Category Archives: personal

On the second day

Posted on by

This year’s theme is self-love.

Last year was just brutal and I couldn’t define what it was but it was an uphill battle. Thank God for supportive friends, some of whom had to literally drag me out of the house to join the living.

So as part of this year’s theme, I’m celebrating the things that made me who I am.

My gallery wall. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My photos and my watercolors. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
When I was in high school I experimented with a Chinese paint brush. My control was dismal but at least I tried. Photo and art by CallMeCreation.com

I ran out of picture frames so I guess I would have to order online from Ikea.ph instead of going there again. I have a lot of photos I can print and hang. Or I can paint again with watercolors. But I’m super rusty. It has been 25 years since I have picked up a watercolor brush. I’m not good but at least I’m enjoying it. I’m not even aiming to have an exhibit like my sister but this is just something for my own home. Some of the better watercolors I did in high school were given away to classmates.

I’ll take photography seriously again, just like when I was in college. I didn’t invest in DSLRs because I know how time-consuming photography is as a hobby to justify the expensive equipment. And time is something I didn’t have for decades. For now I’ll use what I have–my cellphone and my Fujifilm XQ1–until I can say that I can now commit time before I step up and buy myself a mirrorless Fujifilm, which I find to be the best when it comes to low-light photography. I’ve worked with Canons, I had a Nikon, and two Olympus cameras but I find Fuji to be the best when it comes to color rendering and low light scenes. I have yet to try a Lumix. I’ve read about Hasselblads when I was still fooling around with films because those are the go-to cameras for medium formats–for book covers and posters. But those things are out of reach of the general public, especially now in digital. I’ve only seen a Hasselblad in a studio for portrait photography.

I lost all my Lomography cameras 😔 I had a Holga and I still had a black abd white film stuck in there when I left it in the old house. All that is left of my Lomo stuff is the 135 film converter. 😕

Rose tea to stave off colds. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’ve been imbibing copious amounts of tea as I’ve been feeling under the weather. I might have contracted the girls’ colds so I took 500 mg of vitamin C, Neozep every 8 hrs, and a lot of bed rest. I slept early last night and slept some more after lunch. So far it has worked but I’m refraining from going out because this may turn out to be the dreaded omicron variant. It can’t hurt to be paranoid; look at what happened last year when I thought what the girls had was just an ordinary flu turned out to be Covid that knocked me down.

There is this Gwyneth Chua from US who broke her quarantine stay to party in Poblacion, Makati. She was positive for Covid and has infected 15 people whom she had dinner with or partied with. Stupid, stupid privileged asshole. And Twitter has the receipts. As it turns out, she studies at De La Salle University and Lasallians are now disowning her.

https://manilastandard.net/news/314026121/woman-cuts-quarantine-to-party-15-test-positive.html

Now, we’re back to a higher restriction due to tripling of cases in the last three days. Another lockdown to stem another Covid wave is not far behind. 😩

Here’s to a better year

Posted on by
Our neighbor’s fireworks on the street. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My girls’ sparklers’ dying out. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Fireworks in our village. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Here’s to a healthier 2022. More camping trips. Hopefully we would have roadtrips and diving trips.

Less stress from work. Better working conditions for us.

No more Covid please!

Please no Bong Bong Marcos presidency!!!

More personal growth for me and the kids. More love for family and friends.

I hope I hurt less. I hope I no longer hurt. Period. I hope I become more numb so I can finally move on.

But I should be kinder to myself because it’s not easy to emerge from that kind of heartbreak when you have given your love unconditionally like that. This is not a race. I should give myself time to heal better. As my shrink said, I should heal in a proper way so I won’t have another relapse and get into a cruel cycle.

2020 is horrible in every possible way. 2021 is like walking through fire barefoot. I hope for 2022 I come out stronger than steel forged by fire of the past 2 years.

Goodbye, Philippines!

Posted on by

If Marcos Jr wins, it will be worse than having Duterte for the second time. OMG 😱

We need to reach out to the masses. I want to render my services for free as a communication strategist for Team Robredo. They have no unifying theme. 🤦🏻‍♀️ The campaign is organic, yes, but it lacks cohesiveness as a result. The messaging is undefined. The actionable message is lacking, there is no aspirational thrust.

We need to do something!!!

I had been refraining from writing anything political during the Christmas break because I don’t want to be stressed out. So I’ve been writing about inane stuff to take my mind off stressors like the thing above 🤦🏻‍♀️

So back to inconsequential stuff, I picked up my glasses and contacts in Cubao, then went to Tiendesitas to buy cat supplies. Because I’m still a bit apprehensive about dining out indoors, I still wear two masks (surgical and cloth) and sunglasses in lieu of face shield. Because I still haven’t had my booster shot yet. I’ve been trying to book online but there’s no schedule yet for A3 people for QC. After experiencing Covid, I’m more adamant at having the vax ASAP.

My sister said I look like somebody who’s hiding from the paparazzi. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I then jumped to Makati to get myself another pair of shoes before I pick up the girls from the airport at around 5 pm.

Wrong move. There were a lot of people!!! Like there’s no more pandemic and omicron is just another Greek letter that doesn’t mean anything. It gave me some heebie-jeebies. Because of this, I wasn’t able to find that pair of shoes I need because it seems like face-to-face press conferences and meetings will be more frequent next year and I don’t have enough good shoes for such occasions.

I think I would have to buy online and grin and bear it if the pair of shoes turns out to be painful to wear. 😬

On minimalism

Posted on by

I’ve always admired people who are able to live minimally, like the girl here in this video. I tried picturing myself as a minimalist but couldn’t. Although I have less stuff than other people I know (i.e. the girls’ dad and my ex-in laws), I still need closets and cupboards to store them.

The reason why I am thinking about minimalism is because I am planning in my head the closets I will have to have my contractor make in my flat. My place will be small so my closets should not take up precious floor space…

I clearly have too much stuff.

So I started purging yesterday. I put my old shoes in shoe boxes and put them outside of our gate this afternoon. I also put the rubber slippers that my girls have outgrown in a plastic bag along with the shoe boxes. They disappeared the next moment I went out of our gate to run errands. Then I culled clothes that I haven’t worn in more than 3 years or clothes that I’m no longer interested in wearing and chucked them in a paper bag for donation.

I have adopted Steve Jobs’ style of having a monochromatic wardrobe to take out the complexity of choosing what to wear for the day. People barely remember what I wear anyway and they only take note of the accessories I have to dress up my plain dark clothes. Jewelry take up just a tiny space. However, my bags do take up room. I can’t give them up yet since a lot of them are expensive (I won’t give up my Michael Kors, Kate Spade, and Coach bags. Nope.) I think I may have to have a special cupboard made to store them…

Come to think of it, I have a lot of bags but less than 10 pairs of shoes.

When the girls come back (I’ll pick them up at the airport tomorrow), we will have a de-cluttering session before we usher in the new year. It’s just going to be 1.5 years before we move again and I will be hauling boxes upon boxes of stuff. And I will be spending 6 months unboxing them, just like when we moved here in this apartment. The last stuff I was able to unbox and organize are my books. Teehee!

Meanwhile, the girl’s apartment in the video above also gave me an idea how I can have an efficient pied-à-terre in Makati after I’m finished with my flat in my hometown and buying a new car. A studio will be enough, which I can AirBnB if I’m not there.

Worsening nearsightedness

Posted on by

It has been a while since I wore my contact lenses because the one on my left eye doesn’t seem to stick. Or if I manage to put the contact lens on my eye, my vision remains blurred so it’s hard to drive. I thought my astigmatism worsened.

Well, it’s worse than I thought. My nearsightedness jumped from – 2.75 and -3.75 to -4.00 and -4.25 with astigmatism remaining at 100. This is just in a span of 6 months 🤦🏻‍♀️. No wonder I’m having these random headaches. This means I’m legally blind.

I had to change both of my toric contact lenses and eyeglasses again. This time I got a new frame because I think my half-rimmed eyeglasses wouldn’t be able to hold my thickening lenses anymore, even if I am already using the ultra thin ones. I got myself an Ann Taylor catseye frame that was on sale. If I were to remain a thick-lensed, four-eyed monster, might as well be a stylish four-eyed monster. I’ll claim all these by Wednesday.

It was an expensive trip to the optometrist today. 🙄

New running shoes to motivate me. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I took advantage of the sale in stores today at Gateway Mall where I had my contacts and eye glasses made. I bought myself a pair of New Balance running shoes that were on sale to motivate me to walk again at the UP academic oval. My old Fila are still intact but the soles are already too thin that they hurt my feet. Anyway, they’ve been in service since April 2018 so I’ve already maxed out its utility.

Once I get fit again, I’ll proceed to buy hiking shoes. I want to go to Masungi Georeserve to restart since I got so out of shape after Covid. I’ll video document it for my YT channel and for our KG talk show.

Web-style viewing platform at Masungi Georeserve.

My cats have missed me after leaving them on their own for more than 24 hrs. Now they don’t want me out of their sight. They even watch me sleep 🤣

I woke up to this. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Merry Christmas!

Posted on by

It was just a simple affair today. Last night’s dinner was early and we just ordered from fastfood stores because we’re all lazy. We retired early. For lunch today I grilled steak for my sisters and mom, brought chardonnay but they didn’t have a wine bottle opener 🤦🏻‍♀️

Steak for my sisters. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Meanwhile, I just indulged in blueberry cream cake (there was no cheese in it) because when I come back to my apartment, I will continue with my simple diet of lazy food. Sandwich or dumplings and soup.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I left home at around 3 pm, distributed some gifts to friends, and drove back to QC. But then K messaged me if we can have a quick dinner in Makati at around 6 pm. I arrived at 5 pm and did some revenge shopping. Bought tops from Uniqlo, shoes and bag from Hush Puppies, and necklace and earrings from SM. Because why not? It’s Christmas! It has been two years since I bought shoes and clothes for myself.

I quickly changed shoes and top and put on the jewelry in a bathroom at Glorietta 5 before my dinner with K. This gay friend of mine always urged me to look decent and to work out to lose my flabs. He even brought me to his gym once to force me to exercise. He has been pushing me to lose weight for 15 years already. 🤣 However, I’m really not an indoor girl. I’m more motivated if I exercise outside.

Anyway, during dinner we talked about a lot of stuff and as usual he told me about his sexcapades in Boracay during his break. I’m not really sure if his being gay made him promiscuous (because they can’t procreate) or it’s just in his personality. Whatever. It’s funny how we can talk about work when we’re from competing news wires.

When I drove him to his condo, he told me he’s happy that I’m my perky self again, unlike the previous dinners/lunches we had this year when there was still some kind of shadow lurking behind my eyes. Especially last year when he came to the rescue and pulled me out of my apartment and treated me to a pre- new year’s eve lunch to help me verbalize what just happened i.e. the breakup. I rarely went out to dine this year and if I did, it was with him. I knew he was trying to cheer me up. So he is in the best position to judge how far I have come. He was the one to message me after the breakup to get out of my bed and take a shower and brush my teeth. He always asked me if I was able to sleep. He did it everyday for a couple of months after the breakup.

That’s how friends are. They prop you up when you’re dead until you live again.

Every girl needs a gay friend. Someone to remind her that she looks like trash so she needs to smarten up. Someone to criticize her shoes and makeup. Someone to tell her that she’s fat so she needs to exercise and nags her until she does. And someone to tell her that the world will be alright after a breakup.