the alchemist by paulo coelho

i bought this book along with by the river piedra i sat down and wept way back in college. it’s been in my bookshelf since then and i only got the urge to read it last week.

this inspirational story is all about a boy’s journey to follow his dream. it’s about overcoming personal obstacles, finding strength in God and finally achieving his Personal Legend. he meets some strange characters along the way that help him learn important truths and continue on his journey.

oh, and he falls in love somewhere in between too. and for some reason, this is where i related to the book. haha! he, of course, has to leave her while he’s still hasn’t found his treasure and she promises to wait for him…

From that day on, it was the desert that would be important. She would look to it every day, and would try to guess which star the boy was following in search of his treasure. She would have to send her kisses on the wind, hoping that the wind would touch the boy’s face, and would tell him that she was alive. That she was waiting for him, a woman waiting a courageous man in search of his treasure. From that day on, the desert would represent only one thing to her: the hope for his return.

as the boy keeps thinking whether it was right or wrong to leave the love of his life behind (in the meantime), the alchemist tells him…

“If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”

but my favorite line of the entire book is this… “So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” it should feel that way, shouldn’t it?

right now, i feel as though i am the desert woman, waiting for the return of a boy in search of his treasure. i only hope that what was there was pure matter and not just a moment of light.

wedding blues

i can hardly believe it. i’ve finally gotten to that age, where a bunch of your friends are getting serious with their lives and settling down by getting married and having kids. my emotions are a mixture of envy and wonder. you see, i still feel so new at being an adult like i’m still a kid playing house making decisions that are way bigger than me. so while i am a hopeless romantic, it still is a constant wonder for someone my age to decide to spend the rest of their life with another person. to be honest, i’ve always imagined myself engaged at my age then married by around 27. but now that i’m actually living the “adult” life, i realize goals are a bit harder than what they seemed to be when i was still young and idealistic. finding your perfect match/soulmate/one true love isn’t as easy as it seems in fairy tales and chick flicks. don’t get me wrong, i believe all of my friends who are getting married or are already married are truly in-love. therein lies my envy. i keep wondering when love will deign to grant me an audience but in the meantime i’m truly content seeing that it exists in other couples.

however will all that said, being the hopeless romantic that i am, i do have a dream wedding. it’s changed throughout the years, bits and pieces as i grow older and undergo changes in my own lifestyle. so here’s a sneak peak on how i envision my dream wedding…

the setting

Flickr #1 The Smith-Smith Wedding Party Jump originally uploaded by capturingreallife

i used to want a garden wedding during dusk so that my future husband and i say our i do‘s by the sunset. this was when i still hated the beach. yes, once when i was younger and i hated getting darker, i did hate the beach. 😛 it’s very different now though because i love the beach so much! after i started playing ultimate there really was no point to hate going to the beach anymore as i got darker from playing. plus, it’s so much fun to get drunk at the beach. haha! so now, i dream of a beach wedding. jc gonzalez, bianca gonzalez’s brother (ya, ‘coz you know, i’m so showbiz this way), had a beach wedding and it seemed like lots of fun. i’m actually attending a beach wedding next year and i can’t wait to take pictures there! haha!

the vows

i’ve always joked that i wanted a broadway type wedding where my groom and i will be singing our marriage vows. when lea salonga sang her vows in her own wedding, i wanted it even more. now, all i need to do is find a groom who can sing. 🙂

here’s the concert version of the song:

i couldn’t find the youtube video footage of the wedding which i could embed but here it is if you want to check it out.

the photographs

as i’ve mentioned before, i really love tumblr. i’m glad i’ve even got a few of my friends addicted to it too. 😉 that’s where i discovered this photographer couple whose photos i really love. i secretly want to fly them over to anywhere i’m getting married so that they can take my wedding pictures. i love the fact that they added me as a contact on flickr too. i like this other photographer couple, too. in the local scene, redsheepphotography takes pretty amazing pictures. yeah, i think i’m spending too much time checking out wedding photography online. but it’s really fun to look at wedding pictures. everyone looks so happy, it truly is a celebration of love.

despite the fact that brad pitt and jennifer aniston have gotten divorced, this remains to be one of my favorite wedding pictures ever.

the groom

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i was actually planning to post a pic of some hot celebrity i fantasize about marrying. but then as i was googling different crushes of mine, i realized that i never really imagined marrying any of them. yep, it’s true! unlike some other girls, specifically those stalking rpatzz (rob pattinson) everywhere, i can differentiate between fantasy and reality. and for some weird reason, i’ve never imagined myself married to a celebrity. hahahaha! so i guess this part of my dream wedding will have to wait.

the passage

i’m re-reading The Time Traveler’s Wife right now so that my memory will be refreshed before the movie comes out. it’s a beautiful book so read it if you haven’t yet. this quote, which is actually from Possession but is quoted in the book, really made me an impression on me…

“What is it? My dear?”
“Ah, how can we bear it?”
“Bear what?”
“This. For so short a time. How can we sleep this time away?”
“We can be quiet together, and pretend – since it is only the beginning – that we have all the time in the world.”
“And every day we shall have less. And then none.”
“Would you rather, therefore, have had nothing at all?”
“No. This is where I have always been coming to. Since my time began. And when I go away from here, this will be the mid-point, to which everything ran, before, and from which everything will run. But now, my love, we are here, we are now, and those other times are running elsewhere.”
~ A.S. Byatt, Possession

during my recent daydreams, i’ve been writing my wedding vows in my head. this is a bit embarrassing to admit but given the number of weddings i have to attend within the next couple of years, you have to cut me some slack. 😛 anyway, somehow the fact that i’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment (of getting married) makes it’s way into the vows. and as i read this quote in the book i had to pause and think. that last paragraph is beautiful. it may not seem like a marriage vow but i think it’s absolutely lovely. if ever i end up not singing my vow, i’d like to read this paragraph as part of my vow because i know that’s how it’ll feel… as though my life would’ve started from the moment i say i do.

because i’ve been reading some amazing books lately…

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

~ Franz Kafka

i stayed up late last night reading breaking dawn

… and now i’m sleepy. hehehe.

yesterday was filled with anticipation on the arrival of my copy of stephanie meyer‘s latest installment of the twilight series: breaking dawn. at first, i was worried that my copy wouldn’t arrive and that i’d have to spend the night blaming my lazy ass for having the book delivered instead of going to the bookstore and buying it. but then the call from our floor guard came informing me that powerbooks was outside with my delivery. i think i skipped out of my chair and walked as fast as i could to get my book. hahaha! okay, before you start thinking wow! this girl’s obsessed, in my defense i hardly think i’m going to pass off as a major fangirl of the series. i mean, i like the books but i don’t spend every waking moment of the day thinking about them (although there was a time i did. haha!). anyway, i just really wanted to know how the entire thing ended… you know with the human teenage girl being passionately and irrevocably in love with a vampire.

my patience was put to the test since i joined a few friends for dinner. believe me, all i wanted to do as soon as i got the book was lock myself in my room and start reading. but i had dinner first. declined an invitation to join them for drinks. and started to read on the commute home. i was done with 150 pages when i finally stepped off my mrt station. when i got home my sister shared with me some of the reviews that she had been reading online already. it seems that a lot of people are disappointed by the book.

i finished the book at around 2:30am which wasn’t so good because that left me 30 minutes to fall asleep before the “bewitching hour”. scaredy-cat that i am, i really thought it unwise to finish a vampire book by this hour. good thing i was pretty tired and fell asleep as soon as i closed the lights. 🙂

now, the verdict. how did i like the book? well, i didn’t hate it. i didn’t love it either. it was okay. i was a bit thrown off by the twist which means that it was a good plot twist. in certain ways, i think it was the perfect ending to the series. it was maybe a bit too action packed for my taste, like stephanie meyer was cramming all she could in the book since it was the last. one comment of a fan that i read and totally agree with is that it seemed like she was already imagining the movie when she wrote the book. however, if you’re a fan of the book or you’ve read the first 3 books, i’ll say read this one even just to see how it all ends.

in defense of stephanie meyer, i’d like to say this. i think it’s bad form for some people to react by saying don’t burn it, return it. i’m sure all of us have different ideas on how this is supposed to end, but let’s all remember that this is stephanie meyer’s story to tell and this was how she chose to end it. when i read a book, i suspend all my disbelief and let the storyteller lead me to his/her world. i was a bit suprised with all the backlash i’ve been reading over the net, because never once did i react this way while reading the book. as i said, i’m not much of a fan as everyone else who’s reacted probably is but cut her some slack, she is after all the author. 😀

my favorite book of the series is still new moon because it was able to get this reaction out of me. 😉

after reading the book, i suggest that you read this girl’s super hilarious review of breaking dawn: http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/630150.html. but please read it after because it’s sure to spoil you.

awating breaking dawn

i just pre-ordered my own copy of Breaking Dawn, the fourth installment of Stepanie Meyer’s vampire saga. i waited for a month for this book and now it’ll be mine in just a few more days. woohoo… i have a feeling i won’t be sleeping come monday night. :))

currently, there are three books already published: twilight, new moon and eclipse.

in summary the book series is about a teenager, Bella, who falls in love with a vampire, Edward. he falls in love with her too and it’s a constant struggle for him as he desires to taste her blood. Bella’s best friend turns out to be a werewolf, who happens to be the mortal enemy of a vampire. pretty heavy stuff for a teenage girl to handle right? 🙂

it’s a fun and easy read, quite a page-turner actually. when i was reading the first three books, i constantly passed on invites to go out as i was eager to snuggle in bed and read. the third book, eclipse, left me wanting for more!!! i mean, will she or won’t she become a vampire?!? i just have to know. i really don’t want her to become one because it is a cruel thing to be the walking undead, but how will their love survive if she doesn’t become one. hmm… such a dilemma!!! hayayay!!! and yes, since i don’t have a lovelife, i live vicariously through books and movies. i need to get myself a lovelife! 😀

oh, and there’s already a movie on the first book, twilight. it’s coming out on dec. 12 this year so i’m definitely marking my calendar for this.