Project365

Allergies

I have no known food allergies. The only allergies I have, that I know of, include smoke and dust which really irritates my eyes (and causes headaches). Then there’s my allergic rhinitis.

So I pretty much eat anything.

On Sunday afternoon, the beginning of my weekend, I felt itchy all over my body. I thought it was just mosquito bites because there’s swelling involved (how do you say pantal in English?) It did feel weird though: why would I have insect bites even under my clothes? I passed it off thinking that maybe it was just the heat. I dozed to sleep now and then in front of the tv and didn’t pay much attention to the itchies. When I woke up on Monday morning to take a shower though, I saw just how bad things were. I had big blotches all over my belly, on my back, arms and legs. Even my feet were starting to itch. Scrubbing myself clean didn’t help although water helped cool me down and I felt relieved for a bit. I put powder all over where there were breakouts, thinking to myself that maybe I got exposed to higad somewhere. But when and where?

I still didn’t take it seriously. Until after having lunch (KFC chicken). Oh my goodness, I could not take it any longer. I asked the boyfriend to scratch my back and he saw them ugly blotches. I wanted to stop scratching really, and he kept trying to reprimand me lest I end up hurting myself and cause some bleeding. I couldn’t stop! He took some ice and rubbed them over the itchiest parts. That helped soothe me, but not for long. Then I felt some of the swelling on my neck crawling up to my cheeks. I started getting scared, should we go to the hospital? Neither one of us drives. Having three cars outside at our disposal was useless to me. The brother was sleeping and I didn’t really feel like waking him up unless it was an emergency. I called my mom: do we have anti-allergy meds here? No. I sent cousin Ada a message: do you calamine lotion at home? Nope. The boyfriend couldn’t stand it anymore, so he volunteered to go to the drugstore and get me some meds. It was hot when he went out, and he had to walk all the way there and back. He looked toasted when he got back, haha. But perhaps that’s because he hit the beach on Black Saturday while staying with his family in Bicol.

It was pink stuff that finally started to give me some relief. Caladryl/Calamine lotion is something we used to have around the house when I was a kid. This time though, Caladryl isn’t as pink as it used to. And they don’t dry up like chalk. It felt cool and soothing. Much like how aloe would feel on your skin. He also bought Benadryl, they’re pink too.

Pink Benadryl

I was able to sleep early thanks to the Benadryl, and it was a deep sleep too. I woke up briefly before midnight as the boyfriend was saying goodbye and taking off for work. Then again at 530 when my brother came home from work. The only time I really got up though was around 7am. The blotches on my arms were almost gone, but the ones under my clothes were still there. And there’s still some itching, though not as strong as yesterday’s. If there’s one good thing that came out of this though, it’s that I’ve had plenty of sleep again.  Though there are things to worry about, at least it doesn’t include searching around for the best eye cream for dark circles. Now if only I could sleep so soundly every work night, minus the allergies while I’m awake…

So what triggered the reaction? I don’t know! I had shrimp sinigang for lunch on Sunday, cooked by my dad. I love shrimps and I sure hope that’s not what I’m allergic to 🙁 Alfred says maybe it’s rice, since things got worse after eating rice and chicken for Monday’s lunch. Ugh. I still don’t know. Maybe it’s the heat again.

Missing Photos

My Project 365 for 2010 has crashed. I knew I missed taking photos on some days, but the greatest blow is that I can’t find some of the photos I downloaded from the camera on to the PC. At least they’re not important photos, I mean, they weren’t from any important occasions, but they were everyday photos that I was just now looking for because I wanted to blog about them.

Now they’re gone.

I can’t tell whether the mistake is mine or someone else’s. For all I know, I could have forgotten to actually download them and then just went ahead to delete the photos in my camera. Or, I might have downloaded them but saved them somewhere else. Or, someone might have downloaded new photos and accidentally overwrite them. Sometimes the photos are just named numbers instead of Month-Year-Number and it messes things up if that happens.

In a way this is an eye-opener for me. I should definitely get to organizing my photos, and get an online backup system up and running. Besides, one reason that got me derailed from P365 was that I wasn’t uploading daily. If I’m to restart 365 by April 1st, I gotta start cleaning my act up, er cleaning up my files. Once I get that cleared, I might just be able to digiscrap again. Might.

Treats

A gentle pat on the back, a simple kudos email, small treats like these chocolate polvoron; sometimes that’s all it takes to show your people that you recognize their achievements and appreciate all their hard work.

When I first became a TM, I’d buy gummy bears for the team, and all sorts of candy treats that would keep them awake during their shift. When I moved on to other LOBs, I still took the habit with me. Sometimes we’d have donuts, or I’ll even bake them cupcakes. When I don’t have much extra money, Flat Tops or Cloud 9 would do. Since we have a payday bazaar, I’d share my finds with them, like those super yummy Choco cupcakes with fudge icing. Recently, it’s been these chocvorons that I hand out to the agents. (I don’t think I’d be doing that much anymore, to discourage them from eating right on their stations, haha.)

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Yesterday I found out from my friend’s post that she’s pregnant, possibly with twins! No wonder the boyfriend says she looks bigger than normal (they work in the same building in Makati and he’s seen her recently, when I haven’t seen her in maybe six months or so). Well, she hasn’t actually confirmed details yet, but that’s amazing news. Her eldest is about 3 or 4 years old already and will probably make an awesome big sister 🙂 She should definitely start looking for prenatal vitamins; I know that when it comes to pregnancy and caring for your baby it’s not one size fits all, there’s so much to consider. If I remember correctly she had to stop working during her first pregnancy on her doctors’ advise, I hope that doesn’t have to happen this time around.

Flickr

For Project 365, I started actually using my Flickr account. I also joined up with the Shutter Sisters 365 pool.

Sadly, apart from uploading my own photos, I haven’t actually gone around to check out the other photos added to the pool. Not much anyway.

Here’s a snip (cut using Win7’s Snipping Tool) of how my Project 365 2010 photo set looks like. Don’t they just look cute ordered that way?

Click on the photo to view the set on Flickr.

The last one I’ve uploaded is a photo from the 29th of January (yes, I’m a few days behind):

Snoopy

Meet Snoopy (pronounced snow-pee, as preferred by my nephew E himself).

He’s cute isn’t he? He’s just about 3 months old, a cross between a Shih Tzu and King Charles.

No, he isn’t my baby, and he’s definitely not sired by my Zune. This is Esban’s new puppy. Took a bath on the afternoon of the 9th, by the gentle hands of my giant, haha 🙂

I know I already have a photo blog, and I’m supposed to fill my new photography blog with posts and photos. But I just can’t help setting up a new Project 365 blog, because I love how clean the blog service looks. Check it out and leave me comments 🙂

While I was blog hopping and Facebooking, I came across a site showcasing destin hotels. Beautiful location, and beautiful hotels too. How I wish we could just drop everything this weekend and fly away to celebrate our ten years in one of those luxury hotels. If only we had the resources…

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