The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

…1 month and counting…

As far as day jobs are concerned, I’m still looking. With no luck though. Entomologists, plant breeders and agricultural economists are more in demand than chemists…

Maybe I should really change careers? He he. Health care jobs are always in demand.

While I’m always swamped with blogging on a daily basis, sometimes I feel like going back to school. I’m contemplating on more practical shorts courses such as care giving, nursing assistant or even hospitality management.

But then I have to enroll Raine in Kumon first… after that is settled, it’s going to be my turn.

I tricked A into taking photos in front of his laptop.

Who knows how long I’ve loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime
If you want me to, I will.

For if I ever saw you
I didn’t catch your name
But it never really mattered
I will always feel the same.

Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart.

And when at last I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
Oh, you know, I will
I will.

 A finally meets the real daragang magayon.

It has been exactly 2 weeks since A landed in bicolandia. Two weeks that has been really crazy and hectic. But the happy kind of crazy you see.

Major adjustments were involved of course. In fact, we are still adjusting. Even if A’s stay isn’t permanent, I sure can get use to him being around. He’s such a homebody and has been helping me with the house chores and with bringing Raine to school. He has practically turned our messy apartment upside down to make some semblance of cleanliness and order to it.

(Don’t forget too that he is an everything-about-computers expert and I love the fact that I can just turn to him these days to fix any of my computer woes. This time we need not turn to YM and do the fix ‘remotely’. Also, I got my eeePC back! All fixed and upgraded and running on Windows XP. At the moment, we have 4 computer devices in the house…networked and online. Then, I just got a free HP 3-in-1 printer from Smart Bro. Just how good can life still get??)

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Once, I wrote about being too tired on a daily basis that Raine is seeking my attention all the time. 200%. Back then I was longing for the ‘perfect picture’ in my head that should have allowed me to take heart photos.

Literally these days, short for a digicam, I only have a camera phone that can’t even hook to my PC. Moments ago, I took a the very first heart photo of the 2 men in my life right now that’s closest to my heart more than anything else.

The scene: Mommy (me!) is washing the used glasses and mugs on the sink. There were 4 in total. Gosh, there’s just the 3 of us right now.

The guys (Raine and A) are on the floor…fixing the messy cables and wires under my computer table. (He he, guys’ job right?)

Suddenly, A said: OMG! Roaches on the wall! You two! (referring to me and Raine)..OUT! Lemme handle this. So I retreated to the kitchen. Raine stayed behind, he said: I wanna help!

A: Okay, Raine..we have to think. (At this moment the cockroach already escaped.) This is a job for real men.#

R: Okaayy…ano gagawin ko?

A: So…since we don’t want him (the cockroach!) there..you stay there and watch for him. While I keep my eye on him from this other end.

R: Okay.

Then..there was a commotion and a lot of talking. In English! Demmit man, this guy’s really stinky. And things like that.

FINALLY…a sounding WAPAKKKKKK!

‘We got him dude…’

Then I heard Raine say: Yeah man…we’re good!

;)

HAHAHA. Ilang heart photos na ba yan? I can really really get used to this…he he.

personal issues…technical issues…

Going on at the same time…

Man, this is just crazy!

Anyways…I’m still in transit. Will be home soon to pick up Raine later today…

Wow! I can’t believe August is here. This month is gonna be exciting for me. Sort of a culmination of another chapter in my life.

Currently I am on the anxious nervous-anxious excited mode. So…this is how it feels! You know, counting the hours to the start of the rest of your life. You can’t wait…but you want to slow the turning of the hours a little bit. So you don’t hurry. Don’t forget a thing.

I guess it’s like having Acid cigars. You don’t want to drag it because you don’t want to get burned. But your get burned anyways…;)

Time just really flies…first it was 12. Now it’s just one sleep away! Where did those 12 days go???

This week has been really stressful. What with being the last week of the month for wrapping up blogging duties and due bills to pay.  It was a little difficult to breathe as I was also neck deep in house and mommy chores.

At last it’s Saturday and I can rest for 2 whole days. When Monday comes, it’s going to be a totally different story. ;)  Then the week after that is Raine’s first quarter exam.

It rained blogging duties since May. And I’m having a blast. A little tired of course, but at the end of each month (when I get the blog p$y)…it is always worth it.

Recently, somebody in Raine’s school sorta ‘interviewed’ me. Well I joined her direct selling store/company that’s why she had to ask some personal questions.Then we ended up chatting for 2.5 hours! He he. Can you imagine?

She got curios when i entered in the registration form - under occupation - Professional Blogger. She said…’what is that’? Really a comment I always get when some people (non-bloggers, non-internet savvy folks) ask what it is exactly that I do. So I explained. In lowest terms.The moment I mentioned ‘ sort of a writer but online, on web logs’… her next question (of course!) was: what topics??

Honestly? I lost count already. All I know is that they span a huge range of blog topics: from Chicago Search Engine Optimization to Korean Cooking, from salads and granolas to laptops and smartphones, from women’s health to cloud computing, from the iPad to home mortgages. Isn’t that great??!!!! I told you it’s huge. Ha ha ha.

My back is killing me!

I’m just done washing the used rugs and cleaning the kitchen. With the few successive days of heavy rains here, my kitchen floor got flooded as well. But that’s just because the roof needs fixing. Already told my landlady, but I haven’t seen any handy man coming here.

I’m thinking of paying for the roof fix and the installation of a kisame. I’m thinking something made of bamboo for it. We’ll see…Hayy…there’s too much I wanna buy and fix in this little abode of ours (home everything coupons, anyone?). The only problem is, we are just renting. It’s not ours. Whatever I will spend on house improvement, my landlady has to agree first on the reimbursement or even deduction from rent money.

Yup, there is no kisame in my kitchen here in the city, thus it was like an oven during the summer months. Now that it’s raining? It’s raining inside as well! Which explains all the used rugs - that after several days - the whole house smelled like wet dog.

I write like
William Shakespeare

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

HUWWWAAAATTT?????!!!!! Hmmmmm…ibig ba sabihin poetic? He he he. That’s based on this entry anyway…

A decent (even point-and-shoot) digital camera is something I badly need. Digital cameras don’t come in cheap however, so I’ve always been hesitant to get one. For years I have been relying on my good old 2 MP camera phone.

But for months now that said camera phone has finally retired (it is more that 3 years old!) and I am left with a crappy 1.3 MP camera phone that doesn’t even have a USB cable so I can’t transfer the photos to my computer!

Any suggestions on affordable, decent point-and-shoot digital cameras? I’ll really appreciate your input.

2.5 years in the making…

12 days to go.

I can’t wait.

This is going to be the longest 12 days in the whole world!

Raine and I finally made it back home on Friday morning. Our supposedly 3 days in Los Baños turned out to be an 8-day stay. I went down with low electrolyte levels while Raine was bugged down with typhoid fever. We didn’t get to see and meet those we were supposed to see and meet, but ended up confined at St. Jude Family Hospital instead!

Though the past week has been rather ‘unpleasant’, it was an opportunity to bond with friends and family that took care of us. You know who you are and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My mother even had to go to LB as well to bring us home.

Tomorrow, Raine is going back to school. I’m still a little light-headed but Raine and I are taking it easy while getting back to our normal routine: school for Raine and work for me. I just hope the next time we try to visit LB, we won’t get sick anymore. Next time…

Raine and I are still in LB. We both got sick and were both confined in the hospital. We’re being discharged later today though. Thanks to everyone for all their love and support.

Read the book countless times, now it’s a movie.

I hope I get to watch this.

Raine’s last visit to his birthplace was in January 2008. At least I went there alone last year — a side trip to one of my job hunting prospects. Anyways…Raine is more excited than I am. He’s counting the days before we leave (3 tulog na lang!).

Of course I’m too excited as well. I already packed our bags! He he.

Well… our weekend is already fully booked. I just can’t wait to see dear friends again.

QQ (quotable quote) of the day:

Destiny is the bridge you build to the one you love. - My Sassy Girl

During the summer season I was commuting from the barrio to the city on a daily basis in order to work online. On the average, I was just working 8 am to 2 pm days, with the hope of accomplishing more during school days. It’s been two weeks now that classes are going on and my days have gone really crazy.

I have already mentioned that a cousin is staying with us here in the city to help me with chores and with sometimes with Raine. However, he is also a college student (whom I am sort of helping out financially) and unlike last semester, he’s got a crazy class schedule this time.

Therefore I am mostly alone here… favorable to the fact that I need some peace and quiet while working. However, a disadvantage at times because - like any parent with school kids - my mornings can get really hectic. And so I have recently been starting my day at 4 am just to get a head start on stuff.

However, after a few days of waking up too early…it has taken a toll on me…that by Wednesday I am already snoozing during the 7 pm news, leaving Raine to close-up the house, practically. It’s good to sleep early right? It’s just that when I sleep too early in the evenings, I’ll be up and about by midnight.

So instead of staring in the ceiling and tossing and turning in bed, I’ll be working instead. And you know how that goes…I’ll be online through dawn! Worse, I just have to be up by 6 am to take care of my school kid. You get the picture… Ill be a zombie the whole day!

The downside to working at home is you get cooped up inside your house, in front of your computer all the time. Even breathing can get difficult at times. Air inside can get stale you know. Your electric fan blowing hot air in the summer heat. A/C is still too expensive.

With my meager blog pay, the fan and the computer alone brings my electric bill to a sky-high level. Electric power is just too expensive around here…not to mention the crappiest service that these electric coops provide us with…

I wonder when Smart Bro/Wi-max/Whatever-DSL or something else (Satellite internet? 50+K PHP for the unit alone! On second thought, that’s just 1+K USD! He he.) will ever reach my barrio?

Hmmmmmmmmm… online business…online business…shopping cart system..not to sell used books ha! Secret muna.

Oh well…in my mind there’s a perfect scenario I’m dreaming about. In my conversation with A over YM just now, this is what went on:

Me: u know.. times like these? i should be outside in our yard
kahit small table and beach umbrella lang
laptop ko andun
may internet!
that would be THE life!

open air,
crickets in concert
cool wind caressing the leaves
the branches swaying with the wind.
maybe a moon in the sky
starry skies
tapos mag yo yosi ka
tahimik! ahahha
SARAP!

A: this is not negative, how about mosquitos?
baka ma-dengue

Me:  may electric mosquito killer naman
yung may UV light!

A: ok

Me:  a cocktail in the other hand

A: take it easy

Me: ang mga mahal mo sleeping soundly sa loob ng bahay

A:  yeah u want them sleeping kasi pasaway

Me: exactly!
hahaha

Fathers’ Day is special to me too. I’ve been a single parent and for years some friends of mine greet me on Fathers’ Day as well.

One advantage of being a single mom I guess, you get to be honored not just on Mothers’ Day but on Fathers’ Day too.I have a lot to say to Raine on this special day, but I’ll leave it for now and just include it in the LTR series one of these days.

Meanwhile.. I’ll just express some of my thoughts in a song.

Corny I know (Raine will probably say ewwwww! when he gets to read this!), but what the heck?! It’s my life… di ba?

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I’ve decided to add 2 new categories to this blog that hopefully will take this blog to a new direction.

1) Letters To Raine (LTR)

It won’t be long that Raine is going to discover and read this blog to the letter. While he is mainly in 99% of the archives, I want to write blog entries that speaks directly to him. After all, he was the main reason this blog was created in 2004.

Letters to Raine will range from the mundane of stuff to life lessons I wanna document for him. I guess it would be nice that aside from talking a lot all the time to Raine, I have something in black in white to show him.

2) Glo’s Life Goals (GLG)

For somebody who has not been into resolutions and checklists, I wan’t to create a list of sorts for myself. Something I can tick off as I accomplish them. There’s just too much thoughts going through my head enough to keep me awake at night that I want to write them all (if possible!)  before I forget about them in the mornings.

So there…I hope you’ll watch out for it.

Happy weekend everyone!

Yesterday, I had the longest day ever! It was really crazy… Because I slept early the other night while putting Raine to sleep, I was wide awake really early the following morning - at 3 am! So I decided to go ahead with my online stuff, thinking that I’ll be able to accomplish way much before it’s time to prepare Raine for school at 6 am.

So when 6 am came, I took care of Raine, helped him prepare, brought him to school and I got back excited to get back to writing. However, less than an hour into it…I ended up voice-and-video chatting with a long-lost friend of mine. Before I knew it, it was already time to get ready for Raine’s lunch break.

After lunch, my brother was buzzing my computer when I got back here. He wanted to chat too. So we did. For more than 2 hours! I told you…yesterday was indeed chika day! He he. Anyways, I was able to insert some more blog entries after chatting with my brother. Then it was again time to pick up Raine at school by 4 pm. When we went home together, I still had to take care of Raine first for various things. After which, I cooked/prepared dinner while hand-washing the laundry. Talk about multi-tasking, right?

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