The reason why my neighbor in Unit D left after 19 years is because of termites. She said she wouldn’t have moved if not for the termites; she liked the location and it was convenient. However, my wayward landlady doesn’t maintain her rentals well. She always cheats her way into “repairs” and other landlordy duties.

So after my former neighbor left, it seems like the termites shifted to my closet that is just against the wall I share with Unit D.

I collected these Sweet Dreams pocketbooks that have been out of print for decades by scouring second-hand bookshops. I intended to pass these down to my girls because these are the type of books that high school girls read. If not for these books, I wouldn’t have been a writer today. Seriously. I became a voracious reader because of these pocketbooks.

And now the termites ate most of them 😭 They’re very hard to find now. I want my girls to start their romance book journey with these since the kind of young adult fiction I encounter these days encourage unhealthy relationships and wrong self-esteem lessons. Case in point: Twilight series. 🤮 Aside from the bad writing, the premise was all wrong and the dynamics—it was really unhealthy. I barely got through book 1. I read it out of curiosity because a lot of girls got hooked on it at the time Book 1 came out. But in the end I trashed it. It was pure garbage.

So now I have to search far and wide again to rebuild my Sweet Dreams collection and guide my girls with the choice of reading materials. They already graduated from Percy Jackson and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series so I think they’re ready for this. They refused the classics like Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. It’s ok, I’m patient. They will get there.

While I mourned the demise of my Sweet Dreams collection, I packed my other books like the fantasy ones, business books, journalism books and everything else in between.

I still have to pack my latest acquisitions that are on my wall shelves in my room. So far I have carted off four boxes to my car. I still have two more here in my room 🤭 Forgive me for being such a bookworm.

My dream of having a home library may no longer happen but at least I have enough cupboards to store them.

And if I still run out of bookshelves, I can always install over-the-door shelves. Art and books are going to compete for wall space in my house.

I had to cook all the food I had been harboring in my fridge within the next 10 days so when I defrost it, I won’t have to worry about which food items I must keep in a cooler while being transported. One of the best ways to empty your fridge is cooking hotpot.

And yes, my dining table looks different now. I planed it manually to remove the bumps. I just bought a manual planer from Ace Hardware and did it as I remembered how my father did wood planing. Then I applied “oak” wallpaper that I bought from Lazada.

I also bought a surface protector from Lazada since my dining table gets a lot of use and abuse. It now matches my cabinets.

So after lunch, my girls and I went to a craft store/hobby center in Marikina where they sell high-quality yarns of all kinds.

They bought yarns that Twin I will use to knit and Twin A to crochet to make scarves and beanies for my older sister. She travels to more temperate zones than I do. This will occupy my kids for four months since 7th Grade in their new school won’t start until August.

Marikina is nice in some parts, not the downtown though, which has super narrow roads—a characteristic of old towns.

After this, we went straight to Ikea to buy new cutlery, dinner and kitchenware, Trones shoe cabinet (to be drilled outside my front door), a glass side table, and art/photo frames. I will bring all these to our tiny house on Tuesday where I will work the whole day.

I plan to bring books and other small items. I must also buy a huge bottle of liquid floor polisher and wood furniture polisher (for my bedroom floor) because I had hired my mom’s cleaner to prep my place before we move in on the 16th.

I had put some paintings in frames that I will give away to my TV reporter friend who really liked the flowers and the sunset in UP Diliman. A housewarming gift since they have just renovated their condo. I have the original photo of the sunset so recreating the painting won’t be a problem.

This last one is tough. My mom didn’t like it but my manager did. She was torn between this and the forest painting but in the end she took the latter. My APAC boss got the freehand yellow flowers.

Tomorrow I must finish the curtains for the girls’ bedroom because I plan to have the curtains up when we move in.

I don’t know what’s with Metro Pacific but they sent me this tub of artisanal ice cream from Carmen’s Best with this flavor: HE’S NOT WORTH IT!

Hahaha! These people know me well to give me this witty joke. 🤣 I was in my house in the south when this arrived in my apartment yesterday. Twin A said they’re going to save this particular tub for me because it was meant for me. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I haven’t touched it yet but will soon because for some strange reason memories came flooding back. Old feelings of hurt and anger came surfacing again.

Maybe because my co-worker video-called me last night and we talked for an hour, which caused her to be late for a townhall meeting of their division scheduled at 11:30 pm. She hasn’t quit that f*cker guy of hers, who is just using her while he keeps a long-distance relationship with somebody who may arrive in HK by October. By then my friend will be ditched.

I told her to stop justifying him. She doesn’t deserve to be a gap filler.

I remember being in the same position, a stop-gap measure until someone better comes along. I loved that somebody with my whole being, someone who hasn’t even been mine. He was still hung up on the ex, lying his way throughout the entire time he was with me. I wasn’t a part of his life, I was kept in the shadows. I was nobody. I wasn’t important.

And yet I justified him. Everything about him, his behavior, his existence. Even if I was nothing to him.

Yes, the ice cream was right. He is not worth it.

My small couches fit perfectly. The size of my current TV is just right.

I’m so happy that it looks like a home, not just an empty shell of a house.

I later brought the lighter couch to my room because the fan is there and I need to be nearer my modem-router. After work, I brought it back to the TV area because I want my empty house to look nicer in my absence.

Meanwhile, my stairs need to be filled with cement and then tiled (with outdoor, brick-like tiles). Tomorrow the railings will be painted metallic black.

My laundry area will be finished by the end of the month. When we move in by the 16th, I hope the trusses or the roof will be up by then.

When I sent these photos to my sis in law, she said she felt teary-eyed because she’s happy for me, for what I have achieved so far with my house, with my career, and with my girls.

If she only knew the kind of hell I’ve been through the past three years, she would be crying right now.

I’m proud of myself, too. 😭 I’ve come so far.

I’m good at Tetris, which helped me improve my abstract reasoning skills—well for tests anyway.

What I’m trying to say is, I Tetrised my way into fitting two Ikea love seats in my car.

I will be delivering my own couches to my tiny house tomorrow to free up space in my apartment. Plus my cats had been leaving their marks on my brand new, unabused couches.

I’m going to have slipcovers made for these. Hmm 🤔 jewel tone maybe? Or pastels? Pastels are more forgiving of cat hair.

Next week, I will start moving my books, seldom used kitchenware/dinnerware, and my handbag collection. I’m embarassed to say that as a true-blue bag hag, I’ve added another one to my collection before flying out of Singapore. 😶‍🌫️ Bought two pairs of flats, too, but those were cheap as they were on sale.

I’m fearful and excited of this move. Being within arm’s-length of everything would change my life in terms of running errands. My undergrad college also has invited me to be a part-time faculty member. I initially said I can’t do it given that I’m always out of the country but a colleague in the academe said I should still consider since we can work things out.

But I hate checking papers. 🤬

I’m leaning towards not accepting. Unless they offer me a compelling compensation, I don’t think any concession would erase my distaste for checking papers.

Before I left for Singapore, I pulled the trigger and bought the Ikea love seats (both in grey) that had been in my cart for a long time. Glostad is still on regular price but Hemlingby was 50% off. Both were delivered yesterday and the assemblers came after. I paid for the assembly because I don’t want to spend 7 hours again building furniture when I am already running out of time.

Now my problem is I need to transport this immediately to my house via my car (with the second row passenger seats pushed back and third row seats pulled up) on Thursday because it’s too crowded in my apartment right now.

And finally, I found the perfect shoehorn for only PHP 150 at Ikea.

I was supposed to book a delivery truck for May 16 today but I was so busy until 7 pm because I was the lone editor for Asia Pacific today. 🤦‍♀️ I was so dizzy due to lack of sleep and for editing too many stories today.

Speaking of lack of sleep, I had hand-carried some baked goods from Yamazaki Bakery from Singapore yesterday for my girls. Because they love BreadTalk, they may like Yamazaki, which is not available here in the Philippines. They demolished it this morning and clearly I didn’t bring enough. Next time I will bring more Yamazaki products and make sure that I will bring a bigger hand-carry bag.

---

Among the other concerts that I think I should watch in the coming months–aside from Alanis Morisette–is Mr. Big, which is having its farewell tour. It’s kinda weird that I have this hair metal band in my list of “must-see” acts but I had two of their albums in my collection when I was younger. They’re so underrated! You have Billy Sheehan, voted as one of the best bassists of all time, and Paul Gilbert, voted as one of the best shredders out there. The combination of this duo is *chef’s kiss* Add to that Pat Torpey (RIP, man), whose impeccable drumming made me sit up and listen carefully to their song Take Cover. Then there’s Eric Martin—only a few can have his range, like Steve Perry. The first song that captured me was Green Tinted Sixties Mind, not the very radio-friendly To Be With You.

Listen to this acoustic version of Take Cover, you will hear how brilliant Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert are here. The intro and instrumental parts of the song were pure ear candy ❤️

I fell in love with Promise Her The Moon when I was in high school. This version of that song made me emotional tonight in the sense I wish there was someone singing to me this song right now. One of the rare moments of weakness, a chink in my armor.

“She’s too good to be forgotten
Too good to be true
Before my world is torn apart
I’ll promise her the moon
I’ll promise her the moon”