Dream Catcher Stories

Lots of Love,

J<3

You were the king and I was your queen. You just saved my life and everyone around were cheering, until the director yelled "Cut!" over the uproar of students, and our play was over. Our classroom's platform was turned into a stage. I don't know how it happened; how real it all looked. Our professor had to go to the other class and see how they performed, so we all decided to take a break.

We walked down the hall, side by side, our hands touching from time to time and deep inside I wished your hands took mine. But the coward in me took over and I held my hand to my back, a blush quickly rising to my cheeks.

I found a quick excuse to leave you when I saw my friends, so I left before you could say goodbye. We ate, we talked, but my mind kept going to where you were.

When we got back to our room, we all did our errands for the production of our play. Everything that went after was fuzzy, but all I could remember was that when I passed by our classroom and saw it was filled with students, I hurried and kept my eye looking straight, making my way to the comfort room.

I needed an excuse, 'cause I knew what was next - our play was about to start and the coward in me wouldn't face what we had. We started as friends, but the moment we first played lovers, we both knew something was between us.

Realizing what I had done, I quickly ran back to face everything, because hey, it was just a play, right? But to my surprise, I was five seconds too late. I entered the room and realized somebody already took my place; a different girl was in your arms. I saw you look at me, trying to search my face.

I tried to keep my cool, telling everyone I was alright when deep inside I was crushed. But hey, it's just a play, right? I told the director I could just trade roles with her. I took whatever it was and sat down, waiting for my turn.

I tried with all my strength not to look at you, but I knew your eyes were on me. So I just lay my head on my desk and closed my eyes as tears slowly ran down my cheeks. But hey, it's just a play, right? What's with all the crying?

I opened my eyes, still wet with tears, then I realized I wasn't in our old classroom with desks and props around us - I was in my room, lying on my bed.

I was dreaming. Everything felt so real. I closed my eyes and tried to continue the dream. I forced myself to sleep to find out what happened next, but to no avail. So I lay down my bed and spent the next hours on a daze trying to find out what it all meant.

But does it really mean anything?

Lots of Love,

J<3

Lots of Love,

J<3

Hey again! In case you're wondering why my posts are less than two hours apart, it's 'cause I've been in school since 7am (even if I knew my class doesn't start 'til 9am). Then suddenly, I found out that same class was moved to 10:30 am. And just now, that same class still, is cancelled (that may seem fun but it's not if you've been in school for almost four hours and it's been happening for four weeks now). Just to make things worse, my friends all decided to do something else before our 1:30 class (two went home, one won't be coming to that 1:30 class and is out with someone, and the other is still at home). So I guess off to the library for me...again.

Anyway, that's not really part of this post.

To begin things, I would like to ask you a question: "How do you really say you've stopped liking (liking /ˈlaɪ kɪŋ/ v. thinking of the person constantly; admiring the person. Synonym: crushing) someone?"

If you've read my previous post Why do girls watch drama?, you know that I haven't had a real crush before. And being an NBSB (No Boyfriend Since Birth), crushing is as far as it gets.

As far as I could remember, I've had probably five crushes that I could consider real. And each time, one crush ends when the other begins (or when we stop being classmates). But right now, I don't think that's the case. Or is it?

This time, it's a bit complicated (probably 'cause I'm older?). The last two people I used to like still would creep in on me sometimes (and the last time I've seen one of them is four months, the other sixteen).

I used to dream about them (sometimes separately, sometimes together - which is weird 'cause they've never met IRL). And when the dreams end, I remember them for a day or two, then they're back into the recesses of my subconscious. If you ask me if I like anyone during the normal days (normal days /ˈnɔr məl deɪz/ n. days when I don't dream of them or haven't dream't of them recently), I'll say nobody. If I see a post about liking somebody, no one pops into my mind.

It's like during normal circumstances, they're just part of my past, but when something triggers a memory, pictures of them just floods my mind. Like this morning, my uniform's collar was all messed up. As I was fixing it, I remember the time when one of them fixed my messy collar out of the blue. And the other day, when I was watching something on TV and the lead actors did something similar from what me and the other dude used too do, I would remember him as well.

The weirdest part: if you examine everything, it would seem that I still like the both of them at the same time. So what's happening to me?

I don't really know if my answer's correct, but I think I don't like them both anymore (or if I ever loved them, I don't love them that way anymore). It's just that I love the memories we had. They were good times and fun times. And maybe I just can't let go of them just yet. I remember my friend once told me that sometimes you really don't like the person anymore. It's the memories you had that you hold onto and not him. It's just that you got so used to telling everyone (including yourself) that he's the guy you like, that now that the feelings are gone, you get confused. I guess I'll find out in time (or maybe when I start liking someone else :P).

Lots of Love,

J<3

Being in a female-dominant household, my dad would sometimes complain (although not that often, 'cause he's learned his lesson) that we girls watch too much drama (although we love action and suspense films too). From TV to movies, my mom, my sister and I, would always be interested with stories that involve people crying, dying, loosing their memories (HAHA), falling in love, then out, then in again. I remember him say when I was entering puberty not to watch too much soap operas and teleseryes because they're always too tragic and depressing. But fast forward to the future, here we are, our eyes glued on the TV, crying with the protagonists and getting mad at the mean step-mother or the evil sister.

I too have thought our fondness of drama. But I guess it's not really that we like drama; it's just that in every tragedy, there's [almost] always a love story. Being the more emotional specie, we tend to feel whatever the characters are feeling. And who doesn't like the feeling of falling in love?




In the past few weeks, I've been constantly watching this Korean Drama called Secret Love/Sungkyungkwan Scandal which has been dubbed in Filipino in one of our local channels. And I've noticed myself feeling all twitterpated and blushing with every scene. Its funny and familiar and just unexplanable.

I guess it's because it's been two years since I last had a real crush (real crush /ˈri əl krʌʃ, ril krʌʃ/ n. a crush whom you know personally and also knows you; a crush whom you've actually talked to. Antonym: TV crush, celebrity crush). It's because ever since I transferred to a not-so all girls college (there are a couple of courses that allows males), there's just really no one to have a crush on. And seeing these people liking each other secretly, then openly; learning their feelings and confronting them - developing into something more than friend, it's as if I get to feel the giggly sensation I used to get when being with my crush. It's like all the things that happened (and all the things I wished has happened) to me before is being materialized into a 2D motion picture. Sometimes, memories of past crushes flood my head whenever a scene similar to what happened in the past is played.

This may not be the case for all females, but we have our own variation of this reason why we love to watch drama and love stories. Go and ask your mom and find out her reason?

If the United States has Black Friday, we also have our own version of this, although not that popular and nationwide - Christmas Bazaars. And last December 1 (during the "long" weekend), I experienced my first in the World Trade Center.

I went with my sister and we literally shopped until we dropped (when the car arrived after four, probably more, hours of shopping, we dropped every bag we were holding, not caring what were inside them, and hurriedly sat down to rest our aching feet).

We actually didn't know that there were two bazaars that day. So when we entered the WTC, we had no idea we were  in the wrong one. Although we did notice that the entrance fee was cheaper than what we knew of (Noel's was P50, whereas SuperSales's was P100), we didn't think that it was the wrong bazaar.

Once we got in, I was overwhelmed by the number of stalls. There were probably a thousand in there! Being a bit of an OC, I lead my sister to start at the very end stall and work our way zigzaging through every hall. The space between each stall wasn't enough for two people to walk through, and with the number of people in the whole thing, it was really tight.

At the beginning, I couldn't find anything that I really wanted. We went there to buy clothes to wear this Christmas season, but being bigger and taller than most girls my age and even those way older than me, I didn't think any of those ukay-ukay and divisoria stuff fit me. So to make the P50 entrance fee, I decided to concentrate on finding the perfect gift for everyone I knew - from my friends to my best friends, my cousins to my parents.

When we were almost halfway through (or probably just a third, 'cause there were A LOT of stalls), we heard a fellow shopper that there was another bazaar just outside in the Tent, My sister and I looked at each other, and we knew that that was the one we intended to go to.

So after three hours of scouring through the wrong bazaar, we hurriedly made our way to the exit (getting distracted by a few stalls along the way), dropped off our bags (which were getting really heavy), and went to the SuperSale Bazaar.

As we got in, we got excited at the beginning when we saw Sophie's Mom by the entrance. But we decided to put the cupcake break for later as a reward for a long day of shopping and went inside (shelling off a hundred pesos each for the entrance).

And there they were, all the girly stuff (and some men stuff too, but mostly girly) you could think of. From clothes, to shoes, to make up, and everything else in between. But again, the same problem stayed, I was still too big for the free-size clothing they had. The dresses were either too short, too tight, or they just didn't look right.

So after another hour or so of going through stall after stall, we called it a day and bought ourselves cake pops, cupcakes and nutella mochi as treats. I went home with most of my Christmas Gift List ticked off, but with a lot of my Christmas Shopping List still left unchecked.

The whole experience was fun, but I don't think I'll be going back next Christmas to buy additions to my wardrobe. But it was a fun night I spent with my little sister, and we did save a few pesos (I think).

In this day and age of sweet shops all over the corner, one specialty store is sprouting up like little mushrooms in Metro Manila - a store specializing in the little Japanese dessert called mochi. Mochi ice cream shops are everywhere, offering wide arrays of flavors to choose from. But one thing has caught my attention, and that is the Nutella Mochi I had from Sophie's Mom (yes, the cupcake store). It was this tiny brown ball of heaven that with one bite, sent out an amazing explosion of the beloved Italian chocolate-hazelnut spread onto my taste buds. The first thing that came into my mind - I HAVE to make one!

I was recently told of an African tribe that does the most beautiful thing.When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done.The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, ...

happiness.

But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.

They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he'd temporarily been disconnected: "I AM GOOD".

Lots of Love,

J<3

Lots of Love,

J<3