Flashback: March

March 14 - Trash Day
The office launched again its twice-a-year trash day, in time for spring cleaning. Our floor was divided into three teams and, as always, the production team won. They didn't have as much "trash" as we do, in my observation, but they seemed to have thrown in a lot of old magazine issues and other stuff that aren't pure paper. I believe we have been warned not to dispose of old issues, but well, they got away with it. And even compensated for presentation, arranging their "trash" to look like some misshaped human (or clone, whatever).
The winner was announced during a merienda break, during which Armando, the general manager, also announced that two of our colleagues were leaving and this day was their last day: Marian, VM of Electronic Components, who has been with the company for more than two years, and Evelyn, a senior graphic artist of Electronics Engineering Times Asia, who has spent the past 10 years of her working life in GS.

March 15 - Latin Heat
Marthe and I watched Ballet Philippines' season presentation Latin Heat at the CCP Little Theater. It highlighted modern ballet and the fast beat dances associated with Latin music. We got the set of free tickets from a former officemate, Chie Sales, who is now with Museo Pambata and gets complimentary passes to cultural shows. She couldn't attend this one and asked around through Marco if anyone was interested.
During the intermission, I saw a large man who looked familiar in the lobby of the theater. He was sitting waiting for someone. And apparently the someone arrived, his wife and daughter. Only when they walked back to the theater did I recall that it looked like Fred Blancas, the Marketing Manager of IMI, Ayala Corp's EMS company. Our department, EBU, has visited IMI several times to tour their factory and talk to the executives. My cousin, Michael Hansson, currently heads the design and engineering department of IMI. I emailed Fred the week after to ask if he was there, and he said yes, they were watching the ballet too. His daughter is taking up ballet lessons in CCP.

March 17 - Itchy or not itchy
I met Mama, Lyn and Marthe in Landmark to buy Marthe's graduation dress. When I arrived, they had shortlisted their choices to two really pretty ones. One of the two dresses had a plastic cover over it. Marthe tried both. The one with plastic looked too dressy and sophisticated for a school graduation and she said it was itchy at the armpit part. The one without plastic was perfect. So we asked for a new and clean stock of the second dress, which we chose. It arrived with plastic cover. At home, I hung the dress and asked Marthe if she liked it. She just stared at it and nodded uncertainly. I got worried so I asked again. Finally she blurted out "it's itchy." I freaked out. Why didn't you say so?! She said "I told you it was itchy." But you said it was the other dress that was itchy! She said, "The one in plastic is itchy." But I said this is the other dress, the one without plastic. And she said, "But that one has plastic, it's the one that's itchy." Hahaha! I laughed so hard. Just because the new stock of the dress had plastic on, she thought we chose the previous one with plastic that she fitted and was itchy. Haay, my daughter is still a baby. She still forms an opinion by association.

March 18 - DVD Swapping Day
Today is DVD swapping day. Monch sent an e-mail yesterday that whoever had DVDs to spare can bring them today and tomorrow and swap it for other DVDs. Some people, including me, brought DVDs and VCDs today. A whole plastic bag from me, mostly old stuff, to give way to the new ones Mel brought home. In return, I got a VCD of Mona Lisa Smile, and an assurance from Jamie that she will bring Bee Movie for Marthe, and from Louise that she will reserve the CSI Season 7 set for me.

March 19 - Holy Wednesday, half-day work day
I swapped more DVDs and ended up getting more than I can probably afford to watch during this 4-day break, including the ones Marco and Monch kept passing to me because there were no takers. So today, I brought home THE CHORUS (a French flick), COPYING BEETHOVEN, THE WEATHERMAN, BEFORE SUNRISE, BEE MOVIE, FINAL CUT, FINDING NEVERLAND and part of CSI-VEGAS' SEASON 7, which I think I'm I've partly watched before. Louise has also generously lent her AVI copy of I AM LEGEND and ATONEMENT, which she claims has no cuts. This should more than make up for what Mel and I 'lost' last Saturday. We mysteriously lost the I Am Legend DVD but we couldn't explain how, because everything else was intact.
I didn't join Len's birthday lunch at Joey Pepperoni but took the half day off to do some errand. Anyway, I've given my message to Len for her gift. Mel picked me up at lunch and we went to see Marthe's school director. We already paid Marthe's graduation fee and got her pictures and program. But the director again issued a paper receipt. We should remind them to issue official receipts.
I spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading. What a relaxing afternoon.

March 20-23 - Holy Weekend
We spent the rest of the week doing spiritual activities. The whole family heard mass on Holy Thursday at St Andrew for Washing of the Feet ceremony. I noticed that they used some of the same "apostles" as last year's but they were quite grown up than they were last year. We listened at home on TV to the Seven Last Words on Good Friday. I don't remember what church this was held but it was in cooperation with ABS-CBN, and I liked their style and format of choosing three speakers: one priest, one lay servant (such as a nun or active church leader), and one ordinary or non-religious person. They presented different perspectives of what the Words meant in their life and how it related to their day-to-day tasks. After each Word, a family was chosen to say a prayer, and a singer (professional or not) rendered a song to end the session for that Word.
On Holy Saturday, Mel, Marthe and I went to Sta Ana for Stations of the Cross. The Stations were permanently placed outside. They were a little abstract, with only parts of Jesus' face/head showing but each position indicating what station He was in. The stations were designed to be part of the front yard of the Church so that devotees can do the Stations of the Cross without disturbing a mass or other churchgoers inside. Late Saturday night, I busied myself filling Marthe's Easter egg shells with candies and taping up the shells to maintain the egg shape. We hid the Easter eggs in strategic spots.
On Easter Sunday, we heard mass at noon and had lunch at home, where Marthe excitedly searched the eggs. After finding all of them and realizing they contained candies, she began searching for the rest of the candies that didn't fit into the eggs. Hahaha!

March 24 - Quote from Rech
For whatever reason, Rech embarked on her thinking marathon over the 4-day weekend and came up with this first thing this morning: "Am I a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond?" Quite an Easter enlightenment for my friend. :)

March 25 - More graduation shopping
I met them again in Landmark to buy the rest of Marthe's graduation paraphernalia. We found a pair of dainty white-and-pink sandals to go with her dark fushchia blouse and skirt that we previously bought for her dance presentation. We also bought her socks. However, there weren't many nice black shoes for the white graduation dress. So we proceeded to SM. On the way from Glorietta to SM, we saw a stall that sells hair and head bands and bought a transparent curvy one that looked plain in the hand but was really nice on the head. Good, the attire is almost complete. At SM, we found a good pair of Barbie shoes (how apt!). Not too plain, not too heavy, not very fancy, not expensive but doesn't look like it will last only two uses. Cool! We were done in an hour, the shortest shopping spree I've ever seen for a school necessity. Hehe.

March 29 - Marthe's Graduation
Today is Marthe's graduation and she looks very pretty in her white dress and black shoes. The head band we bought looked surprisingly good on her head. It was transparent with a curving design that stands out against her dark brown hair when worn.
When we arrived in the school, I was shocked to note that almost all the girls were wearing makeup. For a pre-school graduation?! You've got to be kidding me! But after a few minutes, I realized that Marthe would probably end up the palest on camera if she was made to stand with all those colored faces, so I applied a bit of Clean and Clear powder on her face and a light lip color. I didn't bring my eyeshadow compact with me so that's all I could apply. Mel laughed and moved his head from side to side unbelievingly when I pulled Marthe to a corner to apply the powder and lipstick. "Kayo talagang mga babae!" he said, grinning.
With her toga and cap on, and the corsage provided by the school, Marthe blended with all the graduates. Mel accompanied Marthe onstage in getting her diploma and I accompanied her in receiving her medals (my choice, of course, hehe). She got 3 medals for: Most Artistically Inclined, Most Responsible, and Most Well Groomed.
The children were fun and funny to watch. They were formal in their graduation garb and started moving around freely when they changed to their dance costumes for the presentation. Soon, you can already hear some crying and complaining and some parents have started to carry their bored and irritated sons or daughters. One child even refused to go up the stage during the graduation song. Unfortunately, she was the daughter of the PTA president so she just had to go, against her will, because her mother wanted her to. While the rest of the children were singing their graduation song, Yesterday's Dream by 14K, she was crying silently in front. Poor little girl. Oh well, children will be children! Why do we force them to grow up?
We celebrated with Shakey's pizza, Buddy's pancit and Shopwise roasted chicken.

March 30 - Drawing/painting session
Marthe attended the National Bookstore summer session of drawing and painting today at Glorietta. We almost forgot about this and was attending mass when I remembered. We rushed to the place and was in time for the start of the session. The theme was summer and they were made to draw and color scenes of summer. Marthe's pictures were very detailed compared with other children's drawings, which were big but very general. And some even tended to copy each other's ideas. But of course my daughter is unique, hehehe. Even if she didn't win a prize for her drawing, I think (and some other parents think too, based on their comments) her pictures had more insight and expression.