Twenty Six.

I am obsessed with lists. I initially had a list of "Twenty six things to do on the twenty six days before my 26th birthday on September 26," but busyness (is that even a word?) got ahead of me. I barely got to do the stuff in there. But anyway, thanks to my blockmates for this crazy list --

* Eat nothing but ice cream for the whole day.
* Re-enact the Philadelphia Art Museum scene in Rocky at the AS Steps
* Recite using the Bane voice.
* Commute without using her car for a day.
* Eat at the Shopping Center Coop.
* Smoke Fortune Reds.
* Wag tumanggi pag may magpapalibre.
* Dress up in a frilly dress, with matching high heels and stuff.
* Make the first move.
* Propose to someone in public.
* Cross-dress for a day.
* Feed three streetchildren/homeless persons. It doesn't count unless it makes them smile.
* Hawakan sa tenga si DanGat
* Try Jackie's famous vanilla sundae with gravy
* Maka-uno sa recit ni Dan Gat (at least, I think that was an uno recit. *crosses fingers*)
* Drink habang nakatambay sa Sunken Garden habang pinapanood ang mga taong nagfufootball or nagfifrisbee.(Scratched off half because I didn't have drinks with me.)
* Magtanong sa upperclassman kung ano ibig sabihin ng TBA.
* Attend Adhoc tapos mahiga ka sa sahig ng banyo at magpa-tapak ka kay Jackie
* Kiss 26 people on the cheek just because J
* Pumasok ng lasing.. Uminom sa Sunken Garden.
* Uminom sa Sarah's. 
* Lakarin yung Acad Oval.
* Apiran si Zorro.
* MAG-YOGA SA AMPHITHEATER. PARA FITNESS.
* Catch a free movie sa UPFI!
* Watch a Dulaang UP play. 

4.5/26. Pathetic. Oh well. Gotta admit, some of them were kinda impossible. I mean, hello. "Hawakan sa tenga si DanGat." Like I could get away alive if I ask him that. Hahaha.

But anyway,  today is my 26th birthday and I'm feeling a lot older. I know age is nothing but a number (haha, cliche), but I feel farther and farther from my youth and a hundred cartwheels closer to being middle aged. Another year and I'm already in my mid-20's. That's cause for panic, right? Right???? (Come on, agree with me!!)

A few days before today I was sort of having this crisis, about turning 26 and not having anything to say for myself. I am very far away from who I envisioned myself to be at 26. At this age, my mom was (secretly) married to my dad, and had a career she was excelling in. Other friends and batchmates are getting married and building families of their own. Heck, Clare just bought herself a house and lot! I on the other hand, am a first year law student, having taken 15 months off to join a reality show. That's almost back to square one, if you think about it.

I would never have thought I'd turn out this way if you had asked me this in high school. But then again, this was how I chose to live my 26 years. It may have seemed like I was all over the place, trying out so many things and exploring different facets of my personality, but I don't regret it. At the end of the day, these are the things I'll remember. The seemingly mundane, crazy and off beat things that I've done will make me the cool mommy/lola I want to be in the future. Hahaha.

So, cheers to another year of randomness. 25 was when I became a reality show personality and a law student. A year of extremes, if I may say so; definitely something worth remembering. And for that, I thank you (whoever you are who's reading), old friends, new friends (I've had a lot of those the past year!), my family (including the dog), and the universe, for making things happen for me. Thank you Papa God for another year full of life, love, laughter, tears, fears, joy, excitement and adventure. Looking forward to more of those in my 26th year! :)

Sunday Cooking with Leigh

Today I channeled my inner Martha Stewart and tried my hand at cooking. Now I get why people say this is a stress reliever -- it gives such a sense of accomplishment when the food turns out well.

This all came about because our trusty 20-year old turbo broiler finally bid farewell. (Seriously, that thing belongs in a museum. Haha.) My sister bought a new oven and yeah, you get it. New kitchen toy that I wanted to play with, so I cooked the cheesiest Baked Macaroni you can ever dream of. :)

Okay, now I go back to studying!

Baked Macaroni ala Leonila

Midterms, schmidterms.

Hello world! Surpriiiiseeee! I'm still alive. :) Taking a break from studying for my Legal History midterms just to tell you that. Well, yeah. There.

I've been in law school for a little over two months now (two months and 6 days to be precise) and I'm sort of getting the hang of it. Now that everything's been taken care of in my past life, I can finally concentrate on my studies. Seriously, I have a newfound respect for working students now. It definitely isn't easy. :s

Between reading cases which more often than not just much ado about nothing, and trying to memorize provisions of the Revised Penal Code (READ: TRYING), my blockmates entertain the hell out of me. Seriously, they're crazy. They get me laughing my pants off most of the time.
Anyway there really isn't any point to this entry (haven't you figured that out yet?), so I'm going to go back to studying now. Hopefully next time I'll have something more worthy to write about. (God, I hope law school hasn't made me boring yet!)

And oh, by the way, I'm writing this through the mobile blogger app. I figured I'd get to update more often with this. Let's see. :)

UP Law Block E 2016

Survival Guide For Dating A Law Student | Thought Catalog

Survival Guide For Dating A Law Student | Thought Catalog

Law School 101

It's been three weeks since I started school, and I can honestly say that I've never read this much [serious] stuff in my whole life. I read a lot, yes. But I read fiction, and those I can finish in 2 days. Now I read cases and articles. (Sometimes interesting, sometimes very interesting, most of the time just boring. Hahaha.)

Yeah, that's my new adventure, to be Leigh, the Lawyer. (Kinda sounds like Dora the Explorer, doesn't it? Haha.)

Malcolm Hall, home of the UP College of Law

Three weeks in the UP College of Law has already taught me a lot. Surprise, surprise. And I don't mean law-related things; these are lessons in how to be a resilient person in a very, very tough world. They weren't kidding when they told us it would be hard. I remember sitting in the auditorium, listening to our orientation speakers and thinking, "Why the hell are they so nega about it all??" Lo and behold, they were all telling the truth. :s

Law school is not the place for cramming. I've always been proud of my cramming skills until now. No matter how good you are at cramming, there is no way you could get to understand what you're reading in less than an hour (unless you have bionic memory and you're a very fast reader). Cases, regardless of how short they are, tend to be complicated at times, and legal terms are scattered everywhere in the text. To fully understand the text, well, you have to understand the legal terms as well.

Time management is very, very important. My cellphone timer is no longer used to time my workouts, but to measure how much time I spend reading a case/article/chapter. I measure my days in hours -- how much time I spend doing personal things (driving, preparing for school, eating meals), studying and sleeping. This I have yet to master; for someone like me who doesn't like structure, well, this needs a bit of getting used to. Sadly, the sleeping part gets to be sacrificed more often that I would like to. :(

Law school is a blank slate. Tabula rasa, as they say. People don't care if you were a cum laude, a mediocre student, or an ex-reality show personality (hahaha). In school, you are all equal. Everyone goes through sleepless nights and bad recits. This means for some, kailangan bawasan ng yabang ang katawan. No matter how good you were in your undergrad studies, the professors here are waaaay smarter than you, so don't ever think you can outsmart them and that you're better than them. You are not equals. They are the gods of Olympus and we are just humans wanting to be like them. For the others, this means an opportunity to redeem themselves from mediocrity. After all, it was previously mentioned in our orientation that the school accepted only 8% of its applicants for our batch. If we were good enough to pass, well certainly, they must have seen potential there somewhere. Kailangan din ng konting yabang sometimes.

Three weeks is just that -- three weeks. I know I'm bound to learn more things, and unlearn some of the things I already know. I'm keeping this list open, so that I can correct myself in the future, if my assumptions now turn out to be wrong. :)

I Wish I Could Go Back to College..

5 days until I end my 14 month hiatus from real life. So many emotions are bubbling inside of me, and I can't really define in one sentence how it feels. I am excited, sad, nervous, intimidated, challenged... well, you get the picture.

I'm at Resorts World now working on some last minute work related things with Allan and this song suddenly came up. Funny, I remember one life talk session with Virlynn when we ended up singing this.

KATE MONSTER:
I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.

NICKY:
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college.
In college you know who you are.
You sit in the quad, and think, "Oh my God!
I am totally gonna go far!"

ALL:
How do I go back to college?
I don't know who I am anymore!

PRINCETON:
I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dry-erase pen on the door!
Ohhh...
I wish I could just drop a class...

NICKY:
Or get into a play...

KATE MONSTER:
Or change my major...

PRINCETON:
Or fuck my T.A.

ALL:
I need an academic advisor to point the way!
We could be...
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college!

ALL:
How do I go back to college?!
AHHHH...

PRINCETON:
I wish I had taken more pictures.

NICKY:
But if I were to go back to college,
Think what a loser I'd be-
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God..."

ALL:
"These kids are so much younger than me."

I think this about sums it all up -- the excitement, the nervousness... everything. How appropriate too, this coming from one of my favorite musicals, Avenue Q, which is where I got to know Kate Monster. :)

The FitFil Fitness Bootcamp by Coach Leigh :)

You wouldn't imagine how terrified I was when I was first asked by Coach Jim if I wanted to help out in this new idea he had a couple of months ago. A fitness bootcamp was all he said -- something new and different, and of course, fun. (When he said "fun," of course I had to say yes! Haha.)

I was scared mainly because despite having been in the Biggest Loser Camp, I'm still not someone you'd consider fit at first glance. Fitness is an industry where image and experience counts.. and I basically had no credentials at all aside from the fact that I was able to lose weight in around 5 months. Aside from that, I wasn't really your typical fitness buff; actually, I'm not even really a fitness buff at all. I'm just a normal person trying to balance real life with being able to take care of my body. Never in my life have I been called "Coach" and I have never dreamed to be called one outside the corporate setting.

Long story short, I ended up working for Coach Jim Saret's FitFil Movement. What is it? Well, it's basically a movement to get more and more Filipinos slimmer, fitter and healthier. Together with me are my other Biggest Loser friends -- Ahia Alan, Eric, Destiny, Winwin, Edden, Hazel, Raffy, JM and Ryan.

The good thing about this camp is that it combines the three things that are most important in getting fit -- quality workouts, good nutrition and of course, MOTIVATION. I know how hard it is to spend lots of time in the gym, only to get minimal results. I also know how it feels to have a goal, to be fired up at first and to get demotivated in the next couple of days because of boredom, loneliness, or just because it feels like all the work isn't paying off the way you want it to. In this camp, the quality workouts will be from Coach Jim (4 minute workouts!), the good nutrition from Nestle Wellness, and the motivation from my BL friends and I. After all, who else better to motivate, than people who have all been through it and are still going through it, right? :)

I spent last week in Cebu for the launch of the Cebu leg of the FitFil bootcamp, and it definitely exceeded everyone's expectations. 200 people registered, and over 200 people showed up during the first day! We grouped them into beginner, intermediate and advance and Destiny and I were given one of the beginner groups.

Team Bangon-on (meaning "to be weighed" or something like that) is a group of varying ages composed of people wanting to lose weight for different reasons. I vividly recall someone saying that he wanted to lose weight because he just had a baby and realized that he wanted to see his baby all grown up. There were also those who wanted to have a better quality of life. They mentioned things that were very true to me a year ago and even up until now. Hearing their reasons made me even more motivated to go through with my own journey, while motivating them as well.

Team Bangon-on

As of last Saturday (our first weigh in), most of them have lost between 1 to 8 lbs. Imagine, that much weight lost after just one week! Unfortunately, I had to leave Cebu and be in Manila for the other things I had to do -- school, and preparation for the Manila camp. One thing I promised them though, was that when we next see each other, we will all be sexier! I definitely want to keep my end of the promise, and I hope they do too! :)

The Manila leg of the FilFil Fitness Bootcamp will be on June 25 - July 27, 2012, MWF 6-8pm at the Bonifacio High Street Grouds. The Cebu leg started last May 15 and will last until June 16, 2012, T-TH-S, 6-8pm at the Ayala Terraces.  Registration is still ongoing for both camps.
For more information, please visit www.coachjimsaret.ph