Before everything else, my friend was happy to report that Ninja (now known as Brownie) feels at home now with her. She stopped hissing and has now claimed the bed as hers.

I hope she would be very happy in her new home, considering that she had a great kittenhood here.

I was a school bus driver yesterday, Independence Day holiday.

My kids and their friends wanted to watch Inside Out at the theaters and the SM that was easiest to get to is two towns away from here. I prepared well so I brought my art kit and checked if the SM branch had a spa.

I just ended up spending 3k on a day spa package to while away the time and it turns out my kids and their friends didn’t even get to watch the movie. 😵‍💫 They said they couldn’t buy tickets, every showing was full.

It’s really a bad idea to go to a mall on a public holiday. But what can I do? They’re teenagers!

I told my friends that this will be my life in the next five years, ferrying my teenagers and friends to hangout places because they still can’t drive. My house is already a half-way home for the friends, just like how my parents’ house had been when we were growing up.

I took it easy today, just wrote one story and that’s it. I don’t have to be a hero and be gung-ho about everything. There comes a point in a journalist’s life that she will question her passion and purpose. As shown by this website, which collects the reflections of journalists who left the industry, no journalist is happy. No it’s not an exageration.

Moiz Syed (The Intercept, ProPublica): When you work in journalism… you make a bargain with yourself. You take a pay cut in return for feeling good about the work you’re doing. … I think many of us ask ourselves whether this burden has become too heavy.” (Part of the OpenNews Exit Interview series)

Anonymous (Justine Reix for Vice speaks to four former journalists in France): “One day, I realised I wasn’t happy, and I didn’t know any journalists who were happy.”

Vanessa Ogle (local reporter in New York): “I couldn’t make my student loan payments. I held up the soles of my beat-up shoes by putting hair ties around them, though the unsecured edges still flapped when I walked. At one point, I was eligible for Medicaid.”

We’re a bunch of masochists. We all know at one point we need to get out of this industry because it drains the life out of us.

Nicole MacAdam (The Ottawa Citizen): “I had the overwhelming sense that if I stayed on that path, I’d never be able to prioritize the parts of my life that made it worth living.”