And 9 months to go.

I am talking about my teenage bucketlist. Now that summer’s almost over, I am elated that we can all finally say goodbye to the unbearable heat but, at the same time, the fact that I haven’t moved on as much as I wanted to with my bucketlist is extremely disappointing.

1. I watched a movie alone.

img source: moviewallpaper

 I feel obliged to tell you what movie I watched. Warning: DON’T JUDGE ME. Okay, so I watched The Lucky One. And, there you go with your piercing me with your judgmental stares. What, don’t tell me you don’t think of Zac Efron as one hell of a sexy beast! I’m not proud of my decision and, by some sort of karmic intervention, I had to suffer through an hour and a half of sappy lines and predictable “twists” in the story. I believe I feel asleep at one point. I don’t know which was worse – having to endure the movie while being sandwiched by two extra cheesy couples or watching one of the loves of my life, Zac Efron, make out with some woman who looks like she’s old enough to be his mother

2. I pretended to be a tourist in Manila.

Intramuros, Chinatown, Luneta. Pretending to be a tourist is fun, but lugging a camera around Manila is way too dangerous for me. I hope to get to visit the National Museum and the National Library before the summer officially comes to an end. I can’t write about this anymore at the moment because, right now, the only thing that my mind is capable of doing is to daydream about those churros from that café in Intramuros.

3. I tried doing something I don’t trust myself not to do again.

I know, it’s very vague but I’m not exactly proud of the decisions that I’ve made so I don’t intend to share the entire experience with all the inhabitants of the world wide web. Sometimes, curiosity takes over you and suddenly, you find yourself doing something you swore not to do. Ever. But there, what’s done is done. What’s worse is that I tried it again because I didn’t get the feeling I wanted to achieve the first time around. Oh, don’t worry, nothing life-threatening here. Look at me, talking like there are some concerned friends reading this post.

3½. I am in the process of learning a new language.

Spanish, actually, at the Instituto Cervantes. I felt like I had the right to include it in this post because I have already accomplished the most difficult step – the first one. Since then, living with me has become even more intolerable for my mother. Apart from my laziness, she now has to endure my new habit of inserting random Spanish words and phrases in our conversations and inadvertently listening to my newly downloaded Spanish playlist.

No, I have not died of heat stroke. I just felt like it was the right time for me to take a break from my vicarious living through tumblr and channel it instead by means of my current favorite TV shows (e.g. Sherlock, Yo Soy Bea, Awkward, Shut Up Flower Boy Band). Though now that I think of it, I have been successfully living vicariously through both ways and that my lack of recent blog posts is probably caused by the scarcity of eventful days in life.

1.     I have ticked off three things off my bucket list! And because I consider this as a major accomplishment, a separate post will be dedicated solely on this topic.

2.     Thinking of a thesis topic is out of the question. While my classmates have assumed the positions of busy bees inside the thesis room, I cannot even bring myself to think of a decent thesis topic.

3.     Hunting season has begun. When I say hunting, what I really mean is ukay-ukay hunting. I used to settle for the stores along Santa Monica but when I fatefully stumbled upon the ones lined up along Padre Faura a couple of days ago, I knew there was no turning back to my old foolish self. I have made it my sole purpose in life to hunt for cheap finds in those stores with that disctinctive smell which I have managed to get desensitized from. So there I was, shopping with the homeless people of Manila, all in the hope of finding a cardigan for the price my bottled Lipton iced tea.

4.     Due to a mysterious series of events, I saw Jay Park for a total of three seconds in a newly opened mall in Binondo. I don’t particularly like the guy but since the people were flocking, curiosity got the best of me and I joined in. If you aren’t in the know about the latest developments in Chinatown, then I should inform you that their newest mall has shops like Aldo, Mango, Payless, Beauty Bar and what I believe to be the first ever branch of Cotton On here in Manila. What a delightful surprise! At least, there is another mall I can visit besides Robinson’s Manila without having to endure yet another mortifying event of being trapped in a moving cage with equally irritated women (also known as an LRT ride).

5.     It occurred to me that since I have repeatedly postponed writing this post, five bullet points would be insufficient to summarize the happenings of the past few weeks. And since I am under the assumption that everybody has the same attention span as me, I am led to believe that six or more bullet points would bore you to death. Hence, another blog post would be necessary. But I am telling you, spending two weeks away from the internet and my semi-existent cellphone has been fulfilling. Perhaps, you should try it some time.

May asawa ba itong itinatago? Mamamatay siya! May ibang girlfriend? Mamamatay siya! Isa ba ito doon sa mga lalaking naghahanap lagi ng sarili, tapos ang nahahanap kapwa lalaki? Papatay siya!

- Ricky Lee, Si Amapola Sa 65 Na Kabanata

1. I am uncomfortable with using the word trending.
2. I doubt that anyone would be interested in the fact that I “just ate bacon and eggs for breakfast!” or that “the vampire diaries on etc now!!!”. I take that this would be the case because I, for one, am uninterested in these types of posts. Unless, of course, your name is on the list of people I would gladly stalk for the entirety of my worldly existence. Hint: you are on this list of you are a cross between Xian Lim, Jude Law and Luke Pasqualino. If you are one of those people, then feel free to inform me about every minute detail of your life – from your seat number during your flight to Boracay to the brand of toilet paper that you like to use. Don’t forget to bombard me with twitpics of your every meal and maybe a couple of obligatory vain pictures courtesy of Instagram.
3. Two words: word limit. What with my excessive use of commas and sentences that refuse to come to an end, it’s just impossible.
4. I can not live in an environment where humblebragging is acceptable and in some absurd way, even encouraged. If you don’t know what that term means, you can visit this page or just scroll down your newsfeed on Facebook, and I’ll guarantee that you’ll find some irritating examples.
5.  I think it encourages vicarious living. Why should I leave the house if I can just stay in front of my laptop and read about the latest happenings in Anne Curtis’ exciting life? Some might say that Tumblr has the exact same effect. But truthfully, seeing all those mesmerizing photographs taken by all the wonderful people I’m following makes me want to go out of my room, experience the world and bask in all of the beauty that it has to offer.