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Hi, Candy Girls!

Lately, I’ve been loving this collaboration by two of my favorite bands (The All-American Rejects and The Pierces) called “Another Heart Calls.” It goes:

Do you remember when we didn’t care?
We were just two kids that took the moment when it was there.
Do you remember you at all? Another heart calls.

I don’t know why, but the song reminded me of our celebrities interview for the Jan-Feb 2009 issue entitled “Hit the Heartbreaks” (flip to pages 26-27). If you haven’t read it, you’d be surprised to know that we were able to make rocker Miguel Escueta, actors Dino Imperial and Mikee Lee, and baller Macky Escalona share their most heart-wrenching stories. Can you guess who was cheated on three times by three horrible girls? (Write your answer below in the comments section!)

Hearing their tear-jerking tales of love and loss just reinforced my belief that being a celebrity in a relationship is so NOT easy. But despite the fact that our topic was a sensitive one, we managed to have fun at our shoot.

Mikee and I pretending to be in love (not necessarily with one another)…

…then ending up with broken hearts. Aww!!!

The M People! In the middle of the shoot, we realized that all our names started with the letter M so we had a group shot taken. That’s me, Miguel, Macy, Mikee, Marla, and Macky. We could seriously be a group of superheroes or a band. Haha!

The entire crew. See? I told you, the boys are all happy now. No more angst!

(In case you’re wondering why Dino was MIA, it’s because we interviewed him on another day.)

With a heart all set for love in ‘09,
Mimi

Ever since I was in high school, I’ve always loved going on outreach activities. A particularly memorable one was when I spent a week teaching grade 2 kids from a public school in Baguio. I was in 4th year high school and I was with a group of other students and teachers. We all lived in a small house beside the school. We would go to the market together, cook our own meals, and do different chores around the house. We were divided into pairs and assigned to teach different grade levels during the day. We even had to make lesson plans and everything!

The kids were a complete nightmare at first! My partner and I had such a hard time controlling them. One of the kids even stuck his foot out as I was running from one end of the classroom to another so I tripped and fell flat on my face! Can you imagine?! But as the days passed, they warmed up to us. We’d play with them during recess and they started listening to us during class.

On our last night, we each got to spend a night in the house of one of our students. Their houses were mostly on the mountain so we had to hike to get there. I think that’s the first real hike I ever did! The house where I stayed was simple, but I could tell that they were a good family.

My friends and I all cried buckets of tears on our way home at the end of the week. We were going to miss our students and our new “family” so much. But it was such a worthwhile experience. I feel like I gained so much more out of it than what I was able to give.
* * *

Fast forward to college… I joined an organization that allowed me to go to Payatas every Saturday. We played games with the kids, taught them arts and crafts activities, and visited them in their homes. I grew close to one particular family whom I would visit regularly in my last two years of college. Unfortunately, they had to move back to the province so I haven’t seen them since I graduated.

Just a few months ago, Mimi, Macy, and I, together with COC girls Katya, CJ, and Gaby, had a chance to spend time with kids who have cancer. The event was organized by U! Happy Events, a foundation for kids. Check out the COC girls’ account in the Jan-Feb ish! Here are some of our pics behind the scenes!

With my partner Mika. You can’t even tell she’s sick. She’s a fighter—possibly even tougher than me!

Magician Rey turns one of the kids into a puppet!

Freebies and cupcakes for the kids

Today, I feel blessed that working in Candy allows me to keep doing activities like these. It’s something I love doing because more than giving money and material things, sharing one’s time, talent, and energy is something the people you interact with will never forget.

What do you love about volunteering and doing outreach activities? I hope you can share your stories with me!

Feeling inspired,
Angel

Whenever I see someone doing the 365 project, I get jealous. At the end of the year, they can say, “I shot a year in pictures.” And each time they look at their photos, they’ll be able to remember things that happened to them.

I usually have a camera in my bag, but after a while, I started getting lazy to take it out to take pictures. I used to take pictures of the most random things in the world (I fell in love with the macro function and just started shooting stuff in my room—like really old books or old toys.).

So after much thought, I decided to revive a blog I started a few months ago that was inspired by a flash fiction workshop. I posted a few times in it, until I totally forgot to update it. That is, until 2009 started.

My goal is to write one story a day inspired by any lomograph I’ve taken before. Sometimes I start with the photo and work around that, and other days I have the story in my head and just choose a picture that fits it. During the first week, I had to cheat and write for the days that I missed. But so far, I’ve been successful in maintaining the blog. (Whenever I don’t have access to a computer, I type the story in my phone and save it in my drafts. I haven’t figured out how to blog through my phone… yet!)

Hopefully at the end of the year, I can say, I wrote 365 stories. (:

This was the day she dreamt of every night since she could remember. She had always pictured herself in a white dress with just the right hint of pink where the sun touched it. In her dream, there would always be a red balloon floating under the stained glass ceiling. It felt like her heart.

<3,
Macy

Here’s what’s on my radar right this minute!

I’m currently in love with these lavender wedges. I’ve had to be extremely creative in finding extra closet space for my burgeoning shoe collection, but one look at this pretty pair and all those late nights rearranging shoeboxes and giving away old pairs are suddenly worth it.

My sis Celine sent this over last week and I absolutely love it! It’s the perfect match to my red Nano. What’s even cooler is that my other sis Bambi helped her choose!

Art Director Steph, Managing Ed Mimi and I love all things Hello Kitty. Steph has the 2009 planner and Mimi even has cross stitch patterns! So I was totally psyched when I saw this tarp at a store slot in Greenbelt 5. Can’t wait for it to open!

Bark Avenue (Eastwood Citiwalk, on the level under the cinemas) and Bark and Wag’s (Serendra, on the second floor) pastry bar is too cute for words! My furkid loves the doggie donuts with sprinkles. The only downside is looking at them makes me crave for lots and lots of human donuts!

Ever since I saw Lifestyle Ed Marla eating Chow King’s Prawn Fries, I’ve been having regular cravings. Everyone calls it Chicharap but I still call it kropeck—a throwback to my happy childhood memories, when our cook would make these all the time

How about you, what’s on your radar right this minute?

Last Sunday, I had a different kind of running experience. Instead of running on the paved streets of Manila, I ran (well, more like half-ran, half-wobbled) on the trails at the foot of Mt. Batulao in Batangas. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of my experience!

5:30 am Drove to Evercrest Golf Club with my boyfriend Roland and other members of AMCI, our mountaineering club. It was 10-minutes away from Alfonso Hotel, our digs for the night. The road was winding and enveloped with a heavy fog, pierced by my headlights.

5:55 The 10-km runners are assembled at the starting point, ready to conquer the trail.

6:00 And we’re off! I was only wearing the sleeveless TNF singlet, my knee-length Mizuno leggings, a cap, and running shoes. It was really cold, but I didn’t mind. I wanted to feel the fresh air brush against my skin.

6:15 I wish I had worn my hiking shoes. The trail was rocky and I could feel the stones under my feet. I ran slowly at first because it was still dark. I concentrated hard on where to step, carefully avoiding sharp rocks and cow manure.

6:30 The sky was starting to get light, but the sun’s rays could not break through the thick clouds. I started to feel at ease and ran a little faster.

6:35 Roland and I reach the water and first aid station. We take a quick break to have a sip of water and catch our breath.

6:45 The rest of the trail was gently rolling. It brought us around the hillside, where we could see rows and rows of cornfields. The craggy peak of Mt. Batulao loomed in the distance.

7:00 We had to go down a steep, narrow trail filled with loose stones and mud. Ropes were set up to guide us down. Thank God for the awesome weather. At least the ground was dry and our shoes and socks were spared from being caked with mud.

7:05 We crossed the hanging bridge with ease, then made a steep, uphill climb. I was out of breath by the time I reached the top.

7:15 We were back on the road! We passed by the beautiful Chapel on the Hill. It was tempting to just walk, but we were encouraged to start running again when we saw other AMCI members taking pictures.

7:30 We made one final sprint and crossed the finish line!

8:00 We stood by the finish line to cheer for AMCI members in the 20-km category who were just finishing their runs.

9:15 We headed back to Alfonso Hotel to eat breakfast. Coffee, chicken tocino, one egg, and a cup of fried rice was not enough to restore our energy!

12:00 After a quick nap, we headed to Hawaiian Barbecue—my fave restaurant in Tagaytay—with our friends to have a hearty lunch of spam rice, baby back ribs, chicken, barbecue, assorted seafood, and sweet pineapples. Aaah… my favorite part of the day!