About Iris Orpi

Last updated December 5, 2013

Answers to the Top Ten Most Pertinent Identification Questions

1. Name : Iris Christine P. Orprecio-Price
2. Residence: Chicago, IL Birthplace: Manila, Philippines
3. Telephone Number: 1 872 212 8105
4. Student Number: 00-03539
5. Course: MS Mathematics
6. School: University of the Philippines – Diliman
7. Birthday: December 31, 1983
8. Marital status: Married to Ray Price
9. Person to contact in case of emergency: Ray Price, 773 655 6103
10. Suking Tindahan: Power Books and The Body Shop

Top Ten Most Interesting Iris Trivia

1. I get a “brilliant idea” every five seconds.

2. I keep a journal of all my brilliant and not-so-brilliant ideas called my Books of Thoughts. I have twenty-five such books.  Nine of them are eight 8.5″x6″ notebooks hand-sewn together, five of them are ready made giant scrapbooks from the paper store Karton, eleven of them are three 7″x10″ notebooks hardbound together by the UP Shopping Center binders.  Right now I’m developing a new diary-cum-datebook-planner-cum-scrapbook prototype with small snap binders. My Books so far have the following names:

Diary 1, Diary 2, Diary3, Diary 4 (I wasn’t so creative during my first couple of years), (5) Rose (after the other iceberg that made the Titanic sink), (6) Diane (after Kirstie Alley’s role in It Takes Two starring the Olsen Twins who were my idols at fourteen), (7) Belle (after Beauty and the Beast), (8) Amour (Belle which is French for beauty got lost and I replaced her with a Book named the French for love), (9) Aubrey (after the song), (10) Danielle Nicole (after the musical half of Savage Garden and Drew Barrymore’s role in Ever After), (11) Emma Darian (after the lyrical half of Savage Garden and Alicia Silverstone’s role in Crush), (12) Aaliyah (well!), (13) Shakira (after the Latin singer because I am in love with the Spanish language), (14) Alicia Keys (the only one with a last name), (15) Tamia, (16) Beyonce, (17) Nina, (18) Monica, (19) Brandy, (20) Tyra, (21) Rihanna, (22) Amerie, (23) Cassie, (24) Jordin, (25) Ashanti, (26) Faith, and the latest, (27) Leona.

3. I have written more or less two thousand poems in my lifetime.

4. I have won a total of Php 70,000 in essay-writing contests. This money is responsible for three-fourths of the furnishings in my home’s dining room and kitchen.

5. I have a very weird but powerful brain. (See the next Top Ten for examples.)

6. I majored in math even though everybody thought I would major in writing, dahil ayoko ng course na hindi ako nahihirapan.

6.5 Minsan mayabang ako (obvious #6).

7. I got my name because I was a premature baby (7 months). My Mom was so stressed by the fireworks during Christmas Eve and had me. The doctors said my eyes were too underdeveloped and I would be blind for the rest of my life. But through God’s mercy the time I spent in an incubator completed the development. Ergo, my name is…

8. I am a sadistic walker. I walk at least 4 kilometers a day. My greatest feat was walking from the UP Math Building to Greenbelt. I was able to scale the Academic Oval two and a half times over in less than 55 minutes (walking).

9. I was awarded Best in English when I graduated in high school. The B-I-E before me, Agnes Marquez, and the one after me, Nestor Amadeo Precioso, have both been sent to the US for their greatness in writing whereas I am still here in the Philippines, a direct consequence of my choice of college course.

10. I am the youngest member ever to be made president of the Children’s Congregation of the Iglesia ni Cristo. I held the office for fifteen years until the year I got married, in 2013.

Top Ten Feats Ever Accomplished by Iris’ Brain

(If you are a fidgety person, skip this part.)
(Also if you’re a cynical person)

1. I can memorize songs, ceremonies, phone conversations, etc., after listening to a single run. If I want to. I can sing the entire Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Sound of Music musicals impromptu.

2. I was able to do heavy differential calculus two hours after a LEMERY signboard fell on my head. My head bled for thirty minutes and I fell asleep for one and a half hours and then threw up four pounds’ worth of lunch afterward and when I tried doing an exercise off TC7 I was still able to get the right answer.

3. I have the phenomenon SLI – Street Lamp Interference. There are seven street lamps in Metro Manila that flicker when I walk under them: the one in front of my parents’ house in Muntinlupa, one in Mabait Street, Teachers’ Village, the one at the corner of Wilson and Garfield Streets in Greenhills, the one at the corner of 29th Street and Rizal Drive in Global City, one in the corner of Ayala and Makati Avenues, one in front of Windsor Tower on Legaspi Village, one on VA Rufino Street, Makati.

4. If I love a musical artist enough, I can hear voices in my head when the radio is on, telling me what station I must switch to if I want to hear him/her/them sing. This is my scariest Brain Talent.

5. Twice during a nightmare (you know, that state of sleep when your limbs freeze), I was so panicky that when I tried to move, I was able to rise off the place I was sleeping in (first time was on the bed, second time on a public bus) but it turned out I left my body behind and it was still sleeping where I left it.

6. I tried writing a novel about witches once but I trashed the project after two chapters because I had nightmares about it every night.

7. I don’t go to bed without finishing a story or book I am reading because I dream about how it would end.

8. Three years before I met my ex-boyfriend Stacy Jackson, I dreamed of an African American guy who was my man and it turned out it was exactly how he would look like. In my dream I was in school and my name on the roll call was Stacy Jackson.

9. When I was four years old I was innately terrified at one scene where Tito, Vic and Joey locked Palito in a restroom by covering up the restroom door so that it might look like part of the wall. When I first read the Edgar Allan Poe story Cask of Amontillado, I recognized the similarity and I was terrified again. It turned out that when my Mom was in college she read that story and got scared too, and passed on the fear of the concept to me.

10. I can *sometimes* tune in to people’s thoughts, especially my date at the moment. Sometimes I can describe vividly a scene that the person in front of me is thinking. This has happened with Elbert, an Ateneo guy I had dated and Robert, a working guy I was with (whose thoughts were almost always very sexually perverted).

Top Ten Most Influential People in my Life

1. My Dad (we read the same books).

2. My Mom (she makes the orders around the house and has the capacity to turn the world against me).

3. My husband Ray Price, who saw everything I am and aspire to be, and chose me to walk (and ride) life with.

4. Ms Carmen Cordero, this brilliant mathematics teacher in MaSci who taught me the hardest lessons I’ve ever learned.

5. Ms Rosalina Labay. The best compliment she’d ever received, according to her, was when she overheard somebody tell another somebody, “Kapag naging teacher mo si Ma’am Labay, magiging tao ka.”

6. Mrs Melania Abad. A woman with such passion for living that if it could be converted into electricity, she could light up the country. With her as inspiration, I took up arms and made myself a place in the picket lines in the fight toward social justice.

7. My Tita Siyoket (nee Jean). She got her name because all of her friends are bakla. The most amazing person I would ever want to be in cahoots with.

8. Lester Paolo Broma. My first love. Enough said.

And

Fidel Nemenzo. Having him as my professor made me find my true calling. As I said in one of my Books, the most noble things I’ve ever written in my life were all written in the margins of the pages of my Math 117 notebook, during our class.

9. Cyril Mitchel Agan, the most passionate Martian in the face of the earth. He volunteers for the Red Cross, the PGH ER, plants trees at the La Mesa Watershed, studies French, plays the piano, sings with the UPSA, acts in UP Manila’s Drama Org, choreographs dances for the Biogyugan, collects books, paints art noveau…

10. Carmela “Kharmie” Pili, the most beautiful human being I’ve ever had the honor of meeting. We are each other’s prodigy. She’s going to be the maid of honor to my wedding, the ninang of my first child, the primary beneficiary of my last will…

Top Ten Most Interesting People I’ve Met
(a.k.a. Top Ten Most Favorite People)

Intro: Once, I almost sent a text to a person containing the following message: ” Listen, you. In case you haven’t figured out why I keep turning down your invitations for coffee and bonding, I don’t like you. You have no strength of character or originality of soul, and you’re utterly uninteresting to me.” I stopped myself from sending the message, but it inspired me to make this list of people I know who DO have strength of character and originality of soul. True artists of life, who know passion.

1. Ma. Christina ” Tina” Langit
2. Darlene Ramos
3. Dianne Que
4. Philip Christian Zuniga
5. Ma. Isabel ” Maii” Bernal
6. Aristotle Castro
7. Eileen May ” Ayen” Cariaga
8. Joanne Rizza ” Jozza” Palaganas
9. Geraldee “Adee” Caluag
10. Alva Benedict ” Chuckie” Balbuena
11. Aldrin Ocampo

Top Ten Iris-like Famous Figures

1. Janie Starks of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
2. Catherine Earnshaw of Charlotte Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
3. Mary Magdalene (the Bible version, not the Templar)
4. Kris Aquino (may aangal?)
5. Clarissa Marie Darling from Nickelodeon
6. Elizabeth Benett of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
7. Pandora of The Vampire Chronicles
8. Elena de la Vega of Mask of Zorro (both the book and the movie)
9. Meredith Grey & Cristina Yang of Grey’s Anatomy
10. Kim of Miss Saigon (or Puccini’s Madame Butterfly)

Top Ten Favorite Books

1. “The Mysterious Mr. Quin” by Agatha Christie
2. “Magic” by William Goldman
3. “Walk Two Moons” by Sharon Creech
4. “Jazz” by Toni Morrison
5. “1Q84” by Haruki Murakami
6. “Memnoch the Devil” by Anne Rice
7. “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden
8. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
9. “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupery
10. “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

Top Ten+ Favorite Writers

1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. Haruki Murakami
3. Rex Stout
4. Toni Morrison
5. Oscar Hijuelos
6. Anne Rice
7. Kazuo Ishiguro
8. Nick Bantock
9. Jane Austen
10. O. Henry
11. Robert Louis Stevenson
12. Jessica Zafra
13. Iain Thomas

Top Ten+ Favorite Musical Artists

1. Alicia Keys
2. Ne-Yo
3. Lauryn Hill
4. Savage Garden
5. Adele
6. Vienna Teng
7. Bob Marley
8. Natasha Bedingfield
9. Mariah Carey
10. John Coltrane
11. Don McLean
12. Jason Mraz

Top Ten Favorite Bands

1. Eraserheads
2. Bamboo
3. Savage Garden
4. The Corrs
5. Bob Marley and the Wailers
6. Sugarfree
7. Parokya ni Edgar
8. Matchbox Twenty
9. Maroon 5
10. Itchyworms

Top Ten+ Favorite Movies

1. Bad Company
2. V for Vendetta
3. Love Jones
4. Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights
5. Memoirs of a Geisha
6. Ever After
7. Real Steel
8. The Mask of Zorro
9. Practical Magic
10. The Book of Stars
11. Julie Walking Home
12. Dead Poets Society
13. Houdini

Top Ten+ Favorite TV Series

1. House MD
2. Criminal Minds
3. Big Bang Theory
4. Burn Notice
5. CSI: NY
6. Leverage
7. The Walking Dead
8. The Practice
9. CSI
10. Will and Grace
11. Sex and the City
12. Glee

Top Ten Things I wouldn’t be Caught Dead Doing

1. Read Chicken Soup for the Soul
2. Buy any magazine
3. Buy any CD (I have a phobia but I’m working on conquering it)
4. Leave my incumbent Book of Thoughts at home
5. Leave my pen
6. Keep myself from telling my crush that I have a crush on him
7. Watch X-rated movies alone
8. Sleep at church
9. Fail a math exam without being bothered
10. See a grammatical error in my own writings and not correct it within the next five seconds (obsessive-compulsive, yeah)

Top Ten Sexiest Men

1. Ray Price
2. Channing Tatum
3. Hugh Jackman
4. Jeffrey Donovan
5. Ne-Yo
6. Richard Yap
7. Michael Ealy
8. Derek Ramsey
9. Lenny Kravitz
10. Derrick Rose

Top Ten Sexiest Women

1. Myself
2. Natalie Portman
3. Jennifer Lawrence
4. Zhang Ziyi
5. Catherine Zeta-Jones
6. Iza Calzado
7. Sharon Corr
8. Jessica Biel
9. Beyonce Knowles
10. Megan Fox

Top Ten+ Favorite Dishes

1. grilled shrimp burrito from Mexicali (It’s back!!)
2. Applewerm from Breadtalk
3. pork sisig (with utak) ni Daddy
4. shake sashimi and tuna sashimi
5. Ligaya’s Tapa from Agahan (I still haven’t gotten over the shutting down of this resto)
6. Sinigang na hipon sa kalamansi ni Mom
7. Italian sausage parmigiana from A venetto
8. Sea Breeze maki and American Dream maki from Omakase
9. Linguine al Prosciuto e Tartufo from Amici
10. Rib-eye steak from Racks
11. Cheesy stuffed crust super supreme pizza from Pizza Hut
12. Original recipe chicken from KFC
13. Wendy’s Big Classic Hamburger
14. Neapolitan Spaghetti from Tokyo Cafe on McKinley Hill
15. Twister fries from McDonald’s, Crispy fries from KFC, Hash brown from McDonald’s, Mojo Potatoes from Shakey’s, Mashed Potato from KFC…

Top Ten Food Ingredients

1. Cheese
2. Tomato
3. Shrimp
4. Potato
5. Mango
6. Corn
7. Baby corn
8. Mushroom (any kind)
9. Salami and Pepperoni
10. Avocado