(or well, kind of suspected anyway)
- I had a perfect score in a Mathematics long test when I was in second grade and I thought I was really good it at. Apparently, that was my first and last perfect score in my whole history with Math ever.
- I also thought at one point in my childhood that I was a good singer until my fifth grade music teacher told me I wouldn’t get the part in the Christmas play saying, “I know you would refuse anyway because it has a singing part”. There goes the end of my imaginary singing career. Some decades later, I’ve come to accept that I really can’t carry a tune and everyone probably knows that already. I almost always get a frontal lobe headache whenever I try to sing anyway.
- Back in the day, I was “friend-zoned” by a guy I had some strangely deep puppy feelings for who eventually grew to care about me and love me too years layer (I guess!) but the change was too shocking for me that I ended up “friend-zoning” him as well, not as a revenge but out of fear of losing a really good and awesome honest to goodness friendship. Yes, fear. Plus you know, hello…..awkward! That was the seed of an honest-to-goodness real friendship I won’t exchange for anythign else in the world. All’s well that ends well.
- In my mid to late twenties, I went from “desperately wanting to get married” to my boyfriend back then (who was in medical school and put me on the bottom of his priority list, at least that’s how it felt) to “being deathly scared and terrified of the prospect of a lifetime commitment” with the next boyfriend (who actually proposed to me and I freaked out once it started sinking in and of course, I bailed out and ran for my life) then to “being suddenly and surprisingly bold and brave, ripe and ready to take the leap and settle down in a whirlwind courtship” with the next guy who is fortunately now my husband.
- I also went from not caring about pets (or any little living thing for that matter) to instant zealous dog whisperer when Tank our American Bully came into my life.
- I am lactose intolerant. I go on ice cream date nights with the hubs because they are always fun and he loves it and who says no to that? I eat half a scoop of this and that once in a while. I always suffer the morning after. I’ll spare you the horrid details.
- I do not have a sweet tooth. I prefer all things savory.
- I value trust and integrity. I can keep people’s secrets. I wilI keep all the secrets you tell me even after we have a major falling-out. I will take them to the grave. I am mighty proud of that!
- I am a “stillbirth/stillborn mom-survivor”. Nuff said.
- I used to be an early childhood educator and I enjoyed that job. But things changed overnight when I lost my child. I don’t want anything that has to do with it.
- I get easily turned off with people who are awed by wealth and whose script typically goes like “guess what that guy makes so much money, he is a millionaire and they have more than one huge house that’s paid off!” where my thought bubble would always be like “And so?”. But give me someone who gets uber-excited talking about another person who finds time to volunteer in a soup kitchen or give free haircuts to the homeless and I will be engaged and smitten for life.
- I have an extra soft spot and oozing respect for old and ailing white-haired “grandfathers/old gentlemen” who continue to groom up and push through their limits to stay self-reliant and independent.
- I love leftovers. I can eat them straight from the fridge and I also don’t care how long they’ve been in there. What’s worse than coming home tired and hungry? Coming home tired and hungry and finding out that there are no more leftovers in the fridge.
- I was a High School Cheerleader. And I was in the Dance Troupe too.
- I have Irish roots (that don’t show anymore, obviously). I do have a propensity to adore all things Gaelic.
- I am not a big flower person. I really hate it when they start to wilt and dry, get moldy and smell funky. But I’d say yes to fresh yellow tulips anytime. (that was also my wedding bouquet, because aren’t they just so refreshing and lovely?)
- I can read and write in Baybayin (the ancient pre-Filipino script often mistakenly called Alibata). I write rants and poems and diary entries in Baybayin. I make art with it too.
- When I was barely three, my two grandfathers (mom’s and dad’s side) passed away one day apart from each other. They were bestfriends. I thought having two deaths at one time in the family was a completely normal thing. Years later, I lost one grandmother, an uncle and a cousin in one horrible car accident. That one was very, very traumatic.
- I maintain short and polish-free fingernails because they are usually messed up anyway. I’m either finishing an art project or deeply engaged in a cuticle-picking frenzy (more about that later, uhm maybe). I usually fake it with $5 stick-on French tip nails from the drugstore when I need to dress up for a party. I am amused at how those stickers can easily pass as fabulous hehe. Don’t let the nails fool you!
- Ergo, I am a low-maintenance woman. I pluck my own eyebrows, shave my own body hairs (if I remember), cut my own bangs too (yeah, sometimes with office shears and I have photos to prove it) and do my own pedicure when I need to wear open-toe shoes (thanks to the 60-second polish, also from the drugstore). I am a drugstore rat.
- I am easy to please. Very easy to please. Mababaw ang kaligayahan.
- The size of my self-esteem is always inversely proportional to the changing phases and sizes of the moon. How that happens remains a mystery to me.
- I love wearing artsy rings. My favorites are midis, cocktail and thumb rings.
- I hate putting sunblock on. I hate it with a passion.
- I like to play dumb and ignorant about some stuff sometimes because that’s how I am able to easily identify the smarty pants in a group and that can be quite entertaining.
- I participated in a flashmob dance (okay, it was a surprise for our cousin’s wedding) and it was something I scratched off my bucket list. I want to do it again and again though. Yeah, I dig that sh*t.
- I love watching the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. I love the theme, the storylines, the format, the chemistry of the entire team, their back stories. I also don’t have a huge celebrity crush (anymore) but I can stay glued watching Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) for hours on end.
- I love shoes! I am embarrassed to admit how many pairs I own. But I’ve recently challenged myself to see how far I can go without buying a new pair. My target is to go without buying shoes for more than a year or two. And I’m going strong!!!
- My wrtiting style may have been influenced by the Sweet Dreams pocketbooks of the eighties, Erma Bombeck, Erin Glaser and Ms. Jessica Zafra. oh, by the way, I started blogging in 2005. Here’s some evidence but please don’t use it against me: www.missclarisse1.blogspot.com
- I had an imaginary friend when I was a little kid. He was a tall grown up man who wore matching blue denim jacket and bell bottoms. He lived inside the mall. In the fitting room to be exact. He looked exactly (including the handsome plaster mask looking face) like the mannequin at our local department store called Shoemart. I think that’s where I “adopted” him.
- At one point in my life, I was “crucified” and backstabbed by some people for a blog I wrote (about them of course, hehe) but these same people seemed to remain blind and incredibly, incredibly oblivious to the massive and inconsolable heartbreak I suffered which was written all over the post and which they themselves caused anyway. Hello, chicken or the egg? A little common sense and self-awareness can go a long way, y’know.
- But that’s water under the bridge for me now because… I have recently discovered and developed an impenetrable and indestructible bubble of love and security around me where I am safe and basking in this amazing symphony of inner peace, mental strength, growing wisdom, prayer and faith, the grace of forgiveness, quiet contentment and transcendence, day in and day out.
- I read about three to five books at a time. Don’t get too impressed now though. I shuttle back and forth depending on where I lay the book to rest (e.g. car, purse, bedside, work desk, toilet, couch) and it is not always a good thing.
- I love vintage and antique jewelry. The older and more history the better. Tamburins, baby! I’d choose them any day over expensive or trendy designer baubles.
- I have an uncle who is now a Cardinal. When I was small and he was still a lower ranking Catholic priest, I took his Holy Water bottle and sprayed it all over the house to “banish” bugs and roaches. I finished the entire bottle and refilled it with water from the tap just in time before he left for church with it to administer some sacraments and blessings. I hope it wasn’t exorcism.
- When I was young, my summer art teacher told me that I could have an art exhibit one day (even if I didn’t fully grasp what that was). In college, one of my professors said the same thing and he borrowed some of my works to display at the university lobby for an event. He told me, “Clarisse, you’ll never go hungry because you will always have artwork to sell.” If there is one common thing these two people have given me, it is the authority to dream and believe.
- One summer day in my childhood while on a vacation trip with my cousins in Baguio, I fell knee-deep in horse shit (alright, manure, but really there is no better way to put it, so, shit). I actually remember jumping right in. My uncle had to hose me down before getting back into the car. I think I ruined everyone’s day. Ew!
- On the same vacation, I jumped off the couch backwards, fell and hit my head. There was no ice available so I was walking around for a while holding a frozen chicken on my head.
- I do not have a green thumb. There was this one time at home when I had to check if one of the indoor plants we bought was fake because it stayed looking green, lush and healthy and it continued to survive under my care (or lack thereof) which wasn’t always the case.
- I used to be shy when I was a kid. I used to be terrified of walking up to the counter to buy snacks at the cafeteria even if food meant the world to me, lol. I am still shy but I don’t look it. I just fight it. I fight it big time. Luckily, my courageous spirit usually wins even if I’m all crushed deep inside . I am still deathly scared of small talk to this day. (I even try to avoid casual bathroom encounters at work because….what do you say to someone who just peed?)
- When I was fifteen, my mom had to undergo surgery for a breast lump. I snooped and listened quietly to a phone conversation between my aunt and my grandmother using the extension phone. That’s how I found out it was cancer.
- My ultimate goal (not just a dream, but a game plan) is to give up my job to pursue a fulltime artist’s life. I will buy a little Victorian house with a big front picture window facing Park St. in Alameda CA and make it my day studio. I will go to “work” at my own time. I will have a little gallery inside and hold different exhibits and workshops/classes by local artists including myself. There will also be a little boutique on the side to sell my work and to support the local artists as well. It will have dreamcatchers and windchimes everywhere. The main gallery will have hardwood floors and I would hear the footsteps of studio guests and the echoes of their whispers. I will serve coffee, tea, wine and cheese and then cream sherry on special evenings. I will own a sewing machine and a vintage Hermes typewriter that works. I‘m gushing…
- Another big goal is to own a heavy duty kickass industrial shredder to instantly obliterate the heaps of junk mail that consistently threatens my sense of peace and order at home everyday. I’m serious.
- I close my eyes when I drink water. I always catch myself doing that!
- My whole system shuts down after every big social event which I unfortunately always find myself getting entangled with. I always end up needing huge amounts of cave time. Average recovery period to collect myself: 1 month! So if I don’t pick up your call please don’t get too upset. I even hide from my dog sometimes. #SociableIntrovertProblems Don’t worry, I always find a way to bounce right back somehow.
- I’m like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath. Opposing poles in one body, anyone? I have Attention Deficit. #Oneof15Million baby! But I’ve developed coping mechanisms including the art of calmness. I.COPE.BIG.TIME. (And FYI, it’s not a label that I take lightly or glorify as a casual self-deprecating joke just to be cute). Just wanted you to know too so you don’t take it personally when I suddenly fly off a conversation, sometimes even physically, to pursue something else. Or if I totally end up ignoring you, that was just my residual hearing failing to save me through my intermittent mental absence. I try hard to stick around though. Believe me, I always [*insert expletive here*] TRY. It’s not cute. I continue to live to experience the horrors (and “uncuteness”) of it all. The struggle is real.
- I have a horrible sense of direction. And believe me, I also [*insert expletive here*] TRY my darnest. And I also continue to live to witness the horrors of it all.
- I don’t know if my creativity is a gift of my ADD or if ADD is a consequence of my artistic gifts. My trophies are my crosses. But hey, my crosses are my trophies too. So I still feel blessed and I won’t have it any other way. It’s still a good thing. Yeah!
- Some people have expressed about wanting to be inside my [quote-unquote-brilliant-and-creative?] mind to see what it’s like. I’d say uhm NO, but if you insist, well good luck! But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
This site is a work in progress.
Clarisse Pastor-Medina
[Repost from 2014] Interests, Kryptonites and Pet Peeves
August 21, 2018 (Edit)
…if you’re snoopier than the rest of mankind…
INTERESTS:
- ART (Art history, sketching, painting)
- POETRY (haiku, senryū and free verse)
- DANCING
- ARCHERY
- HULA HOOPS (HOOP DANCING AND HOOP YOGA)
- BLOGGING
- SHOES (though lately I made a pact with myself to see how far I can go without buying shoes)
- FAITH, INSPIRATIONALS AND DEVOTIONALS
- RUNNING (fairly new to it!)
- YOGA (also still wet behind the ears!)
- GRATITUDE
MY KRYPTONITES:
- SUNBLOCK
- MOSS
- FABRICS THAT MAKE WEIRD FUZZY, SCRAPING SOUNDS (like fingers on a chalkboard, they make my skin crawl)
- CAR FRESHENERS (Shaldan in a can, killer! *Throw Up City*)
- LOUD TV, RADIO OR STEREO. I can handle club music though, especially if it involves dancing, lol.
- LICORICE and PAREGORIC liquid. Oh please don’t make me ingest or even smell that stuff.
PET PEEVES:
- COMPLETELY RANDOM AND NON-MATCHING PLASTIC OR WIRE HANGERS IN A CLOSET
- GOSSIP, NOSY PEOPLE, RUMOR-MONGERS AND TATTLETALES (did I miss anyone else?)
- HYPOCRITES, FAKES AND BACKBITERS (I can smell them from within a 5 mile radius LOL)
- EXCESSIVE TALKERS (a surefire way to set my attention flying off to Mars) ESPECIALLY THOSE WHOSE PHONE CALLS COME IN THE MIDDLE OF A REALLY GREAT AND INTERESTING ART PROJECT (heartbreaker!)
- DRAMA AND PEOPLE WHO GET INTO MORE DRAMA THAN USUAL BUT ALWAYS BLAME EVERYONE ELSE BUT THEMSELVES (check the statistics, hello, has it ever dawned that you may be the issue?); ZERO SELF-AWARENESS
- PEOPLE WHO CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH
- HEALTH BARS AND PROTEIN BARS THAT TASTE LIKE CARDBOARD AND MOST OF THEM DO and ANY ARTIFICIALLY FLAVORED SHAKES (blech!)
- SMELL OF EXTREMELY BURNT TOAST
- A VERY PACKED SOCIAL SCHEDULE (unfortunately, that kind of drama follows me everywhere)
- UNANNOUNCED GUESTS AND/OR PEOPLE WHO COME WAY TOO EARLY FOR A PARTY BUT ARE REALLY USELESS (unless they are light, fun and easy to be with, but sometimes even if).
- FREEWAY DRIVING
- WHEN I GET ASKED TO MAKE COMMERCIAL GRAPHIC DESIGNS FOR SHIRTS AND SUCH (ESPECIALLY WHEN THESE DON’T RESONATE WITH ME). OR WHEN I GET ASKED (COERCED?) TO DO WHAT I DON’T WANT TO DO, PERIOD. *unbearably painful, unbearably painful*
QUIRKY FAVES:
- AIRPLANE FOOD (AND SOMETIMES HOSPITAL FOOD TOO)…I know right!?
- METALLIC SMELLS OF ESCALATORS AND ELEVATORS
- AIRPORT AND AIRPLANE CABIN SOUNDS like beeps and the captain talking over the PA system
- SHADOW DANCING, DANCING WHILE PAINTING AND ALL THOSE EXPRESSIVE ART SHIZZLE
- HOARDING EBOOKS (even when I can’t read them all)
- HOARDING IPHONE PHOTO EDITING APPS
- COLOR ORANGE EVERYTHING.
- WHITE PAINT (because sometimes it looks delicious and I want to lick it off the paintbrush LOL)
- MAGNOLIA BLOSSOMS
- GOOGLING GALORE (who doesn’t?)
- INTERNATIONAL TV/ NEWSCASTS IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE PARTICULARLY SPANISH, FRENCH AND CHINESE. IT REMINDS ME OF VACATION AND TRAVEL.
- ORGANIZING MY TO DO LISTS
- GHOST STORIES AND SCARY STORIES (for reading, but I’m picky with horror flicks)
- STAYING UP LATE (I’m addicted to the cosmic serenity of midnight)
- CREAM SHERRY ANY DAY BUT ESPECIALLY AROUND CHRISTMAS AND MY BIRTHDAY (I’m an old soul)
- WHITE NOISE (thank you, Spotify!) AND NOICE CANCELLING HEADPHONES
- ANSWERING Q & A’s… obvs…
FAVORITE QUOTES
“VIVE BENE, SPESSO L’AMORE, DI RISATA MOLTO” (Live well, love much, laugh often)
“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” (GEORGE SAND)
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” (DOLLY PARTON)
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” (PLATO)
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking” (MARCUS AURELIUS) — Whatever you do, do it with gladness in your heart.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (MAHATMA GANDHI) Carpe Diem!
“Dance like no one is watching, love like you’ll never be hurt,sing like no one is listening,and live like it’s heaven on earth.” (WILLIAM PURKEY)
“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” (DALAI LAMA)
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” (OLD CHINESE PROVERB)
“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities — always see them, for they’re always there.” (NORMAN VINCENT PEALE)
“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways – Chardonnay in one hand – chocolate in the other – body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming WOO HOO, What a Ride!” (SOURCE UNKNOWN)
and yeah…
“Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life.”
so…
Leave the drama at the door, thank you very much! *wink*
