Monsters

Aswang = Imee Marcos. Very apt.

I guess the Marcos trolls got their 13th month pay so they’re licking the asses of their principals, big time. The socmedia post above is so absurd that it makes me wanna barf. It’s so cheap.

Kadiri.

Imee Marcos expressing her “distrust” and saying that the senators will study “thoroughly” the Maharlika Investment Fund is a joke. They’re doing the “good cop, bad cop” drama. Only the stupid and the equally corrupt would say that the MIF is for the good of the country. OMG! It is the legalized slush fund of the Marcoses, how can you be soooo… And any investment banker that will touch this will be tainted forever…but those fuckers don’t care. UBS and Credit Suisse were the principal players in the siphoning off of billions of USD that the Marcoses’ looted for half a century.

Well, the Swiss don’t care.


Traffic jam along Katipunan Ave on a Sunday early evening. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had run errands today and finished all of them because I don’t want to go out within the 2-km radius of my home in the next few days since everywhere will be a bedlam starting tomorrow. Christmas rush, despite the economic difficulties, is very much alive.

I’m wondering if I should waste money on booking a hotel next week so I can have drinks in Makati with friends…

I kid you not, it’s easier to drive from my hometown to Makati than QC to Makati. It’s quite horrible these days.


At some point in my life, I’ve had a friend like this who thinks that everyone is into her. One friend was recently been like this and I had to smack her and said, “Girl, you have to stop thinking like that. He is just talking to you, and definitely not aiming to go to bed with you.” I think it stems from her insecurity and the need to be validated by the opposite sex.

While I was growing up, I was the total opposite of this girl. Living with a narcissist (in my case, my father) makes you feel like you are so unworthy of this narc’s love and attention. So there, all my life I thought I was ugly and unintelligent and that the only thing that was of worth was my acting talent. (At that time I haven’t decided yet if I was indeed a writer until I had one of my short stories published in a magazine). Off-stage, I felt I was nothing. I always felt bad when my friends were being courted by boys in our school while I was left on the shelf. I focused on that one aspect and kept obsessing on it.

But I totally neglected the fact that I had been turning boys’ heads from other schools and when I travelled to other places whenever I represented my school in some competition. I even received love letters from the boys whose names I didn’t bother to remember. I DON’T KNOW WHY I dismissed those. Maybe because I kept thinking it was just a one-off thing or it was a fluke. If only I had a healthy dose of self-love and confidence, I wouldn’t have focused on my lack of suitors from our high school and think I was ugly and unworthy of someone better, which would redound to me having a better self-image. This would lead to better choices of boyfriends, and eventually, partner/husband.

You know, hindsight is 2020 and what I would tell my 15-year-old self that, hey, your self-worth is more than what boys think of you.

And I deluded myself into thinking that indeed, I was unworthy and my friends were all pretty and I was the ugly duckling.

It was not true.

If only I had someone assure me of that when I was growing up…But I guess everyone was wrapped up in her own insecurities to deal with my own gigantic self-loathing and self-flagellation. My mom was not assuring because maybe she was afraid that doing so would make our heads bloated like her older sisters who got movie star good looks in their youth. We never got praises from our parents. Maybe they thought that would keep us down-to-earth but it backfired since we sisters had our own demons to carry when it comes to our individual low self-esteem.

So this is probably the reason why I was oblivious to situations when males were genuinely attracted to me. It was only now 20 years later that I learned that I was one of the campus crushes in high school and college. I thought they were just joking when they said some guys were watching some football tournaments because of the goalie (me). I remember this one time I received flowers after a stage play from a friend of my brother. I thought he was being nice and extra attentive to me because he was my bro’s friend. I stayed away because he was 6 years my senior…. That I had a suitor in college whom I rejected several times but even in med school he was still talking about me (a high school classmate who went with him to the same med school told me). My contractor now, who was a year ahead of me in high school, told me I was intimidating back then because I was barako/astig = a badass.

Soooooooooooooooo that accounted for my lack of suitors from the same school. 🤔

There are so many stories I didn’t know and were just being told to me NOW and instances that I know of but ignored, which are proof that I wasn’t what I thought I was. That I was not ugly. That I was not just a shadow across the hall. That I wasn’t just a wallflower. That I was somebody.

Last year, my mom asked me, why him (ex-husband) when there were so many others —i.e. I deserved someone so much better. I said, I didn’t know I deserved someone better. I thought he was the only one who would love me.

WRONG.

Now we go back to the video above. I was the opposite of that girl. And it was equally unhealthy.

Doubts erased

Forest next door. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had doubts last night whether or not what I’m doing, the move back to my hometown, is wise.

Then I strolled along the tree-lined sidewalk that is actually walkable, unlike the nonsense sidewalks in my QC village with dog poop, posts, other obstructions, and sloping concrete. My doubts were slowly being erased.

It also accommodates bikes. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I then took off my mask to breathe in fresh air, which is unlike the “fresh air” in UP Diliman that is still polluted by provincial standards. And felt the trees. So many trees around me.

This creek is just beyond the forest at the back of my house. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Almost car-less roads. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Blue, unpolluted skies. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The view I had when I was in high school. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I sat on the steps of the old building of my high school (they moved to a newer complex off-campus) to watch the sunset. I was thinking here, analyzing whether this is just nostalgia or is it really a good move? Then I remembered all my friends who lived in the city for a while like me, who eventually moved back here because Metro Manila is so unliveable now.

Then I remembered my kids are outside, hanging out with my sis-in-law at some coffee shop, waiting for their cousin to finish football training. They can move around on their own without me fearing for their safety.

My doubts were erased.

I will have to embrace this completely. Start loving it. It’s a new start in an old stomping ground. A new chapter in my life.

Polished granite counter and the double sink with a small strainer at the corner for the food scraps. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The custom TV bench with soft-close doors. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Sturdier than any ready-made tv benches from big box stores. Video by CallMeCreation.com

I said I needed a lot of electrical outlets. My contractor delivered. He also gave me 70cm-wide countertops, instead of the standard 60cm. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My closet now has doors. Well-made doors. It will take four grown men to carry this because this is made of solid wood, not the MDF nonsense being peddled now by big box stores, my contractor said.

I am jumping into the water, feet first. I don’t know now, I’ll just make it work.

Institutionalized corruption

Proposed by Sandro Marcos and his uncle, Martin Romualdez.

Approved by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Who is the blueprint of Najib, the central figure in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal? Najib’s wife was compared to Imelda Marcos, to give you a clue.

1MDB. OmG!

They would siphon off the retirement funds of my mom, my brother, and millions of workers who were forced to contribute to GSIS and SSS.

How dare a foreigner on my LinkedIn post say, “give it a chance.” I wanted to smack him and say, were you here when Marcos Sr destroyed the economy? Were you here when his family made the old Philippine Central Bank their personal bank account? That old central bank that the new BSP had painstakingly tried to erase to bring back credibility to the Philippine financial system? No. Then don’t say such stupid things.

It has driven me up the wall this morning. And it riles me more that opposition to this institutionalized corruption is not enough. 🤬

This economist at Natixis gets it, while my LinkedIn commenter doesn’t. 😤


I don’t know why I even bother writing this down. No one gets me anyway. No one also cares what I write about, think about, what I do…

Ah yeah. This is part of my therapy… Having conversations with myself to parse whatever is in my head to lessen anxiety.

While I was having my 2-hr massage, my brain went into a deep dive again why I was moving back to my hometown. I suddenly had doubts about its wisdom. I would be moving farther and farther from civilization. I would miss my Zennya massages. I would miss the convenience of having Grab Food and Grab car. I would miss the PHP 40 Lazada delivery fee.

My hormones are out of whack now so this may account for having cold feet very late into this stage. I’m writing another check tomorrow for my contractor. I mean hey, I would have a fully functional home by Feb, so why am I havig these thoughts?

My abdominal cramp is killing me now.

‘Tis the season for cheers and melancholy

I finally installed our parol outside. The fairy lights had been there since last year and I won’t take it down even when we move out. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was just too busy to do the usual Christmas decorating to cheer ourselves up—well, it’s mostly to cheer me up. The kids don’t care. This is the third Christmas that we haven’t set up a tree because…cats. 🐈

I’m still looking for the Christmas lights that I usually string around the balustrades. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is the last Christmas that we will be spending here in this apartment. My neighbor, the quietest neighbor I have who lives next to my unit, will be leaving sooner than us. She will be pulling out their stuff on Saturday. Her daughter will be going abroad to work while she will be moving into her sister’s house in Kamias. They stayed here for 19 years. She said she would have stayed longer (because she liked the location) if it were not for my crusty landlady’s mismanagement of the units. Her apartment (D) is full of termites. She often complained to our landlady about the disrepair of her unit but the latter doesn’t listen. Meanwhile, I don’t take shit for an answer that’s why I get things done. I use my own resources to fix things and bill her later. Oftentimes, I just don’t bother billing her because she will just complain that I’m a very expensive renter. Yada, yada, yada. 🤬 That’s why until now the roof at my cooking area still leaks.

Some people shouldn’t be landlords.

Still waiting for Lazada to deliver my 3x3m waterfall fairylights. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My mom said the next family that will get this unit will be lucky because I improved the bathroom (and it is pretty, my mom said) and will be leaving a lot of better fixtures like the higher end faucets, a big bathroom exhaust fan, and the custom wooden counter in the cooking/laundry area. And I kept refreshing the white paint and the closet paint. The only damage I have to fix is the bedroom door knob that I destroyed when the cats were locked inside my room.

This has been home for four years now—five when we leave next year. It sheltered us during the most tumultuous time in our lives. It has broken me as well. I will be leaving the bad jujus behind when I shove the last piece of my stuff into the moving truck in May. I will have a sort of fresh start as I won’t have the bad memories that I still carry in this apartment.

Speaking of Christmas and bad memories, I usually look forward to this season because it meant two-week breaks and I can read a lot of books during my off-time. But since 2020, December also reminded me of the toughest moment in my life. And I was still dealing with shit until February this year. Good thing I was still under therapy at that time so I was able to bounce back faster than I did in August. December 2020 was just trash and all the expletives that you can throw at it.

Thank God for art. I may not be good at it but it has kept me sane.

Inking. I’ll ink first before coloring, which is the opposite of what I normally do. I think I’ll use a jaune tone on the church walls. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

So December is something I look forward to because of the long break and it’s also something that I dread because some bad taste in my mouth remains. I still get triggered. But it will be all right. I have many things to occupy me so I won’t be living in my head again.

Aside from improving my sketching skills, I am also busy with my house.

Photo sent by my contractor.

My contractor said this small cabinet is not the kitchen cabinet but this is something that will go under my TV. 🤔

Hopefully, I will be busy with my new house for an entire year so I won’t have room in my life to brood.

However, the problem with writers is that we think too much. We have this propensity to perform mental acrobatics because that’s what we do for a living. I know several writers who live in their caves/writing dens (like me) and rarely come out.

George Bernard Shaw. Writingcooperative.com

Hmm…I want a writing shack like that.

The pomp and the ornate vs my simple tiny house

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Cubao. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My mom stayed with me overnight because she is attending the ordination of priests at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Cubao. One of the new priests is a family friend.

Just like anything that has something to do with the Catholic Church, the ceremony is ornate and full of pomp. And loooong. So is the church itself.

So here I am, 2 hrs into the ceremony, outside the church and sketching my way out of boredom.

Looking for better angles. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I have all the time for the details… Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
The details are testing my patience. The sun is beating down on me. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

It’s drizzling now so I’ll just finish this later. At least the entire pencil sketching is done on-site. 🤣

Where shall I bring my mom after this…


After church, we went to SM MOA so that my mom 1) can buy new underwear (her excuse to go to a mall); and go to St. Paul’s to buy her 4 volumes of 2023 prayer books. Along the way, we encountered a guitar center. Twin I is saving up for an acoustic guitar.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I thought I found the perfect guitar for her. Not too big, sounds ok and has an inlet on the side to plug it into an amplifier.

The black one looks so cool. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After ticking off everything in my mom’s checklist, we drove to my hometown.

My granite countertop. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Entire wall/s and under the counter will be installed with cabinets. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s a tiny kitchen by normal home standards but it’s bigger than my current one in my apartment. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
One of my kitchen cabinets. Better build (wood laminate) compared to Ikea’s MDF. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
No tiles yet in my bathroom but I see now the concrete niche for shampoos and soap. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is where the TV will be hung. My contractor said he will build shelves around the post to make it disappear. Good. I have too many books. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s blurry but this closet is tall. I modeled it after the Ikea Pax I designed online. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My huge bedroom window. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The welding works will be done in January so my stainless steel staircase, water reservoir tower, and fire exit platform will be made. February will just be cabinet works and finishing like painting and installation of shelves. By that time I can pull out my books from my apartment so I can put them in the shelves. That way I would know if I need to install more.

I’m excited.

It’s that time again…

… when I feel my ugliest, fattest, and dumbest. Yes, the dreaded PMS. Sometimes it’s bordering on PMDD. It’s not fun.

I only slept for three hours today. I slept at past 4 am and woke up at past 7 am and since then I have been working. I edited too many stories and wrote two.

To be continued…


Hello, mom!

Yup, mother is here.