had opening shifts at the store. I made them pancakes for breakfast (with nutella! droolz). The rest of them played more of Guitar Hero while I napped before we all had to leave for work again.

We definitely have to do that more often!!!

Yesterday was the final leg of our visioning seminar. Every Tuesdays of the month were spent away from the noise of the city and teams were sent off to the quiet town of Binangonan, Rizal. I had the great chance of meeting each and every member of the company and they had the opportunity to see that their boss (ahem, that would be me) is really quite retarded. I had to listen to the same seminar and give a (sort of) speech four times but the food was absolutely divine. We would end the night with alcohol and drunken get-to-know-you games. Every Tuesday I would get home all drunk and full.

I present to you my co-workers...

Alabang and Production Team (9/4/07)

Fort and Mall of Asia Team (9/11/07)

Rockwell Team (9/18/07)

Podium and Admin (9/25/07)

This is yours truly giving a very (ahem) inspirational talk on my own experience in the company. The photo does not show me sweating bullets and having the feeling of blood draining from my head. I hate speaking in front of people. I get very nervous and lightheaded.

My boss signing checks. Notice the obvious display of caffeine and beer.

I spent the day driving to 4 stores. I needed to take photos for the company website. It was raining all day! ATC was my first stop and I only stayed long enough to take the photos. I headed to MOA where Pia and Japz entertained me with their version of the Papaya Dance. That song was in my head ALL day.

Niki joined me on the rest of my mall tour after we got ourselves a Mango Ice Monster each. We got to Fort and scored ourselves some Krispy Kreme Donuts and a nice, hot cup of KK's Cafe Mocha.

I seriously need new friends. I keep eating with these people! Just last night before Jammi took me home, we passed by F.I.C./Smokey's and each had a Chicago Dog and a DOUBLE scoop of ice cream.

This week will be food-filled! Tomorrow is my last trip to Rizal for the company's visioning seminar. It's been buffets every week! The day after tomorrow is my day off with Jammi where we plan to go shopping and eating will most definitely be on the agenda. On Thursday is the Rockwell team's slumber party at Jammi's house. It's scary movies + popcorn + pizza all night long!

Anong bang kababuyan ito mga pre!

Gossip Girl

The CW's newest addition to the current fall lineup. It's sooo bad, it's good. I feel a bit sheepish watching a show about upper east side prep school students struggle with the usual teenage woes of sex, drugs and parental control. The only diff? These kids have got MONEY. Ugh! I'm almost ashamed to admit I'm loving it.

I loved it!

I saw it without the english subtitles so it will be an entirely different movie when I see it with the subs. A great chunk of it is in french so it was kind of like watching it in Adam Goldberg's eyes.

I loved Julie Delpy's monologue in the end. It made me want to cry and curse Paul to hell at the same time.

Why is it that even if I'm close to bankruptcy,

I still find getting my drink a major necessity?

Be it a Venti Caramel Machiatto
or a Nonfat Iced White Mocha,
I always get my caffeine on the go.

Oh, what I wouldn't give,
for a Starbucks vending machine.
a hole in my wallet, it constantly makes
but to cheer me up,
this is all it takes.

*bow*

I can't write anything poetic to save my life.

Was supposed to blog last night but I was too tired when I got home that I forgot about it. Jammi was to ride home with me but Bea and Paul went to Rockwell from Trinoma saying that traffic was horrible that they decided to wait it out there. So Jammi and I opted to do the same. The four of us had dinner at Cafe Mediterranean. I recommended that Jammi try my usual Tunisian Fish Fillet while I ordered a grilled chicken kebab with rice. Bea and Paul shared a gyro and we all had pita with hummus, babaganoush and another dip that I can't pronounce as well as spell. They were all divine.

It was still a bit early after dinner that they (I didn't) got drinks at Good Earth and stayed there till midnight. I'm not going to go into a lengthy description of the events that followed. Basta, we left Rockwell at MIDNIGHT only to be greeted by still MORBIDly intense traffic that I got home by 2am. The only thing that kept me from going apeshit was the strong desire to take a video of Jammi belting out Bohemian Rhapsody in the car and posting it on Youtube. I didn't do it though...the video quality of my cellphone video sucks. :)

Today:
Kari: I'm going to Starbucks, want anything?
Jammi: Oh, Ok! Get me a grande ICED MOCHA (hands over cash)
Kari: How much is that again? (pause)
Oh wait, that's cheaper than the ICED WHITE MOCHA
Jammi: It is?
Ara: (nods) Yeah!
Jammi: (with a frown) Isn't that kind of racist? Just because it's WHITE.

Today I got to meet up with JA again. Which was a surprise since the dork always flakes on me at the last minute. But today it was him who called me up while I was preparing to go home from work,

"What are you doing fat-ass?"
"Uhm, going home?"
"No you're not, you're meeting up with me at Starbucks."
"oh, ok.."

It was a good day and I got to document JA's horrid hair. Dude, you need a haircut VERY BADLY.

****Thank God for friends****

more...

I love Ellen Page. For a very young girl, she has had a string of impressive films and performances (except for X3, wtf was that?!).

Ysa

...that make me love my job.

Took this today. I had a couple of set-ups before this shot was taken. By the time I laid out the blankets, she was tired and took less than 10 seconds to pass out. She looked so comfortably cute I wanted to nibble on her nose. I added the jumping sheep for added cuteness. The rest of the shoot was great too (thanks to Jammi as my assistant). Her mom was so happy with the photos she was laughing through the entire slideshow.

I don't shoot as much now except for these few times when clients specifically request for me. I feel so flattered that some would re-work their schedule just to have it on a day that I'm available. I have a few regulars who see me every month to chronicle each monthly milestone. Every time I see them, I'm reminded of how time goes by so fast. One minute their newly born, the next they're crawlers, soon after, they'll be able to sit, stand and walk. Part of the reward of doing this kind of work is imagining all the houses decorated with photos that I took of their kids and families.

After about 8 months, my macbook gives me my first scare. There's something wrong with my battery. It says it's fully charged and all the indicator lights are lit to confirm it but my macbook will not run unless the ac adapter is plugged in. Every time I unplug it, the mac goes to sleep. I'm going to Apple tomorrow. I've tried everything I could see in the manual and the ones I've googled online and at the apple support page but to no avail. I've read about some people encountering the exact same problem and say a new battery is all it took. Thank god I'm still within my one year warranty. I will seriously kick someone's a$$ if I'm asked to pay for anything.

...my barrel of mental and emotional tolerance will spill over
setting off a series of events, eventually causing me to

I urge anyone within my immediate vicinity to run for cover.

Mamumulubi at tataba ako pag kasama ko toh palagi. Hinding-hindi na ako magugulat kung totoo nga yung hinala naming magkamag-anak nga kame. Considering it was a busy day today in MOA, Niki and I still managed to indulge ourselves in the two things that bond us together, food and shopping. We had a (very late) lunch at Bangus again today, ordering the usual bistek bangus steaks but opting to get the green mango salad this time to pair with it. I had a shoot right after and as soon as I got off work two hours later, we then each had a halo-halo from Razon's. I sat with her as she got a quick haircut then it was shopping time! There's a weekend sale in MOA so there was a sh!tload of people in the mall. I got a blue bikini from Bayo at half off and a ribbed tank from Maldita for P200.

Paano ba naman kami pupuntang Thailand nito?

Gloomy Makati Ave. traffic

Red Light District during the day

A stone's throw away from the red light district is the posh Rockwell Center,
where I work!

Taken today at Kimono Ken in the Podium. Finally had my sushi after a long time. Ellyn was supposed to be my sushi date but she had a shoot and I was hungry. I had to run to Rockwell after to pick up stuff I need to bring to MOA tomorrow. Whew! Mall tour!

Birthday girl Bea with (her) Paul

Will post pics from her birthday salubong as soon as Grace uploads them. We had a fantastic dinner! Chicken sisig, sinigang na salmon belly, crispy pata, kare-kareng gulay, steamed tilapia, unlimited platefuls of rice and glasses of iced tea plus 3-4 buckets of beer! Wee!

I did not have a single drop of alcohol because I ate so damn much! I was going to drive home and didn't want to have to stop the car and hurl by the side of the road. Nalasing ako sa lahat ng kinain ko grabe.

Photos to come by tomorrow I hope. Grace is supposedly uploading them tonight but I'm too sleepy to wait up for her to do so. We had an early 9:30am meeting at the boss' house today and I'm dead tired. Till tomorrow then...

*UPDATED*

Thursday group extends their party to other fellow TPC-ers, both ex and current. See the rest of the night's events here.