Ramblings and Brain farts

Not the weekend I imagined…

I have been cooped up at home, and have slept away most of the two days I’ve had off from work (Friday and Saturday). No, I didn’t really have to catch up on sleep, nor did I intend to laze away two whole days. I had no choice.

I was plagued with nagging tension headache since I woke up around noon on Friday. I spent extra hours at work on my last day so I left at about 140am Friday and went straight to visit my Papa in the hospital. He isn’t in critical care, the doctors just wanted to monitor the irregularities they found in his heart. The monitor isn’t hooked now, but he’s still there. I don’t think he can already pee normally – which was the reason he asked to be brought to the Emergency Room on Wednesday night.

I only stayed a little over an hour – he was sleeping, so was my cousin who was watching him. Papa did wake up a few minutes and talked to me. He told me to go home and sleep too. I stayed awhile, watching his breathing. He was hooked up to oxygen too. While watching him, I took out my handy notepad and a pen, and wrote down what would have been Thursday Thirteen for the week – all about my grandpa. I didn’t get to post it though so it will have to wait until next week to be shared. I am just so happy to know he isn’t in any serious danger.

I walked home in the middle of the night. It was a nice and peaceful walk. I had to take a longer way because I saw dogs blocking my way and didn’t feel comfortable walking by them. I had a security guard escort me part of the way, because the gate I was passing through was already closed and he wasn’t sure I’d fit through the gap – I did. 🙂 The hospital is just a few blocks away from home.

Walking that night cleared my head up a bit and it reminded me how I used to enjoy evening walks, or even morning ones. I’d have to take that up again real soon.

I also thought about how I’d be spending my weekend. Alfred was home in the province, as he always is during Holy Week. I thought I’d give Zune a bath myself, and get a headstart fixing up the room so he wouldn’t have to do it when he gets back. I know, he doesn’t really live here, but he does more than my share of the chores when he’s here. My parents are so used to having him around actually, they aren’t surprised anymore when he comes home earlier than I do with our current schedules.

Anyway, I didn’t get to do any of what I planned. No blog posts, and no layouts either. My Friday and Saturday were mostly spent sleeping and complaining of this terrible headache. I’ve had worse, granted, but this is just making me so uncomfortable. Adding my monthly visitor to the mix, and oh, I’m just about ready to explode. I spent three hours at the Emergency Room because Mon insisted that Dad take me there this morning. She was worried with her readings of my blood pressure and the fact that I was still complaining about the pain.

I went but my BP was normal – 120/90. I rated the pain a 4 on a 10-pt scale. The kind doctor asked me if I wanted pain reliever and I said yes. I did not think anything of it when he said it would be injected. I waited about 10 minutes, and another doctor came with the needles. I was surprised it was going to be injected on my fist and with such huge needles! I totally freaked out. In short, I backed out of the injectable and opted for oral medication. We had to wait longer though – probably paperwork, plus a lot more patients came after me. Some with more pressing concerns than I did. Meanwhile, the headache was just there, lurking.

Anyway, I have a prescription and orders NOT to look at anything bright directly. My first thought was my week-old big ass flat screen monitor. Oh well, I’ve stayed away from it too long already. I just itched to sit right here again. Yet I waited. I rested awhile. I didn’t ask for a medical certificate so I could get off from having to report back to work tomorrow though the doctor did say I should rest. I’m still thinking whether I’d ask for a holiday instead. I don’t really think I need to but I will if the headache comes back in the morning. Frankly, it hasn’t completely gone away, I can still feel some of it but the meds seem to be working it’s 24-hour magic. My neck/shoulders don’t hurt at all, and that’s just a bonus.

Oh well, so much about my one headache of a weekend. How about yours?

I am Lucky!

I was going to participate in the Lucky Me Challenge of the Raspberry Road Girls but I didn’t take note of the March 16th deadline so I missed it 🙁 Well, I guess it still is March 16th in the US and other parts of the world so I could technically join in, but I’m sleepy and will probably have no time to scrap any more. It takes me hours to do one layout. Heheh.

It got me to thinking about my blessings and what makes me lucky. Though I won’t be making the LO in time for the challenge, I will still make one. I hope these things make it into the LO:

** My parents raised me pretty well. They provided for me and made sure my brother and I had what we needed. We grew up with toys, books and family all around us. My friends used to think we were rich, but we weren’t. Mom and dad were just great at managing our finances, I guess. I could only wish I could be half as good a parent as they were. They probably aren’t perfect and I knew there were times as a kid that I didn’t understand them sometimes, but I never felt hatred or rage towards them.

** I have a brother who has my back. When he first started working, he’d buy me stuff. hahaha 🙂 We don’t spend a lot of time together now, and we never go shopping together anymore because he already has his girlfriend to help him with his shopping. But that’s okay.

** Though the pictures on my TT post may not necessarily show it, I have a boyfriend who really loves me. I mean, really. 🙂 Just now, I asked him to wait up for 10 more minutes as I finish this post, but he really really wants to go up and back to sleep. hehehe.

** My nephews and nieces love me unconditionally. So does my sweet little dog Zune.

** I have a job that challenges me, and pays well.

** I have friends to hangout with, to bug, and oftentimes reminisce with.

There are many more reasons for me to say that I am lucky. For that I am thankful. 🙂

Hihi, do you like my blinkie? 🙂 Wait, why isn’t it blinking?!!!?!?!?!

The Wandering Scribe

I don’t recall exactly when, but I was over at Mec’s and she casually mentioned the Wandering Scribe, which she read about in Reader’s Digest. Now, we have a monthly subscription to RD but I don’t always read through the current issues, I pick them up months after instead. So I missed the story that featured the woman behind the blog. I vaguely remember my mother mentioning it to me – a homeless person who had a blog and eventually she got her book published and now she’s no longer homeless – but it just didn’t stick. Sometimes we really could be so into our own shit that we just don’t pay attention to what happens around us – I could be, at least.

I bookmarked the blog, and read one or two of her latest posts. Of course it no longer introduced her to me, she was already speaking to friends and her usual readership. I felt compelled to read about her experiences and start by digging through her archives. She’s a brilliant writer so it is not boring at all and reading from the beginning really puts you in perspective. And it’s true what others are saying, her story is a source of inspiration, one where strength can be drawn from. Interesting how that played out, because her blog was her way of reaching out to a support group, she found it, and now others are able to find her words to be supportive.

Her entire life was packed in her car, where she lived for many many months. She used her blog to journal her experience, as her means of reaching out. The response to her writing is testament to how bloggers can actually step up and say something nice to someone, and in her case, how blogging can save a life.

We each have our own purpose for blogging, some want to make money off it, some want to be noticed, others just like having a sounding board. I’m more of the latter, though I admit having a huge smile whenever the sitemeter goes up or comments come in. I am happy that for Anya Peters, blogging helped get her out of an extremely difficult situation.

Her story also reminded me of how different homelessness is in Western cultures vs this country’s homeless situation. We have street families living in pushcarts (kariton), or ones who just have their sacks and boxes that they lay down each night wherever they find space and no security guards to shoo them away. Anya Peters is an educated woman who was really down on her luck; in her words she was respectable at daytime and no one knew her real situation at the time. Here, the homeless usually come from homeless families and generations of poverty; they can’t hide their situation, some of them can’t read nor write, and they are lucky if they’ve ever spent a day in a classroom. There are also those with stories like hers, from riches to rags.

I yearn to read success stories from our own homeless. There have been few stories featured throughout the years, but those were also mostly about a homeless person who turned out to have an interesting background too – but those stories are few and far between. If only there are people willing to give the homeless of this land a chance at getting their lives together, like the publisher who gave Anya hers.

Her story also begs the question – what have I personally done to reach out to people in similar situations? Am I generous with hugs and words of support to a person who is miles across, but can’t even spare a smile to the homeless that I pass by in the streets? We gotta admit, we fear them, we are embarrassed to look at them – that’s why we don’t bother to get to know them. I take time to read through Anya’s archives but won’t be bothered by another sad story of a street family.

Okay, the circumstances are different, still… I just can’t help but wonder…

Not a bad first day

I answered my first email ticket in a long time – 7 months. I am not used to it, and I still second guess myself when it comes to diagnosing issues. Some things that are considered basic (specially for someone who used to train new hires on those products) are now alien to me. I’m cutting myself some slack though because I haven’t supported the product line in over a year, no one is really expecting me to get back on track on the first try.

So today at work, was more like review day for me. I still had apprehensions while writing out my first response, I knew that if the customer wrote back, another agent would see what I did wrong, and I don’t really want them to see anything negative.

Anyway, it was a good first day. And I just love that shift!

Smiling now

A few posts ago, I mentioned about the stress I’ve been feeling at work. Today was totally different. I actually left work with a lighter heart than when I came in.

Oops! I had planned to bring donuts for my team tonight, it totally forgot about it when I woke up this evening. I’ll probably just make up for it tomorrow night instead though some of them are not going to be there…

%d bloggers like this: