Today I scanned prints that didn’t make it to our photo albums. I’m not sure if we just weren’t into photo albums when the photos were printed, or these are excess ones that didn’t make the cut (ouch). Most of the photos are more than a decade old.
Apart from admiring the cute smiles on the innocent faces of my nieces in the photos, there were also ones of my parents on one of their road trips/vacations.
Mom and Dad loved road trips! There was a time when they would go on weekend drives, and summers where they would go on vacation on their own. Now they don’t that do that enough. I’d actually really wish for them to go on trips and enjoy in a new place and just relax. Sadly, resources are just enough and the reality is that vacations can be costly.
If I ever win the lottery, I’d make sure my parents won’t have to keep on working, and instead get to go on vacations wherever and whenever they want. We’d go too of course. Or I’ll invest in fractional ownership condos. I think those are a wonderful idea. As an owner, one can get huge discounts to use the facilities, amenities and services of a five-star hotel/condo.
I didn’t think it was possible for me to get even bigger but I have! And I don’t have anyone else or anything in particular to blame for it. It’s just me and all the food the boyfriend and I have been eating. And all the failed attempts to get moving.
No, I haven’t weighed myself again. I don’t need a scale to tell me what I already know.
Truth be told, I am so big it is so hard to move now. The littlest things tire me out. Ugh. Okay. I exaggerate, but I’m sure you can imagine what I mean.
I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my life that I was ashamed of how I looked. I have always been fat, but I’ve always always felt beautiful. (I wish the old Peyups.com was still around, I would so link to my one and only published post there right now). But now I look at my photos and I cringe.
Don’t get me wrong – this is not me putting myself down. This isn’t about low self-esteem because I have so much confidence in myself. I just really hate the way I look right now. It doesn’t help that my face has a dark aura lately. Double ugh.
But I won’t make another pledge or another promise. I’m so tired of doing that and then failing.
Boyfriend! Bring that Wii downstairs and set it up in the living room. Imma dance this fat away! Hahahaha! I don’t care how looooooong it takes, but someday these curves will squeeze into lingerie corset, as long as they have plus size I mean seriously, will I ever graduate from plus size? I don’t think so. But I can graduate from being morbidly obese. And I will, so help me God!
Confession: Apart from seeing very recent photos and not liking how I looked, this post is most likely inspired by the photos of all the beautiful brides and their weddings that I’ve been browsing through. It’s so frustrating that they’re all so skinny and they’re weddings are so beautiful and grand and happy and sweet. All so fairy tale like. Mine’s going to be just as happy and beautiful in our own little way. Brr. Okay. Enough. Rant over.
I received a much-awaited package today – my Project Life kit!
It’s such an amazing product, a simplified scrapooking system for those of us who don’t have as much time or creativity to build full scrapbook pages from scratch Learn more about Project Life from this video from its creator:
But I will blog about this more in more in the coming days and months, for now let me highlight how easy it was to have it shipped to the Philippines.
Easy Amazon Transaction
I ordered the kit via Amazon on the 28th of March. The cost meant that the package qualified for free shipping within the US. At the time, there was a free trial available for an Amazon program and I signed up for that. It allowed for my package to be delivered for free, within 3 days.
I loved how it was so easy to track the package from within the Amazon site, and how real-time the updates were.
My-Shopping Box
So from the store it shipped from (I’m guessing Becky’s homebase), my kit travelled to the US address assigned to me at My-ShoppingBox – a package forwarding service that consolidates your packages and sends them when and where you want them to.
Package arrived there on the 31st of March. I authorized the shipment, made the payment, and waited a full month (+ a few days) before I finally received it.
There is an easy way to track the package from My-Shopping Box as well. However, updates are not done as real-time as, say UPS. In fact, it’s only today that I actually saw the status change from Departed from US.
The service had some problems with their website last week – logins were not being accepted. I did get an answer from customer support about the issue, and they gladly gave me the status of the package upon giving them the tracking number. And guess what? They were pretty accurate. They said to expect the package on May 10 or 11, and it came today!
I love it. I don’t have time today to work on it, but I will make time this weekend. Excited!
Anyway, back to the shipping service… My-Shopping Box collects an annual membership fee. I forgot how much, but I got in for free because I’m a BDO credit card holder. There’s also supposed to be a rebate for shipping when you use your BDO/AMEX cards but I haven’t checked yet if I got any. There’s a good number of questions in their FAQ page that should help anyone decide if they’re going to sign up for the service.
You pay them per package you have shipped. To save money, you can consolidate several smaller items you purchase from different sites (or were given to you as gifts) into one package. If not all items arrive at the same time, you may have to pay a minimal storage fee if your package has been in the facility for more than 15 days. This shouldn’t be a problem as long as you plan your purchases.
Though they weigh your package and charge accordingly, it’s still cheaper to ship via this service than if I shipped directly from the seller to my home. The time it took to get the package delivered would probably be just the same – 4-6 weeks.
The convenience is that they deliver it to your door and no more unexpected exorbitant Customs fees.
Have you tried My Shopping Box or any similar service? How was your experience?
No, this isn’t another post about the movie Up! (Wait a minute, did I really NOT blog about Up?!)
The boyfriend and I don’t have any travel plans for the rest of the year. Perhaps its because we’re supposed to be saving up. But there are wonderful deals going through the many coupon sites and I hate passing up on a lot of them. For example, check here for current Orbitz coupon codes.
Sometimes I am tempted to get one of those coupons for an overnight staycation at a posh hotel in Manila or Makati. After all, that would cost less than going out on an actual trip where we would end up indoors or sleeping anyway. Haha!
But then if we were going to do something, it might as well be something we haven’t done before. So I’ve been thinking about that site that opened up recently in Eastwood (am I recalling this correctly, tree top something?) where one could go through a zip line and stuff. We don’t do stuff like that! Maybe we should!
Imagine me skydiving? I won’t even get on the Space Shuttle! Haha
I can imagine how exhilarating skydiving could be, it’s like flying! And with a professional to tandem with, I won’t even have to worry about timing the parachute or perfecting the landing. Diba? I’m not sure if the boyfriend will want to do this. He’s afraid of heights eh.
And we’re not very adventurous. Too bad, because truly, as Ellie and Mr. Fredricksen would say – “Adventure is out there!”
But if you’re on the prowl for gift ideas for men, then consider this one.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now – I want to learn how to do makeup.
I don’t put on makeup except the basic face powder, lipstick and lip gloss. I don’t even shape my brows. People at work don’t normally wear makeup but some do. And I want to. I just don’t know how to.
As a kid I played around with my mom’s make up too, but as I grew I just couldn’t be bothered about it. My friends don’t really do makeup (unless there’s an occasion I guess) so that’s probably another reason why I wasn’t exposed to that.
But now, I really want to learn to put on makeup. Everyday makeup. And then if I find that I’m any good at it, and have passion for it, I’d go into some make up artistry work for photo shoots and such. If.
I’ve been looking for classes for this but haven’t found the right one for me yet. Any recommendations? I hear YouTube is a good resource, just haven’t checked that out yet. There are a few professional classes I’ve seen but I’m a bit apprehensive if a newbie-totally-knows-nothing-about-makeup person like me is ready for the type of class they have…
I mean seriously, will I ever graduate from plus size? I don’t think so. But I can graduate from being morbidly obese. And I will, so help me God!
Learn more about Project Life from this video from its creator:
(Wait a minute, did I really NOT blog about Up?!)
If.