Pump and Lift, Episode 20: Big Scary Things

A lot of big, scary things happened to me this year, and during the last six months in particular.

I began my year by teaching English to Korean college students, and ended the year (if not the semester) by teaching education theory to Filipino college students.

I finally passed the board exams in my field, and became a licensed professional teacher.

I contracted a horrible mosquito-borne disease that could have killed me if I didn't get treatment when I did.

But there are Big Scary Things... and there are Big, Fun, Scary Things.

I finished a screenplay in three months, and a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.

I finally came face-to-face with all the health risks that were coming my way, and ended up losing 20 pounds. Then I used that significant weight loss as leverage to get better clothes for myself.

Along the way, I made a lot of new friends, got to see a lot of new places, built up my resume, nurtured my soul in so many different ways, and (slowly) learned the value of patience. And laughing at myself, for that matter.

Still and all, even the fun things that happened this year ended up hitting a few raw nerves when I didn't expect them to do so - because they all forced me to ask the question that I never thought I would answer for myself: What would I do if I knew that I wasn't going to fail? 

And with that in mind, I have decided that 2011 is the year for me to face the biggest Big Scary Thing of them all: The Inevitable.

First and foremost of all: How about Those Last Twenty Pounds? Granted, I did regain four pounds over the holidays, but that's four pounds that I can deal with easily once I put my diet back into its regular rotation. After facing down the health risks and dress-size issues, however, the bigger issue that I'll be facing now is the psychological aspect of my weight loss, especially now that I have to start re-editing and re-tailoring my wardrobe until everything fits me perfectly. Honestly, I never really thought that I was using my body - and the clothes I wore with it - as a form of psychological armor, until I saw all of the changes in my character. In a way, I was opening myself up more to family and friends, and taking more initiatives in my relationships and career decisions. You could even say that I'm actually much friendlier and more confident now than I was at Size 16 - and that disposition, in turn, has also started manifesting in my wardrobe, especially now that I'm switching to more formal, form-fitting tops in brighter colors to go with my pants and skirts.

All of those above-mentioned changes, in fact, are beginning to affect the way that I look at my career and my love life, which are two of the biggest commitment-related issues that I'm facing right now.

Take my career. I'm actually quite happy with my job here at the University, to be honest, and I don't really see a reason why I'd want to abandon it at all. And yet, I have decided - after finishing and winning NaNoWriMo - that I will take steps to get my current manuscript to a major publisher before the year is over. That means I have to stop worrying about the things that haven't happened yet, and start accepting The Inevitable that comes with this situation. Maybe I won't have to quit my job at the university after all; maybe there will be a way for me to teach and write at the same time, in a way that is workable for me. Or perhaps I should stop worrying about becoming insanely famous and successful on my first try, and choose instead to be grateful for the fact that I've put myself through the publishing process. (I still have to remind myself that Hugh Laurie, for all his crazy success as an actor and comedian, is also a modestly successful mystery writer.) All that matters is that I'm out there, and I'm making strides.

Speaking of being out there and making strides, I think it's about time that I addressed the dating situation - because, really, I did spend a lot of time this year making excuses to my family and friends about why I haven't exactly found The One. Granted, I live in a small university town with slim pickings as far as my type is concerned, but - again - now that my body's changing, I think it's about time I addressed the part of the battle where I deal with how I attract good people in my life. That includes any and all questions about the image I want to project, including the things that make me feel beautiful and confident and approachable. (Really, messy hair and chalkdust-covered khakis don't exactly scream "confident.") I'll get into the details in a later entry, but the point here is that I have to start making more of an effort to make things happen at this point.

Make no mistake: 2011 is going to be a super-exciting year for all of us, in every possible way, and I hope that - by sharing all of this with you - I've been able to inspire you to strive for the best this year. Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas from Domesticity!

Insert inevitable joke about cats and shiny things here. (Photo taken at Resorts World Manila.)

Domesticity will be taking a short but overdue Christmas break in order to enjoy the holidays as much as possible before returning with more fun entries and beauty goodies for sharing.

In the meantime, please feel free to check out the Polyvore Mini-Editor feature on this blog to put together your own Polyvore collages for viewing! (I might even throw in more Polyvore stuff before the year ends, as well.)

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings from Domesticity!

Our Time in Eden: The Polyvore Set

One of my many new writing projects involves a semi-autobiographical coming of age story set in Indonesia, where I lived during the early Nineties. Yes, I still can't believe it's been twenty years since grunge started taking a hold on popular culture, and I still think that there's a part of me that regrets a lot of the boneheaded things I used to do in the name of Kurt Cobain.

Like many of my writing projects, however, I have also begun the process of developing characterization through art-direction... and since it is a semi-autobiographical story, I might as well do a little wardrobe editing so that the folks in my story would wear the things that I wish I'd worn during that time, as opposed to the things I actually wore in the process.

my time in eden by meimei96 

This Polyvore set is chock full of items that I would have worn If I Had Known Sooner, which explains why I passed on the Doc Martens and Colors de Benetton in favor of espadrilles and Midnight Pomegranate. Then again, it's not like I'm denying the fact that I wore red lipstick with winged black eyeliner practically almost single day, so you can't say that I didn't try hard enough.

Which brings us to a new feature here on Domesticity.

Polyvore now has the Mini-Editor feature, which invites readers to put together their own Polyvore set on this blog. Think of it as taking a shot at doing your own set based on the given theme of each entry - like  Design*Sponge, but more interactive. You don't necessarily have to have a Polyvore account to work with the editor; in fact, you can even add more items if the selections (shown below) leave a lot to be desired.

And since the theme for this entry is "grunge," I'd like to see your own interpretation of the grunge years, for a change. Did you wear your Doc Martens with pride? Did you buy a lot of flannel shirts because of Eddie Vedder? How many fashion and music cues did you take from Sassy magazine? (Or did you even start reading Sassy in the first place, after getting sick and tired of all those side-ponytailed tarts on Teen and YM? Because truth to tell, by the time I was a junior in high school, I was more than happy to trade in my copies of Sassy for Allure and Entertainment Weekly.) Or did you miss it by a few generations, and would be more than happy to get creative with it in the first place?

That's our intro for this entry. Now get to work!


Get your own Mini Editor from Polyvore

What's Your Fantasy: Accent Coaching Edition

Maybe it's my inner theater geek talking here, but lately I've noticed that I have a real thing for guys who speak with accents. And not just any accent, come to think of it, but accents spoken by native English speakers from actual English-speaking countries.

Consider the following:

1) Colin Firth (but of course!) as a stuttering royal in The King's Speech, with the added bonus of Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen Mum (complete with gentrified Scottish accent) and Geoffrey Rush as a London-based Aussie.



2) Gerard Butler (again: but of course!) delivering the weather forecast for GMTV, which goes without saying.



3) Garrett Hedlund, born and raised in Northern Minnesota - but trained to bend inflections according to each role.



4) Curtis Stone, proving that a natural Australian accent doesn't always have to scrape the eardrums when done right.



5) Bono, introducing "the song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles" in that unmistakable brogue.



6) ...And then there's this clip, which is one of two great examples of how an untempered Canadian accent could get me in trouble if I'm not careful enough. (The other great example, in case you were wondering, can be found here.)



And since I can't just put all of this up without giving some love to the homegrown talent, here's my favorite commercial for Greenwich Pizza, starring the walking cuteness that is John Lloyd Cruz - and one heck of a catchphrase, at around the 0:42 mark.

Last Song Syndrome: For the Holidays

A few more songs that are guaranteed NOT to drive you nuts whenever you hear them:

Pump and Lift, Episode 19.5: More Work in Progress

Molten chocolate cake from Circles at Makati Shangri-La, taken on my birthday. OM NOM NOM NOM.

So, self, how's the diet and exercise going?
- Dang! I knew I forgot to write about something! You know, I -

We know, we know. First you had the dengue, then there was NaNoWriMo, and in between all of that you started teaching again and resumed your long term relationship with your TV. And don't get me started with - 
Can we please not talk about all those "dear Mei we get it" archives? The less I have to think about these things, the better.

Fine, then. So let's get back to diet and exercise. 

I admit it, I'm getting very lazy these days. It doesn't really help that we're in the middle of December and party season's just getting started right about now. Do you think that I should -

Honey, put the eyeliner down and talk to me. 
So here's the rest of the story. It's been two months now, I'm finally down to 151, and my friends can't stop raving about how much weight I've lost and how awesome I look these days. Which is fine and all, but somehow it's given me another reason to start acting all smug about my weight loss. And now that my novel-to-be is finished (which I'm editing the heck out of, by the way, before the next writing challenge comes around), I don't feel that sense of excitement any more... like I'm more depressed than usual, in a weird way, and no amount of work or meditation can get me out of it.

Interesting.
So it manifests in so many different ways. It starts with the extra spoonful of rice, or the plate full of chicken cutlets. Then it balloons and turns into more rice, more carbs, more chocolate, and the next thing you know I'm cranky and overstimulated again.

Girl, you've got ISSUES. 
I know. My priorities are totally not where they're supposed to be right now. Meanwhile I'm worried about my "good cholesterol" because it's not going to be a good day once I find out that it's hereditary and I have to go on meds for that. So now...

Now it's December, and you're trying to get back on the bandwagon. Do you remember that package of exercise videos that Scribey just sent to you? 
Why, yes...



C'mon, it's Cindy. Scribey and I used to work out to these videos back in college - why should I stop there?



Seriously speaking, though, it would be terribly foolish for me to not try this at all. Though I wouldn't worry so much if I end up doing more of a 60-Day Shred, at this pace.


And then there's Tanja Djelevic. I haven't looked at the video Scribey just sent to me (*gulp* sorry, luv!) but once I do, I'll make sure to squeeze this in.

See? Now you've got enough exercise videos to last you through the next few months, and you might not even need shoes for most of them. Your bestie just did you a solid there.
That's true. But there is one last problem...

The boob-wrangling. 
Yes, the boob-wrangling! I now have to wear one of my old bras over my usual 38C so the girls would stay strapped in place! Seriously, though, I'm determined to find a way around this.

And you should, once the post-holiday sales start cropping up. 
Indeed.

But promise me that you'll at least start walking again if you start slacking off. 
Of course I will. There's no way for me to burn off those unplayed eps of This American Life that I missed out on all November.

Holidays With an Extra Punch

This holiday look from Smashbox intrigues me. 

Taken as a screencap from my email account. 

Here's how to achieve it, from the Smashbox website: 

Apropos of nothing, this is the second time I've mentioned a lip product named "Maple" in this blog. Hm.

Compare this to the "holiday" looks sweeping the Philippine press these days, using examples from Preview magazine: 

November 2010: Cristine Reyes, looking very much like a cross between Maggie Cheung and a cleaned-up Amy Winehouse (not a bad thing, let's face it)

December 2010: Model/ designer/ makeup artist/ reality show darling (and current national girlcrush) Solenn Heussaff;  check out a list of colors and techniques used here

There really is nothing wrong with all three looks, to be honest; mileage always varies when it comes to makeup, so there's no universal rule saying that everyone should only adopt Trend X, Y, or Z in any case. 

Which leads us to the next point: Who says we have to stick closely to the script when it comes to beauty? Maybe you do want to wear sparkly eyeshadow with the flashiest gown in your closet, or maybe you're the kind of person who could pull off a smoky monochromatic mauve with your office-to-party outfit. That doesn't mean you can't shake it up a bit. Maybe you should start with a monochromatic face and add a bit of black eyeliner. Or take the same black eyeliner and pair it with some bronzer and/or shocking pink lips for a little walk on the wild side. 

(Aside: I wouldn't be surprised if Santa handed the perpetually naughty Cristine Reyes a tube of  Nicki Minaj's Pink 4 Friday lipstick from MAC; she could probably pull it off, too.) 

Either way, this should teach us that we can all afford to be a little more adventurous when it comes to fabulousness during this prime party season. Cheers!