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So, I have finally moved out and am now an official semi-resident of Makati City. WEEEEEE!!! Just when I almost thought it’s not happening anymore, it suddenly did. So last Monday, November 28, I moved in to my own bedroom at one of the units in Kingswood Condominium. Prior to that day, it has just been hellish, especially with the buying stuff for my room part. After work Sunday morning, I was luckily on interim off for Sunday night due to my Training this week so I took the opportunity of asking my Mom to accompany me in buying stuff I need, coz the only stuff I managed to buy on my won are toiletries. Hehehe. Super nakakatawa on that day, maybe it’s also because wala rin akong tulog, we grabbed this trash bin for my room and when the cashier punched it in, I didn’t even notice that it costs too much. When everything else were punched in, I was surprised that the bill was P1,800 already, when all I bought were a trash can, a soap container, some hangers, a couple of hand towels, and they are P1,800? But oh well, I still signed the bill and told my Mom after, to which she replied “anong P1,800?!” then grabbed my receipt and there it was, first item punched, a trash can worth P1,450. Susmaryosep. Sobrang palpak ko, buti na lang I have my sleeplessness as an excuse. But no, madami pa rin akong palpak, I have so much growing up to do.

I still need to buy so much, sometimes when I’m sleeping I wake up and think about my list. And I sleep so bad because I don’t have a bed yet and I’m currently sleeping in a travel mattress that is so close to the floor. I miss home cooked meals so bad too. But I am loving it, super! I’m loving my new found “freedom” and independence. I’m not that scared anymore now that things are already for real, I go home to a new place and I’m just really on my own.

But you know what the best part is? Having a travel time from the condo to the office of 10 mere minutes. Saya!

This last week at work, I have been going home early, as in right after my shift. The longest time I stayed post shift would probably be 45 minutes, and then I’m off. I hate to admit it but it might just be because of this one person, that I suddenly don’t look forward to going to work no more, that I now actually feel bored and restless during my shift even if I still got tons to do, that I am sad. Frankly I shouldn’t feel bad at all because he told me he’s going to be working a different shift for a week and although I didn’t expect that, I should’ve at least prepared or even willing to accept that. He’s on training this week, and next week it’d be me who’s on training. I just realized, the two of us are two different people focused on our careers, so where can that ever lead us?

Sometimes I wish I don’t have to work, and sometimes I think I might have ignored that chance before I plunged myself into what I am in right now. Maybe, about a year ago, I also let go of that one person who was the bravest one to go to a foreign land, knowing only one person in this country, just to see and be with me and my family. That one person who constantly requested me to please process my papers so I can be with him and his family, promised me a simple but happy life, if I want to work, I can, but if not, so be it. That must have been love, right? And I didn’t even pay the slightest attention. Heck, I should be sure to watch the World Cup next year, had I at least given him a chance.

But I did not, and now I’m here, restless with life, again questioning a lot of things, wishing for a lot of things, and losing sleep out of it. I need a clear mind.

My latest weekend was very tiring. I thought 3 straight days of rest will do me good but I came back to work Sunday night feeling very sluggish and desperately wanting for days to run by fast enough so that it’d be my rest days again. Puh-leeze???

Because I had trouble sleeping on my rest days, I “experimented” on my sleeping hours last Thursday, as per a friendly advise of a teammate of mine. She said that when it’s already her off, after the end of her shift in the morning, she tries to stay awake as long as she can that day so that she’d feel sleepy by late afternoon and wake up the morning of the next day. So that is what I tried. Come Thursday morning, I had so much to do so I stayed in the office until 10am maybe, then went to Shangri-la Mall for a couple of hours to buy a book and meet a friend, bought HP movie tickets for the next day before going home and slept around 2 or 3pm maybe. But, I still ended up being awake by 2am until 6am maybe, then I slept until 10am. By the time I woke up, I had a splitting headache, which went on until afternoon I seriously thought I won’t be able to make it to the movies. But thank God for Bioflu (I chose between Biogesic and Bioflu and was glad I chose the latter because it seemed stronger and it’s a blue pill too, my favorite color :P), headache went away and I was good as new when we met at around 7:30pm for dinner. Movie was at 8:30pm so I was forced to eat as fast as I can at CPK, which is one of my favorite restos, btw. But it’s ok, I was pretty excited about the movie, which, like I said in a previous entry somewhere in one of my 3 blogs, was pretty good. And no, I did not find Cedric Diggory to be a hottie, I am honestly disturbed by the redness in his cheeks, and Krum looked too stocky and small for me. After the movie, Kay and I went to Makati to pick something up from the office, and then went to Eastwood where we had coffee while waiting for her bro to ask her to pick him up from Ateneo. Got home around 2am, slept by 3am, and had to wake up by 8am to prepare for a day in Caliraya with my family.

It was a surprise for me to realize that the last time I was in Laguna was around 3-4 years ago, I honestly thought it was just about a year ago. Hehe. We reached Laguna pretty late, maybe around 1pm, and went straight to the Exotik restaurant, which is another of my fave restos in the whole Pinas. As the name says, Exotik serves exotic dishes which I refuse to enumerate, but of course, they still have the normal Pinoy dishes too. Lunch was a sumptuous meal of beef kare-kare, sinigang na tuna and crispy pata, with drinks of fresh buko (and when I say fresh, it really is fresh). By the time we finished, we didn’t have extra room in our tummies for desserts. Exotik has this pet python named “Samantha” who I make it a point to look at only after I have eaten, for fear that I might lose my appetite if I see the snake first. I am ghastly afraid of snakes, or anything that crawls, so that includes worms and everyting else in their kingdom. Although in TV or movies, I can bear to watch them, but in moderation. If I’ve had too much, I switch channels. So back to Samantha, her cage is normally situated by the entrance so I was careful not to look while entering the resto. While waiting for our food, my sibs went around the resto and my sis noted that the snake in the cage that used to be Samantha’s is not the same snake anymore. So right after our meal, when we decided to all go around the resto for breathers, my sis asked the waiter what’s the name of the new snake and he said “Assunta po”. Hehehe. And so we all asked, “where is Samantha?!”, the waiter then pointed us towards the higher part of the resto and told us Samantha is in a bigger cage. Now, I’ve been to that resto maybe 3 or 4 times, and from what I remember, the first time I saw her, she was as big as my leg, and last I saw her (before Saturday), she was already as big as my thigh. So imagine my surprise when we saw her and Samantha’s body is not as big as my own body, probably the same diameter as my waist. She was just soooooooo BIGGGGGG. I was scared of her size, even if she looked utterly defenseless, I couldn’t even see her head anymore. And when I saw the snake skins at the roof of the cage, I just had to scream. I’m scared, they looked ugly, I don’t like snakes. Period.

After shopping for a couple of sweets, it was almost 3pm, pretty late, so we decided to continue with our leisurely drive. My dad worked for years in that area and it was kinda sad acknowledging the fact that he got removed from that project against his will. But it’s all over now, been years since it’s happened and although my Dad seemed to enjoy what he was seeing, I somehow sensed that he still felt a bit sad about it, I kinda wondered if this was the right place to be for his birthday. I was quite glad to note though, that a couple of improvements have been implemented, particularly the roads, and it seemed like there were more new places to go to. I soooo wanted to go boating in the lake, but my parents were against it coz according to them: one, it’s already late (which I don’t understand because it’s not yet dark at the least); and two, weather was pretty bad (I couldn’t argue with that, it was raining on and off that day, and yes, my sibs were blaming me for that). So I kinda felt bad about not being able to go boating, I’ve been wanting to do that way back, even in Tagaytay, even in La Mesa Dam. A boat ride around the Caliraya Lake is the bestest, promise, I love it. But ok fine, there’s gotta be a next time.

More driving around Laguna towns, we also passed by UP Los Banos on the way home, for no reason, we just wanted to see what the campus is like, hehehe. Of course we made sure to buy buko pies, we’ve missed them so much after having at least one box in the fridge back when Dad still used to work in Laguna. By 6pm we were back in the expressway, exhausted, but happy to have spent the day with my fam.

By the time we got home, it was already 8pm, and I had very few time to rest before going to Basti’s surprise bridal shower. I met with Kay probably around 9:30pm in Ateneo and headed to Makati where the party will be held around 10pm. On the way, I received a text from my sis that my bro, who dropped me off in Ateneo, had an accident on his way home. I got that text around the time Kay and I just passed by that area where we met a car accident when we were still freshmen college, so the text scared the sh*t out of me, my voice was literally shaking when I called my Mom. She still didn’t know the details of the accident then, although it occurred to me that if my bro was able to call my Mom to inform her he met an accident, he must be ok. So I then tried calling my bro next and he answered and sounded calm enough for me to be relieved that nothing bad happened to him. It was a good thing too, that the area where he had an accident, is an area in Quezon City which I think is the district where a cousin of Mom (also my godfather) is a councilor, so we got all the assistance we needed.

Basti’s bridal shower was fun, and I so wish I wasn’t too tired, the bed really kept on calling me. She cried when she came in and it was kinda heartwarming to see that other side of my boss. We were mostly girls from work, and the most fun part was when the stripper came in. Well, we all knew there was a stripper hired for that night and it was sorta like the most awaited moment of the party. What’s sad though is I saw the guy’s face when he came into the room, and he wasn’t very good looking. Hahaha. So I told myself, ok maybe the body is a killer. But no, when he started dancing, he’s got this beer belly that I couldn’t believe he is actually a stripper. Hindi kaya napulot lang nila to sa kanto? Que barbaridad. Hahaha. What was even more fun were my teammates reactions, like they were watching a horror movie. Hahaha. I so wish I didn’t see his face, although I don’t recall it no more, but still, I wish I only got to see the silhouette, like most of us. But oh well, I’ve forgotten all about it. I have to. I told Kay that in the future, when she organizes a bridal shower for me, she has to promise that the stripper is good looking and has a great body. Ako pa, sucker for great abs. Insulto aside though, I kinda felt bad for the guy, to have to do that for a living. But, it’s not bad money either, 1,600 for 15 mins of senseless dancing in front of people you don’t know? To earn as much I need to work for like a day. But then again, I’d still not resort to that. In a way, I also kinda think he’s using the easy way to earn money, but it’s his choice, and I just pray he stops doing that and opt to earn money the proper way.

Kay and I slept for a couple hours before going home, which was around 3am. I surprisingly wasn’t very sleepy when I got home so I watched TV until 6am maybe, then woke up by 8pm that day for work. So there goes how my 3 days off came by, I kinda didn’t feel it. But at least it means I work only 4 days this week, which should be good. It’s quite sad though, that my crush is working days this week so I don’t get to catch him online lately. It’s really sad. :(

Just got home from a night out with my bestfriend. And I hope my sibs don't get to read this until they've watched it too, but I caught HP earlier this evening and hey, I liked it. Really did. I'm not an obsessed HP fan, although I was green with envy when an officemate of mine came to work one night carrying her Gryffindor robe, but upon seeing the movie, I realized I wanted the POTTER jacket Harry wore in the Tri-Wizards more. Hehehe. Best part of the movie? Apart from the Hogwarts Express which reminded me again of how much I want to be able to ride a train that would take me from one European country to another, I especially LOVED the Quidditch Cup scenes! Reminded me of World Cup, I wanna watch that! But, asa pa! :P

Yesterday was my Dad's 53rd birthday and today, or in a few hours, we are going to Caliraya in Laguna for a family day of leisure, long drives, fresh air and sight seeing. I am excited to do this because I really had fun when we went up to Tagaytay a couple of months back for my Mom's birthday. I am excited to be awake on normal hours and actually be awake while it's daytime, which is something I can hardly do lately. I guess, my body clock has shifted to sleeping during the day and being awake at night that even on my rest days, I live my days like its a normal working day, or night. Or maybe, I'm just having too much stress at work. I hate it that we don't seem to have a week where not one person calls in sick or something. I'm just so stressed out I get cranky, esp to the people I should never be cranky at. Hehehe. Good thing they are good natured people who understand just how stressful our work can be. So for this week, I am following an advice, "make the most out of your weekend and come back without anger". Hahaha.

We are going to have a Starbucks nearby soon! I was sssoooooo happy to see the "Brewing Soon" banner in an establishment about 5-10 minutes away from home. It's very exciting because we thought Starbucks would never invest in a branch around our area because its too residential and there are more schools nearby than offices with people who can afford coffee. But I guess, Starbucks is living up to its supposedly original image that they want Starbucks to be a place where families and friends can go to for relaxation, bonding and all other stuff they can do over cups of coffee. And this is exactly what I envsion myself to do, on my rest days, when I'm too lonely at home, I'd be there, reading a book while having my coffee. And I swear, I will drive now so I can bring myself to Starbucks Congressional on my own. Ganda ng motivation ko noh? :P

Ok, I'm off to bed, then to Laguna in a couple more hours. :)

... where I've been...No, I haven't really moved to a new blog provider, if you think that my missing photos are signs. I'm just really busy with work and still don't have my writing inspiration back. But, I have been writing some thoughts elsewhere, whenever it strikes me, such as here, and here. This is only because Blogger is not allowed at work. That is why I can't work on the photos either. That's all folks! :)

I have been bugging my parents for the longest time for us to have a Family Day aka Picnic Day at the La Mesa Eco Park in East Fairview, Quezon City. Since I moved to the GY shift, I found myself having time for actual newspaper reading every morning when I arrive home from work. And I think it was through one of those news articles that I came across reading about the said park. I wanted to check it out because it sounds sooo near and it sounds nice too.

So I planned for us to go there Friday, November 4, since it's a holiday and my rest day as well so we are all free. Plus, I wanted it to serve as my make-up day for having to work during the All Saints' Day holidays. But come Thursday night, my Dad said that he has to work the following day, thus all our plans for the picnic became useless. I felt kinda sad but told myself I can just spend the day in a different way since Dad had to work. Me and my sibs even went out late Thursday evening (around 11pm) to grab coffee and we also drove around Manila until 1am. I felt sleepy around 3am so I went to bed, but I guess my body has just been so used to sleeping during the day, I ended up sleeping at 6am, also becoz my sis Bonzai kept on chatting me up.

Around 9:30am, my Mom woke us up and told us Dad's work got cancelled at the last minute and asked if we still wanted to push through with going to the Park that day. Hell yeah! So with 3-hours worth of shut-eye, we left home around 10am with a blanket and a cooler in our compartment. While we were dressing up, my Mom called my cousins who live nearby and asked if they wanted to come, so our first stop was at their house where we picked up Ate Ria, Dimple and our niece Chelly, and also my Tito June. We then stopped by Ever Commonwealth to buy lunch, snacks, drinks and pizza to bring to the park.

I thought that going there would be quite a long drive, I know it sounded near, but it's the La Mesa Dam, how can it be so near the city. But no, a good 20 mins after leaving Ever, we were already there. It was so easy to find because there were very helpful road signs on how to go there. In a way, the La Mesa Dam kinda reminded me of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, only it was way smaller, I can't imagine how it supplies water to the whole of Metro Manila, with so many people living in the city. It was funny that they didn't allow picture/video taking in the dam itself, and when I asked my Dad why, he said it was to prevent bombs to be planted. Okay.

We then reached the parking lot and it was funny coz we thought that the park itself was just straight ahead. It's a good thing some of the workers stopped us and asked where we were going and when we said to the park, they told us we are already way passed it. But since we were already in that area, they told us to check out the nearby boating area, which is a real beauty if you ask me, with the water so clear and all. It was green too, meaning it's very deep. I wanted to try boating but when I saw that it was a paddle-your-own boat kinda thing, with no life jackets, I decided against it. So we then trotted to the park itself. The park charges 40bux per person as entrance fee, good until 6pm. In the park there are tables that is a free-for-all kinda thing, just go where it's free and that's where you can stay for the rest of the day. We arrived there late so we were a bit worried there won't be any more tables left, and also because much to our surprise, there were quite a lot of people. Our blanket deemed useless because it rained a bit before we could get there. Yes, it always has to rain when I'm out. But luckily, we found an empty table and had our lunch right away.

The park itself is not that spectacular, but if you consider the fact that you're still in QC with all those greens surrounding you, it's not so bad after all. It still needs a lot of development but it looks promising nonetheless. My Tito June commented that it kinda feels like being in Camp John Hay in Baguio only it's not cold. I walked around with my Dad after lunch and we toured the orchidarium which has lots of orchid plants but none are in bloom. We stayed there until 4pm maybe, just ate and chit-chatted and took pictures and bought souvenirs before leaving.

Before heading home, we stopped by UP and ate fishballs, and I was so glad to have found the fishball stand we used to frequent when I was still in college. They have the best fishball sauce in the whole UP, I swear! I was sooo sleepy after that I slept from 6pm to 8am the following day, 14 hours straight!

I enjoyed my weekend, thank you Lord.

I know, this is a real late update, but you will understand why later. Just wanted to document here that after such a long time, my family went on a roadtrip to Tagaytay last Saturday, to celebrate my brother Butzy and my mom's birthdays.

We spent the day there in a leisurely pace, woke up quite late too but reached the place just in time for lunch. I originally made reservations for Sonya's Garden but when I told my family that we would be eating an all-organic meal, Dad opted go eat some place else because he said he wants to eat bulalo. So we ended up eating at Josephine's, which worked to my advantage because meal was sumptuous, and a lot cheaper had we eaten at Sonya's. After lunch we drove around some more, went to People's Park in the Sky, bought halo-halo in a box in Good Shepherd's convent among many other things (yes, it's pretty much the same as the one in Bagiuo), then we bought plants coz I fell in love with these plants that have small blue flowers growing in clusters, which we later learned are called "milflores" or million flowers. After that, we checked out this coffee shop that I read about online, called the Bag of Beans. I noticed that in Tagaytay, they like converting gardens with greenhouses into restaurants or coffee shops, as this is the setting of the cafe. We originally went inside the shop where you can buy coffee and their other pastries, and found it insanely small that I couldn't help but ask "is this it?". Hehehe. Then they showed us the path that goes down to the garden and voila, there was the coffeeshop. I was uber perky after that merienda because of course, I drank their special blend brewed coffee, and I must say it helped drown the headache I was nursing even before lunch started. It was late in the afternoon by then so after buying flowers and fruits, we headed back home. About 30 minutes before reaching home, my little sister Bonzai got sick. She started throwing up and we all think it's because of that drink she had, called the Frozen Hot Choco. Pangalan pa lang dubious na. Hehe. She got better the following day 'though so all's well that ends well. Im glad I got to spend that day with my family in that way, before I go back to the GY shift.

Back to Working Nights

So I was back to working nights last Sunday, October 2. My first night was quite a breeze, got to go home early even. But wow, come Monday night, we were just swamped! Such a bummer. Some of us in the team got promoted already, and two of them were supposed to be in our shift. So we already lack two, and we feel its such negative effect every night. We have one new person coming in though, but we still lack one more. In a way I am thankful that my rest days are weekdays, because it's hella busy when its a normal day, or night in our case. Hay. I totally hate it.

So far, my sleep is ok, although I tend to wake up every couple of hours, but I still fall back to slumber more often that not so it's ok. I'm still able to complete the 8 hrs of sleep I need to last the night but I kinda feel sick, and I would like to think it's only because I'm still adjusting. Come my restdays last Tuesday and Wednesday, my mood has gone haywire, because my body clock was all messed up. Didn't know when should I be sleeping and when I shouldn't. Badtrip.

Moving Out Updates

Well I am still living at home, I still travel almost an hour to work and I'm still spending way too much on my cab fares. Hopefully though, we will move in this month, as long as things fall into their right places. Still keeping my fingers crossed.

I Miss my Crush

Haha! Wala lang, just wanted to add it here coz I haven't seen him for the longest time. It's so baffling that we work in the same building, and even work in some common hours and we don't bump into each other at the least. Hay. Frustrating.

One More Frustration

I can't seem to write. Something is wrong. On my idle moments I still have thoughts of what I should write about, thoughts that I wanna write about, but when I face the computer, I can't write anything. Bakit kaya.

Last night, I went to visit my cousin's house and look at Chelly my baby who has grown fatter after about 10 days. My Ate Ria also gladly told me that one of our younger cousins, Abu, won in a Math Quiz Bee.

When I heard the news, I thought she was just joking. I then played with Chelly for 10 minutes more then asked again, "hindi nga? nanalo si Abu?!"

Abu is our 4-year old cousin who was born when he was only 7 months old in his mom's womb. My aunt almost died during that delivery. He was a pahabol Millenium Baby, born December 2000 when he was expected by the whole family two months later.

They say, that if a baby is not able to complete the whole 9 months of pregnancy in the womb, it's either he/she is born with defects, be it physical or mental. Or, its the other extreme end of the rope, meaning, the child will be super smart. And I seriously think Abu was one of the latter. His real name is Joash Aleck, with me picking the Aleck part, from the expression "smart aleck". I know that phrase is kinda negative sounding, but I wanted to give its definition a new twist. For some weird reason though, Abu has lived up to his name, he is literally a smart aleck, even at a young age of 4.

Why do I say that? Well, for starters, Abu never baby talked. I never heard him say a bulol word in his life. It was like he woke up one day and he can talk, straight, like a 7 year old kid. He's a bit of a spoiled brat too, and when he doesnt get what he wants, you can expect to hear something really creative from him. Like there was this one time when my grandparents had a so-called fight, and my Lola jokingly told Abu that my Lolo is asking her to leave the house and go back to their old house. To which Abu responded to by walking up to our Lolo with arms folded asking "bakit mo pinapalayas si Nanay? alam mo na ngang luma na ang bahay nila dun!". Imagine a 4-year old saying that to a 76-yr old man. Unbelievable. Moreso, to end the story off, when they happened to pass by that "old house" of my Lola, and my Tita (Abu's mom) pointed it out to him, as soon as they reached home he immediately ran to my Lola and said "Nanay (we call our Lola, Nanay), eh pwede pa naman pala yung bahay niyo eh!"

All these and more, we talked his mom into entering him in school a bit earlier than expected. So at 3 yrs old, Abu is already in Nursery school (like me!). Of course, him being the youngest and smallest in the class, he didn't necessarily take school seriously yet. But a year after, now that he's in Kindergarten I, Abu seems to be stepping up, starting with being the 11th in his class. Not much of an achievement right, but we were told he is particularly good in Math, thus the Quiz Bee.

According to my aunt, when she was trying to prepare Abu for that contest, Abu won't cooperate so it was such a surprise that the little boy won. My sister Bonzai talked to her on the phone and he proudly told her he won, but with a mistake in the Easy round. Then my sister asked him "champion ka ba?", to which he immediately retorted back "hindi! WINNER ako! WINNER!" Hahaha. Smart aleck talaga.