It can’t be the last! It just can’t be.

I mean, come on, it’s good business! I think the Heads profited in two concerts (not to mention all the DVDs and records sold in between the two big events) everything they could’ve earned the past ten years that the band was off the music business. Pupil or Sandwich or The Dawn or Markus Highway could never fill up the MOA grounds and pull off what the Eraserheads did that night. Nope.

More importantly, everyone loved them! A decade, countless of controversies and bad publicities, several new bands, a bunch of music albums, and a couple of heart attacks later, everyone still loves the Eraserheads.

I was *accidentally* there last Saturday and I witnessed it myself, thanks to Marian who, just a few hours before the concert, textblast-ed that she had extra tickets. Hooray for impulsive decisions! I didn’t have to think it over, I just reserved the tickets right away.

So there we were: 100,000+ fans singing along with the music as if the Eheads were never gone. And when they, the fans, didn’t know the lyrics to the less popular songs (like Wishing Wells, and Fine Time, and Julie Tearjerky), they danced, and took pictures, and watched the foursome in awe, and shouted “I love you Ely”s from wherever they were.

I was singing along myself, surprised that I still knew the lyrics from all the mixed tapes my brother used to make in high school. It just felt so good to be there. The short tribute to FrancisM was heart-warming, hands down. Even the awkward-candid moments between Ely and Raimund — the half-smiles, they eye contacts, the hand signals — were just.. unforgettable. Their story has become our story. Their music has become our life’s soundtrack. This can’t be the end of Eraserheads.

And hey, somewhere in the middle of Huling El Bimbo, some girls standing nearby started wiping off tears! And the guys.. their hands were up in the air, faces full of pride. I think I must have gone teary-eyed a few songs before that, over Minsan, somewhere between the lines, “minsan ay hindi ko na alam ang nangyayari, kahit na anong gawin, lahat ng bagay ay merong hangganan..”

Real tears in a rock concert, ladies and gentlemen. I have never seen anything like it.

I wish I was able to sneak in a powerful camera and take photos the way Karla did. But I only had Rico’s Samsung phone cam. And some blurry images of that night in my head. And a souvenir ticket.

Yep, The Final Set just can’t be the last.

And they really shouldn’t have burned that ancient Sticker Happy piano! I mean seriously! What was Ely thinking?

Alignment of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter over Sydney skies, 12.02.08

Jay: Tita Rhiza, you know why the moon is sad?
Riz: No. Why?
Jay: Because you’re leaving tomorrow.

I think I’m gona cry. :(

P.S. But then I heard that it’s smiling over Manila skies. Get the picture? :P

..and suddenly, I had this aching desire to find where to get this set of chopping boards and buy myself one.

What in the world is happening to me? :(

Also, I’d love to have one of these swinging things too:

Blech. If only I have a bigger roomspace.

If this is “growing up”, looks like I’ll be having some serious problems. Oh. Noes. :(

5 different apartments in 2 years, take that!

Actually, I was still (kindof) enjoying going home to Caloocan and sharing my Mom’s bed with her (I had to do this for a week). I didn’t realize, though, how unbelievably messy I could be until one late morning in Caloocan, when I woke up in the middle of this *points to picture*, and found my Mom sleeping near the edge of her bed. I knew right then that I had no time to lose — I needed to spare my Mom from this mess.

Moving to the new place was no different, at least for the first night. I slept in the middle of a room full of moving boxes, but in spite of the mess, the place felt like home. :)

Even more now that everything’s right where it should be.

So yay, I found my home-away-from-home, and this time, I’m confident it will be for good. (What with that one year contract, and the expensive rent, I’ll sure make the most out of this, heh!) :)

Man I’m getting old.

But one of the cool things about being 25 is perhaps, the illusion that you really are a grown-up now. (No, I’m not sure I was ever regarded as a “grown-up” when I was 24. Hah!)

“We’re grown-ups now, and it’s our turn to decide what that means.” Yeah! :P

Yep, no one would dare tell you you’re “too young” for something when you’re 25. (Except maybe too young to die? Hmm.) But well, 25 years is a lot of years, I know right. I was thinking of blogging about 25 things I learned on my 25th year, or 25 places I want to go to this year, or 25 items in my shopping list, or 25 gifts I received.. but gaah, 25 is just too many now for this lazy blogger that I am. Sorry naman.

So let me just make kwento about how I spent my 25th birthday. :)

Ironically, while it was my official grand entrance to the world of quarter-life, I ended up celebrating a pink day in the office (which kind of reminds me of Disney princess, lol), and a Mcdonald’s kiddie party with my most favorite kids in the world. Not too grown-up, eh? :)

The first one was a surprise — my team came to work in pink, and because I was overwhelmed by the pinkness that they were, we had boxes of pizza delivered in the afternoon. Thanks guys, I’ve never seen that much pink in my life it’s.. sickening. :))

USAP’s SEO-Internet Marketing Department in Pink

The second one was rather impulsive — (accidentally) passing by Mcdonalds two days before my birthday, I decided to book a kiddie party right there and then. I’ve always wanted one but I didn’t really plan on having it this year. But now I realize that it was definitely the best time to do it. I would have invited my friends too, but I thought it would be more meaningful to share it with kids, specifically those who have not experienced being in one before. So I invited them:

Here are the boys from SBC’s Street Children Ministry

My Dad loved these kids. Some of them are homeless, some have families in the urban poor areas in Manila, some don’t even know who their parents are. The smile on their faces is undoubtedly the best gift I’ve ever received. :)

My bible study group was there too, full support yay :)

..and of course teh whole family. Still missing Daddy, but we know he’s always with us. :)

So yep, that was my 25th birthday. Couldn’t have spent it any other way. I guess if there’s one thing I learned that day, it would be acknowledging that one can’t really live alone and independent from anyone — and still be genuinely happy. Life is simply not worth living if you don’t have people to share it with.

I’ve experienced independence (to some extent), and sometimes I enjoy being in solitude too. But to go through this journey without family and friends backing you up, or without someone holding your hand and giving you everything-is-going-to-be-alright hugs when you need them, or without a God who’s in control of even the littlest details in your life.. ugh, living is simply impossible. Thank God He allowed me to have all these. Thank God that I didn’t have to go through the past 25 years, and that I won’t have to go through the next 25 years, by myself.

Happy Birthday to me. :)

Segue: Interested to have a Mcdonald’s kiddie party in the Philippines? Details after the jump. ;)

Mcdonalds Kiddie Party in the Philippines (May 2008, subject to change)
P2,000 (downpayment), this should cover the give aways and game prizes.
P147.00 (with happy meal toy) or P117.00 food packages, per head.
+ Free mascot appearance (of your choice and/or upon availability of the mascots)
+ Free party host services

Available in all Mcdonalds outlet nationwide.

It’s difficult for me to adapt with change, and I’m usually scared to try out new things too — must be why I’ve had the same hairdo for years, and I’ve never owned a mobile phone that is NOT Nokia.

Well, it’s about time for me. ;)

I literally had my name on it.

Unboxing your very own MacBook is the sweetest thing.
(Er, okay, next to unboxing an Island Rose package, that is. :heart:)

Even the suspense is sweetness. Yay.

Teh Mac and Teh Chucks.

MINE, MINE, MINE. :)
Get that? Over my kung-fu tight grip, raawr!

This means I’m gona have to say buhbye to Ice (my Acer Travelmate) *sniff*, time really does fly. But LOL, I’m not about to get depressed and mushy over it, okay. Besides, I know she’ll be in good hands. :)

I’m not sure if it’s good that it came the week before SEMCON 2007. I’m still getting used to the Apple key, and the CTRL non-functions (whatev), and now I have to cram for my talk and try to get myself acquainted with Mac at the same time. Gah. Oh well. I guess now is not the time to question timelines. :)

P.S. She doesn’t have a name yet. Leme think about that for now.

Now to be part of someone’s top 10 blogs he can’t start his day without, and to be special-mentioned in a stranger’s blog in spite of my superb consistency at being inconsistent (whatev), I’m inspired even more to seriously strive to keep this blog alive. (Go mush!)

Anyway, going back, I figured it’s a futile effort to pre-define a niche for this blog because there really is nothing in general, unless you consider my blog categories as psuedo-niches. Let’s just say.. since my other blog is more particularly concerned with technology and gadgets and new media and internet marketing, all the other stuff that can’t be categorized there goes right here.

After all, what else can you expect from a personal blog? Stuff that the blogger is interested at, of course. Hence, as I am a woman of varying interests, you can expect my blog to be the same. This is my blog, and the niche is the 24-year old drama that Rhiza Sanchez’s life is. All ME. ME, ME, ME.

But okay. Fine. All this blahblahblah just to have an excuse to post my pictures.

My point is, ta-da! I’m still alive. And I’m back. For real. For good. Whatever. :P

After almost two years of staying under the same roof, we’re parting from some of our (soon-to-be-former) housemates and leaving this place we once called “home”. But it’s all good. Change is good, after all. And it’s not like I won’t be seeing Normi and Jen anymore. I’d still be staying with Aster anyway, and Ivy, a friend from way-back-diaper-days, will be joining us too. Plus we found the perfect apartment also, after a whole month of trying to look for one. It’ll be fun. And I’m excited and nostalgic and uhm, sleepy (right). But it’s all good. :)

So hey, I’m in the middle of a pile of clothes and boxes and shoes and dirty laundry right now, taking a break from all the packing, and trying my best to capture the moment and how it feels.

(Note worthy: This post is not brought to you by Tortillos or Merell.)

Now is the time to feel stressed, and to think of a nice long bath, but there’s still a lot to do. However, on top of the adrenalin rush, I can sense this teeny weeny bit of nostalgia in the air — which I think is inevitable, especially if you’re leaving a place you’ve spent some of the best months of your life in, and you’d most likely never set foot in that place again.

I mean, how can I forget all those nights I entered that door to find sanctuary in the four corners of this room after a long day at work?

Or that bulletin board that once was a collage of bills, and photos, and notes, and star-shaped pushpins?

And how can I forget that view from my favorite spot in the veranda — the same view where I last saw my Dad’s smile, (and the same place where I last felt your arms around me)?

Hay. Priceless moments in this place. I shall always remember.

I would have taken more pictures, but my mess awaits. This nagging voice inside my head keeps on reminding me that I’m no longer a little girl, and there’s no more yaya to pack my things and do the tasks that are supposed to be mine. Gah. It’s tiring to be an adult.

Tomorrow, we’ll be leaving this apartment, and will start filling a new one with new memories.

And it’s really not that big of a deal for me to be blogging about it.

Except that it once again made me think about how time flies so fast, and that life involves a lot of moving on.

With me in the booth: Sasha, Sharm, Aileen, Markku, Marc, Ely and his friend.

That’s me with the “Band of Bloggers”, and I don’t even know what I was doing there, I just happened to be outside the booth and someone pulled me in. LOL. Let me just say, Cliquebooth rocks. You have to remember them next time you hold an event, seriously. Check it out. (In case you start to wonder how this picture set happened, I edited it. It’s impossible to have four shots with different people in one set, yup.)

I’m tempted to send some link love to everyone I saw there, but they’re just too many. So I’m sending this one to the organizer of all organizers, Miss Aileen Apolo, and SM Hypermarket, for that very successful Taste Asia event. Clapclap (standing).

Oh, and because I promised, here’s some link lovin’ for Ely for the pink umbrella that made my night (thank you!!). And Markku, the guy who every girl wants to have an issue with because he’s cute and single, and because you know no one will strangle you to death or send you anonymous hate comments when you post pa-cute pictures of yourself with him (ha!). And Sharmskee for the endless talk about cute Swiss hockey players and those camwhore moments. And Jayvee, for making takas for me one of those coke tumblers (oh, wait, sorry, am I not allowed to tell everyone that? hehe). And Mikey and TJ for being on bodyguard-slash-kuya mode to me the whole night. And Jomar who took us in, gatecrashers that we are. And Miss Janette, and Ganns, for expressing their concern towards my emotional state, judging from my twits (don’t worry Ma’am, Sir, those are just twits. Hehe.)

But really now. The real highlight of my night (but of course Markku’s still a close second) was finally meeting Abel’s family: Chel, who I only knew through multiply and twitter, and their adorable little princess, Tiana.

There’s something about watching Tiana twirl in her cute flowery dress in the middle of a noisy and crowded party that made me want to tear up right there and then. And I wouldn’t elaborate lest I start emo-ing again, but really, candid moments like that (of a little girl twirling, or clutching her Mom’s hand, or hugging her Daddy as he carries her, oblivious to the noise going around her) sends my world to a halt, making me wish that life is as simple as that which is seen through her eyes.

Gaah. Didn’t I just say that I won’t elaborate? :)

It was lovely finally meeting you, Abel, Chel, and Tiana. ♥

Oh, and by the way, there was not a moment in that party that I didn’t wish Liz, Mae, and Joni were there. It was a relief making up and spending quality girl bonding session with these gorgeous bloggers at Serendra last night (Wednesday), though. But yup, that one deserves a separate post.

Last June 2, our church had a medical-dental mission at Mambugan, Antipolo. Just a backgrounder, I’ve always avoided assisting in the dental department because I couldn’t stand seeing all the gory action happening inside the (ugh) mouth, the bloodshed, and the tears. This last time, however, it was as if I was called to be there. They needed assistance, and I was there, and while no one really forced me to help out, I took the challenge of being the dentist’s assistant cum makeshift dental chair.

Now to defend myself from a church-full of witnesses, this picture does not (AT ALL) describe how I was the whole day. And Jasper, who arrived just a few hours short to assist with me, can attest to that (right dude?)

With our designated Dentist for the day (and my cousin in law, too), Dr. Jojo.

I can’t believe someone caught this moment in the act. (Good job, Tito Eg!)

Contrary to what this picture shows, I kindof enjoyed it, really. No, not the part where you get to witness anesthesia being injected into the gums, and teeth being extracted, and saliva and blood gushing all over the place. Mostly, I took joy in holding a scared kid’s hand while his mollars were being pulled out, or conversing with mothers about trivial things while they waited for the anesthesia to seep in, or assuring a little girl “na parang kagat lang ng langgam yan” when she’s on the verge of backing out.

There were times when I felt like shutting my eyes off because it’s like I could feel their pain, or times when I’d struggle for the right words of comfort to say. I can’t even remember how many times Jasper and I said “parang kagat lang ng langgam yan“, and then we’d look at each other and silently laugh, knowing that it’s really more painful than that. You know you just had to say it to give them a little push, or to let them know that there are far more painful experiences in the world than an extracted tooth.

“Masakit lang yan sa simula.”

“Sandali lang to, tas tapos na.”

“Anong mas gusto mo, araw-araw syang masakit, o tatanggalin na naten ngayon para tapos na yung sakit?”

It was therapeutic saying those things to kids, and hearing yourself as if you need it too. After some time you get used to the sight of blood, and to the shrieks of pain. After some time you get relieved for them because you know that they’d go back home armed with a pack of pain killers to last a whole week, and the pain would soon be gone. And then you watch them leave and you know that if only for that one moment that God allowed you to be there in their time of pain, the experience was definitely worth it all.

With Nanay Beth Miana, another one of SBC’s very own dedicated doctors.

See, I don’t look scared anymore, do I? c”,)

More pictures here and there.