or somewhat close to it anyway.

As I type this, I'm sitting in a couch next to a 42" flat screen watching No Reservations, the AC blowing a cool breeze and an adorable corgi named Taco lying next to me.

For the next two weeks, I'll be housesitting Ana and Poy's house while they fly off and join the rest of my family in Manila. Everybody shall converge in Davao on the 1st of July for my great grandmother's 100th Birthday celebration. Family from all over the world are flying in for the big event. Well, everyone except me anyway.

It's me and this little guy for two weeks baby!

For the next few days I get to pretend I live in a one bedroom apartment in one of Brooklyn's good neighborhoods, in an apartment building equipped with their own laundry room, a doorman and close to all the good restaurants I love going to. Cheryl's Global Soul is just TWO BLOCKS AWAY NOW!

Yesterday was such a HOT, HUMID, and STICKY day in NYC. I walked over here to Ana's early in the morning to take photos of Santi's 3rd month before they flew off to Manila.

When I got home, I took refuge in my room, turned on the AC and refused to get up and out because the heat was just too overwhelming. Eventually, I decided to shower, get dressed and got out of the house. I had no destination in mind but I just wanted to take advantage of the AC in subway cars and wherever I might eventually end up. I ended up in K-Mart in the east village. At 6pm and the sun still blaring, Michael calls me asking if I wanted to head down to Coney Island before the sun went down. It took us an hour to get there but the sun was still up and there was a nice cool breeze blowing on the beach. We laid on the sand and got up only to dig through our bags for snacks and eventually to walk towards the pier to see the sun set.

This was the pier where a dream sequence in Requiem for a dream was shot.

When the sun set and night kicked in, we decided to walk through the carnival and trip out on 25-cent mechanical entertainment.

Michael tried to get me to go with him into this spooky house ride for a full 10 minutes. I repeatedly and firmly refused because I am a GIANT scaredy cat. Places like this seriously FREAK.ME.OUT. The Haunted House in Disneyland totally traumatized me as a child.

We ended up riding disco bump cars instead. We drove in the dark with neon lights overhead and bouncing disco music.

We then visited Ana and Poy again since I needed to send some stuff over to my mom in Manila. Mike got to meet Taco and discovered his pet peeve.

I ended up not leaving Brooklyn today despite previous plans of heading out by Hudson River Park and sunning myself. Decided to take advantage of Brooklyn's own beautiful lawns by the east river. I headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge Park where I laid down on grass, lathered up on sunblock and enjoyed the soft breeze blowing from the river. I will have to make regular habit of this. I had such a nice, quiet time that I fell asleep without realizing it.

I made another round of the ginger scallion noodles for dinner (because they were really that good) and I sat down with Caitlin and Michael and we watched Layer Cake in the living room.

Michael's got a membership at 24 hour Fitness and he's trying to get me to use his complementary month pass to try it out. I haven't gone to the gym since staying with Kate in California so I'm worried my body can't handle it. I am, however, attempting to quit smoking as part of my 2010 goals so having that out my life might help.

Oh, and E just uploaded his photos from last Sunday! You can view them here. I rarely like having my photos taken but he actually took really nice ones of me so I'm very happy. And, yes, I got fat, you don't need to tell me. That's what happens when life is (kinda) good, you get fat.

Another sunny Sunday in Brooklyn was spent roaming. This time we kept to the confines of our own city without finding the need to cross the bridge. We went to the Brooklyn Flea in Dumbo underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Mica brought her camera and we didn't hesitate on using it despite looking like tourists. We then went to Carroll Gardens where we got lost for a bit before eventually ending up in Buttermilk Channel for dinner. We tried walking up the stretch of Court St. to Borough Hall but found it too far, gave up and took the bus. We went to Barnes and Noble and scored the new edition Cranium game then to Trader Joe's where we got more snacks to stuff ourselves with. Cranium is a minimum 4 player game but we managed to make it work last night with just the two of us, with hilarious results. I've just discovered that Mica is the worst sculptor and drawer in the planet. I had tears streaming down my face from all the laughing and for a short evening, all my worries about everything else in my life at the moment had dissolved.

Sitting on a sidewalk along Dumbo, sipping snapple iced tea and having a ciggie break.
Kari: (points across the street to an old building with a distressed brick wall)
"Kunan kita dun dali, hawak ka ng yosi tapos guluhin natin buhok mo a la Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Mica: "Pwedeeee!!!"

More photos can be viewed here.

Despite yesterday's bad weather, we were blessed with sun and blue skies today. Was unable to go to Beacon's Closet as originally intended since I spent most of my time walking through 7th Ave in Park Slope and taking photos in Prospect Park. I was supposed to take the bus to Barnes and Noble to buy my copy of Twilight but it was such a great day that I decided to walk 10 blocks to the bookstore. I had a late brunch at a small diner-cafe on 9th st (3 more blocks down) and decided to roam around the park two blocks west of 7th Ave. It was a lovely day with families playing with their kids, friends playing frisbee, baseball , soccer and other games. There were a lot of people just lying on the grass so I chose a spot and joined them. I browsed through my magazine until I got a message from Rann to come over to their apartment for wine. I walked further down to 14th st where he and his wife Olivea lived. By this time, I had already walked over 20 blocks, not including the time I spent roaming around the park. Mind you, Prospect Park is Brooklyn's version of Manhattan's Central Park. Not as large but just as beautiful. When I got to their place, I was only too glad to sit down and enjoy some tea since my fingers have gotten so numb from the cold. They've been so numb a lot lately that I've been coming home with little knicks and scratches on my fingers without knowing how I got them.

I had a great time chatting with another old friend. He, of course, didn't hesitate to start his long ass speech on why I should stay in New York and not even consider going back to Manila. They live in a small but very nice apartment and the location couldn't be better. The apartment is very close to the subway and bus station and they even have a view of the Manhattan skyline from their window!

Brooklyn is beautifully lined with rows upon rows of Brownstone Houses.

All photos from today can be viewed individually here.

Also, I saw another actor-comedian today but I don't know his name. I've been racking my brain trying to remember where I saw him before. He's not a big name star, just a dude in a supporting role somewhere. Trying to remember this is going to kill me all night.

The only downer of the day was when I opened my inbox and saw this:

"Dear Catherine,

Thank you for your application for our Sales Executive role. Although your skills and experience are impressive, you have unfortunately been unsuccessful.

All the best for your future endeavors."

I don't know whether to be sad or to laugh at how blunt the email was..."unfortunately been unsuccessful." Hahaha!

Yes. Did not do what I originally planned today. I hope to have better luck tomorrow. I'm not in museum mode today so I may not go to the Brooklyn Museum. I might buy Twilight at Barnes and Noble and read in Prospect Park. Gasps fill the air! "You have NOT read Twilight?!?" No I haven't. I'm sure I'll love it. It took me until the 5th Harry Potter to come out before I started reading it. Why did it take me this long to start reading? I dunno. I just wasn't feeling it and I didn't want to start a book I didn't plan on finishing. Despite my unemployment, I never did have the luxury of time to sit down and read a book. I haven't even started reading my copy of Wicked which Chriselle gave me as a going away present. I decided to read Twilight now because the movie is coming out in two weeks and I want to read it before then.

I had my first NY Bagel today. I've been hearing all this hype about New York making the best bagels in the world and it was, well...a BAGEL. I dunno. Maybe I'm supposed to try the ones in Manhattan, rather than in Brooklyn. They were alright. I had mine like I always do: Onion bagel with cream cheese and tomato. It was good. Just not worth the hype, not yet anyway.

Ana took me to this thrift store on Park Slope called Beacon's Closet. From the moment I walked in, I knew it was a place where I'd need a whole day in. I didn't want to go around too much because I wasn't in "shopping mode," meaning I'm not dressed in clothes that I can easily take off and I had way too much stuff in my bag to lug around while rummaging through racks. I will go back there tomorrow. I found a couple of amazing dresses and tops I want to try out. I hope they're still there tomorrow. I did buy one thing though. I found this really cool chunky ring that I had to have right then and there.

Ana and Poy's apartment:

Please excuse the mess. It's not theirs, its mine. The air bed against the wall is where I slept. The pillows on the dining table are mine. The bags by the coffee table are my kalat.

Ana in the kitchen checking on the spaghetti sauce.

The stuff hanging on the back of the chair are mine too. :(

Ana is designing a line of women's golf apparel which she will release on Fall 2009. She has a website at http://www.anadivinagracia.com which has nothing yet. On the right side of the photo are some of her designs and on the left by the window are her and Poy's golf clubs. They are die hard golfers (I don't get it) and are actually thinking of moving to California just so they can play gold all year round.

Also, do you notice the stripes on the wall? That's not wallpaper. Ana used masking tape around the surrounding walls supposedly to paint over but she ended up keeping it. You won't notice it unless you stare close. haha!

We stayed in the rest of the day and Poy made pasta. They also let me try their favorite cake called Red Velvet which we bought earlier from Cake Man Raven. It's a chocolate cake that's red with cream cheese frosting. It is one of the best cakes I have ever tried! At $6 a slice, it better be good!

They also have their own baby who's just under a year old. Meet their corgi, Taco. He's so very cute and playful. Watch him on the video below.

Taco and his new bandana.

Currently chatting with my very, very, very old (my very first ever in nursery school actually) friend Candice, who calls herself Candy now. It's 2am and we're chatting and laughing about the countless times she slept over at my house when we were 13 and spent the entire night taping Jonathan Brandis and Joey Lawrence posters on my entire wall. And all the guys we stalked in highschool. Haha! Such great times. I miss her so much I wish I can fly to Sydney to see her. Sigh...Anyway, I sleep soon..long walking day tomorrow!

Staying with my cousin Ana and her husband Poy for the weekend. They took me to Cheryl's Global Soul for dinner where I had amazing grilled salmon on a bed of herb corn and potatoes. Brooklyn gave me an interesting welcome tonight through the form of a shoot out. Haha! Apparently, while we were having dinner, there was a bit of a shooting that happened at the bar next to the restaurant. A police car pulled up front and couple of undercover cops came in to the resto to question the wait staff and the customers by the front window if they saw anything. Oh weeelll.....

Tomorrow, I'll walk through Prospect park and maybe check out the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanic Gardens. Ana lent me a book (see photo) and a map to browse through. She happily pointed out that she lives in a neighborhood that's next to Park Slope where stars like Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Steve Buscemi live. I've done a bit of celeb stalking before I came here too and found that Michelle Williams lives closeby as well. Hehehe. I'm not expecting to see these people around, hello! But it's a nice thought anyway.

Hopefully I get to spew out awesome photos in this leg of my New York excursion. I was browsing through the book a little and saw how to get to Coney Island. I want to go ride the Wonder Wheel and the rollercoaster! But, it would be horrible to wander the boardwalk alone. Anyone want to come with me? Not having friends around here suck, specially New York being such an awesome place.