My girls and their friend. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Today the girls had hung out with their two friends in UP. While I did my walking exercise, I let them roam around by themselves.
But before that we had a hearty meal as I grilled marinated porkchops. Because it was sunny.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
After we cleaned up, we fetched classmate #1 from their apartment nearby then we met classmate #2 at the College of Engineering where her parents parked.
It was a lovely afternoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
When I was on my second loop, I met my ex-boss/ex-editor who was also exercising with his son. He caught me chatting on my phone while walking and he asked, what’s that, work? I said, yeah, one of my sources was asking me a lot of questions about xxx because xxx is yyyy. We chatted for a bit and he said we should meet with other ex-colleagues before Christmas.
Photo by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.comI had my anthropology class here. That course was a waste of time. Photo by CallMeCreation.comIt was a good exercise. I hope I had burned the calories from the porkchop 😏
We ate at Snack Shack after and drove friend #1 back home. My girls were happy, that’s all that matters.
Meanwhile, Kimchi finally used the cat tower.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I was about to give up on it and was thinking of disassembling it to Frankenstein the other scratching post. Good that she tried it now.
I want to go back to drawing again after watching videos and scrolling through the IG accounts of @shoreditchsketcher and @mysquiggles. Perhaps tomorrow.
So I needed to burn those calories today after being a sloth yesterday.
Need to burn 250 kcal because goodness knows how many calories that cake has.
Feeding strays inside the campus again. She (most calicos are female) looks like Sushi. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
During one of my walks after the monsoon rains of August-Sept, I saw a cat curled up like it was sleeping on the sidewalk across Kalayaan Dorm…but it was already dead. It probably died of hunger or cold…My heart broke. 💔
I told my girls about it so we started feeding strays inside the campus with leftover bones and kibbles that my spoiled cats no longer want to eat. The strays outside our compound’s gate have disappeared so I no longer have cats to feed that are near the apartment.
An old couple having their night stroll while I heave and push myself to burn more calories. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
After getting back from my walk, I unloaded the vegetables I bought from my suki veggie vendor. Then I did my indoor workout to burn off the cake calories some more.
That 145 bpm is my planking again. 😂
Working on my core muscles with killer planking + 200 crunches.
So I burned almost 500 kcal. Not bad. But I’m so tired. I should be resting because hormones are still out of whack but I just took 1 tablet of Berocca to give me an energy boost for the day. But heck, my head is still pounding.
Meanwhile, people had been sending me via messenger or tagging me on some Sandroisms (Sandro Marcos stupid quotes) on Twitter and Facebook since they knew I would be laughing my ass off. Everybody knows that he is my favorite person to troll on Twitter for YEARS. His brainless comments really make it easy for me to make fun of him.
Manila Bulletin has taken down the FB and Twitter post. But of course I preserved this golden quote card, and is kept with my other Sandroisms (screenshots of my trolling him on Twitter).
As I wrote yesterday, my hormones go haywire during my period. Just like today. I have this mind-bending headache that I had to sleep more than necessary. I had to take naps in between editing. My body just wouldn’t cooperate–it’s like I’m coming down with flu only it doesn’t involve the upper respiratory system. It’s like I’m just dragging my body; I just want to curl up in bed and sleep.
I envy Sushi. She can just spend the day like that. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
But work I must. I was on editing duty today and had no choice but to fix broken stories…One particular story from India today pushed my buttons. Rather than suffer a long back and forth email thread with the writer, I just rewrote the thing so that we would be over and done with it. My editing queue was long; I also had to attend a conference and write my own story today.
An infrastructure forum that I covered this morning. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
All in all, it was a tiring Monday and I already want the weekend to come. Weekends are too short.
I can’t wait for my vacation leave to start.
Some PR friends did cheer me up today with this. although it’s 2 weeks too early for a birthday cake. And I’m supposed to limit my calorie intake. 😝
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It was yummy though. 😁
It satisfied my need for sugar, which can run low during menstrual period.
Pseudoangiomatous Stromal Hyperplasia (PASH). That’s what my cousin had, not cysts. She has been recovering at home for four days now after her surgery. She had them removed because one of them had been growing and it started to hurt. She just removed her binders but it still hurt, she said.
I think at some point I got it when I was in college or right after college. It was quite a scare because my gynecologist had to refer me to an oncologist just to be sure but her initial findings told me these were lesions caused by hormones. I no longer remember what tests I had because I ejected them from my memory since it was quite a tense episode. The oncologist concurred that the lumps were lesions and were likely to disappear with my menstrual cycle—as my gynecologist had initially told me.
I never had a normal cycle and until now my hormones are often off. I have PCOS and it was already a miracle that I even got pregnant. Ah well, I had to go through hormone therapy just to have my girls. I always tell them that they were chosen because I had to work with my doctor to have them—my way of telling them that I already wanted them even before they came. (So girls, if you are already reading this because I’m already in the great beyond, know the difficulties I had gone through just to have you).
“Women with PCOS are twice as likely as women without the condition to deliver their baby prematurely. They’re also at greater risk for miscarriage, high blood pressure, and gestational diabetes (19).”
There you go. Having twins raises the probability of premature birth, but having PCOS almost made it a certainty. I bled twice while I was pregnant and I had to work from home eventually at 5 mos because my doctor said I will lose the twins if I didn’t stop traveling. I had to take a pill to keep the girls and stop bleeding. She even told me to not climb the stairs. But what can I do? My ex-husband was cruel; he didn’t want to help with the chores to the point we had a fight and he threatened to leave the house. We didn’t have a maid at that time and imagine this: I was heavily pregnant and I was still mopping the floor. I decided to go home to my mom and spend the last trimester with her so I will be well fed (and didn’t have to order fastfood because I was too tired to cook), I didn’t have to clean, and I would be nearer the hospital and my OB.
Anyway, fast-forward, even if my sex life had been a desert after having the girls and after J lost interest in me 6 mos before we broke up, I still had to take birth control pills because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have my period for six months or more. That happened when I was in high school and college and that time when I finally had my period after several months without having any, my body was racked with pain that I had to be confined to my bed. I bled like a pig while I was curled up and cried myself to sleep because 500mg of mefanemic acid sometimes couldn’t relieve the pain. After getting pregnant and giving birth, my dysmenorrhea became tolerable but hormonal changes are still wild that’s why I always felt sick (my headaches were enough to crack my skull) during my periods.
That’s why I have high tolerance for pain. All my life I had been in pain physically and emotionally.
Another reason why I couldn’t lose weight is because of insulin resistance due to PCOS. It doesn’t help that diabetes runs in the family.
Hence, I must continue with my workouts even if my body doesn’t want to cooperate.
The 1.5 min planking caused my heart rate to spike.
Bought new moisture-wicking shirts for my walks/indoor workouts. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
When we were in Tiendesitas yesterday, we stopped by Decathlon to buy myself a new pair of dumb bells and moisture-wicking shirts. To motivate me to continue with my workouts. I can’t stop now—once I have diabetes, my days are numbered.
L and M looking at tattoo designs. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Among the things that we talked about last night (for 5 hours) was getting a tattoo. I told them the only thing that kept me from getting one is the comic strip Pugad Baboy. I told them that I read one strip where the father, Mang Dagul, told Tiny, his daughter, about how ridiculous Tweety Bird would look on her wrinkly arm when she hits 80 years old.
So M had been showing me cat designs that I can try. I said no. Then he showed me a photo of the makkuro kuroske characters from Chihiro no Sen (Spirited Away) that he would want for his tattoo.
Then I said, yeah, just think how it would look like when you’re 80. Then he quipped, “if I get to live that long.”
I posted this photo on IG stories and another friend of ours, A, commented there that we should all get tattoos at the same time since she also wanted one. 😂
So it seems like we would all be getting tattoos since we’re all in our rebellious phase.
I want to get No Face (Kaonashi)
With a life-size No Face at Donguri Republic in Taiwan. I asked a stranger to take this photo since I was traveling alone.
Another option is to have a tattoo based on indigenous prints/designs like the Kalinga tattoos done by Apo Whang-Od. The problem is, I need to trek to Kalinga province to meet her in the Butbut tribe village. Which I’m not prepared to do. I also don’t want to desecrate her culture since such tattoos are reserved for the warriors, specifically headhunters, of her tribe.
I also like the idea of the pintado warriors of the Visayas, the ones the Spanish conquistadores had fought with when they tried to land in what is now known as Leyte province. The Spanish demonized tattoos later on as these are associated with the indigenous Filipino warriors of yore who had been defending these islands from the likes of them.
My ancestors came from Batangas and natives of this part of Southern Tagalog are known to be feisty and warrior-like. We always had a gulok (or golok in Malay) somewhere inside or outside in the garden as a cutting tool or for self defense. It’s only when my father passed on did we dispose of his rusty gulok.
Gulok
I learned in one music workshop that I attended (when I was bored with my life decades) ago that Batangas has its own music tradition—the kumintang, or war songs. Again, this was watered down by the Spaniards to become something different form the original. The kumintang now known in Batangas is a music and dance performed by couples and has turned into a…let’s say non-threatening show for the conquistadores.
But I digress. My point is, I’ve descended from warriors so I may have a license to have an indigenous tattoo meant for warriors 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
L said we can get our tats done in Poblacion, Makati. When? I don’t know. What part of the body? I don’t know. I may not even get one since some onsen may be particular about tattooed individuals.
I tried squeezing in my outdoor walk early this evening before it rained. I drove my car to UP because it was already getting dark and I don’t really feel safe walking in the dark once I get near Krus na Ligas to get to my own village.
It was starting to drizzle. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My walk was shorter than usual because it was about to rain. I spent the last 2 km of my walk under the drizzle.
I was dissatisfied with the calories I supposedly burned so I supplemented it by doing my indoor exercises (core + stretching + weights). There finally, almost 500 kcal.
When I was lifting, my heart rate was around 125 bpm. Sooooooo…if I get stuck inside again, I can double the frequency of my lifts and lengthen my core exercises to achieve the same effect as when I walk 7km.
I’m tired but it’s the good kind of tired. I will start another panel of curtain because I finished the first one the other night.
And Kimchi started sleeping on the curtain I just finished. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My cousin told us today that she will undergo mastectomy soon to remove cysts in her breast that are thankfully benign but they’re growing (???). She also felt that her menstrual period has shortened and wildly irregular so that’s the next thing that she should be focusing on, she said.
We’re the same age but she’s a few months older than me. She’s single while I already have kids…I don’t know if that makes any difference.
This reminds me that I should pay attention now to my body, aside from the exercise part. Meaning I should have my executive check up soon. I will be asking for a time off on my birthday week to visit my gynecologist (in my hometown; she had been my doctor since college) and I will also request her for a cardiologist referral and for an executive check up. I haven’t done anything yet to address my high triglycerides, LDL, and uric acid (i.e. meds to keep them low). I need to know if I had any clots after my serious bout with Covid last year because what was worrisome with my experience was that I had long haul Covid symptoms.
In the meantime, I need to keep going with my exercises so I will not end up as a blimp again.
I had to content myself with indoor workout because it rained. At least I burned 240 kcal today and I was not just sedentary.
Working at my desk (checking emails and replying to them) while in workout clothes 😂
I had to use my screen and webcam to monitor my dumb bell exercises because I don’t have a full-length mirror in my room. The form is more important than the speed of the curls and lifts so I need to keep my shoulders straight, arms tight/clipped. You can only do that if you see your reflection so you can correct your wrong posture or form. We used to do some weights when I was still playing football. We also did aerobics to improve our footwork.
As I said before, I intend to live beyond 42 years old so I need to be disciplined about this. My children cannot rely on their dad for anything if I die early.
Speaking of which, I got incensed today because of his hare-brained idea to drive the girls from his province to Manila via my old small car. I mean that’s nuts. I doubt its reliability on long trips like that (800 km++) because he does not maintain cars well. The original plan was just I would let the girls stay with their paternal side in Shangri-la Mactan, Cebu (the girls’ airfare paid for by his siblings) then they would come back to Manila after four days. But noooo, he didn’t even tell me that they are going to be whisked away from Cebu to his province to stay longer for Todos los Santos/Dia de los muertos (All Saints’ Day/All Souls’ Day). However, only the airfare from Cebu to their province will be paid for by his siblings and since he doesn’t have money, he can only drive back to Manila with them.
That’s 48 freaking hours. In bad monsoon/typhoon season.
He doesn’t even think about the safety and comfort of his own children 🤬
Yeah, we used to drive from Manila to their province for Christmas when the girls were smaller but we had stops and spent the night in Legaspi or Naga plus we took turns in driving. But the experience was always exhausting because the ferry that shipped us and the car from Sorsogon to Samar (vice-versa) was ALWAYS delayed by 6-12 hours because of scarcity of trips or bad weather. And we drove using my big car.
And if we go by what Twin I has been reporting to me about the condition of my kei car when they get fetched by their dad, I highly doubt if they will not break down along the highway. We’re talking about very rural highways. The last time they were with their dad, she said there was no airconditioning. 😤 I could no longer get mad because it’s already beyond my control. I painstakingly took care of that car when it was my daily ride because it was so convenient to find parking space for it and I can easily slip in between bigger cars in really bad traffic. Plus it was economical so there is less guilt when I drive all around with just me as a passenger.
I told Twin I to tell her dad that if he doesn’t produce plane tickets from his province to Manila for the girls, I will not even drive them to NAIA for their flight to Cebu.
So he told Twin I that they will just leave Cebu and fly straight to Manila.
I talked to his youngest sister (who’s in California) on the phone this afternoon to tell her my concerns about the girls’ safety and the ridiculousness of that plan. She saw my point and agreed that they shouldn’t be doing a land trip.
I’m very sure that my BP shot through the roof when I was hyperventilating and I had palpitations when I learned about that stupid plan. So I called my mom to release my pent up fury. She said, “Well, it’s you who said that your ex-husband is more evil than your friend L’s ex-husband. So what do you expect?”
🤬
Another thing that alarmed me today was that my electricity consumption cost me PHP 1,500 more this month because of my Instant Pot use. I mean, everything was constant from last month to this month. And if you compare my consumption with last year’s, the September 2022 bill is still higher even though my fridge in Sept 2021 was still the old one that was already so inefficient.
That’s a serious bump in my consumption. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
So no, I don’t think I would be using that for simple dishes again. If I have enough lead time, I’d rather use the slow cooker. I will only use the Instant Pot if I don’t have enough time to make the meat tender. Besides, I should lay off the beef since I should consume less red meat.
Good thing I have my stress relievers…
Kimchi waiting for her wet food. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
