• I just attended a lecture on ethics. I dunno anyone in the audi except the lecturer (one of my officemates). Kakaiyak of sorts and kinda weird being soooo alone in a place I’m not familiar with at all. Lonely but ok na rin that no one knows me.
• One point in the lecture got me stressed again. Dang the skeletons in my closet!
• This soreness in my throat has been going on for several days already.  Did not develop into cough nor do I have colds naman.  Bactidol and Listerine (Pfizer made them — hehehe, ad for Betty) help ease my throat, but at the end of the day, still painful. Betty just goes “tsk, tsk, tsk.”
• Kris and some of my officemates (separately) watched the concert of Black Eyed Peas last night.  Me?  Had a date with Regalado.  Tough!
• Kris was grumbling of having bad luck.  He was caught in traffic, had a headache, then a tummy ache.  Baka raw na Just My Luck [the new film of Lindsey Lohan — which I will not watch as I’m not a fan despite her being my birthday-mate….solid Lizzie McGuirre (Hillary Duff) forever! Haha J) ko siya. Hello?!  That’s my DAILY life scenario.  Even worse sometimes.  Naku, don’t even think of having the possibility of a luck-switcheroo with me!  If and when that happens, I’ll be super happy and will not return fates na…especially with Kris’ luck?  Ay, sorry na lang talaga by then J!
• I watched the season ender of CSI last Wednesday.  To those who missed it and will just catch this Sunday’s replay, stop reading further lest I spoil it for you.  Super scared for Brass; but the drama/suspense about him was kinda short that somewhat not substantial tuloy ang dating.  As for the episode’s ending —- ew, ew, ew!  Ok lang if Sarah and Greg or Nick; but Grissom?  Boss and former professor — ew, ew, ew!

Water crisis solved the other night.  There’s flowing water already after we got water from Kris’ and Betty, from her brother’s.  talaga namang timing and wasted efforts. now, we can even go swimming with our over supply!

—

Due to typhoon glenda: classes suspended for all school kids; while no work for government employees. Yipee, para akong gradeschool ka-saya tuloy yesterday!  There goes your tax money on me! hehehe.

—

SONA of PGMA yesterday afternoon. Ang haba and daming pinasalamatan. Oh well, I truly hope matuloy lahat ng promised infrastructure projects.  This country badly needs them.

—

Stress is surely ruling over me already.  I have nightmares every time I take some shut eyes. Tummy aches like friggin’ hell.  Headaches and eyestrain everyday.  Yes, as JDL said kanina, malapit na!

—

Speaking of headaches, I have this throbbing jaw/facial ache the past months.  Weird, but awfully painful.  No detectable lymphnodes nor wisdom tooth naman (yeah, I haven’t gotten any of them yet, thus still me being unwise).  According to doc AJ, caffeine sometimes trigger such jaw/facial cramps.  Oo nga no, I’ve often been drinking coffee and tea again the past months (see Kris?  May basis na yung question ko why I get super horrible jaw-headache every time I drink tea).  But, why just now?  Heck, the whole of my lawschool life and the past bar seasons, super coffee drinker ako.  Plus, since papa’s cancer recurred in 2001, green tea (allegedly a cancer preventive drink) has been a constant in the house. Manifestation of accumulated caffeine over the years? What can be my substitute for coffee/tea to keep awake, then?

Betty’s getting concerned and is actually resigned to the fact that I just get the weirdest physiological problems.  Pa-check up na raw ako.  Hmmm, where do I start?

Aside.  Betty has this theory that other than age and genetics, my body is this ‘weak’ because it is not used to eating healthy foods.  I hated veggies my whole life and just started eating them due to Kris’ influence after graduating from college.  Betty said, my body was shocked with the veggies I suddenly eat thus I’ve become sickly.  Hmmmm…  Pwede.  My bestfriend Julia, a very picky and junk eater like me, still doesn’t eat veggies; however, she remains healthy as I was before.  Ergo….?

—

            Do I have a sign on my forehead saying “Information?”  Funny and weird when I got sms from a couple of officemates and friends asking if may work weeks ago/yesterday because of the typhoon (Bilis, then Glenda).  Funny ‘cause I haven’t been working that long to know such policies/who to inquire.  Weird ‘cause my whole life, people has me with such role.  Throughout my academic life (from gradeschool to lawschool), classmates always asked me kung may pasok ba whenever we experience heavy rains. 

Papa, being a media person would always tune in to A.M. radio for any announcement; and the info, I relay to friends.  Add the fact that me, being O.C., would call the school to inquire. In highschool, I even have this number of SSC convent to directly ask the nuns! Ha! Then in college, I call even sa Jesuit Residence to ask.  Haha.  Once lang ako pumalya – in gradeschool, I called very early to inquire if may pasok.  The one who answered the phone said wala.  I relayed the information to Julia.  However, mid-day, we found out, meron pala talaga.  Ayun, kaming dalawa lang absent that day. 

—

Pinoy Idol will start soon on ABC-5 (this is not a paid ad).

—

I caught bits and the ending of The High School Musical on Disney Channel (one of my fave channels due to Piper’s influence).  Typical teen flick. A bit disappointing considering the rave they created over it — OA characters, ang daming inconsistencies (at the end, after the basketball championships; the whole team still in jerseys.  but troy was in his white warm up suit bigla uli…just to sing), and the lead girl’s singing was horrible (parang badly dubbed na sort of sintunado).  Sayang tuloy the promising song, Breaking Free.  Thank goodness, the song is redeemed by the asian recording by Nikki Gil, a Malaysian guy, and a Singaporean girl (catch it on tv or sa website daw). 

We’re soarin’
Flyin’
There’s not a star in heaven
That we can’t reach   
If we’re trying

kris has this idea of studying abroad.  had thought of that before but then again i’m still stuck with an unfinished business and i’m kinda pissed off studying at this point; so i doubt i want to do ‘further’ studies soon. 

anyway, going back to kris’ idea; selfish as it may sound, but i’m not keen with it ‘coz it means him leaving and gone for almost a year or so.  got me thinking, is it me who just propels people to leave or i just have this knack of always being left behind?

when i was younger, that was my greatest fear — to be left alone (especially to be left by my dad). 

i’m already living that fear…and actually even more ‘coz all the berbanos are gone from home.  then, housemate mel is already abroad.  sometime in the near future, with housemate betty’s career, i know she’d leave as well.  then, kris too?

lainie and mel are telling me to leave na nga rin and be with them abroad. hmmmm, that could mean me leaving than being left behind, for a change. 

Someone forgot to totally turn off water from dripping; finished off our water tank supply; then we find out Maynilad Waters cut supply due to some pipe repairs somewhere.  AAAaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrg!  I’ve been calling 1626 the whole day and night; but to no avail — seems broken or they just switched off their customer relations hotline. Double AAAaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrg! To think, 1627 — the hotline for Maynilad’s northern section of Metro Manila — works and they don’t know anything about southerners’ problems nor the problem with 1626. Triple AAAaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrg!

North Korea rejected the UN Resolution re their missile testing.  War escalates between Israel and Lebanon.  More rains in the region according to CNN weather station (yeah, last Monday, whole day of no rain; then just as I was going out of our building, deluge!).  Bicol declared State of Calamity due to eruption of Mt. Mayon. Tsunami in Indonesia, many dead. More aftershocks felt.  New earthquake near the area. A construction accident in Cash and Carry. Floods and mudslides in Japan. Heat wave in the USA and Europe.

What’s happening to the world?! Yeah, obviously a lot…but gosh…too much! Scrary actually.

I’ve mentioned before that my orthopedic-surgeon (not orthodontist, big diff, people J) advised me to avoid eating seeds of fruits and vegetables as they are rich is uric acid.  He said, it can be tedious, especially when I like strawberries!  No biggie ‘coz for me, fruits come in tablet form — 500mg ascorbic acid J.  But still, taking his cue, I’ve become literally picky with my veggies.  I painstakingly take off as many seeds I can that I now again enjoy eating my fave eggplants and baguio beans (well, in effect beanstalks na lang as wala na nga yung beans…or as betty puts it, “baguio” na lang as I’ve removed the beans – haha, aspiring comedienne J!).  Ang happy.

This week though, nanang bought avocadoes.  Ah, yummy shake — a fave since childhood.  While gulping so down, Betty said I’m killing my hands as avocadoes are loaded with uric acid.  I reason out, heck, I don’t eat the friggin big seed at the center naman eh.  Checking my list, yeah, avocadoes are bad — uric acid and cholesterol-wise.

I swear, I’d picket in front of DOH na talaga with signs and shouts:  “Gulay and fruits are bad for you — seed or no seed!

–

I’ve destroyed the paint of our gate with my deodorizing bakingsoda-vinegar solution.  I’ve re-applied so many times ‘coz the friggin’ askals and Polo are having nocturnal pee-spree again.  Arf-Arg!!!

Then, nanang gave a great scare yesterday — she lost her house keys!  I super freaked out ‘coz that means I have to change all our locks/doorknobs for security’s sake.  After a whole day of searching, our neighbor said she found nanang’s set of keys in front of their house.  Must have fallen when she was cleaning WUDJU.  Thank goodness we know who got them and the loss was realized early on.  I hate to imagine if we were oblivious of the missing keys and the set fell on evil hands.

Jove and Ticot gave me pencils for my birthday (the former, gavel-shaped and the latter from UK). Ang happy!  I thought walang magbibigay ng pencil sa akin this year eh.  I wonder ilan na talaga total ko?

—–

With the letter from Honda, I was thinking, I can’t have the car tuned-up yet.  One, I haven’t factored such expense with my finances. Two, I use WUDJU once or twice a week only the past 6 months (dang, with unleaded fuel being P43+!).  Betty said, even with my minimal usage, cars still need to be tuned-up every 5000 km or every 6 months. Dapat pa nga raw every 3months eh.   I know the 5000-km-or-6-months Rule; but for a hardly used car with an owner living on government salary?  Hay, ang sarap ng company car with reimbursable casa-maintenance expenses! 

—–

World Cup and Wimbledon are done.  The mission of Discovery is almost complete as well.  The FabFive (all of them!) are coming to Manila on July 20! Terrible bombings in India.  Floods in China. Mt.Mayon just spew ash/lava! Landslide in Baguio!  A baby girl for Merlie! UAAP season begins…without DLSU!

—–

Dang, my promotion appointment papers are going through tough bureaucracy.  Slow processing, got lost, found, slow processing again. To think it has been almost two months already. Then, after the approval of said papers, I have to wait for financial/budget approval pa.  That could take a month or so.  That translates to withholding of my salary for the month when such financial/budget processing is taking place (like when I started to work).  Ay pobre!

—–

With my hands still paining me, Lainie made me recall the wonderful and unassuming powers pancit-pancitan!  Oh yeah, my dad used to munch on these “weeds” when his gout strikes.  Lains suggested that I boil said leaves and drink the ‘juice’ like ordinary tea.  Good thing our garden has some.  I asked nanang to boil and viola, pancit-pancitan tea for me.  Thank goodness it does not have any yucky taste (it’s actually bland; parang water din but transparent-light-greenish in color).   I told nanang to culture said ‘weed’ and I’d experiment come October (dyoshkopo my list of things to do on October!).  I’ll try drying up the leaves and pound to make fine powder para instant pancit-pancitan ready to drink tea!  Or, I’ll dry the leaves, buy teabag cloth, and sew them in para pancit-pancitan in a teabag!  Naks!  I believe this will help a lot of people ‘coz many of my friends alone have high uric acid in their blood levels (go have a blood chem, maybe you also belong in the group). 

I’ve asked before, aside from preventive measures (not/lessen eating uric acid-rich foods), what can be eaten to lower uric acid (like oatmeal is to cholesterol)?  Oo nga pala, pancit-pancitan!  Yes, I have no scientific backing for this yet; but I’m now a guinea pig with its effectivity (just as papa was).  Pero pause muna, I’ve consumed all the pancit-pancitan in our garden, hehe.

—–

Despite not being in the eye of this present typhoon, its effects are thoroughly felt by us here in Metro Manila. 

1. Imagine me, alone in xwind, with winds and water sloshing from Manila Bay along Roxas Boulevard.  Please God, let me not topple over!

2. Our damaged upper roof taking heavier pounding and destruction from the rains! Ahuhuhuhu L

3. Ria and Betty trying to be girl-McGyvers last night, addressing the overflowing water on the roof of our back storage room and some minimal leak on the ceiling of the same room (prolly due to small cracks over time) — water got collected on the roof due to some particles clogging the emergency-drain pipe that the water prolly seeped through the very small cracks already (when you see our place, you’d understand my description).  Betty scooping water and me placing a cover to protect the storage room’s door, plus the both of us removing the clog by principles of physics and the detriment of our fingers. All these while rains pour and lightning crack overhead.  As remedy, we tied an umbrella atop our protective grills at the back to at least lessen the impact of rain water against the storage room door.  My hand was wounded pa in the process.  Ouchie!

4.  Aside from visibility problems driving home yesterday (my co-motorists along south super highway not only had their lights on, they turned on their blinkers as well), there were many flooded areas pa.  I am attributing the sudden noise from Xwind’s engine this morning with the flood waters I went through yesterday (but I suspect, the noise is due to the fan belt — although when I popped the hood kanina, all belts were moving well naman).  Atleast I had chasis coating recently; siguro I’d have more troubles if bare pa rin under.

When it rains, it really pours!  Or there is just a conspiracy with forces of nature for all these crazy things?

—–

It’s raining crazily outside.  People from other government agencies were already sent home.  Some offices in this very institution also declared half-day off.  But the rest of us are still here.  Where’s justice J?

—–

The long period of silence is a manifestation of how crazy life has been.  Kinda tiring actually ‘coz my brain cells are working overtime to their maximum capacity – drafting, editing, and reading personal books.  Rebellious will sometimes kicks in and opts for sleep or tv viewing; but the slumber and alleged relaxation are often pitiful as the conscience bugs me all the time! 

The foregoing and the fact that the many unexpressed ria-voices and ria-thoughts wasting precious brain cell space consequently make me crazy!  But then again, aren’t I already one to begin with?  Haha J

With all these being said, I now freed said useless thoughts from my tortured brain cells J

Now this is real service!  :o)

Never in this lifetime would Isuzu send this. Ha!

Another thing that made my day is a snail mail (too) from Ateneo naman.  The usual birthday greetings for alumni…signed by father ben!  ang happy.  my blue blood singing :o)

So many new things; so many happenings…and all these while, I am ignoramus!

1. My all time fave Andre Agassi bid his farewell to Wimbledon.  Dang, I miss his this moment! He’s retiring at the end of this year.  Thanks AJ and Che for bringing this important (for me) matter to my attention.

2. Space Shuttle Discovery went to space again!  Dang, haven’t watched any preps on TV about this tuloy. atleast i saw bits sa news yesterday.

3. Sustagen’s mascots — Susie and Geno — have a new commercial.  They look different na.  I should know, I was a member of the Sustagen Club when I was a kid (I think it was in cooperation with Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club).  Ang ngefu (my tita grace and cousins’ term for ugly) ng new mascots!

4. North Korea has been launching missiles! Wha’da?!

Atleast naka-panuod ako ng Superman Returns — my birthday rest…and a movie in Powerplant after months of hybernation!  But then again, i was just left blah.  i guess i hyped myself so much about this film that i ended up disappointed with it.  Go watch for yourselves and enough of my ranting lest i ruin it for you :o)

Question, as of today, ilan na nga na ang product endorsements ni Paquiao (print, tv, billboards)?  Betty and I lost count sa dami.  Super dami na once he has endorsement for shampoo, laundry soap…ano pa ba J? 

Dang it!  July is flying by fast!  I am sooooo panicking.  Work overload (to my current standards and actually, sa totoong buhay talaga) and reading backlogs!  Oh no, oh no, oh no!