Iris has the best lines

Today was a fun day for movies. First, I caught Bituing Walang Ningning on Cinema One. I texted Louie immediately and we had a blast giggling and gushing at the lines.

This evening, I caught The Holiday on HBO. Lovely script. I like Nancy Myers' worlds because she understands people are complicated, yet love is simple.

This one isn't my favorite part, but I love what she says here.



Iris: "I understand feeling as small and as insignificant as humanly possible. And how it can actually ache in places you didn't know you had inside you. And it doesn't matter how many new haircuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends... you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. And how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he'll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you'll go somewhere new. And you'll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little pieces of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade."

More lines below. The last one's my favorite.

Arthur Abbott: Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend.

Iris: You're so right. You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for god's sake! Arthur, I've been going to a therapist for three years, and she's never explained things to me that well. That was brilliant. Brutal, but brilliant.

***

Iris: I've found almost everything ever written about love to be true. Shakespeare said "Journeys end in lovers meeting." What an extraordinary thought. Personally, I have not experienced anything remotely close to that, but I am more than willing to believe Shakespeare had. I suppose I think about love more than anyone really should. I am constantly amazed by its sheer power to alter and define our lives. It was Shakespeare who also said "love is blind". Now that is something I know to be true. For some quite inexplicably, love fades; for others love is simply lost. But then of course love can also be found, even if just for the night. And then, there's another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. Its called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert. Most love stories are about people who fall in love with each other. But what about the rest of us? What about our stories, those of us who fall in love alone? We are the victims of the one sided affair. We are the cursed of the loved ones. We are the unloved ones, the walking wounded. The handicapped without the advantage of a great parking space! Yes, you are looking at one such individual. And I have willingly loved that man for over three miserable years! The absolute worst years of my life! The worst Christmas', the worst Birthday's, New Years Eve's brought in by tears and valium. These years that I have been in love have been the darkest days of my life. All because I've been cursed by being in love with a man who does not and will not love me back. Oh god, just the sight of him! Heart pounding! Throat thickening! Absolutely can't swallow! All the usual symptoms.

***

Iris: "Shush. You broke my heart. And you acted like somehow it was my fault, my misunderstanding, and I was too in love with you to ever be mad at you, so I just punished myself! For years! But you waltzing in here on my lovely Christmas holiday, and telling me that you don't want to lose me whilst you're about to get MARRIED, somehow newly entitles me to say, it's over. This - This twisted, toxic THING between us, is finally finished! I'm miraculously done being in love with you! Ha! I've got a life to start living."

The opposite of schadenfreude

I've been feeling a lot of this lately, even when watching this Yahoo video on jilted brides.

Wikipedia says:

Mudita is a Buddhist (Pali and Sanskrit) word meaning rejoicing in others' good fortune. Mudita is sometimes considered to be the opposite of schadenfreude.

The term mudita is usually translated as "sympathetic" or "altruistic" joy, the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being rather than begrudging it. Many Buddhist teachers interpret mudita more broadly as referring to an inner spring of infinite joy that is available to everyone at all times, regardless of circumstances. The more deeply one drinks of this spring, the more secure one becomes in one's own abundant happiness, and the easier it then becomes to relish the joy of other people as well.

Copyeditor Chronicles: Chuckling

I also enjoy my other job, in which I edit text messages people from all over the country send. Sometimes, I uncover gems that have me smiling all day too. :)

This one's already slightly edited.

As for my twilight years, it’s still a toss-up whether I will wake up to the chuckling of chickens or the honking of cars!

Dear Universe/God:

Thank you for today's lovely blessings.

1. The lunch of dried fish flakes and steamed rice. (Next time, I'll remember to add the diced tomatoes.)
2. The cup of mashed potato with corn that my officemate gave me.
3. The chocolate my best friend will remember to bring me tomorrow.

Friends, family, and Avenue Q

Can it get any better than this?

I had an amazing weekend, if I may say so myself. It felt like one of those MFA Saturdays all over again. I met up with Jenny, Louie, and Michelle to watch Avenue Q--and we bumbed into Razel in Starbucks at the third floor of RCBC Plaza, who'd watched the 2pm show. I have pictures (of us; sadly, no Avenue Q pictures), and I'll get around to posting them someday.

I also bumped into some people at RCBC. One of them, Patrick, was a freshman year classmate. I actually subscribe to his blog, and while we haven't really seen each other in years I felt like we'd been in touch, so I think I was a little bit too familiar. I think I blinked and said, "Oh my God, long hair ka na!" Hahaha.

Has that ever happened to you?

I also saw my LEAP 32 teammate Haids. And the guy my mom buys her discounted Atlantis tickets from (duh!).

Louie had to leave, so the two other girls and I had dinner together at Greenbelt. We had corned beef sinigang and crisy pata at Sentro. Heaven.

Sunday, I spent time with family. My mom, two brothers and I met up at Southmall, and somehow ended up having dinner at Alabang Town Center. We watched the last full show of The Happening.

The entire time, my mom kept saying, "This is like a Filipino film." And she doesn't watch Filipino films. Poor M. Night Shyamalan. The Sixth Sense was so good, it would be difficult to come up with another hit like that. I'll still give you a chance, baby.

We had a funny dinner, because the girl just Nena's Barbecue (I'm not sure if I got the name right), where we decided to eat, kept trying to sell us this Father's Day mug, telling us that if we bought a mais con yelo, which nobody in my family eats, we'd get the mug for free. My brother finally said, "Our dad's there already." and he sort of pointed to the St. Jerome and Sta. Susanna Parish Church, where my father's ashes are interred. :P

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

You must know--

I found this and thought of you.

Sonnet XLIV
Pablo Neruda
You must know that I do not love and that I love you,
because everything alive has its two sides;
a word is one wing of silence,
fire has its cold half.
I love you in order to begin to love you,
to start infinity again
and never to stop loving you:
that’s why I do not love you yet.
I love you, and I do not love you, as if I held
keys in my hand: to a future of joy-
a wretched, muddled fate-
My love has two lives, in order to love you:
that’s why I love you when I do not love you,
and also why I love you when I do.