Negative is good.
I was supposed to go out at 6 pm to do some grocery shopping but I was feeling sick. By 6:30 I was already in bed. 11 hrs later I woke up and did the test. Headache and feverish feeling gone but my body still aches. Throat is still scratchy too.
I can order grocery online but how can I continue with my LTO car registration today?
Today was just a blur. I drove at 6:45 am and it was surprisingly smooth and traffic jam-free. I really love Skyway 3 since it allowed me to reach Laguna under 2 hrs without having to traverse EDSA or C5.
It could have been just 1.5 hrs but we stopped at McDonald’s drive through for breakfast plus I needed coffee. We also stopped at my regular flower shop to buy my mom roses (as is my habit) and arranged Malaysian mums for my dad’s niche at the columbarium since it was his 17th death anniversary last month.
I had a quick turn on that massage chair that had a lot of customers today. 🤣
Then I edited some stories, published my own story I co-wrote with out Manila reporter, and I slept for the rest of the day. My girls didn’t have classes today because it was QC Day—the birthday of Manuel L. Quezon. The father of the National Language. The holiday only applies to schools in QC.
In lieu of regular classes, I had Kuya H tackle the girls’ supplemental review sessions for their upcoming mock entrance exam. THREE hours today. He told me the girls do not have major problems because they understand the math concepts; Twin A is good at complex math problems but panics/is overcome with carelessness when solving the basic ones. Twin I, on the other hand, is good at the basics but panics at the more complex ones.
He said they need to solve more Math problems. The issue, however, is we already ran out of practice exams. So I asked him if he could bring his old manuals and practice problem sets for the girls to work on. Tomorrow they will have more review sessions with Kuya H. And my nephew is happy he has more money on his GCash account. Win-win.
UPDATE: The review center announced tonight that the mock entrance exam is moved to next week. 😶
Meanwhile, my sisters told me I ballooned in the last two weeks since they last saw me. Ah, being locked up for two weeks at home with no exercise will really make me a blimp. Imagine, I was expending a minimum of 400kcal (on some days it’s 700+ kcal) in Singapore for 10 days because of all the walking that I did. Then it came to an abrupt halt when I came back to Manila. My body compensated for the lost calories by craving breakfast or dinner, which I normally didn’t have. I had minimal exercise because I didn’t bike or walk since I was just holed up in my room. Tadaaa! I gained all the weight I had shed off.
So tomorrow morning I will be walking around the campus, in my old stomping grounds, so I will be inspired again to get back in shape. 🤸
Mmm… It’s surprisingly cooler here. We only have a stand fan now but I find myself needing a thin blanket. Ah well, I have a forest as my backyard so it’s at least several degrees lower where we are right now, about 25 C.
When will zoonosis stop? Perhaps never. It’s nature’s way of flashing the dirty finger at humanity.
Can we just keep them within their borders??? I mean none of their citizens can leave the country now since their passports are held or are no longer renewed (Zero-Covid policy of China). This ought to stop the spread of this new zoonotic disease, methinks.
Time check: It’s 10:45 pm and I’m still working. Replying to emails, uploading stories, picking up stories to edit first thing in the morning…OMG why am I doing regular OT? I am burning myself out.
On the side, I’m having an exchange with a former presidential spokesperson regarding nuclear power on Twitter…
I need a life. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
My life now revolves around my children–the twins and the cats.
I should probably take time off…drive to Zambales with gay extraordinaire K and dance on the beach and have drinks by the bonfire. He messaged me today to check up on me. I said I may go to S.Korea in October while he said he has no travel plans yet. I said maybe we should go on a roadtrip. Then he suggested we go to Zambales by the end of this month…Will have to check my calendar as I have to bring the girls to my hometown on the 19th to prepare them for the simulation entrance exam to be conducted by their review school. It is yet to be decided if this would be conducted F2F but I have to prepare just in case.
Now I wonder how I would fit the buffing and polishing of my car into my schedule.
Tonight I made cold soba with zaru soba sauce and flaked roasted chicken. We’re laying off red meat for a while after that high blood-inducing, 10-hr bulalo that tasted heavenly but deadly. I still have the bulalo broth that I can use for pho, which I plan on making this week as well.
My girls like the cold soba and the ready-made sauce that I bought from SM Hypermarket in Marikina. Since it is a hypermarket, it has more imported food items like Japanese sauces and noodles.
I wonder what I would serve for lunch and dinner tomorrow…
Ah the men in my life didn’t know they had it good with me because I can cook. Idiots.
That second booster was nasty. I was sick and spent a very restless night, waking up almost every hour. Then I slept the rest of the day today and did nothing else. I’m still aching, still in a foul mood, and I still want to kill people. I must be having my pre-menstrual syndrome as I want to bite everyone’s heads off. I’m a hazard to humanity so I’m locking myself up here in my room in the meantime.
My sister and I are supposed to be on a diet. We have to keep ourselves healthy since we’re already in our 40s and everything goes downhill from here.
I have one high school classmate who lived in the UK and was about to be promoted to be CEO of his company. He just dropped dead in his bathroom a few weeks ago but we only learned about it this week. He was diabetic so his health was constantly monitored but they were baffled why he suddenly dropped dead like that. Later on it was revealed that he has fatty liver disease that went undetected, which was odd.
In any case, I don’t want to just drop dead like that; I have two humans and two cats depending on me. So I have to start cleaning my act together. No more late nights so I have to have enough sleep and wake up early to bike. If not cycling, I should walk early in the morning. I’m supposed to go to a cardiologist for a check-up post-Covid during my leave (which I only have tomorrow left). I should also have this osteoma removed. Oh well, only half of the things I’m supposed to do were accomplished.
I should find time for my health.
Speaking of high school friends, my bestfriend, T, bought tickets to the Red Velvet concert that she and my girls will be watching on 22 July. I would be their chauffeur.
I claimed the tickets this afternoon from this office, a foundation that supports persons with disabilities (PWDs), which is the recipient of the proceeds of this Kpop concert. So this means I have to bring my car on Saturday to the car shop for the repairs so that I can claim my car before the concert.
Then I booked my plane tickets and hotel reservation for my trip to Singapore. I would finally be back there after more than two years. I haven’t seen our new office at Raffles Place and I doubt if I have a desk there but I should. So many things to arrange and so many people and clients to meet. 😑 Unfortunately, the conference I was supposed to attend in Bangkok coincides with our own conferences in Singapore so I have to skip Bangkok.
I had a weird dream last night.
I was being pursued by a creepy guy who thought I liked him because I was just being generally nice to all people. Because when you’re networking, you need to put on your nicest smile and charm the socks off people. However, this creep took it differently. Then I spent rest of my dream running away from this guy, which involved me slipping through doors and flying (literally) through windows.
Perhaps this is a warning to dial down on the charm offensive during my networking chore in Singapore.
I remember being pursued by this Chinese guy who attended a conference in Makati where I had to interview several shipping execs and government officials. I had left him in Manila Peninsula after I had coffee with him at the hotel lobby, because you know, he was BD of a big Chinese SOE and I thought it was worth having that kind of contact. I went to a lunch press briefing in another hotel. After that event, I was supposed to fetch my car and passed through the underground pedestrian crossing and encountered that Chinese guy in that unlikely place. And he stuck to me like glue the entire time. I asked my journo friend, L, to fetch me but she said she already left CBD.
Long story short, networking is hazardous for journos like me who need to dig a lot of info from people who may misinterpret my friendliness. 😶
And I met J through this kind of networking and it just so happened I was very vulnerable at that time. This should serve as a big warning to me. People who I meet in these circumstances do not have the most noble intentions in mind. I have more respect for people who lay their cards right there and then: I use your info, you use my info. We do horse-trading and I don’t have to go through shit, like you pretending to like me to extract what you need from me. That’s just so low.
He just used me so he can move here in Manila with minimal difficulties, because as he had repeatedly said, it has been his intention to move here and see how it would work out given that the cost of living is much lower than in Singapore.
I’m soooooo gullible.
Bawal maging marupok. Wag ka nang maging tanga, OK?
I cannot afford to be stupid anymore.
What the fuck. I got triggered. After a long, long time.
I cannot sleep. I’m having palpitations and I’m very angry. My eyes are filling up with tears of anger as the feelings I’m keeping buried are trying to get out.
I need to schedule my session with my shrink ASAP because I need new prescription for escitalopram.
Oh God, when does this end? It’s exactly 1.5 years tomorrow and yet I’m still like this.
If this is what loving deeply costs, I don’t want to encounter it ever. Ever.
We all had a very bad week (and bad next six years or so). But at least the UP Men’s Basketball Team gave us something to be happy about last night.
First championship since 1986.
And in 1986 a woman led the people to oust a Marcos. You know, hope springs eternal. I have a feeling Junior will not finish his term.
I’ve been supporting the UP Men’s for decades as a former Maroons player myself (football) with an ex-bf who was also a UP basketball player. My sister was also a Maroons, playing volleyball in the WNCAA. I know the struggles of UP athletes—underfunded but full of fighting spirit. And to win the basketball championship—the most watched and anticipated UAAP event—after 36 years of struggling is super sweet.
My friends and I had dinner and drinks in Makati last night. Three of us are international news wire editors and one is a former reporter who is now a mid-level government official. We all covered the Treasury at the same time so we had this deep bond that spanned more than 15 years. What was supposed to be an election crying session turned into a laugh trip dinner and drinks. We hardly talked about the election and we just picked up where we left off when we had our last get-together dinner in March last year.
Since K had his appendix taken out a few months ago, he told us about his experience and the lingering horrific pain of having a catheter pulled out. 🤣 We three women agreed that catheter pain is what we remembered most during our own surgeries. Catheter > epidural needle. 🤣 I told them that pain relievers don’t work on me and I have a weird relationship with anesthesia. My dentist is forever frustrated with that. Even my anesthesiologist was surprised and alarmed when I was awake, talking, and still felt “something” during my gall bladder operation. I clearly remember asking her, “Why am I still alive?” when I wanted to ask why I was still awake 🤣 she hiked my anesthesia to put me back to sleep. When I woke up from surgery, I was on a higher dosage morphine drip.
Our conversations have changed from year to year and now we’re talking about hospitalizations and health. Gee, we’re old 😂
K asked me how I was since my anxiety attack in Feb. I said I’m already fine and that recognizing and accepting that J was just truly evil that’s why I went through all that shit is part of my healing process. And art therapy. I may not yet be healed but I’m much better—to the extent I had been off alprazolam for more than a month.
We were like Cinderella and had to break up the party at 12 midnight. Three of us are moms while K has a strict sleep and gym schedule.
These friends keep me sane ❤️
