#RomanceClass author Tara Frejas organized a series of virtual panels and author events for #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy. I participated in an Author AMA (Ask Me Anything) during my birthday last week and I’ve compiled the questions and answers in this post for anyone who missed it.
You can find the original twitter thread here!
Continue reading ICYMI || My Author AMA for Buwan Ng Mga Akdang PinoyBefore anything else, if this is your first time reading about #RomanceClassCovers, Mina V. Esguerra has written multiple posts about where it began and how we just kept on growing.
The Cliffs Notes version of it is that we needed something that wasn’t being made available to us, so we just did the thing and made it available ourselves. (Which is a running theme with us over here at #RomanceClass.)
Continue reading How We Do || #RomanceClassCoversIt’s a scary thing to begin with, writing. You’re pouring your soul into this piece that other people will end up reading, consuming, absorbing, criticizing. There’s always a hope in there somewhere that someone will fall in love with your words, your story. But along with it is the fear that someone will close your book feeling disappointed.
The standards we set for ourselves as writers, however, are far more terrifying. I used to think it’s the opinion of other people that will hold me back. But right now as I sit here struggling to write this blog entry, not able to write a lick of anything since the day I didn’t finish something I promised I would last April, I’ve been proven wrong.
(I honestly don’t know why I ended up with 17 again, but there you go.) Hey! It’s been a while. It was a bit difficult to top #AprilFEELSDay. I kinda shrunk into a pit of I NEED MORE and nearly died in there… until #FeelsRushIn.
There’s that Thing I did to document all the things that happened at Trinoma last weekend. But how much can a video say, really? (Aside from, THAT WAS A LOT OF FUN OKAY.) So I’m making it a tradition. GIFs. GIFs to explain all the feelings whenever #romanceclass decides to be even more awesome than it already is. Feel on, my feels friends…
Continue reading 17 Feels that Rushed in Because of #FeelsRushIn
So a Thing happened yesterday. That Thing that everyone had been looking forward to as early as March finally happened… and it was glorious. We got there way too early, and left long after everyone else had gone home. I got home extremely tired, and woke up feeling so sore. It was as if I’d finished a Triathlon!
Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. I thought I was able to process it enough already, having spent until nearly midnight talking to everyone about it. But no, of course not, how could that be possible? After all I am simply a living, breathing, human shaped casing of feels. So let me just express my feelings in a way that I know everyone will be able to understand… here are my 17 moments of feels during #AprilFEELSDay.
It’s the home stretch! The Christmas season is almost over (though, is it ever really over, in this country?) It won’t be long before our favorite Starbucks Holiday Drinks will disappear from the menu. With them will be the chance to get your hands on the 2016 Starbucks Moleskine Planner.
Did you claim one already? Did you claim one too many, like me? Or are you still counting the blank circles in your Starbucks Christmas Traditions Promo Card?
Fear not! Starting today, January 5, 2016, until January 17, 2016, all Starbucks Philippines branches will be awarding you two stickers for every single purchase of a Starbucks handcrafted beverage! Isn’t that neat?
This means that even if you’re only starting now, all it will take is one visit a day to get that planner! (Half that many visits if you bring a friend or even better–a date. *wink wink*)
Remember that for every planner redeemed, a donation will be made to partner NGOs Teach For the Philippines and The Peta Theater. So drop by the nearest Starbucks branch near you! You’ll be giving a gift in more ways than one. ♥♥♥
Good news night owls, avid planner collectors, and crazy coffee people! Another Starbucks Philippines Branch in Quezon City has decided to especially accommodate all of us this Christmas 2015. ♥
Starbucks Coffee Matalino Branch will be opening its doors for 24 hours for the next few weekends, just until Planner Season ends. You can study for as long as you want, stack as many Red Cups as you want, bask in 4am calm while you take a bite of that second third Chicken Fajita Roll, and hope you see your Starbucks crush cutely falling asleep a few tables away, just as the sunri–
*ahem*
Yes, right. Starbucks. Matalino. 24 hours. Christmas. YAY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLrSE9AVIgY
So it begins: that time of the year when I am inexplicably, and most likely irrationally happy at the sight of a bunch of red paper coffee cups. When Toffee Nut, my favorite Christmas coffee drink, makes a return. When I get to enjoy my favorite Christmas pastry, the Chicken Fajita Roll, whenever I want for the next two months. When the baristas look the cutest as they greet me in their red shirts and green aprons.
And when I see if without trying, I’d be able to break my Starbucks Planner Claim record from four six years ago of eight planners before Christmas day. (Now don’t look at me like that! I give them away as presents! I don’t keep them all in a glass case, call them my precious and salivate over them until next Christmas comes…)
Did you hear Starbucks Philippines recently partnered with Moleskine for their planners? And that every time a planner is redeemed, a donation is made to their partner NGOs Teach For the Philippines and The Peta Theater?
Uh huh. Keep reading. I’ll tell you how. ♥
On my 15th birthday, my mom asked me what kind of party I wanted to have. And when I said I wanted a children’s party, that was exactly what I got. It was a sight to behold, high school girls still in their uniforms, taking part in parlor games and posing for photos with a purple potato mascot.
On my 18th birthday, my mom asked me again if I wanted a traditional debut. I declined. Gowns and dances were never my thing. Instead I asked for the celebration of my dreams—days checked into a hotel, alternating between my high school friends and college friends in memorable sleepovers.
On my 25th birthday, with a job of my own and a quarter life milestone to celebrate, I threw a private party in a club with another mixed group of friends. We got wasted, did dumb things like we did as teens, and all went home with a blurry but nonetheless indelible memory of better days.
Now, on the last year of my twenties, I contemplate whether the day is worth mourning… or celebrating.
