Joni Ang

I have a confession to make. I don’t have that many “friends” in real life. Not anymore, at least. Call me a loser, but it’s true that I mostly just spend my time in the office and at home with my family. Aside from Deej, I usually just hang out with her (Riz, I told you you’re the only friend I got these days, lol) and occasionally with these two wackos. It’s a bit strange really because before I moved to Manila, I used to spend almost every minute of my free time with my girlfriends. And now I’ve become a bit antisocial, but not because I choose to be one. I just live so far from the few friends I have here that it’s so hard to meet up with them, whereas my friends back home are just one text away and then 30 minutes later we’re all together driving around the city (sometimes beyond the city), hanging out in a coffee house, or having another spontaneous slumber party.

Oh. Yeah. I’m 23 now. I grew up. Now I know why Peter Pan chose not to grow up. Heh.

Thankfully, I got this piece of device that lets me stay in touch with people outside this invisible bubble surrounding me. Through the wonders of chat programs, blogs, and social networking sites (Hey, me being a geek is not the topic here! lol), I’m still able to have a good laugh with friends and find out how they’re are doing even if it’s clearly not as meaningful as the real thing. One just has to learn to make it work.

In light of this topic, I want to acknowledge the “friendship awards” I got from two bloggers. One is from Teacher Julie who’s been using the very first WP theme I made (that I’ve been wanting to update but got no time) and whose blog was featured in the newspaper a few months ago (I actually have a copy of this Philippine Daily Inquirer. Thanks Romzkee for giving it to me!). She included me in her list of virtual friends to whom she passed the first class friendship award to and described me as “my blog theme designer whom I have not met (yet) in person but I feel connected to, in more ways than one.” *Sniff sniff* Please pass the tissue!

And if that’s not enough, problogger Sasha also gave me the You’ve got a friend in me award. This is what she says about me: “…for easily saying yes when I asked for a link exchange. Naku there are a lot of really great bloggers like this girl who can be snobs. I can name a few pero wag na lang… Joni, on the other hand, is a popular blogger who creates beautiful themes that is NOT a snob at all!” I don’t know about the “great”, “popular” and “beautiful” adjectives but I was really touched when I read her message. Thanks, Sasha! :)

Just last Sunday, I was so happy that I was able to spend time with my former workmates at One Global aka ePac. It’s been so long since the last time we were all together (We missed Riz, Reah, Romzkee, Karen, and Ying, though). Ryan, the webmaster of Miss Earth‘s official website, had complimentary passes so he invited Bheng, Nico, Sarah, Kelly, Vanz, Emz, and me to the 7th Annual Miss Earth Pageant at the UP Theater in UP Diliman.

My bet, Miss Canada, won the pageant. She’s pretty, intelligent and confident. And she’s half-Filipina! Kewlness. Miss India (Bheng and Sarah’s bet) came in 2nd, and Miss Switzerland (Kelly’s bet)… didn’t make it to the final four. Lol! I think the Spanish-speaking candidates had a shot at winning the crown too if not for their st*pid translator who just couldn’t get the translation right. He kept stuttering and shaking his head as though searching for the right words to use hence the candidates’ answers kind of lost their impact. Not that I could translate Spanish, but really, they could’ve done better with another interpreter.

I had so much fun despite the fact that we had to wear cocktail dresses (although I can’t really call the one I wore a “cocktail dress”). Thanks, Rai, for inviting me! Next year ulit! Haha. Read more about that night here. :)

(See more photos) Calling all the ePac gurls! Kelan dinner date natin?? Anakng$#!$@%*!! lol.