I took Gorilla to the vet for her unresolved colds and sneezing. Luckily her brother, Socks, is not dripping with mucus nor sneezing even if they sleep together.

She will be given an antibiotic since the mucus dripping from her nose is still yellow and her eyes have the same kind of discharge. She will also be given supplements so her body can beat the viral infection that caused this in the first place. So ok, the diagnosis is suspected viral infection w/ bacterial infection.

I can’t buy the 4 medicines after the clinic appointment because I need to jump into a call on Teams.

I edited until past 7 pm and had to chase The Generics Pharmacy because they close at 8 pm. My cats’ medicines are the same ones used by  humans so it was better check out TGP first then jump to Mercury if they don’t have what I need.

Ugh! I need to administer via syringe 4 kinds of medicines to Gorilla. Everyday. One of them needs to be given 3x a day. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh well, that’s what cat ladies endure just to keep these furbabies alive.

Meanwhile, their sibling, Ninja, now known as Brownie, looks healthy and lovely.

The interview left me perplexed. Either the talent acquisition (TA) specialist who interviewed me has no idea what the job is about or the job is not clearly defined yet. I have qualms about this now.

If I get to the panel interview, I will have a better understanding of what this is really. 🤔

What makes this more puzzling is that the TA told me my application in April was routed somewhere else and they only got my docs when my friend endorsed it. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, this disorganization or incompetence. I’m at a loss for words…

When she asked if I had questions, one of the things I asked was, why did they open this to outsiders and not do an internal hire considering this is a pretty senior position? She told me no one submitted internally.

That is probably a red flag.

I guess transfering companies is not yet in the cards right now. Everything sounds bizarre from this TA. Even my friend was surprised.

It just left me more confused about my current job (do I hate it? Or just my boss?) and about my future (is this still what I want to do?).

This is disturbing.

I went to the segunda mano (second-hand shop) I had been patronizing for decades and bought several pocketbooks for my daughters. One of my missions in life is to recreate the library I had when I was still a student, which included Sweet Dreams, Crosswinds, and Keepsakes young adult romances. These are out of print and hard to find. These books are well written and help in expanding one’s vocabulary—unlike the drivel Twilight series, which overused the word “chagrin” as if Stephanie Meyer just discovered the word. Those books were just garbage.

Anyway, my girls skipped the Nancy Drew phase but at least they were able to pick up Percy Jackson and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They also enjoyed Berestain Bears when they were younger. The problem now is they have so many distractions these days, so much so their book-reading was stifled. In contrast, I devoured books at 10 years old and had classmates who did the same so we swapped books. I accessed the library so I can read the children’s version of Don Quixote.

These pocketbooks allowed me to have a better command of the English language compared to a non-reader. It’s a good thing that I had a chance to be bored that I had no recourse but to read books. By 6th Grade I was already done with Louisa May Alcott’s series (Little Women, Little Men) and graduated from Nancy Drew. However, kids these days don’t get bored. It’s tragic because boredom is essential in developing creative minds.

I’m happy now that Twin I is enjoying these YA pocketbooks and hopefully she will continue to do so. She has been marking the pages that she liked so  she can come back to them. It’s just a matter of time that Twin A will start picking it up. She is still engrossed with manga but I don’t begrudge her that. At least she’s reading.

Finally, shoving books down their throats had resulted to this and I’m happy.

I’ve run out of ideas what to cook for dinner last night that I resorted to the fail-safe K-BBQ.

This photo suddenly popped up on my Facebook memories. This was taken during one of our regular trips to QCity Circle, where I let my toddlers run around to expend their energy and have a restful sleep later in the night. Here they were chasing this boy around and finally got him cornered 🤣.

This was a time I was still sleepless (only 3 hrs of sleep every night) because my babies still can’t sleep through the night and kept asking milk from me or from the bottle. I was a reporter and editor while balancing being a hands-on mom to twins (with minimal help from their father). I don’t know how I was able to survive those years. I was always exhausted and there were times I almost crashed my tiny car into one of the islands along Ayala Ave because I was already falling asleep behind the wheel.

I am now at the crossroads of my career again. While my girls no longer need 24/7 supervision, my physical presence and constant monitoring are still very much needed. But here I am, thinking of jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire with this interview tomorrow. I just got off the phone with my friend who endorsed me to this role I applied for in April. I have a vague idea of what this job entails and whatever I was thinking was correct, based on my conversation with ny friend. To put it simply, the world’s problem will also be my problem—from Trump vs Biden to Gaza to West Philippine Sea and Taiwan Strait. From bushfires in Australia to corruption charges against Bolsonaro and the changing of the tide at 10 Downing Street.

I’ll be back to 24/7 news cycle again.

Well, that is, if they take me.

It’s Friday once again. The days flew by so fast and I haven’t done anything significant so far. I had two interviews that I will not write (one edited, one to co-write) and requests for interviews that got rejected or ignored. Some are still suspended in animation.

My friend from a competitor told me she’s going to endorse my application I sent in April to be one of their global editors. I have completely forgotten about that one and honestly, I’m ok if I don’t get it. If I would get higher or same pay for the same flexibility that I have right now, then I would go for it. I’m frustrated with my company and with my manager but the flexibility that I have now still outweighs those negative factors.

Earlier this year I suffered from burnout and anxiety got the better of me. I scrambled to get away but all I ended up with was the realization that going into PR was something very difficult for me. I’m stuck with this ghost writing gig that I have because I can’t have my own voice. It has been 20 years since I’ve written a PR. I’m mentally struggling with it but I have to swallow the bitter pill and unlearn all the things I learned as an independent journalist.

After I fetched Twin A from her school break volleyball training at 11 am, I had my liquid handwash pumps refilled at this store. I am reusing the containers from the mass market products I’ve purchased from supermarkets to buy more eco-friendly options. Bought 3.6 liters of liquid handwash and that was equivalent to 7 plastic containers that would have gone straight to the landfill. I still have a gallon or so (out of the total 6 gal) of the dishwashing liquid that I bought six months ago (or more). That kept me from consuming and discarding several plastic bottles of dishwashing liquid.

Finally found a home service masseuse. Yey!

My girls are with their dad so I have the house to myself. No need to cook! Wohooo!

Whelp. I have a job interview on Monday. With the competitor.

I really tried but my eyes and brain were just shutting down. Good thing I woke up just when they were saying their goodbyes. It was a product demo and I was not really into it.

All week long I’ve been arranging interviews for my reporters and I haven’t had one for myself. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Tomorrow, I should do this non-stop for myself.

Meanwhile, I cooked baby back ribs in my Instant Pot.

The meat just fell off the bones. My foster cats outside were so happy with the bones and fatty parts. My indoor cats aren’t crazy about pork.

And here is my obnoxious indoor cat, partially sunning herself.

I have so much rage to release this week that I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I try to self-soothe so I won’t go ballistic. I just learned a term from Gen Z kids to help me cope: rotting days. Yes, I allow myself to have rotting days, when I just allow myself the grace of being easy on myself because I get a lot of beating from outside factors.

I just sink into music. To nostalgia.

I just had my ultrasound today after the result of my mammogram came out. I have two cysts, one on each boob. So far the radiologist says it’s benign (fluid) but needs to be monitored, whether every six months or once year, it would be up to my gynecologist. It may disappear, it may not. It could grow and it could be aspirated if it gets uncomfortable. I would be very busy this Saturday as the queue at my gynecologist’s clinic is long.

I don’t know what I’m getting at.

I finally found the photo that shows how red my hair was back in 2015. Twin I wanted to see how far did I push back the envelope in terms of hair color. I’m pretty conservative when it comes to that as I haven’t colored my hair green or blue or blonde. I felt that red is still acceptable in a business setting. I colored my hair for strategic reasons—so that the people I was interviewing at the doorstop would remember me when I see them again or when I send a text message,  “Hi _, I’m CallMeCreation, the red-headed reporter. May I ask a follow up question…”

But damn, maintaining a hair like that is too much work. I needed to heavily condition my hair everyday (because hair coloring chemicals literally kill hair) and I spent hours in the salon just to maintain roots.

Now that I don’t have to stand out among the pack of reporters in a media scrum, the need to color my hair various shades of red and brown has also vanished.

Oh how young I looked then. 🥹