Mrs. Brightside

Over-all, 2012 has been a good year for me and R. We started our writing gigs in January and it's still continuing to date. In February, I left my full time job. Although the work load was manageable, the emotional stress was not. So after working for them for 11 months, I decided to leave. I focused on the writing gigs instead. In May, I received an offer for another full time job. I was on the verge of accepting it when I stumbled upon an American law firm that had an opening for a Philippine lawyer to work from home. I ended up working for the US firm. I enjoyed working from 5 am to 1 pm, Mondays to Fridays, and have the rest of the afternoon to lounge around. Well, not really. I continued the writing gigs in the afternoon. In June, I was offered the position of a Visiting Lecturer in a polytechnic abroad. Of course, I accepted it. I have always been curious about what's it like to live and work in another country. Since I was allowed to bring the hubby with me, I took...

Having bouts of katam again. That's the problem when there's a break from the usual routine. Of course there are a lot of admin things I need to attend to but I'm taking my time. I won't be surprised if I don't really accomplish much after this break. Manny lost. I was so stunned after he fell. And I was so scared when he did not move. I felt bad for a few hours. But the quarter pounder comforted me, hehe. Seriously, I'm just glad that he's okay. Never mind losing to Marquez. I just hope he's smart enough not to fight Marquez again. I don't want to see him lose 3 straight times. That would just be so disheartening. I hope we'll be able to watch the Azkals - Lions match on Wednesday. R plans to go to the stadium this morning to buy some tickets. Hopefully he'll be safe and successful. :) Done with our Christmas shopping for the loves back home. Not for everyone though. Don't want to burden relatives with a lot of padala. Hope to be a...

I've been feeling tired, sick, lazy, and sluggish the past few days. And all of a sudden, I found myself missing having someone to brush teeth with during lunchtime, to eat out with once in a while, to whine about the volume of work I'm getting and someone who'll allow me to say that I'm sick and tired and will understand where I'm coming from. Work's been ok but I guess I just miss having at least one constant buddy at work. A buddy who gets you. It's difficult to whine all the time to other people because they'll think you're negative, or worse, they can brush you off. Can't open up to people you're not too close to lest they squeal on you. So yeah, I feel as if grown-ups are not really allowed to talk about how they feel anymore. We're supposed to act like unfeeling robots. So I've been quite down and sad this week and nobody knows it but me. Then this afternoon, I attended a library tour. I met a girl who talked a lot. She...

I used to write poems when I was younger. But I outgrew the hobby. I must have realized that my poems were way too boring and superficial compared to the beautiful things other people write. It must be because of this past hobby that I'm into analyzing lyrics of songs. I want to find meaning in every line and every word. Recently, I've been into analyzing songs again. This time, my victim is Payphone by Maroon 5. I've been hearing this song for some time now. But I never bothered to find out what the title was. My sister used to rave about the song Payphone but again, I didn't bother to look for it. It was only the other day when I had the time to check out what Payphone actually was. I went to YouTube, watched the video and of course, analyzed the lyrics. What a sad song. I'm nowhere near breaking up with anyone but this is one good breakup tearjerker song. The kind of song you'll listen to when you're heartbroken and you want to cry and pour your heart...

Got myself a new job almost 3 weeks ago. I need to learn a lot of stuff and they can be pretty overwhelming. I have to do a lot of things but they depend on some other things. Case in point, I need to print class lists but the notice says it might be better to print them next week because they're not yet final. So an anxiety attack sets in. But so far so good. I am still able to remind myself to breathe and not to sweat the small stuff and that things will fall into place soon. I still get bouts of homesickness once in a while. Like when I talk to my family. Or when I hear of news from home. Or when my brother posts pictures from our "plantation" at home. But shutting them off won't do me any good. And the TV's always on TFC or ANC when I'm home. I'll get by. The husband is with me and that's the most important thing. The new colleagues are nice. They've been very helpful and supportive. Everyone's concerned about me settling in. But I re...

I do not wish to join the "I-know-Jesse-Robredo" bandwagon. But I do want to write a blog post about him, if only to remember that there once lived a man like him. I do not claim to know him personally. But let this be my way of paying tribute to a good man. I met Mr. Robredo while working on my undergraduate thesis in 2001. My thesis partner and I conceptualized a weekly documentary that will feature different places in the Philippines and the issues and culture that are unique to each location. Initially, we wanted to feature my hometown in Eastern Samar because there was a mining issue there back then. But due to time and distance constraints, we decided to feature my partner's hometown instead - Naga City. I visited the place between Christmas and New Year of 2001. I stayed there for a couple of days and my partner and I were able to interview Mr. Robredo. Our first meeting was in his office at the City Hall. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was ver...

...for my most favorite team in the world, the UP Fighting Maroons Men's Basketball team. I saw two foreign players at Chocolate Kiss earlier. They looked tougher than our current import. Well, that's not really a good comparison because the present import's kinda weak. My husband confirmed that we got 2 Cameroonians. Catch is they'll be playing in 2014 pa. Oh well, that's still something to look forward to. ;-)