Braising my Beef

waaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooo!!!

finally, after 3.5 years here in the east coast, ive finally gotten my butt into six flags great adventure. thanks to the coupon i stole from my boss, i got in the park for 50% off any given day.

since the coupon will expire next weekend, jay and i finally braved the trip to six flags inspite of the periodic drizzling. i was half adamant to go, but what the hell, if we dont try now, we could try next weekend.

our first stop was the superman ride. i was thrilled. since it was the first one you see when you get out of the parking lot, i decided to give it a go. jay is not your regular rollercoaster fanatic. in fact, he’s a bit too paranoid about these things and would scream sounds of worry and horror whenever i manage to drag him into riding anything. (his paranoia is also the reason why i never got to ride the cyclone in coney island.) we rode on the first row of the ride, and i raised my arms as if i was superman and was singing the theme until the ride started and my singing was replaced by shrieks of excitement.

i was glad he liked the superman ride. i did, like it a lot. it was my preparation for the tallest and fastest one of all, the kingda ka. strongly expressing his "im not gonna get on that really tall one" i proceeded to fall in line — for an hour, ALONE. i was bored to bits and pieces, but boy was i scared and palpitating. i have never been nervous on getting on any ride that has a forward and twisting and loop-da-looping motion (no, i dont like pendulum rides. it gives me a headache, and if i wanted that feeling, i could just spin myself silly until i fall down dizzy).

kingda ka was no laughing matter. i was getting more anxious whenever the car unloads its last batch of victims. most of them looked pale and nonplussed and shocked. damn, i was already standing in line for 50 minutes bored out of my wits and backing out was no option– besides, why not?

so i hopped in my seat, with this hispanic girl who looked shy and timid. i happen to think that she looked more scared than i was. when the restraints went down, she clutched her wristlet in her palms and was all smiles. i tell you, when we blasted off, i clutched my damn restraints holding on to dear life! hahaha. and there was my seatmate, having the time of her life! her friends at the row in front of us even raised their arms in total glee of the whole experience. hah. that’s me in all the other rides ive been on, not this.

this is the first time i actually held on to the harness. i was scared that my arm would fly off while our car traversed the 453 foot loop. this was the first time that i followed all the safety precautions. 

few seconds later, we got blasted off like a rocket and there’s no turning back (then again, there wasnt any turning back once the seatcages went down.) it was maddeningly nervewrackingly fun! i  saw new jersey on a 90 degree drop downward. it was enlightening.

i have lived to tell the tale, and im gonna go ride on it again. hah! then maybe i’ll be patient enough to fall in line to ride the el toro.

(we did go on the batman ride, which was also fun, but i dont recommend riding a hanging type of roller coaster on the back rows. the best seat in the house is the frontmost one. i guarantee that you wont get dizzy. i did get dizzy on the batman ride because i was too impatient to wait for my turn on the front coasters. i guess the middle and back rows only ride nice on a rail type rollercoaster — i was in the middle car of kingda ka and i didnt feel dizzy.)

i miss the scene that i used to have in manila. back in the day when we answered our trunkline with "hello, creative" to tease our account executive, and the endless nights of working for a client presentation. i miss the days when i spoke with photographers, architects, restaurant managers and the great craftsmen who made all our scaled computer drawings a reality. i especially miss the days when tan and i would gorge on a load of chinese food and dimsum (or tonkatsu bowls) after yet another stressful week of working for retail and restaurant concepts.

i visited budjette and brandie’s blogs and cant help but be jealous of their daily creative stresses, copious amounts of caffeine requirements and their shiny shimmering successful campaigns.

i miss the days of bragging about what ive done to make some 10 peso thing cost 100. the days when we sort of anonymously put ourselves on the merchandising materials of Anonymous and the various clients of yore. i miss consuming copious amounts of free food and alcohol comped by our restaurant clients.

its ironic that my life in new york is really devoid of design in that sense.

somehow i think, i cant hack a designer job anymore. but maybe i will.

i miss baby’s (scroll down to philippines) temperament. i miss craving for her approval and her commendation. i remember her and coco’s "mag-asawang very good" for my job well done, and their duet of singing happy birthday to me in french.

when i grow up, i want to be like her. but for now, im gonna be content with cheering brandie and budjette on.

http://www.winkflash.com/photo/public.aspx?u=stellapics  (get a membership at this site. they print the best pictures, assuming you take pictures at the highest resolution possible with your digital camera. cheap shipping too.)

shameless plug. anyway, ive been back in new york from my san diego trip for a week and a half, and ive finally found time to do nothing — after that gruelling JA trade show at the javits (and leaving me broke and happy with pearls, but that’s another story)

the reason for this trip out was to go to tiny’s big fat greek wedding. the wedding was intimate. and it was sweet. it was nice to see the high school folks again.

i also came to visit april, a college friend whom i had shared a few rounds of brewski with.

the other reason for going was LEGOLAND. and JOLLIBEE. and RED RIBBON and CHOWKING.

me and my big dreams of becoming a chef du jour. i was screaming with glee when i saw my dearest and greatest bee of all time. i stuffed my face silly with EVERYTHING ON THAT BACKLIT MENU BOARD! i cant believe i spent some 20 dollars in a restaurant that sold 5dollar meals. i had the chickenjoy skin (yes, its the same, but im still a solid kfc meat person. i only like chickenjoy skin.), the great yumburger with cheese, the spaghetti, the palabok and the peach mango pie. (i do hope you are not hungry at this point in time, dear reader.) aaaaah. the memories of childhood.

april took me food tripping without the aid of a joint. according to her, i was the easiest guest to please, as i wasnt even looking for a nite out. i went for simple things of eating filipino food and enjoying the company of a friend over a drink.

we kinda tried going out thursday night but for some strange reason we were beat. after hangin out at the beach, we went to visit her family and went back for her apartment to wait for jay, who was arriving that night.

as we snuggled under the covers of her cozy bed, with bated breath, we watched food network, drank beer while eating kornik and lazily waited for jay to land. as this whole waiting thing was going on, we got all weary and tired that we didnt even bother getting out of the house again to check out downtown.

in some ways this is very alarming. we are getting old, and unfortunately we cant tolerate all niters anymore. we’d rather sleep. (this aint the first time, either. when i visited pauline last july in chicago, the first thing we did after we had lunch in chinatown was to sleep the whole afternoon off and eat leftovers for dinner. oh lord.)

at this point, i have already eaten two slices of brazo de mercedes.

the following day was jollibee and legoland day. man, it was great! its an amusement park really made for 12 and under, but it was awesome. i think we were the only group who went there sans kids. the rides were a bit too kiddie, but it was good for us with our tired bodies and creaking bones (but really, i like the fast ones but i was just too tired to do anything more than a kiddie coaster.) i’ll let the pictures speak for itself.

after legoland, marianne called to go out for dinner. jay and april declined as they were creaking. i happily obliged to go out with them and eat taho and fried rice in chowking. the taho was fabulous, the fried rice a bit disappointing. after dinner, i went home and slept at 10pm san diego time.

the next day, tiny became wife. and in the back pews marianne and i were recalling crazy days from 10 years ago. yup. its been more than a decade since high school graduation.

between the wedding ceremony and the reception, we found some time to visit the maritime museum and got into the great ships of yore — in our wedding outfits. thank god it was cold enough to wear a jacket!

we went to the reception and stuffed my face silly with hors d ouvres and free wine. as we (me, jay, marianne and her bf talal) sat down in the farthest corner of the room which is our table (i wouldnt have it any other way, anyway, because besides the bride’s siblings, we didnt know anyone else) we engaged ourselves with silly conversation about getting married with sign-in bonuses, airports, hotels and car rentals.

we went home and slept early, again.

as i tried in vain to get an earlier flight out of san diego, we cooked up our last hoorah of san diego touristy activity. we went to the san diego wildlife safari. it was nice and it felt like a scene from the lion king.

*insert that lion king intro…