The Journey. It’s Mine. [Raine’s Mom, Problogger, Techie-wannabe, Wheelchair-Traveler]

Well I shouldn’t really complain. He he. I’m just grateful the typhoon didn’t hit the bicol region. Otherwise, I would have been in deep shit. Not only in my online commitments, but also in so many ways. What I might have saved from Milenyo, Frank would have taken in a whirlwind.

I am still a work in progress in not caring about some sentimentalities. I still feel bad throwing away the photos, books and stuff of importance to me. The appliances, shoes and clothes (and even the roof!) we lost then…I know I can replace those in no time, somehow. But the letters, the cards, the photos and the likes I had to throw away? That was just horrible.

This time when Frank was threatening bicol, I told my mother to let stuff be. Don’t get tired putting those in a safe place where they hopefully won’t get wet or blown away. It’s better to be detached that way I guess. If the storm wrecked us, we just save ourselves, our wallets and our important documents.

Thankfully it changed direction. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy. Frank wrecked Manila, Cavite, Bulacan and Zambales. I have friends and family in those places. Any natural disaster is not something to be rejoiced about, really.

Of course I panicked. Some people received my panic as well. I had an anxiety attack, just thinking how long the internet and electricity will be restored, knowing how things are in bicol — I just couldn’t breathe for a few minutes! Besides, since I have been online at home, I slacked at budgeting and planning my online times. When disasters strike, I have not a post scheduled in advance. He he. I never learn — and now I’m blaming the crappy connection. Ha ha! Seriously? This connection is the crappiest. I’m switching to the other network , very very soon.

Okay… i better go to work now.

And look what I found:

Don’t ask me how many times I read Gone With The Wind. A LOT!

(bought in 1993, as I wrote in the inside cover)

Typhoon Frank that is!

At least our electricity has been restored our 2 am today. Buti na lang! Else, I think I would have gone totally berserk. 31 hours of no electricity is NO JOKE folks. You’ll get anxiety attacks you thought you’ll never have. Besides, Milenyo and Reming is still fresh in our minds. ‘Pamasdo’ pa ako to the bones because of Milenyo (Sept 2006).

Waaahhhhhh! Times like these? I wish I don’t live in Bicol! Hayyy.

And this ‘uragon’ virus couldn’t have come in at a better time.

Well…I guess all is well now.

I have always complained that i haven’t done some decent book reading since I got pregnant with Raine. I mean reading to feed my soul or something, he he. I think all I’ve really read since then are stuff on parenting, pregnancy and babies. Then when I started blogging, it has gotten even worse! Who needs books when everything you can read online?!

But I really want to read books again.

(I am not counting 7 books of Harry Potter in this category, okay? No offense to JK Rowling. I soooo loved the way she turned around her life and wrote Harry Potter instead. Who would have known, right? Besides, my whole family loves HP, the books and the movies too. My younger brothers who I guess has never read a novel their whole lives, has picked up the HP books with enthusiasm and read all 7 from cover to cover. How can I not love JK Rowling, if only for that?)

I’m just hungry for some real reading. You know the kind that doesn’t include the words antioxidant, stem cells, flavonoids, metastatic or autoimmune in any paragraph or sentence!

Of course in the last 5 years, books are a luxury. I was buying diapers, milk, baby food; paying the nanny, the rent…you know, stuff — far more basic than books to feed my soul. Ha ha ha. Besides, I just couldn’t find a real quiet time all those years.

Anyway, my amazon shopping cart are filled with books I have been wanting to read. Ready for checkout. Then my PC monitor went kaput. I had to buy a new one. Again, goodbye books. Stay in the shopping cart longer. Maybe next month? I really hope so.

Hopefully if I don’t fall asleep again!

I got back home from Manila/LB on Sunday afternoon around 3 PM. On the way home, I was thinking of going back to blogging that Sunday night. Who am I kidding? I fell asleep of course, even in the middle of an online chat.

Came Monday, the mumps I came home with has gotten a lot worse. What a birthday gift eh? I spent it lazy in bed because Smart Internet has been forever having maintenance activity. I left and came back, the same problem.

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My bag isn’t packed yet and I’m not done scheduling posts for the week in a couple of my blogs.

But I’ve got tickets already and I’m flying to Manila tomorrow to see my best friend. We’re going to LB and I’d probably get that pancit malabon I’ve been craving for.

Just when I was thinking of having a barbecue party and a live band, it started raining again! I thought I can clean and take out the Ford grills — no, not that kind of grill, but just an outdoor barbecue grill.

Hmmm…maybe on my 50th birthday! Ha ha ha.

That’s what I get for living in bicol. It’s either brownout or raining like hell. Sometimes both!

But, these are better days…actually.

And I never had a barbecue party ever. I gotta keep that in mind. Someday.

That one in the title? Is something I do not know before. I just knew that a 1GB RAM is a lot better than a 254 MB RAM computer. Ha ha ha!

Well that was just what my brother did to this 2-year old crappy PC, upgraded the ram to 1GB. This will do for now, I know I need a whole better box with really, really nice specs. I have to keep that in mind for my next project. After all, this one weathered two major typhoons.

I hope today is the end of my technical-problem-series. A bunch of sulky moods from my brother, he finally fixed this by doing his “stuff”! Well,  at least I have a computer technician for free.  Actually I have two of those for free. But the other one cannot just fix everything by remote. Great, no?

9 days to go and it’s time to turn 35. He he. I’ve nothing much planned (always never had plans for my bday!) except that I am looking hard where I can order a good pancit malabon in Sorsogon.

I used to have an officemate who can make a mean pancit malabon and it was the best I’ve ever tasted. I’ve never cooked it either because I am more of a pasta girl and never bothered to try cooking pancit dishes — except for a couple of times I made pancit bihon guisado which was really not bad at all.

BUT, it has always been my rule not to cook anything on my birthday. Either I order food or a bunch of my friends will bring the food.

Well… don’t blame the progesterone at all (imposibleng naglilihi ako, ano!) I just miss a LOT - the city I lived longest my whole life - wherein I know where to get the best foods I want when I want it. This just shows that I haven’t really settled here yet. Not enough even just to explore the city to look for food specialties.

Tita Agnes, pa-LBC naman ng isang bilaong pancit malabon! Ha ha.

I moved my computer desk near another window inside our house. This isn’t “nesting” mind you, but in a fact a “side effect” of the many technical problems I’ve experienced in the last two weeks. Thankfully, the month of May is finally over.

Anyways, going back to the re-arranging I did: the desk is now parallel to the bed. Yes, I am now a bed potato! Ha ha. But…a lot better for my legs. Go figure.

Besides, in the original window this was located, sunlight is directly pouring on the unit in the afternoon from 2-4 PM. I admit my modem has been “fried” under the sun so many times — while I took naps.

Use of exterior shutters were never an option because it will block my modem’s signal reception.

So this “move” was really long overdue. So far, so good!

The last time I window-shopped for baby cribs, I was alone. Looking back now, I cannot even remember what I was feeling or looking for in a crib back then. I know it should have been a sturdy one that could go down the generation or at least be used by the siblings that would come after the first baby.

But I really had no time then to think along those lines, I was just thinking what my budget can afford. So I ended up buying a small “disposable” one.

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The last time I was seen by my old friends was earlier this year. I got the same reaction: you lost a lot of weight! What did you do? He he.

Nothing actually. Not Phentermine, not mesotherapy, not Atkins and definitely not cardio exercises!

It isn’t really me to hit the gym. I know we all need some kind of exercise, but I’ve been that lazy my whole life! It isn’t me to take on a diet regimen either, because I sooo love to eat. Besides, I never really cared if I have always been that chubby girl in class or at work. I’ve always been able to confidently carry myself - with matching flabs and double chin!

Well…all I did really was, eat more of the right kinds of food. I mean less meat, more veggies, more fish. Why did I do that? Because…I almost couldn’t walk with osteoarthritis! I took a lot of meds yes, but I reckoned I gotta do something with what I eat.

And of course, I don’t eat tonnes in one sitting anymore, like I used to. I resorted to small servings, every…say, 1-2 hours. Depending on how much hunger pangs I do get, in between.

Hmmm…I am not saying I don’t slip. Because I do from time to time. As the old saying goes “masarap kainin ang bawal”. But then I do pay the price afterwards.

Like yesterday, I ate pork adobo. I haven’t had pork in months! Last night? My knees were stiff as walking cane! Gosh…I’m never going to eat pork ever again. Ha ha ha.

Well…i probably said “monday blues” here countless times. But then, who were in a great, lazy, pampering weekend that did not wish to take the Monday off and wish the weekend can last a little bit longer?

My Monday blues? I wanna stay in bed and sleep the whole day if possible. But then the internet is luring me to go online today. Hmmm…not bad really that I did. At least I get to clean up my mail inbox! Ha ha ha.

And then comes Wednesday and we will all wish it is Friday already! Ano ba talaga Kuya?!

Which just proves to show that most people would rather not have work weeks if they can get away with it, me thinks.

But then life isn’t forever Hilton Head rentals. Unfortunately, most of us gotta earn a living first!

Happy Monday people!

Well…I am not in a any category as the bloggers that Matt Richtel talked about in his In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop, NY Times article.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack.

In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

I love what Larry Dignan wrote at ZDNet:

Let’s put a little perspective on this blogging thing. You could be getting shot at in Iraq. You could be a single mom working three jobs to stay afloat (Happy Birthday mom). You could work in a coal mine. You could be in a life and death battle with Leukemia.

You could be doing any one of thousands of high-stress jobs. Sure, the Web has a lot of stress but let’s get real: If you’re stressed out over 5,000 RSS feeds chances are good you’d be stressed by any profession you chose.

The point I was trying to make was that nothing (certainly the deaths of Russell and Marc Orchant and Om’s heart attack) exist in a vacuum. You have to take care of yourself.

I agree. Whatever your job is, you’ve got to take care of yourself. Also, like what I have always believe in, your job is not the be-all and end-all of your life. Life isn’t just all work, you gotta have a real life as well, and find the balance that works for you.

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Sometimes I surprise myself. I think I have always bitten more than I could chew. But I chewed it anyway, even if I almost choked to death in the process.

This is one good time as any to sit back and check on myself. Can I really handle all these things I take on and now have? Am I happy, even if these things keep me on my toes all the time?

Ever since, I’ve always taken more than my plate can handle. If you ask my mother, she would say I was running even before I could learn to walk. In fact, she would still say that I still do not walk and that I am still running.

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