So this is how it is to be a passenger princess in my own car. I’m getting dizzy. No wonder my kids are complaining that they get dizzy at times.

The past few days were hectic. I had our weekly Monday call while I was in my car because I was on the way to an interview. Tue and Wednesday is about chasing people. I only got a breather yesterday but majority of the time I was just taking naps in between editing and writing because I was exhausted.

Perimenopause sucks. I easily run out of energy and everything aches.

I am accompanying my mom to her pulmonologist (near PGH) and cardiologist (at Asian Hospital) so she can get clearance for her hernia surgery. My mom is 76 years old and she’s already slow and has a terrible sense of direction, so she needs a chaperone for doctor visits.

I edit and write stories while waiting for our turn at the doctors’ clinics so I don’t have to waste a PTO for chaperone jobs.

I just realized that I need flexibility with my schedule because doctor visits will become more frequent as my mom gets older. My older sister and I take turns in taking care of her needs; my younger sister is useless.

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I didn’t know how exhausted I was until I woke up at 10:30 am today. My body was compensating for the four-hour-sleep-a-day work-week I just had.

Last night I had a 5-hr dinner with two friends near T. Morato in QC. I brought M a 250g slab of mozzarella cheese made from carabao’s milk, which is one of the specialties of my hometown.

I asked M if I should go for the Manila bureau chief position of a rival newswire. I was told by Fairygaymother K that position was vacated by MS, who moved up to a more regional role.

M told me that he would love that for me BUT my life as I know it would never be the same. That job is too life-consuming. Would I want that for myself when I have kids and I live outside of Metro Manila, he asked.

I know it would be like that because fairygaymother K doesn’t want the position that’s why he was passing it on to me.

I’m not sure… I quit being a bureau chief exactly last year because I was too stressed so joining this rival may not be the wisest thing.

I’ll think about it.

I’ve been driving to and from Manila everyday since Tuesday and my mistake was I didn’t book a hotel stay so I could at least have a good night’s sleep. Because I needed to attend morning panel discussions, I had to wake up early everyday despite coming home late the previous day.

Why didn’t I book a room? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ah because I wanted to bring home pasalubong to my kids.

Was all the driving worth it? Yes. On Tuesday I had back to back expos in different venues. The first one was great because I reconnected with the CEO whom I’ve been trying to locate for quite a while. My last interview with her was 10 years ago.

I also booked another interview but the CEO, who came from the land of bubblegum pop, took a lot of convincing from his Philippine distributor to grant me the interview. Because 1) he couldn’t speak English and 2) he couldn’t see the benefit of doing the interview. The problem with people from the land of bubblegum pop is that they’re stuck in a bubble. He needs this interview because he has NASDAQ ambitions. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Nobody in the US knows his company or his products. It’s not enough to carry his country’s flag and just call it a day. He needs to convince investors that he can deliver growth despite serving only 52 million people.

The second expo yielded me two stories and some for follow up. Some people I met were nice and one invited me to a monthly club meeting on Monday to meet more industry insiders. However, I have an interview on that same day so I won’t be able to make it to the number coding window.

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At 6 am last Monday, I barfed while I was showering. My chin spent an inordinate time on my toilet seat as I tried to empty my stomach of acids. It was so painful that I fell into a fetal position on the bathroom floor while the shower drowned my cries — my hyperacidity was acting up again. Then diarrhea came. And never left.

The entire Monday was like that. I got a terrible headache and got so weak (probably got dehydrated) that I got confined to my bed. My plan to drive to Ortigas to attend the first day of a 4-day conference was scratched out from my calendar.

And yet I had to edit a story because we were very short of editors this past week. The bureau chiefs were out of town for the annual meet and this is the first time that I wasn’t included. It was fine by me since I no longer want that job and the stress.

Anyway, my soul was floating and I was in and out of consciousness, so I don’t know how I managed to get the job done. I slept in between. It was so terrible and I prayed for healing so I can work the next day. I needed to get stories because I was on leave the previous week.

Tuesday was better and I risked going to Ortigas even though my head was still swimming a bit. On the sidelines of that conference, I got to interview one guy from the land of bubblegum pop. But he was so rude!!! Had I not been desperate for stories, I wouldn’t have tolerated his rudeness. 🤬

Another interview with a company founder from Malaysia made up for that earlier rude interview.

Wednesday was a bit better. However, I didn’t have a chance to have lunch or any snacks because I was busy chasing people, attending panel discussions, or editing. Editing jobs were piling up.

I was so busy that I only got to eat at around 7 pm. I got to my car, had a call with a source, and I was only able to drive out of the parking lot at close to 9 pm.

I was sick and oh so tired.

I decided to skip the last day of the conference and just write some stories at home and edit for a bit.

One of my bffs dropped by at home to have lunch with me since she has to tell me her uprooting plans. She and her kids will be leaving for Bangkok by the end of the month for her post doc work. Her research institute has a program with her uni in Europe and a uni in Thailand so she will be shuttling between Bangkok and our uni hometown for three years. She is also assisting her advisor in advising a PhD candidate in Thailand.

So for today, we went to Caliraya to give her a breather. We had lunch in Pagsanjan and went to Lake Caliraya to have coffee.

But we checked out Kaliraya Surf Kamp first to see if it’s still worth camping there again after five years since we first pitched our tent there.

To give my bff’s kids a treat, we rented a boat to go around the lake.

There are more camping sites now around the lake than resorts. Lagos del Sol closed down during the pandemic and our boatman told us it is already sold to a new owner.

After the hour-long boat ride, we drove down to have that long-delayed coffee break.

With this view.

Today is my last day of freedom because I’m going back to work tomorrow. 😭

Twin A and I went to the community weekend market so I can avoid cooking today. Our cleaning lady returned yesterday so I’m free of laundry and kitchen and bathroom scrubbing but I need to freshen up my room. I need to eradicate the unnecessary clutter on my work table.

I also must start sewing the new curtains.

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I finished four panels. Two for the living area and two for my bedroom.

And tomorrow, I go back to work 😭

There were a couple of Bencabs there, including his sketches. When we were in Baguio in 2017, we went to Bencab’s art museum to see his collection: he has some national artists like Arturo Luz and some newer artists.

There are Cesar Legaspi that I liked, better than the ones in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) collection.

And this is the first time I saw HR Ocampo paintings that aren’t just blobs of color on a canvas. The collection in BSP/PICC (and also I think with BDO) are the common HR Ocampo ones.

I don’t understand Jose Joya but sometimes he evokes some emotions in me. His paintings at the National Museum are large, but the one in PICC is the biggest Joya I saw.

I sometimes see some Federico Alcuaz paintings but they don’t move me as much aw Ang Kiukok does even though I don’t understand him.

Some sculptures that caught my eye. Like this Abdulmari Imao. He often depicts Mindanao/Maranao art like the sarimanok.i can’t remember now where I usually see his sculptures but when I see one, I already know that it’s an Abdulmari Imao.

There is a gallery dedicated to Guillermo Tolentino, the sculptor who made the UP Oblation.

They are currently running the Philippine Art Deco, which is a significant period in the country. My kids asked why I keep on taking pictures of old buildings in Escolta and around the Binondo-Intramuros area. I told them, there are only a few Art Deco buildings left because most of them were destroyed during WW2 or destroyed by the commercial interests. The local government didn’t give a fuck about preserving such sites.

It was the time of vaudeville, flapper girls, and the rise of Philippine cinema.

I didn’t take many photos of the furniture and clothes of the Art Deco era because… I don’t know. Because I still see them around??? They remind me of my grandmas.

Our visit to the Fine Arts Museum in 2018 was hazy so I don’t remember the foyer to be like this.

And I don’t remember the Senate Hall to be like this.

And definitely, there was no coffee shop there on the 4th floor when we visited 8 years ago.

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From Fine Arts Building, we took the tricycle going to Divisoria.

We went to buy wholesale garments and some textiles for table cloth, curtains, and pillow cases. Because I still have this grand illusion that I have time to sew. 🤪

From Divisoria we took the tricycle again back to Red Planet, drove out of their parking space, and went straight to Mall of Asia, about 35 mins away, to finish our back-to-school shopping.

Got back home at around 10 pm. I was so exhausted that I was only able to enroll my kids for the next school year at around 2:30 pm the following day (yesterday).

Still exhausted today that I wasn’t able to come with my sister and mom to my uncle’s funeral this morning.

Tired.