Birthday surprises

First of, here is my disclaimer once again... I know I have neglected my blog once again. But I have a good excuse this time. I finally found the courage (and still working on it) to start vlogging. Now, I just have to make sure I find balance on blogging and vlogging. I know there are some moments that the camera doesn't capture that a blogpost would be able to explain. Anyways... that't that!

I remember when I was younger, my mom once said to make sure that if I'm gonna make friends, I make sure that these friends would be there for me not only for fun times but would stick with me in the roughest days. Up to this day I still remember those words as if she just told me about it yesterday. This guy is one of them.

I met Sai couple of years ago. It wasn't an instant connection but I knew I wanted him in my life. Having a huge circle of friends, it's hard to concentrate on connecting with each person and my story with Sai is no different. Ok maybe it is. Not until about last year when we started connecting more compared to when we just met. It was September if I remember correctly. Seattle hosted a NAGVA tournament and Sai together with couple of my friends stayed at my place and that't when it all started. After they left, I find myself sending text messages with him more than usual and the rest is history.

As months went by, I have traveled to the bay area numerous times either by myself or with my closest friends from Seattle. Fast forward to April which is Sai's birthday month, I thought I would organize a surprise birthday celebration for him. I put everything together from a distance in Seattle and the surprise birthday weekend is gonna be in San Francisco. I discovered that it wasn't hard to put something together like this when it's for somebody close to your heart. Tons of the plans changed last minute but it still worked. One of them was me hiding from him until Saturday when I got in the city on Thursday. But at the back of my mind, Sai would be mad when  he finds out that I've been there for couple of days already and would think I wasted those days instead of us hanging out. Sai's BFF Jennica, who then worked at the same place as him had a brilliant idea of me picking them up after work and that's when it all began.

Watch my vlog post below to see how it all went down on each day.

 

Saturday came and Sai thought it was the end of the surprise. Little did he know that his "Auntie" Ryan is driving up from LA with Eli and my "daughter" Tatiana. I dropped him off and picked him up at work that day using his car "Olaf". He mentioned earlier that he wanted to work out before all the celebration happens, so that was perfect timing for me to plot a new plan for his second surprise. I hijacked Olaf from him and drove back to my son Nino's place to wait for the Ryan and them. Upon arrival, I went to pick up Sai for his second surprise. I didn't know where to go after that so I did what I do best, winging it! I asked him what he wanted to do and sure enough we ended up at a Korean BBQ place and went out for some drinks and dancing.
   

Saturday came and I was not done just yet. We went to the Castro area early in the morning to play volleyball open gym and went to my favorite breakfast place in Daly city afterwards. (I always, I mean always make sure to eat there whenever I visit). Sai needed to do errands and I made his Inay ("mom") Roel plan a fake dinner plans with him that night. He sure did fell for it. Meanwhile, we were all busy making food at Nino's house. We managed to sneak in some grocery time in between the weekend. Totally had to be sneaky. Jet and Roel drove in from Sacramento that afternoon. Couple of days before the surprises, I learned that Sai sent a text message to them inviting them over the weekend to celebrate his birthday but they made it look like that they were in LA for another friends birthday. Alas, Sai fell for that as well.

My vlog below pretty much sums up the whole weekend of surprises.

That weekend was such a blast. It makes me so happy see everybody smiles and hear their laughs most especially Sai, it was his birthday weekend after all. I have no clue how to top this all off for the next birthdays to come but hopefully I'll figure something out. Thanks to my sisters and everyone who made this weekend possible and so much fun! Miss y'all!

I love you po Chinitoh!

not using xoxo,

ChaCha

Road Trip to San Francisco part 2

I have posted this vlog several weeks ago but I wasn't able to post it here on my blog to share. The rest of out weekend in the bay was quite nice. Nothing majorly scheduled but just playing it by ear. I didn't care much about the sight seeing stuff coz we all know that I've been at the bay for so many times. But at the same time I was with a couple of first timers.
 The first part of the vlog is where I left off from the first part of the roadtrip. And then we went on our day and I finally got to see the new Bay Bridge, had a great lunch at my favorite spot Tselogs that serves some of my favorite filipino dishes and then was at the Golden Gate Bridge look out for quite some time because we all got separated. 
It is not too much content but I just wanted to show how happy I get whenever I am around these bunch of people whom I will get to see again next week. Yes, i'll be at the bay again and hopefully I would be able to vlog again. I need to get on it for the start of my year and hopefully will have a good track through outt the year. not using xoxo, ChaCha

Pottery and Ceramic class with Boo

If there is one person who would take me somewhere interesting besides the normal going out to the club, go dinner dates, movies and whatnot that would be Boo. For my birthday this year, Boo took me to Pottery class and it was so much fun!!! Last year he took me to a glass blowing class and up to this date I never got a chance to make that post. (i have to retrieve pictures from my broken iPhone and still have to figure that one out. lol)

As always he wanted to keep it a surprise. So we kept driving north 'til I'm clueless (which I was already in the beginning) which part of the city we were already. But as soon as we got there I knew what was gonna happen. I couldn't be more excited. I have always wanted to do a Pottery class and what a perfect way to do it with Boo. I have to admit though, I was a bit nervous doing this. As I got older, I felt like my artistic side just kept fading more and more. Haha! But Boo reminded me to just have fun with it and not worry about it.

I barely got any pictures of the whole thing coz obviously our hands was full of clay most of the time. But this is what I've gathered...

Here's the outside view of the studio. I immediately knew that we are doing something artsy as soon we pulled in to the drive way.

    

My obsession with Pottery started when I was younger when I saw one of my ultimate favorite movies Ghost with Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg in it. If you have seen the movie, you would know what I'm talking about. 

Here is Boo's initial work. 

And here is mine that looked like crap. lol!

And then the whole artsy ditsy shmanzy happened. I'm gonna admit it now, I failed on this big time! And this is why...

Boo basically made something epic and made a drinking mug with a freaking mustache.

Meanwhile...

Mine ended up looking like a Chalise mug where all the vampires drink blood from.  How creepy and sad is that? Haha! All I was thinking off was making something where I can put my make-up brushes since I just started setting up my make-up room.  I finally had time to take pictures around the studio after washing my hand from all the clay.

Some of the work from previous classes

After drying your work couple of weeks later, theres an option if you want to color it as well. Not sure if we are doing it but that would be more interesting than what it was already. Haha!

Boo and I goofing around with clay after molding our work. Here are some of the instructors work around the studio. 

Not something that you would see around my house. I am too scared of these creepy faces.

Once again, Boo nailed it! I love doing things like this. I don't know if i'm just getting old or what but it's fun doing things besides our normal whatnots. Check out Dahl Arts Ceramic/Pottery Studio website if you are interested. I hope I get to do this again. Thank you Boo for the birthday gift! I can't wait to see the final product and can't wait for more adventures with you.  Mahal na mahal kita Boo! not using xoxo, ChaCha