challenges

so on my last day at my hometown, bestfriend C and i decided to meet and catch up with what's happening with each other. little did i expect that we would have the same experiences almost at the same time, albeit having two very different professions.

i guess what we've been going through is part of the growing up we always hear about.

*to be followed.

*****

wow, broadband! after weeks of slaving over dial-up, i'm glad i'm on broadband connection again! :D but i miss my parents though...

best wishes

because of the person who sent this message, this would be the most treasured among all that i received today --


... i hope that 2009 will give you and bring you everything you want and fight for...


i guess i have to fight for it, then! :D

holiday txt msgs

CHRISTMAS

God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the
world so that we might have eternal life through Him. -- 1 John 4:9
May you continue to experience the love of Christ and be generous to share it with others.

Nawa'y manatili ang kagalakan at kapayapaan sa inyong tahanan. Isang maligayong pasko at masaganang bagong taon.

I made a Christmas wish for you
A holiday full of pleasure
Friends and family all around
And fond memories to treasure.
Have a blessed Christmas!

May God create within you a quiet place where He can share His plans and promises. Wishing you but the warmest and happiest Christmas!

May your home glow with warmth, ring with laughter and may your heart be filled with happiness not just today but always. Happy holidays!

Merry Christmas! Sana at least nakapagsimba po tayo ngayon para magpasalamat kay Lord sa pagbigay Niya sa atin kay Jesus at sa iba pang biyayang natanggap natin sa Kanya. Merry Christmas!


NEW YEAR

A good way to start the new year is to clean our hearts: No hatred, no anger and face the challenges in life. May the new year bring you happiness and prosperity.

Here's to wishing you euros, gold bars, barrels of oil diamonds, blue chip stocks, prime real estate, but most importantly good health and happiness in 2009.

No greeting card to give.. No sweet flowers to send... No cute graphics to forward... Just a Loving Heart saying "Have a happy and healthy new year to you and your family...!

To all my friends who send me love, luck and best wishes for 2008... it didn't work. Please send cash for 2009. Happy new year!

When the midnight bell rings tonight, let it signify new and better things for you. Let it signify a realization of all thing you wish for. Let it signify a year of courage and beliefs. Wishing you and your family a very prosperous new year.

Thank you for being part of my 2008. 2009 means infinite possibilities. Make 2009 all about accepting your shortcomings, learning from pitfalls, and loving yourself more. Never limit yourself to what you can't do. God bless and Happy new year!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for being part of my life for the year 2008. May we have more chances of spending happy hours together this coming year. Love yah!

May the first day of the year usher in pleasant surprises and continuous blessing for you and your family for the next 365 days! Happy new year!

Whoever touches our hearts leaves Heartprints - of love, friendship and joy. Thank you for being a beautiful heartprint. Happy new year. May you have a fruitful 2009.

May the good Lord double your blessings this 2009 and grant you a year round of peace, love and happiness as you walk in this life thru His light. Happy new year!

New year is the time to unfold new hoirzons and realize new dreams, to rediscover the strength and faith within you, to rejoice and sample pleasures and gear up for new challenges. Happy new year!

A blessed year,
a relaxed mind,
a peaceful soul,
a healthy body,
a loving heart,
and answered prayers.
These are my BEST wishes for
you and your family.
A happy and prosperous new year ahead!

May you be blessed with you pray for
rewarded for what you work for
and granted the things you hope for!
A blessed new year to you and your family!

Wishing you the timeless treasures of new year, the warmth of home, the love of family and the company of good friends. Have a blessed year!

Isang taong bumubuhos ng pagpapala at puno ng kapayapaan mula sa Maykapal. Manigong bagong taon!

changes

my mom once said that everybody has to go away because each person deserves to test their wings. it is part of growing up, and this leaving behind can be a test of friendships. this was after i lamented on knowing - even envying - my friends are leaving the country and leaving us, me behind.

changes are constant and one has to accept it as fact, and one has to go with it.

something has changed within me, something i can't explain...

today, as i walked with my dad through our subdivision, i saw the changes time has done to it. true, there are familiar faces but nothing is the same. yet, they still are the same. they were the same people i knew when i was a child. those were the same roads i walked when i went to school or chapel, or to my friends house. what changed was that there were more people living in our small subdivision, more houses, new concrete roads and of course, old friends that are near yet so far - so far because you both have grown apart - or old friends that have left the place, and even this world.

change.

i saw my classmates a couple of days ago. although only a few of us met, i had a great time with them catching up and hearing news of everybody else. some got married, some had kids. two are now pilots (one who just graduated), a doctor, a couple of nurses, and so many others. some even have left the country, including one of the friends that live closest to me. my bestfriend is now even on the verge of choosing her specialization in the field of medicine. she chose to practice back home and in a selfish part of me, i feel sad because i won't have her near me once i get back to the city where lived the last couple of years. i feel sad yet so happy for her because now, she is fulfilling her dream.

most friends in college have already left the country for better jobs and advanced schooling. one recently finished defending her thesis and some will follow in the coming months. one is to get married soon. one had a child. one got a new boyfriend she's thinking of getting married to, and one who is dear to me went back home to pursue her career.

so many changes.

i am now (or soon to be) godmother to a cute little girl, the child of my grade school friends. i saw the beautiful baby smile at me and i felt her hand's strong grip on my finger. looking at the child is so thrilling, it lifts something good within yourself. for a moment you wish that you had your own. i did wish it but as i'm a very cautious person, i didn't wish it hard. not now, anyway. there will, as i always believe, time for that. time when i find the right partner for one. at the moment, i will do what i think is right for me.

our house has changed, too. as i was cleaning the bathroom a few days ago, i reminisce about how the house looked like when i was a kid. the bathroom wasn't where it is located right now. when i was a kid, i had to stand on my toes just to be able to put my mouth at the basin when brushing my teeth. today, i realized i was (yet still am) very small, even when i have to bend a little to reach the basin. our balkon before is now part of the main house and forms one of the boundaries of our property. the once front open garden of my mom is a concrete floor for my brother's parking space. the back, which once housed my dad's woods, and a semi-cemetery for our dogs, is now a plot of beautiful, colorful flowers.

so many changes, yes. and more changes are still coming with the new year. this is my last blog for the year and i look back and see all the good things that had come to me this year and all the previous years.

i thank God for all the blessings for i know, in my heart and in my mind, that i am blessed.

empty - happy but sad

so i'm home and i'm so happy about it. all i did since i arrived here was eat and sleep. if not for the mass this morning with my mom, i wouldn't even know that it is sunday! :D

i love sleeping in my old bedroom. i'm happy about the cable tv. i'm happy about all the food i can eat -- my mom promised me a lechon for new year (although i have to pay for it! LOL). and i'm happy about the books i can read all over again.

what i'm not happy about was not hearing from drifter for a long time. oh i know that he's somewhere where there is signal - i have my ways. he might even be home at texas. i'm just so confused why he's ignoring me. if he wanted a break, he should have told me right away, not keeping me suspended over something i have no idea on. if he wanted a break, he could have said so so i'll stop playing games with my mind. it's driving me crazy, it's driving me mad. i hate being ignored, especially by him, and especially when there were a lot of ways open to him to contact me. i am not happy.

now i'm hiding my sadness with my happiness of being home. it could have been a perfect vacation but i guess you couldn't really have all the good stuff all at the same time.

if this is the end, then i just wish him happiness and i wish peace and strength to move on for myself.

***

funny thing late this afternoon. i woke up with a start because i got afraid. like i said, eversince i got home, all i did was eat and sleep. well, i dreamt. and guess what i dreamt of? Food! i was eating in my dreams again. isn't that scary? i'm glad i woke up right away... only to find out it was dinner time and i'm eating again! :D

harrowing hours

i'm finally home.

but before i could get to this point, i had to have a very harrowing couple of hours first. it was almost like a recipe for a disaster but at least, it didn't happen that way!

see, as always, i had not started packing and all i did was what we call basketball packing -- throwing everything you need in a bag at the last minute. then, i had to pack what's left of the things we need to bring home including gifts for our parents and nephew. on top of that, i had to pass by first my cousin's place for the calendars and umbrellas she would give to my grandmothers on my behalf. that was around ten o'clock. but! before i have to do that, i needed to wrap the little gifts i prepared for them. i finished packing and cleaning the house at around 2am.

then, i realized that my sister wasn't home yet and she hadn't packed her things! when she got home and almost finished packing, we realized that our packaging tape wasn't enough to cover the three boxes we need to bring home so she had to run to the nearest convenience store. i was left to print her ticket when unexpectedly, the printer didn't work! it was asking for a new black cartridge. for the last couple of days, we saw that it needed changing already but we never really thought it would give up on us on that particular hour. so went my sister arrived with the tape, she had to go running out again to the nearest computer shop to have her ticket printed. luckily, when she got back with a cab, everything was ready and we proceeded to the airport. this was around 4am. our flight was at 550a. we had to be at the check-in counter in less than 50 minutes.

then, another 'almost' disaster occurred. i heard my sister instruct the cab driver to bring us to the Terminal 3. as i was not really familiar with the way to the new terminal, i let the driver decide where to pass but when we were nearing Terminal 2, i was really having a bad feeling about that. i was deluded into thinking that maybe the driver knows a shortcut through Terminal 2 when he suddenly stopped there. i was really mad because he said that he thought we said Terminal 2 when i specifically heard my sister say Terminal 3. how can one mistake 3 for 2?! and then the driver made excuses that he had just started driving again and that he didn't know that the third terminal was already operational. i was so damned mad because the terminal was already open since early summer. what cab driver wouldn't know that?! argh! the nerve of that driver too, asking for extra php150 for i don't know what! if we weren't just running so late, we would have gotten a new cab when he mentioned that back at the apartment. luckily, we arrived at the airport ten, fifteen minutes before the check-in gates close.

but what did we find out?! the gates were already closed and that there was no place for us on the plane anymore. how can that be when we confirmed our flights and we were booked since early summer? the ladies at the gate told us that for CAB regulations, they were allowed to overbook but what the hell?! it wasn't fair. we bought our tickets so early that we have to have those seats. they said that they were putting us on the 2p flight and will give us free roundtickets for the inconvenience. inconvenience it was for sure, we said and their offer isn't acceptable. what was the use of having the option early on to fly on the earliest flight out when in the end we couldn't get on it and had to wait for the afternoon flight. they reiterated that they'd give us free roundtickets. we were so damn mad that i told the lady that i don't need that ticket because i could easily afford buying it on my own. and to hell with the CAB ruling. we have to get on the plane. okay, they said. they will make a way to get us on that plane. but on the overhead sound system, we heard the boarding call for that flight. still, we kept on waiting and giving nasty glances to those people at the check-in gate. we weren't really sure if we could get on the plane. and imagine, we have three boxes and three bags to check-in. it was all a hassle. finally, and lucky for us, there were passengers willing to trade their seats for the roundtrip tickets the airline was giving away as incentive.

when we got to the plane, we saw that it was really full, mostly from the people who just arrived from their hajj. when i got to my assigned seat, i saw that there was already someone occupying it. another hassle! i had to stand up at the aisle for long minutes until the crew can figure out what happened. it was a surreal moment. i told my sister that it looks like i'm riding a bus and that i might just stand up the whole trip back home! until finally, the attendant approached me and told me that the assigned seat was really mine but the passenger wasn't willing to give up the seat beside his wife. i guess the seat that i was taken to at the back was his.

we delayed the flight for probably 45 minutes and i don't give a damn. i wanted to go home.

the plane took off at past six and we arrived around 8am. flying time was an hour and thirty minutes. it could have been faster except for the fact that the plane was carrying too much cargo as i saw at the baggage carousel. most of the cargo where the bags of those people who just arrived from the hajj. as we were last on the plane, our stuff was brought around with the last cargo car.

yet, i'm finally happy to be home!!!

party

i'm glad i went to the institute's christmas party. the event was great, with everybody participating, even i! :D it's great spending the would-be lonely evening together with friends, especially my graduate class fieldwork mates.

i am glad. and hey, i even got a merlot for my monito! unfortunately, or should i say, fortunately, i don't have a corkscrew at the moment or i would have drunk much of it tonight because of... well, refer to previous blog please. anyways, i might just buy that corkscrew since i damaged/ruined the last one i had.

good evening, guys! merry christmas! :D

oh, before i end this, i would like to congratulate one of my very good friends, we go way back to freshmen year, my blockmate L, for finally! successfully defending her thesis this morning! we are going to PARTY! soon! :D