A college best friend finally took the plunge and got married…Congratulations, Mr. Rex and Mrs. Me-ann Lor!

<— one of the bridesmaids and the resident LM photographer (had the gown altered; thus was able to comfortably wear flats and didn’t look taller than Kris. hehe).

·        Grrr. Was late by two minutes at the office today.  Sigh, April is my tardiest month — 3 Lates and 1 Absence (with another scheduled for Friday due to the wedding) to date!  So bad! 

·        I’m a bit miffed at someone who played Pontius Pilate and made me appear bad.  To think I’ve tried to cover that person’s ass when the issues weren’t clear.  Moreover, I just can’t believe that person’s insensitivity and self-laudation that most of my and the others’ efforts were shadowed — to think said person’s part was kinda inconsequential. On the other hand, I am miffed at something at work again.  Two outputs altered for reasons I do not fully agree with.  Hay, these cannot be ‘coz I have to be clear of negative energies to cure my psyche.   

·        I’ve been having unusual dreams lately and the persons figuring therein were complete strangers.  Weird ‘coz I see the faces of the ‘people’ with me, but I know for sure that I haven’t met them in this lifetime.  I remember before though, when I was in grade school, a stranger figured in my dream and I eventually saw him in a jeep.  Creepy.

·        Last weekend, I was invited by my friend in our village to join her and other concerned-neighbors to go house-to-house to invite/encourage our village-mates to attend the general assembly regarding the alarming security concerns in our area.  We gave out a letter listing a number of security breaches in different houses in the village (there were around nine, with two houses having two separate incidents).  Funny, of the group, I was the youngest, with the others being parents, retired professionals, or at least in their 40s already.  As we went around, we were told about 12 more incidents of robbery.  Alarming!  To think our village really looks and feels so peaceful.  Gosh!  Thank goodness for our #1 defense — Polo, the dog.  His barking alone can be pretty scary.  What more his bites!  Without training him, Polo instinctively knew how to guard our house from strangers and possible robbers.  He ferociously barks at anyone who comes close to our gate.  He bites strangers who bring out anything from the house.  Heck, even though he is used with Betty already, the day we set out for Bicol and carried out big bags, he suddenly snarled and almost bit her.  But when she got back and brought home the same bags, Polo was simply deadma with her.

·        Done with the reception script — save for the parts we need to verify with the wedding coordinator and Gara’s say on the games I prepared.  Good timing ‘coz I got to attend an employees’-seminar in the office the next two days. 

·        The other day, Shey and I went to Dangwa to buy flowers I’ll use to decorate the venue of my friend’s bridal shower.  Gosh, really cheap and ang daming variety there! Ang happy! J

·        Yesterday, was a driving day — Parañaque (home)-Makati(Kris’)-Alabang (my friend’s final wedding plans meeting)-Pasay(fetch Kris from a hangar)-Makati(Kris’)-Quezon City (Bridal Shower) and back to Parañaque (home)!  I swear, I can’t believe a friend of mine (you know who you are) does this (except the Pasay portion) DAILY! Hindi makatarungan sa vehicle, sa smoke emission, sa pocket for gas, and sa body (fatigue, eye strain, leg cramps).  Whew!

·        Got the bridesmaid gown yesterday.  Sigh, I’m so-Pinoy-ish-ly dark for its color.  It’s kinda long as well, so I really ‘gotta wear high-heeled shoes/sandals. Uh-oh — I am really not used to/comfy with such, and I will be as tall as or maybe even taller than Kris! 

·        Speaking of my friend’s wedding, I’m having stress-panic attacks already.  I’m still not yet done with the wedding reception script.  Was just done helping with the repertoire and updating the program. May mga time-killing/entertaining games to conjure pa.  Then, the horror of a parlor stop looms near — make-up and hair yucks!  In addition, since I just saw the gown, I have yet to pick comfy and  matching sandals to wit.  Worst, I ‘gotta get a pair of contact lens and force myself to wear them.  Ahuhuhuhu.  I tried before and it was just hell! No ifs and buts according to Betty eh; besides, the bride asked so.  Ahuhuhuhu. Tough being pretty and being a ‘girly’ girl! L

Yup, I’ve just been blabbering the past days in here. I’m actually quite pressured that April is almost over and I still got so many house/personal errands to do (gotta do them quick now and clear my life of unnecessary worries).  Then, I still got a number of pending work to decide on.  Top it with me basically scared to confront what I should really do already; of finally executing my ‘ambitious’ plans; of planning my life and charting my goals again. 

Yes, I think I’ve “moved” on from March 30, 2006 and been living “normally” the past days. But I don’t think I haven’t achieved “healthy acceptance” of what happened…of what has happened in my life the recent years. 

To acceptance! To de-stressing! To being happy again! To actually living! So simple…yet very hard to actually do.

·        Today is airport day.  I drove Betty there early this morning for her flight to Cebu (work).  Later, I’ll be bringing Mel there for her flight to Cali (migration). 

·        Speaking of Mel, *sigh* so sad that one of the 0’96 is leaving us for good again. 

·        Happy birthday to Nanang!

·        In less than 10 days, I’d be playing the role of a Bride’s Maid to a college friend’s wedding; then I’d be an emcee to her reception.  I hardly know anything about weddings and my hosting skills have only been for kiddie/family audiences.  Uh-oh!

·        The railway area parallel South Super Highway is almost cleared of unauthorized dwellers already. Amazing, the area they’ve occupied is quite large pala. 

·        Merville Access Road is now almost completely cemented.  At least the However, traffic along South Super Highway  from the south to Magallanes interchange is still quite hectic — prolly the result of the lifting of MMDA’s modified vehicular volume reduction scheme. Sigh, kakapikon ‘coz even Sales Bridge is getting congested a bit like how it was during the school days.   

Watched a stack of DVDs during the Holy Week.  Some reviews:

1. Just Like Heaven - I failed to watched this on the big screen ‘coz I thought it’s not worth the precious pesos; however, I now reverse my original opinion.  The movie was a nice feel good flick.  Mark Ruffalo (my fave next to Colin Firth — hehehe, unassuming leading actors) did not disappoint me; in fact, aside from being usually sensitive, he was quite funny in this movie.  The story was unbelievable, but at least it was not overdone.

2. She’s the Man – I never intended to watch this film but Betty brought home a DVD copy.  Throughout the movie (130am-3am of Holy Wednesday), I was telling Betty, “Why the hell are we wasting precious sleeping time over this crap?!”  It was sooooo bad that it deserves condemnation.  Ughh! And this is a lose adaptation of “Taming of the Shrew” (according to Kris)? Hello?! I watched the said Shakespearean play on stage, but I did not see a tinge of it in She’s the Man.  Amanda Bynes sucked big time here (I was never a fan of her anywhere else anyway). She was so Nickelodeon-ishly irritating.  Eew, eew, eew!

3. Bandidas – I also did not intend to watch this as well ‘coz I do not like Penelope Cruz; but Kris popped the DVD in the player already so I had to sit through it.  It was not excruciatingly horrible naman; quite acceptable no-brainer movie actually.  I guess guys would like it due to the amazing bods of the two Latina actresses. 

4. The Man – Action-comedies aren’t my thing really; but this one was ok and even elicited some guffaws from me.  Weird and unbelievable; but good enough for us bored people then J

5. Little Manhattan – hehe, I just had to watch this again.  My super fave movie to date. 

• Mayon Volcano is truly majestic! A definite must-see! Happiness and mega-thanks to Betty (and her relatives) to have finally checked that Bicol trip off my life’s list of things-to-do J.

• Our land trip to Sorsogon, Sorsogon (where Betty’s paternal relatives hail) took 10 hours. Ang daming stop-overs kasi nung Philtranco bus and some parts of the road were not smooth.  In Legaspi, about 1 ½ hours before arriving at our final stop, I already had a good glimpse of the Mayon Volcano from my bus seat — a lucky one at that ‘coz everyone says that it usually hides behind thick clouds to first-time viewers. Ha! Then, when we went to Cagsawa for photo-ops an hour before my flight back to Manila , the Mayon was just in the mood for our cameras!  The thick clouds nearby waited until we were done before completely covering the upper middle portion of Mayon. Boo-yeah! J

• Another lucky thing in Bicol was when I was able to change my plane booking in Sorsogon from a Tuesday to a Sunday flight (to think, Betty and I just found the PAL ticketing office by chance and the PAL agent was about to close said office when we arrived). Our original booking was the earliest we can get weeks ago and everytime/everywhere we inquired, we were told that even the waitlist is full.  Ang happy! J

• The plane ride (yippeeeeee) going back to Manila from Legaspi took 45mins only.  It was actually one of my greatest rides to date — imagine being that lucky to catch an Easter Sunday flight back to Manila (and consequently not being absent in the office today), having a window seat way in front of the wing (I always get a window seat-wing view), and seeing about ¾ circumference of the Mayon (the plane made a U-turn en route to Manila).  Ang super happy! J

• Side and expected Ria-kwento: Betty’s brother and sister-in-law left their daughter in Singapore due to some important school and extra-curricular activities she can’t miss.  In doing so and going to the Philippines in the summer month of April, they were in full belief that they will encounter nothing but the great heat of the sun.  They’ve always joked that she is one rain-magnet in Singapore.  Betty countered that they should not get their hopes up ‘coz I’m with them in exchange.  Much to their dismay, the moment we entered Bicol, it started to drizzle.  I reasoned that according to my friend ARR, Sorsogon is really rainy naman talaga.  But, later the day at Gubat beach, the rains poured like there’s a typhoon already!  What a relief when the rains stopped because they are so getting convinced of my alleged butt-balat and rain-magnetism.  However, when we decided to join the religious procession that night, the rains began again.  Worse, may mga thunder and lightning pa! Talaga naman J

• Speaking of the religious procession (praying the rosary over and over while parading 20 or so “karwahe”), I was so surprised at the tradition of doing so in barefoot (I kept my slippers on)!  To think the procession entails going around the whole city — that’s walking on dirty/muddy roads for a little over an hour!  Unbelievable still was the number of people who joined — ang dami talaga na na-claustrophobia ako.

• Yes,  I did not get to see the Butanding nor the recently active Bulusan Volcano/crater lake (we just went to a very clean and shallow beach in Bulusan) because of time and distance constraints; but I’m very content finally have seen Mayon and having a couple of refreshing lucky moments. 

• Just a thought, last Black Saturday, Kris and I were at the opposite ends of Luzon…about 20+ hours of land travel and more than 1000 kilometers apart. Ang laki pala ng Pilipinas!

holy week — particularly holy tuesday.

"sinful" as it might sound, but when i was younger, by this time of the year, my family would have been in Subic (Olongapo, Naval Base, or White Rock) already.  no, it’s not our province; it’s just the usual get-together of my dad with sen. gordon and other media people. 

those were the carefree days.  days with adults to plan/take care of things…

• Discharging Kris from The Medical City yesterday was a semi-headache.  If we did not follow-up the billing department a couple of times, Kris would have ended up staying on for another day at the hospital! Advise, don’t ever believe the staff when they say they will call/bring to the patient’s room the requested papers/notices needed for discharge (to think the delay of said papers/notices was their fault).  Constantly follow-up, lest they forget about your needs (I learned this early on when I was a PA of my dad).  Then, don’t just take the voluminous bill as it is.  Despite the many entries and not being familiar with medical terms, still patiently go over them to (sort of) double check what the hospital charged you with. Yesterday, as I went over Kris’ bill, I noticed that they gave him 3 tablets of Arcoxia (super strong painkiller but allegedly not kind to the liver) the past two days.  However, I only saw him drink so once (and he just remembered drinking such med once nga lang).  Maybe he took sa ER (pero I still doubt it ‘coz how could he take a tablet if he’s unconscious and I was there throughout when he gained consciousness already?). Granting he took nga sa ER, still, dapat hindi 3 tablets na-consume niya in two days ‘coz such kind of painkillers are taken once a day lang (Betty told me so before the pull out of Pfizer’s own 40mg —coxib)…to think 120mg pa yung supposedly ininom ni Kris.  Nagpa-double check ako sa nurses and charts.  Ayun, overbilled for one Arcoxia (to think hindi ka-range ng Biogesic, Alaxan, or even any mefanamic acid ang price nun).  We were then told na they will either request the billing department to do a reversal sa bill or they’d give us the ‘unconsumed’ tablet.  Talaga naman.
• My new case assignment is such a hazard to health!  Voluminous records dating as far back as 1988 (laden with dust, rusty staple wires).  I can’t wait to finish it to finally end one portion of the case’s controversies. Imagine, the parties have been going on their feud for 18 years now!

• My friend called me the other day to warn me of the increasing security scare in our village.  She told me that robbers tried to break in her attic, and when they were unsuccessful, they transferred to the house beside hers.  Unfortunately, they were able to take some electronics and valuables. Good thing no one was hurt, though.  But the sad reality is, our once peaceful village is now unsafe!  We were hedging, maybe the security breach is due to the many construction being done within (hindi sa pagbibintang, pero simula nang maraming construction workers entering our village, dun nagkaroon ng ganitong mga incidents).  Hay, sana the SOCO people will catch the robbers.  In the meantime, we gotta be more careful — to think I’m bordering on paranoia na nga (ever since our vehicle was carnapped in front of our old apartment).  Well, in hard times, we can never be too safe!

i thought i’m done with my PA (patient’s assistant) duties in this lifetime, especially ER scenes.  but no; we just had to have a crazy and scary sunday-monday as kris had a softball-medical emergency (think of Chicken Little)!  thank goodness the critical hours have passed.

kris, no more jokes regarding health!  it’s just freaky how things turn out when we speak about them.  hmmm…but maybe we can work this the other way around: ok now, repeat after me, "mananalo tayo sa lotto even without betting. mananalo tayo sa lotto even without betting." haha!

’so thankful to all those who visited, called, and texted kris.  your concern and love for him is touching (it’s really so beautiful to directly witness how people care and love someone).