When will this end?

They have already multiplied, as of the latest story I read. Soon we will be overwhelmed again by Delta and God knows how long the lockdowns will be again. Indonesia and Thailand are overrun now by this variant. Our inoculation rate is low and we have run out of vaccines here in Metro Manila.

I’m tired.

Saturday bento. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I only got out of my room to make bento. Then I slept the day away. I think I’m sick or hormones are out of whack again (hello premenstrual syndrome!) and I’m aching all over. I promised the girls we would be riding our bikes in an hour but I’m sooooo 🤒

Kimchi lying on top my laptop. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My cats are driving me nuts. They meow like they’re dying if they get shut out of my room. Then they do the zoomies around my small room while I try to sleep. They follow me to the bathroom. They sit or lay on my table when I work. Or underneath my table. On my chair. On my chair’s headrest while I work.

I should buy cat leashes so we can take them for walks so that they can expend more energy instead of zooming all over the apartment.


Today marks the 7th month since I died. Or the old me died.

It is hard.

Climbing out of that dark pit of grief, anger, and self-pity is soul-crushing during a pandemic. You are left with your thoughts for days on end. You can’t see you friends or distract yourself by traveling or just going about your normal business such as working at Makati CBD.

Oh they said, “You’re still young, you can find someone else.”

The thing is I don’t think I can trust someone again. I don’t think I can go all through that pain again.

I have children, you see. No one would love and accept them except for me, as proven by this experience. I don’t want them to experience the kind of rejection that I experienced from J. I didn’t tell them that J didn’t like them that’s why he left, among other issues. He left when they were in my hometown with my mom. When they came back, Tito J was already gone. No goodbye whatsoever. He left like a thief in the night, like a typhoon that passed us by.

Those 7 months were hard. As I said here before, those were the hardest months I had since my dad died. I tried my darned best to keep my head above water because I had two human beings depending on me for survival so I had to survive too. I needed to save myself before I could save others.

I’m better now. I’m a bit proud of myself for not making an ass of myself infront of him during my darkest hours. Of not asking him to change his mind and come back. Of groveling at his feet.

But the grief is there, it never goes away. I just have to be a bigger person so that ball of grief won’t hit my inner walls that often.

Seven months. Back then I didn’t even know how I would survive the month. My only goal then was to survive the day. Take it one day at a time. I couldn’t picture myself in seven months but here I am, frayed but still intact. Still finding my way out, trying to find myself. Still figuring out what’s the best way forward.

But maybe this is the way forward. I don’t know. I mean, I have a general idea of what I want but the details are not clear. I had been with my current company for seven years, the longest I had been with any employer. I am feeling the seven-year itch but I’m not sure if this is the best time to jump given the difficult economic circumstances. But my doors are open and I’m already looking around. If the right opportunity and timing is right, it will land on my lap. As God has always done.

When the world shut down

This book/TV series by DC Comics and Warner Bros is about an apocalyptic world, shut down by a virus that caused the Sick. Remember, this story was published in 2018 but the scenes are very 2020/2021. When the world shut down, chaos reigned, it was every man for himself.

The main protagonist, Gus, is a hybrid human-animal. His kind started appearing alongside the virus that has killed millions worldwide. They still don’t know what it is and how to cure it. But somehow they thought killing and harvesting the organs and bone marrow of these hybrids would lead to a cure.

Mind you, these hybrids were children of humans who had just the bad luck of being born during the pandemic that has lasted for 10 yrs. They were born from human parents. Dissected for cure. Get that. So Gus and his kind were hunted down.

So anyway, the scenes played in the series would have been preposterous pre-COVID-19. But having endured the pandemic chaos here, yeah, I can say everything is possible as the scenes played in the DC Comic/TV Series are all too familiar to us. ✅ The world is run by military guys/militia of some sort who think the way forward is ham-fisted rule, killing at will, and no care for the little people. And pretend they know what they’re doing. (Oh lord, sounds like the Philippines). ✅ People suspected of being infected by the virus were shunned, vilified, or worse, sent to summary execution (sounds like the early days of COVID-19 pandemic here) ✅ food and durable goods scarcity ✅ the privileged live like the world hasn’t changed and deluding themselves that they can keep the world from changing ✅ everyone has lost loved ones either from violence or the disease ✅ flora and fauna flourished in the absence of humans who hunkered down as they quarantined. For years. ✅ As humanity rode waves upon waves of the virus attack. (oh yeah, we’re now just emerging from a long lockdown due to COVID-19 Alpha strain. And it seems like the vaccines in Indonesia aren’t working that well on the Delta strain that has brought India to its knees so God help us if Delta starts to overwhelm us here).

But in the utter darkness of the world, there is still some goodness left. In Gus’ pandemic, goodness is in the form of Jepp, the ex-American football star who became an unwilling protector of this hybrid. Alongside is Becky, a.k.a. Bear, whose family died of the virus and the only family left was a hybrid who was taken away by the militia known as the Last Men. In our current situation, the goodness comes in the form of… common people like us who come to the rescue of those who are less fortunate. Those who had been unselfish. Those who had been giving whatever they could for those who are hungry and dying. In the Philippines, it can be seen in the rise of the community pantries to feed those who did not have safety nets.

After bingeing on 8 episodes of Season 1, I come to the conclusion that: 1) It’s really handy to know how to drive a manual transmission vehicle. I have always known this, that’s why my family insisted on driving manual cars. Because living in the Philippines is like surviving the apocalypse where every disaster imaginable occurs regularly. 2) DIY skills should be in everybody’s priority of things to be acquired during a pandemic. 3) We should rough it out more so we can survive in some isolated forest in case we need to keep ourselves from being attacked by zombies or bad humans. 4) Learn how to survive with less luxuries 5) Grow our own food. 6) It sucks to live in a condo so better invest in a little cottage somewhere you can survive a pandemic. 7) Preppers are right all along. They’re not crazy.

I am working on these things now because we’re still dealing with Alpha and Beta strains of COVID-19. The Department of Health said that Delta is already here but it hasn’t overwhelmed us yet like it does India. The rest of Southeast Asia is still on a lockdown as they battle it through another wave of the virus resurgence. As long as we haven’t found the right vaccine to overcome COVID-19, we will continue to suffer from these waves.

Better this time

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The vaccination process this time is much quicker (under 30 mins) and I don’t have a headache yet. I’m itchy but I’m not sure if it’s going to be as bad as after I had the first shot. I’m developing a rash now and I have body pain. Let’s see if I would be feverish later this evening or tomorrow.

This morning, I received a gift that made my girl (who’s with me now) happy. She has a sweet tooth.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This went well with tea.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

They say I took after my mother. I owe my mother everything: the best of me and the worst of me. That’s why whenever I go home to her, I bring her flowers from the flower shop in my hometown and a box or two of Korean Solomon’s seal tea that she liked because every homecoming for me is Mother’s Day.

I think I’m going to sleep early tonight. My body is fighting off the inactive coronavirus and it is getting heavier by the hour.

They have names and faces

Today I lost another colleague to suspected Covid. It was too late when he got to the hospital. Those who are dying because of this disease are in my Facebook network. The dead now have names and faces, they’re no longer just numbers. Death has come closer to home. I have memories of them and with them.

The colleague from my old TV network is still in the hospital but thankfully he and his wife are not intubated. But their problem is the skyrocketing hospital bill.

My newsfeeds have become an online obituary of sorts. I’m tired of saying condolence. And I continue to have this fear that the people I love the most would contract this disease.

Reset

I got news that ex-colleague, JG, from my former TV network has turned for the worse and is now confined in one of the hospitals here in Metro Manila.

Another colleague of mine, T, and I were exchanging news about our ex-colleague-now-covid-patient. I told her that I may be able to donate to his fundraising only when my salary comes in because my extra money for charity was spent for milk for the orphanage in Manila that is under lockdown due to a high number of COVID-19 cases. Then T said, it’s kinda sad that it has already come down to this, that we just have to rely on one another because we can’t get help from the government. I told her that this pandemic has taught us privileged people that we are the safe harbor for those who are drowning and lost at sea.

“This pandemic has caused so much disruption,” she lamented.

“Yes but I think of this as a sort of reset for everyone. So that we, the privileged people, would finally realize what we are here for,” I told her.

“And this pandemic has taken almost everything from me. All I got are my kids. And that is enough,” I added.

This pandemic also shown us what are the most important things in life? I was taught that it’s my children and myself. It taught me to love these three people more.

Getting ready

In battle gear. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

A company sent me one complete set of PPE gear just in case we may need this for home care. This is so timely as one colleague from my former TV network just messaged us that his whole family is down with COVID and is at home isolating. I need to order more from Lazada, which I will be doing tonight. I wonder how much of this will I need? Probably seven? 10?

I hope that I will never have to use this.

Speaking of COVID, my second dose will be administered to me on 9 May and I hope the side effects won’t be as bad as the first one. I was so sick for 24 hrs after getting the shot. I had all the side effects listed here. But at least I know that the vaccine (albeit Chinese) is working. I just don’t know if I won’t die of COVID if ever I catch it.

Gaaaahhhh too much work today plus I feel sick so I wasn’t able to bike to buy veggies for the community pantry today (I still have leftover funds from my cousin donor). Hopefully, I will be able to do it tomorrow morning, for my health too. I can feel the lack of exercise is taking a toll on my body already.