Perks of Being Joyce Donoso

December 23, 2011

Dear friend,

Remember when I wrote you a letter on the 1st of December, stating that I can’t feel the Christmas spirit? Well, I still can’t feel it and we’re only less than 36 hours away from the actual Christmas day. On the irrelevant note, I’ve been having a grand week!

Monday

I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I’m a class officer. And as an officer, I’m obligated to join my school’s environmental programs. Being the irresponsible and lazy kid that I am, I ditched all of my school’s environmental programs.

The consequence? I had to go to school in the middle of the Christmas break to pack relief goods. It wasn’t that hard, I only stacked canned foods and even got a one-hour break. After going through that, we, Dominique and I, ate at McDonald’s, went home to freshen up, then went to Bonifacio Global City… Well, that’s what we planned.

What really happened? After freshening up, we ate at Burger King, then headed to Bonifacio Global City, and spent the rest of the night crashing a doctors’ Christmas party ‘cause we had to. I got home at around 12 midnight and to my surprise, I was earlier than my parents!

Tuesday

I caught some well-deserved R&R.

Wednesday

I woke up at around 10:30 AM to prepare my things for today’s adventures. At around 12 noon (we planned on meeting at 11:30 AM but I was terribly late ‘cause my parents were going frantic ‘cause they discovered my closet’s over-flowing unnecessary expensive clothes) we were on our way to Nicole’s (actually, Nicole’s dead uncle’s) condo to have a movie marathon, go swimming, and maybe even go to a mall after all that… Well, that’s what we planned.

What really happened? We ate a bunch of pizza, spaghetti, and chicken from Shakey’s while watching a chick flick. In the middle of the flick, one of my classmates, Angel, had to do some business which resulted to the condo ending up smelling like crap. So, the movie marathon didn’t push through due to said disturbance. We all thought, “Hey, why not go swimming instead of keeping ourselves locked in a smelly condo?” and we did. But little did we know that the pool was freezing cold! After a few hours, some of us headed back to the condo to freshen up. Me, Nicole, Mae, and Kat stayed put for some night swimming. And oh my gosh, thanks to my hottie radar and the hottie’s dad, we got a hottie friend. We kept on staring and giggling whenever he would go inside the pool (whatever, blame our ovaries) and we finally got the chance to meet him on our way to the elevator (best three minutes of my life, I swear), the hottie’s dad introduced the hottie and that was when I noticed his raven black hair, striking blue eyes, and pale white skin, and his name was, uh, Bambam. Heck, his name didn’t stop me from staring at his hipbones… Okay, enough of that, after much squealing and popcorn eating, we went to Starbucks and I’ve finally processed that the mall-crawl was a no-go too. After eating the first proper meal of the day at Nicole’s, I headed straight to bed.

Thursday

Here’s the thing, whenever I sleepover at a friend’s house, I always wake up early, and Nicole’s wasn’t an exception. We had ham (which is like thicker and wider bacon), bread with cream cheese, and taho for lunch. After freshening up and waiting for Mae (along with her aunt and cousins), we went to Eastwood… Well, that’s what we planned.

Okay, just kidding, we didn’t plan anything, but truth be told, we did go to Eastwood! But little did we know that Pancake House and Cravings (their cake-all-you can is such a rip-off) had P40 service charge, which is bollocks since their service crew didn’t meet my expectations at all! The weird thing is, after eating at such pricey restaurants, corned beef and McDonald’s fries were the only ones that satisfied my needy stomach.

Friday

Isn’t it ironic that out of all the days of the week, I won’t be going out on a Friday (which is well, today)? And, as the usual, I will be spending the rest of the day catching some R&R.

And to end this letter, merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you!

Love always,

Joyce

December 16, 2011

Dear friend,

My day has been absolutely amazing! Well, it actually started out as boring, with the usual, a Thanksgiving mass. But the high school department definitely made up for it, uh, at least the faculty performance did. After which, we had our class bonding, we played 7-up. At first it was pretty funny but then it got, uhm, how do I say this nicely, oh, not funny. From the start you would’ve noticed that most of us weren’t even interested at all. Like they were obligated to participate in the game, which was sort of rude because it somehow seems like they weren’t really interested in joining the class whatsoever. Does class bonding ring a bell to anyone? Anyway, next to that was the dance showdown, it was hi-la-ri-ous! It’s not everyday you see two girls wearing mismatched high-heeled shoes splitting! Last but not the least, we played Mother Hen on the lawn. We were quite surprised to find out that our co-adviser had the ability to run that fast (excessive adipose tissues are quite deceiving if you know what I mean). After hours of practice, we were finally ready to perform for our school’s Songfest! And guess what? WE WON, OH MY GOSH! VICTORY NEVER FELT THIS GOOD, I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR ALMOST TWO WHOLE YEARS. NATURE IS ONCE AGAIN BALANCED!

And to make my day completely fabulous, my dad came home today (he’s an over-seas worker)! It has been almost 5 months since I’ve seen him, and the first thing I told him was, “Happy Birthday… Yuck, your breath smells bad.” Sure, it’s not the sweetest thing to tell your dad on his birthday, but I didn’t know how to react, okay! I think I just got used to him being not around. I don’t shed a tear at all when he leaves, because I’m already contented with the fact that he’ll come back home soon… Moving on, my dad definitely gives me the best gifts! This year, he bought me an iTouch 4G with a $20 iTunes gift card and the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series, which is a huge deal since it’s composed of 10 UK books! I couldn’t ask for a another dad, mine’s the greatest man I’ve ever known. And before this letter gets too sentimental, I hope you’re getting what you’ve been wishing for this Christmas, too!

Love always,

Joyce

December 13, 2011

Dear friend,

I just took my TLE, Religion, and Social Studies third quarterly exams… I know this isn’t the most interesting thing to talk about, especially after almost 2 weeks of not writing to you, but whatever, you have to put up with this for now. Uh, excuse my cranky behavior, I’m not exactly in a good mood since I think I just went through hell. Actually, hell sounds a lot better than what I just went through.

Okay, fine, I’m just exaggerating. But I just can’t get over it, okay! One of the worst feelings ever is regret, you’re probably familiar with it, heck, everybody is. Well, I really regret not studying hard enough to answer the said exams confidently! I think 30% of each exam just went down the drain. Meh, I’m not assuming or anything, but maybe, just maybe, if I did study hard enough, I would’ve ended up garnering the 3rd to the highest score (because heck, who am I kidding, the only way for me to reach the highest score would be through sorcery). So yeah, in addition, I regret slacking off, not taking notes, not vigorously reading my books and hand-outs, and assuming that today’s exams would be a walk in the meadow. I pretty much regret everything I did for the past 24 hours.

It’s not like I can do anything about it, as if I could give the Doctor (reference: Doctor Who) a call to go back in time… Come to think of it, if I could, I won’t. I don’t know, it just feels like cheating the laws of life. Maybe, I deserve this. Maybe, it’s the Big Man telling me to pull myself together and actually do something to not end up with these what ifs. Maybe, I’m talking too much.

Love always,

Joyce

December 1, 2011

Dear friend,

It’s that time of the year again; wherein the kids are in their best behaviors, trying to make it into Santa’s nice list, the students are anxious to break free from school, and the adults are eager to get together with their families.

Well, I can’t feel the Christmas spirit. It’s probably because of the horrible way my December 2011 started —scratch that, it is because of the horrible way my December 2011 started!

1. Our inconsiderate teachers just bombarded us with quizzes and projects (just so you know, it’s now 4:00 am and I haven’t studied for Biology and CA-F), 2. A couple of friends of mine and their friends (you read that right, their friends) did this Secret Santa thing, just like the one in Perks of Being a Wallflower. After which, my friends began forcing me to say sorry to Maria. Oh, I never told you about the non-mutual fight we had because again, it is non-mutual. It was, at least for me, not a big deal. To let you catch up, it was because of the first letter I wrote you, which she read it a month after I wrote it, wherein, in case you’ve forgotten, I told you that I was not interested in her lover’s yearbook and I called myself cool, which is still pretty humorous. Going back to today’s happenings, I was reluctant to say sorry. If you were me, wouldn’t you also think that a sorry not meant (because I still don’t know what I did wrong) is worse than not saying sorry at all? Moving on… 3. My mom made us commute. The worst part of this was we had to commute just right after a heavy rain! My sister and I were almost suffocated by the exhausted smoke and we had to dash in the filthy, disgusting, bacteria-filled flood because we had no other option. I fugging hated every moment of it. Hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Oh, I forgot to mention, HATED IT.

The only thing I’m thankful for today was probably the heart-to-heart talk I had with my mom. You see, my brother practically bawled his eyes out, crying because his girlfriend broke up with him. Mom got deeply concerned so after comforting my brother, she went to talk to me about relationships, which was one of the most hilarious talks I had with her. We mostly talked about her relationship with dad, how they got together (they were high school classmates and eventually became college sweethearts), and the time wherein she planned to study medicine, but ended up studying dentistry because she was too pre-occupied with us, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to cope with the stress the field of medicine would give her. So I realized, that no matter how bad your day may go, you would always be able to find comfort in the arms of your mother, how cliche it may sound. Forgive me for the sudden sappiness, you’ll get used to it.

Love always,

Joyce

November 25, 2011

Dear friend,

This high school life is draining me, I just took a 6-hour power nap (longest nap I’ve had all week) but for some matter I’m still tired. I can’t believe I have to put up with this for 2 more years, cruel fate! 

12:45 AM

I have to study for 2 short quizzes, namely Biology and Social Science, do a book cover for CA-E, and do the homework on factoring for Alge-fugging-bra. 

2:30 AM

I’m done with the book cover for CA-E, I did my signature design (yes, I have a self-proclaimed signature design) AKA the splattered paint.

3:00 AM

I don’t quite understand factoring so I decided to not finish the Alge-fugging-bra homework. I’ll copy someone else’s work instead. On the irrelevant note, it’s the time of the devil! I actually am scared and I refuse to look at the mirror. 

3:45 AM

“It’s a quarter after 3, I’m so awake and I need food now!” Gosh, why am I even procrastinating, I only have 2 hours to study!

5:00 AM

I’m done with Social Science and I’m half-way through Biology. So proud of myself, makes me want to cry tears of Joyce (pun)!

Now you know how tiring my school life has been, so forgive me if I haven’t written to you lately. Wish me luck on my short quizzes tomorrow, I really have to work on my class standing! I really think I have a shot at this Outstanding Student shiznit. Uh oh, my mom’s starting to wake up, I have to go.

Love always,

Joyce

November 17, 2011

Dear friend,

Guess what time is it? 2:15 am! I slept at around 4:30 PM yesterday and woke up at 11 PM, so I guess that explains it. I don’t plan on sleeping because 1. I have to be tired for me to sleep early for the Outbound the next day and 2. I have to study for a crap load of subjects. 

The other day, it was the distribution of report cards, and I must say, I’m quite proud of my grades. They ranged from 82 to 89; a few more improvements and suck-ups and I would be one of the Outstanding Students! I’ve been waiting for almost three years to be one of them, to see my parents be proud of me, and to walk on the stage. It’s been a frustration of mine to excel once more in academics, fulfill the expectations my parents set upon me, and prove myself to the people who belittled my capabilities. Maybe this is only my left brain speaking, but hey, at least I’m making sense now. 

Love always,

Joyce

November 11, 2011

Dear friend,

I guess you’re aware that today’s some sort of no ordinary Friday. But it isn’t, well, for me at least. Today has been uneventful and absolutely tiring, I feel like we spent half of the time in school doing nothing but stand and squirm. To tell you the truth, I spent the other half waiting for something to happen, expecting to witness something fantastic, trying to see if this pathetic fad isn’t so pathetic after all. You know what’s funny? That a series of numbers could actually turn a person into a hopeful glob of wishful thinking.

Come to think of it, this fad isn’t so bad after all, people these days are damn suicidal machines, a little bit of hope will probably go a long way. Wow, this letter is making me sound kind of dumb, what is up with my vocabulary? I have to work on that.

Love always,

Joyce