RSS Feed

‘Jodythinks’ Category

  1. Because we love pizza parties

    October 18, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    My friends are old. From ten years ago where the party would start at 10 pm and end after breakfast at Mr. Kabab, we are now cracking open bottles of wine at 5 pm and ending at 8. From them bringing random girls around to parties they now talk about the name game song and how their daughters are growing up. This is quite a disturbing, yet comforting thought to have as we wind down to later in our lives when everyone has settled down and well, still laughing about the same stories they’ve been repeating since I’ve known them.

    They didn’t start out as my friends, rather my sister’s. But they have adopted me as their own and sometimes forget that I’m three years younger, telling me about a random classmate from somewhere that I don’t really remember. And other times they think I’m too mature for my age so they left me alone, without notice to wake up in a tent in Puerto Galera at the age of 16. (It was my first trip without my parents, thanks guys)

    They are the most dependable and the most undependable group of friends I know. We never expect them to show up when they call two days before, but don’t get surprised when they say they’re on their way over (or just randomly show up at the house with food).

    So maybe in five years I’ll be writing about them getting even older, but hey, life happens.


  2. Just because everyone needs to be juvenile and laugh at weird stuff

    October 11, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    So I have the humor of a fifteen year old boy. I just feel like sometimes we need to laugh at accidentally funny signs and things lost in translation sometimes.

    And I sort of needed this after a long day. Happy Tuesday to my five readers!

     


  3. My Life as a Social Retard: aka, Why I’m not a brilliant conversationalist

    September 28, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    there is no particular reason for the photo, it's just one of the few receipts with my name spelled right, umkay?

    I have been told that I look “suplada” or standoffish or just plain “mataray”. (There are no English translations that I can think of for the two Filipino words in the first sentence that I’m quite satisfied with, let me know if any of you five readers think of one)

    I don’t quite agree. I’m just, for a lack of a better word, shy. I am not the type of person who can walk up to someone and just strike up a conversation (I just met one, a colleague named Jean and I think she rocks). I just can’t. However, when I do get approached, I try my best to maintain a flow of words between us, to most of my ability.

    I say to the most of my ability because sometimes there really is just more dead air than actual words. For fear of being politically incorrect, unfunny or offensive, some of the things I do want to say are stuck inside my head, only to be told later to someone I’m sure would understand or appreciate the joke.

    It is a power I would like to have. Yes, I consider it a power to schmooze, as this will get you places in life, your job, your social status and your future family’s place in the world cemented by the power to rub elbows quite effectively.

    This thought did not materialize randomly in my head. Last week, I had multiple opportunities to mingle and widen my social circle with quite frankly such amazing people and personalities were presented to me on a platter. What did I do? I sat in a corner and finished a book. (It was a fun book, but hey, actual people!)

    So here I go again, saying next time I’ll do better and socialize more. I will. I will.


  4. A post on conquering your fear (well sort of)

    September 26, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    Once during a blackout when I was a kid, a frog jumped on me at night. Childhood trauma? Check. So it comes as no surprise that at the age of 25, I still hate them with a passion. Those jumpy, warty, slimy things still make my skin crawl whenever I hear them, and no exaggeration, I run like hell when I see them on the street.

    So about 3 years ago when I was given an opportunity to have them for lunch I really was iffy. A friend was offering to order them for me for free as long as I took a bite. I kept hearing about frogs tasting like chicken and whatnot, and I figured what the hell, they were dead and I’d have my revenge.

    They did taste like chicken, a bit cleaner for some reason, and as I can imagine, cooked to perfection coz I could actually swallow the thing. It’s just, they came like this. (see above photo) Full bodied suckers that were posed like they were stretching in the swimming pool before they started a lap of backstroke. Needless to say I was staring a good ten minutes before I actually had the strength to venture the taste.

    Anyways, I got a bit of revenge, and chalked a notch on the “weird food I’ve eaten” list.

    And it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

    You can get these at Abe or Cafe Adriatico in the Metro Manila area, and native food restaurants in Pampanga. Ask for Betute.


  5. I’m a mommy

    September 15, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    my cutie patootie

    … to a four year old bunny. Ever since I got this guy I have been amazed that I have him. He is such a cutie patootie, with his black eyes and furry butt.

    Not that we don’t get into arguments, I always lecture him when he turns over his just replenished food bowl (which he does a lot, I think for attention).

    Usually I just stare at those eyes then rub the part between his eyes and nose (he loves that) and tell him what a cutie he is.

    Now all he needs is a woman, anyone with female bunnies as volunteers? You’ll get to keep all the offspring!


  6. A drink to try today: Guinness beer

    September 9, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    I still don’t drink beer, but when I do, this is what I go for. Now don’t go saying I’m hoity toity, I think San Miguel Premium when ice cold is insanely refreshing, but I get tired of it easily and want to give it to someone else when the temperature of the drink succumbs to our tropical heat.

    But Guinness here, is so good. Deep, dark, delicious. It reminds me of the bitterness of coffee and the smoothness of chocolate.

    If you ever see it on grocery shelves, try it. You may find the beer for you. :)


  7. Jump like you mean it

    September 7, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    One of the world’s most cliche photo concepts, but still one of my favorites. This is just how I felt that day, giddy, jumping for joy, and not quite believing who I was with and where.

    What’s your jump worthy moment of the day?


  8. Giving up the girl

    August 31, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    I woke up today from a dream about shoes and dresses and outfits and it hits me, I really am a girl. Maybe it’s time I admitted it.

    I’ve fought with this side of my personality ever since I could remember, chopping off my hair to a length that had people looking at my picture and declaring me a boy (True story: My mom brought a picture of me and my siblings to work and a colleague asked if she had two boys:[she has two girls and one boy]). I wore  shirts and sneakers in high school, with my only selling out point was growing out my hair and vowing to never cut it that short again as to not be mistaken as a dude again.

    True I had dresses and heels and could walk in them fine. College saw a turning point, when, during the party for my eighteenth birthday, the friends that knew me from first grade sold me out and said that I actually put makeup on sometimes. College was spent in high heels and teeny bags that could fit only a notebook and my wallet, as it was the only way to express oneself outside the uniform. My hair grew to waist length. I actually had a compact in my bag (that I hid. very well.) Although oftentimes outside the uniform it was still the shirt+sneakers combination that got me through four years of commuting to my school.

    Out of school and not used to dressing without a uniform started the foray into a larger world of “outfits”. From my staple shirts, pants and sneakers, I forayed into other, more girl inspired ensembles mostly influenced by seeing my friend and teammate Sarah come in to work in a different “look” everyday. She was (and still is from what I see in photos) very put together but still very casual. I loved the fact that she could still move, walk, commute and do all the things she needed to do while looking very interesting every day. She is still one of my favorite fashion inspirations, and friend to boot.

    I actually read blogs that feature makeup styles, and check out lookbooks sometimes. Even had my hair permed last year. Now I mostly go to modcloth.com to look at the pretty vintage inspired dresses and outfits. I have a friend that is a professional makeup artist that I go to ask when I need makeup advice. My token favorite girly store is Promod for flowy fabrics and delicious prints. And even though I’m still found in my staples of shirts, pants and sneaks most of the time, I sometimes get my mom’s advice to push my fashion envelope and go the extra mile in dressing up.

    I am not really a girly girl, but I’m not just a tough tomboy-ish girl anymore.


  9. One year, and a story to cap it off

    August 16, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    yes, that's me in the plaid dress. Lola's the smiling woman in white.

    Yesterday was the first anniversary of my grandma’s passing, and we went to the province for the ceremonial “babang-luksa”. This means roughly moving on from the one year of mourning since her death, and it was marked, as most Filipino occasions are done, with prayer, food and relatives.

    As much as I have said bad things about my grandmother over the years and I admit it, I knew she loved us as only she could, with what she knew to do. She always made sure we had the best of everything. She taught us the value of hard work. She showed us, in the end how crippling it can be when people that don’t need you anymore leave you in the dust.

    She was my grandmother, and I know she’s better off where she is, with my ninong and lolo.

    After we went to the ceremony to pray at her grave, my pops told us a story, and I swear it’ll be etched in my mind forever.

    It turns out, my lolo (who I’ve never met because he died before my parents even got together) loved to garden. He would go to my aunt’s house and plant every single day, and bring home a handful of champaca (small white flowers that would fill a room with their scent) to put in her hair. See, I always associated champacas with my grandmother, she always smelled of them. When she died we had a choice of roses or champaca to put in her tomb and I chose the champaca because it felt more like her.

    I’m glad to know that the signature scent of lola was given to her by my lolo. And i’m hoping that maybe, he’s now handing her a handful of champaca when they see each other every day.


  10. On pretty food and eating like a grownup

    August 10, 2011 by Jody Alarva

    Macarons and tea

    Five years ago, if you told me I would be eschewing my Coke and cake for macarons and mint tea, I would have bonked you on the head and told you that you were nuts. I am a sweets girl, and I figure anything goes perfect with coke and cake, but here I am, having teas and these delicate little things that melt in my mouth.

    I think I’m growing up. I gave up coffee for tea on taste preference (never mind that after I drink coffee I feel heavy and hot), sipping on jasmine or chamomile or simply green tea with brown rice after a heavy meal. Don’t get me wrong, I still think Coke is the most perfect drink in the world, but I don’t drink it as often, and we don’t stock it in the house as much anymore.

    Also, truthfully the first time I tried macarons after weeks of debate and a lot of research, I thought “That’s it?”, but now I do think they’re one of the most sublime things I have ever put in my mouth. Suffice to say I have only tried our Filipino versions of the original french pastry, what if I get to wrap my lips around the real thing? Melt in your mouth, airy, delicately sweet, the macaron is I think, definitively a delicacy. Or, as I made up in my mind the word to describe as meaning delicate and delicious.

    I think I’m growing up in terms of food choices, last Sunday I chose to buy bread pudding instead of chocolate cake when I had the choice of one or the other.

    Although, I am finding myself in the search for the perfect brazo de mercedes (not frozen, just the regular brazo) after a few weeks of buying a slice from Banchetto.

    But I’m rambling. I do believe I’m expanding my taste buds as an adult. Hopefully they don’t grow old on me.