Ramblings and Brain farts

Christmas Shopping

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We only really started Christmas shopping yesterday, and it was crazy. I felt like I had already given every gift imaginable to the kids on our list in past Christmases, it was so difficult to find something I think they would like, would fit them, or would amaze them. 

Apart from the variety of items to choose from, it was really disheartening how much things cost now. For the amount we had on hand yesterday, we used to be able to buy gifts for all the kids in the family. Yesterday, we only found gifts for less than a third of our list, but we already halved the money! Crazy!

What’s even more crazy is that we found more things for Alfred and myself, than for my nieces and nephews! Alfred got an Adidas Japan jacket – something he has really wanted since the start of this year. I got a HUGE red Nike jacket. Haha.

Considering that I had already bought myself a present for Christmas – Frankie –  I really shouldn’t be buying anything more for me. So though I dreamt of buying an XboX 360 last night, I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing that anytime soon.

So we’re also shelving the idea of getting a TV for the room. Mine is the only room in the house (not counting the bathrooms of course) that doesn’t have a TV. Because the room is really tiny, there was initially the question of what size to get and where to put it. Then we thought we’d just get it it’s own TV stand that we can also use to store our other stuff.

Anyway, the TV will have to wait a few more months. 

We’ll still be squeezing in some more Christmas shopping between now and the 24th.  If I really can’t do it, then my Mom and Dad will. Maybe they have more patience for this. This used to be my thing, you know? Christmas shopping was something my brother and I did on behalf of my parents; then Alfred tookover the task with me. But since last year, I’ve just lost some of the energy for it. Bleh.

Peace and Serenity

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Because of my slow Internet connection, I have been staying away from my favorite digital scrapbooking digs to avoid frustration over the extremely slow download times. Today seemed as good a time as any to go visiting again, so I clicked on over to my Digital Scrapbooking Blogroll and went on a ride.

The order of  the links on my digiscrap blogroll randomly change each time you visit the page. On this visit, I went through about four or five of the links until I stopped, because I was led to an interesting blog that I felt compelled to read through, or I found one I haven’t visited in a loooong time and had so much downloads to catch up on. 🙂

Apart from the great finds from Lindsay Jane’s and KimB’s blogs, there was one blog whose threshold I felt blessed to have gone over today. Megan’s Rackety Scrappety. Her blog was one of those blogs that I used to visit almost on a daily basis. I always looked forward to her templates, and her layouts showcasing her kids. Templates have always been effective in giving me inspiration for my own layouts, though I almost never stick to exactly how they’re designed. On hindsight, though I must have downloaded every template I found on her blog, I don’t think they were really the primary reason I went there to visit – I truly enjoyed viewing her layouts, and the smiles of her kids.

As it turns out, Megan is indefinitely signing off from Rackety Scrappety to spend more of her time and energy with her family, and her newborn Crew. You have got to head on over to Crew’s Journey, I suggest you start reading it from the first post. Her entry about meeting Dex, one half of the twins who flew up to heaven even before he came out from mum’s tummy, was so peaceful and serene. I’ve never read anything quite like it. I mean, I don’t remember reading about loss but not feeling the heaviness of it. 

Crew’s Journey is both a memorial to Dex, and a celebration of Crew’s baby steps to wellness. I think that most importantly, it is a chronicle of the mother’s road to healing.

Whenever I hear of mothers who lost their babies, I can’t imagine how it was for my mother, losing her baby many years ago after having spent only a few days with him. My dad once said that my mom wrote poems but I’ve never seen them. And we’ve never talked about it. I can only conclude that at the time, she had the support and love to keep her going.

Pacquiao fights Dela Hoya

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Philippine boxing here Manny “the Pacman” Pacquiao fights Mexico’s Oscar “Golden Boy” Dela Hoya today in Vegas. This fight has been much anticipated and people are finding it difficult to call which way it will go.

The fight is already underway as I write. The telecast is delayed though so we won’t see it here in an hour perhaps. My mom and dad are watching it live in the cinema, they’ll probably send a text message once it’s over.

When I first heard of the fight, I was actually surprised and wondered why with his stature, Dela Hoya sought to fight Manny. But Manny is definitely up to the challenge.

I’m sure that win or lose, his fans will welcome Pacman with their loving arms!

Sophie Kinsella – The Undomestic Goddess

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I finished a book on my one day off – Kinsella’s The Undomestic Goddess. 


Samantha Sweeting is really something. She was at the top of her game and then the whole world crashes down on her. She makes rash decisions, but those eventually lead to her happiness. 

I want to be like her. 🙂

No, not to become a housekeeper, but to learn all that stuff and actually enjoy it – cooking, and cleaning. I’ve never been much of a domestic myself. I know how to clean up around the house and I can find my way in the kitchen (I bake, don’t I?) but to do them really really well and to enjoy it too? Hmm…

Nah, that’s not really it. I want to be free like her, to finally find the life she can be truly happy with. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy as it is. But sometimes, I still think about leaving my job behind and doing something completely different. Work isn’t as stressful as Sam’s lawyering, but it is busy. And lately, there’s absolutely no “just be” time at work. No one’s imposing that I don’t take my breaks, but with the volume of things that need to be done – I can’t help but forget to go on break. Haha.

Anyway, if you enjoyed Kinsella’s writing in the Shopaholic series, then you’ll like this one too. It’s very easy and light reading (specially compared to Les Miz – which I still haven’t finished). It’s a bit too good to be true, like would things like this happen in real life? But that’s the wonder of books – anything can happen. 

The book had a very light approach to the debate on where women belong – at work or at home. It wasn’t imposing for either side. I guess what it did was come across to let women know that ultimately, it is their choice. Samantha was brought up to look forward to just one goal – to build a career at law and be the best in that field. She owned that dream and her whole life revolved in making it happen.

An unfortunate event yanked her out from that life. She went into shockand acted in panic. And though there could have been so many bad situations she could have found herself in as a result, it was the Geigers and Lower Ebury that actually saved her.

She really did sound like a woman coming out from a bad relationship – someone who needed healing. And what a great rehab she found! Iris, who was like a mom to her, did not just teach her to cook, but taught her how to taste, and feel.

Sometimes I feel like novels like this shouldn’t include a hunk of a man, so that there’s no confusion about what drives the heroine to the choice she makes. Would she really have chosen her new life had there been no Nathaniel?

Snippets

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Wow. I went without checking my blog and my mails (except my work email) for close to three days! I haven’t been browsing my usual digs either.

Not surprising since:

  1. I’ve been busy (with nothing specific!)
  2. My PC had OS issues since Sunday and Alfred only found time to work on it this afternoon.
  3. My ISP has been soooo slow.
Okay, so of all three reasons, it’s really #3 that kept me away without ripping my heart apart. I could have used either Alfred’s or mom’s laptops to logon and live on as usual on my web home. But the thought of how slow the real download speed is, completely turns me off.
Tuesday-Wednesday: The New Weekend

Saturdays are tight in the office, and our management team has decided to tweak TM schedules so that there are more of us available to support our agents during the weekends. I’ve had Fridays and Saturdays off since I joined the account and it really is the RDs I prefer. But my boss asked for volunteers for weekdays off, and since Alfred and I have not shared the same offs in a long time… I volunteered for the Tue-Wed rest days. It’s supposed to start next week but since they’d already be needing help this Saturday, I agreed to be there. I took tonight off so  I could catch up on sleep I didn’t get yesterday. I’d be back at work Thursday night though, then off again for Friday. Crazy, ain’t it? My choice though.

Frankie’s down again

I seem to have broken Frankie. I used up the 36-shot roll while at the Fiesta on Saturday and was going to rewind and reload with a fresh roll. But it wouldn’t wind properly. Then suddenly, the winder broke. 

Frankie’s taking a trip back to her doctor tomorrow. 

I seriously feel like it was my error that caused it to break. I feel so dumb sometimes. I’ve had Frankie for two weeks but I still haven’t seen any results – something always goes wrong with the film!

Fiesta. Greenhills. Twilight. etc.

Fiesta day was a fun day, clouded only by the Frankie incident. I have thoughts about fiesta, and the YAM festivities that I’d very much love to share. I’ll dedicate a whole post for that though. 

We went to the Seminary in the afternoon, but Alfred didn’t find the basketball games particularly interesting. There were no games for the kids, so there wasn’t really much else for us to do – specially since Frankie was not up to shooting anymore. We decided to head to Greenhills and finally see Twilight. 

Alfred had to work that night though, so we had very limited options in terms of which showing we could see. It so happened that the one we needed, was already sold out. Bummer. We ended up doing a bit of shoppping.

Greenhills at night at December, is still a nightmare when it comes to hailing a cab to get you home. It takes forever. We made good time though, Alfred was able to take a shower before heading to the office. I took a ride back to the Seminary with my brother and his girlfriend, for the YAM night.

These are just snippets of stuff I would have written about had I been online in the past three days. I’ll be back in a few hours with more!

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