Gawd I've been so busy lately.

Just finished the Halloween party series for our brand and I must say, apart from the hell (pardon the pun) I went through with logistics, the parties themselves were fun. I got to dress up 3x last week, capping it off with a full on devil costume on Halloween.

Meanwhile, it's midterms week in school. I'm worried for some of my students... I can only drag out so much scores from their answers. I mean, how do you grade:

1) "I will give him a sponge bath" on what to do with an intoxicated guest
2) "The significance of roads in the history of bars is that without that, we would not have anything to discuss in class"
3) "Haughtering" on how to lose guests

*doh*

I feel extremely fatigued lately... I think I may have put a little too much on my plate. I love teaching and I like my day job... If I were to choose between the two, I'd rather teach. Unfortunately though the teaching thing is part time and with the way my schedule's been lately, it really looks as if I have to give it up. I've taken to checking papers every possible moment, even in Chad's house. I don't feel like I have enough rest, too. It makes me sad, though... As of now I have got to keep the day job at least until I manage to get things started with the resto. I'm having a hard time balancing my relationships too. I would like to spend a date with Chad without thinking of the papers I have to grade and an event I'm working on, a Sunday with the family without worrying about not having enough sleep to be able to get me through the workweek, and have a bonafide "me" day. :) I can't even find the time nor strength to read books anymore.

I remember having had a similar dilemma a few years ago... See, if I keep my part time job, it won't be practical for me financially. If I keep my day job, I will have a hell of a time feeling fulfilled.

I think it will help to re-channel my goal list:

1) Open up a restaurant
2) Have a good family
3) Good health
4) Sticking to a job long enough
5) Be financially independent
6) Save up
7) Continue to be my own person who makes decisions for myself
8) Be a blessing to others
9) Travel

Oh well. :) The term's about to end first week of January. Wish me luck 'til then!

Meanwhile, I'm happy that a lot of my room has been sufficiently repaired post Ondoy. I just need to have one last drawer fixed, and replace my CDs. All of them. :( Think stuff from as far back as 1993...!

Chad & I just celebrated our 5th monthsary. :) I've never been so happy, I tell you. Cliche as it sounds, I can't even find the words to express how overjoyed I am to have him in my life! I've never felt so loved and cared for. And I love having regular dinners with his folks, no matter how grand or low key it is... I love seeing their dynamic as a family and the fact that they're comfortable showing that to me. I think it's partly because dad hasn't been around enough to show me a great mom & dad interaction. :) The feeling of being welcomed in their homey atmosphere overwhelms me in a good way. I can only aspire to have the same level of love when I reach their age.

I used to think exercise and prayer were such chores. I used to view exercise as a means to lose weight. I used to think of prayer as a religious ritual that was imposed to us, and that God would not bless us without praying. I also thought that we only pray if we have issues we have to deal with. But lately, I find so much peace in both... Like, running helps me keep my mind off work and issues (love the endorphines!) and prayer keeps me centered despite living a relatively more chaotic life than I used to. I read a saying that went, "God doesn't make the mountains smaller but the climb easier". I think I'm at that point in my prayer life... I don't feel like I can face the world without prayer and faith.

I like counting my blessings because no matter what happens to me, I know what I have and what I don't. I have a real home, a great boyfriend, true friends who don't need to be together 24/7 to be assured that we love each other, a very understanding family (and a wonderful pseudo-extended one with Chad's!), I'm not broke anymore, I work for a company that treats me like family, I get to touch people's lives through teaching, I can sing good enough to make people happy, I have a new car (Champagne!), and I have enough network to start a business (with the right financing and a killer chef).

Oh well, here's to hoping for a good day. Awful looking weather... I smell a traffic jam!

I have a new shopping list:

1) Drawer Liners (so I can FINALLY put my clothes back in my drawers)
2) CD Cases (to put my CDs in since my CDs are Ondoy victims)
3) Wine Racks

Random stuff:

1) My car got delayed, so I'm working from home today.
2) Met up with Uichi yesterday. I miss that guy and his insanity. And his evil plots on world domination.
3) I'm psyched for Christmas!

I am forcing myself to take a break from doing anything today. I realize that my work addiction has driven me up the wall, making rash judgments and being cranky for quite a time.

Speaking of which, I've had the mother of all fights with my boss on Thursday which culminated in a shouting match. I felt horribly offended by having him insinuate that I did something I did not, and I must admit to feeling rather anxious in facing tomorrow, where I would see him again.

But that must wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile... Chad and I spent a wonderful Saturday together. We ran in Fort, sang in the car, had dinner in our house, and we went to Martini Bar. We had a blast reminiscing how we got together, and I must say that I am very very very happy and blessed to have him. He is the best boyfriend anyone could ask for or want, and I'm just incredibly lucky to have him, and to be loved by him. He is sweet, kind, caring, strong, responsible, and loves me for who I was and am. I just feel so happy and mushy. I'm psyched to spend each day with him and everyday I look forward to the next time we see each other. I'm head over heels in love with him.

I'm sorry, dear reader, for all the mush. I'm just absolutely, fabulously happy and I don't know how to express it.

:)

Chad & I planned to spend a wonderful holiday in Singapore for my birthday...

...and ended up in HK. This was due to Chad having passport issues.

It was a blessing in a sense... I mean, I have been whining about how much I missed HK. Also, there was an earthquake. And after the stuff we went through during the typhoon, I wasn't ready for another natural phenomenon. Lastly, I heard that one of our stalkers went to SG the same week we were there, so nyah-nyah.

Quite frankly I'm too lazy to post details of our wonderful stay in HK & day trip to Macau, so I will just tell you that it was the best birthday of my life. And looking back at a lot of my previous posts, this year has been a year of bests for me... Best New Year's, best Valentine's, best Bora trip, best birthday, best HK/Macau trip... And I'm glad I got to spend them with THE best boyfriend on earth.

I leave with the following quotes:

"Never explain yourself to anybody; your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway" - ELBERT HUBBARD

"It's better to be hated for what you are than be loved for what you're not" - ANDRE GIDE

First of all I would like to thank everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. These people have been indispensable to us in terms of physical help, spiritual encouragement, and emotional support. Thanks to Chad, the Sotelo family, Boss Jun Cochanco, Mr. Faustino Pe, our plurk friends who have been worrying about our state, Century Park Hotel, Edda, Ines, Malu.

Our family has literally weathered the storm Saturday to Sunday. A lot of the incidents went by in a blur and I might have to go through them in a very unstructured manner. I apologize. Chalk it up to extreme trauma with the rain.

It all happened so fast... One moment the flood was lapping up to our garage, the next I was flipping the circuit breakers, the next we were lifting as many expensive furniture as we could up to the second floor.

By that time, we realized there was something severely wrong with our circuit breaker. We flipped everything off but there was still electricity running in my room (which was on the ground floor). So we decided to abandon the efforts to really do much after the water began to rise up to the outlets.

Mind you. In the entire 20 years of our house's existence, this was the first time that flood water ever entered the house. This was a complete shocker to me.

Poor mama was stuck in her company's Crosswind along a Paranaque road, where she remained stuck til roundabout 6 pm. By that time, of course, the water along the road that would allow one to get to our house was chest deep. I told her not to go home. By her company's good graces, they booked her a room in Century Park Hotel.

God bless Smart for being the only Telecom Company that kept me in touch with her during these anxious times. I have three mobile phones. Globe conked out while Sun was being Sun, but surprisingly was more reliable than Globe. It also allowed me to keep up to date with the news courtesy of Chad. He also kept me sane. Thank you Smart!

Anyway, some time mid afternoon someone started screaming to me that my car was on fire. By that time, the water along the street in front of our house was thigh deep, therefore the access road should be about chest deep. I told him that I could not go out and even if I could, I would not know what to do. I told him that if the car REALLY sets itself on fire to the point of alarm, I would definitely call the fire department. Of course, during the course of the day, the flood reached above the roof of the car anyway.

There was also a point in the afternoon where some of our neighbors were volunteering to lift our heavy furniture. I thanked them for the offer but politely declined. I mean, the ref & the dryer (the only two major appliances we could not carry) were already submerged in water. Too little too late anyway.

Later in the evening was the most anxiety ridden time... I kept getting via SMS news of people having their houses submerged in 3 floors of flood water. Our 2 floor house, for security purposes, is completely caged in. I began to imagine the worst: Getting trapped in our own house and drowning in here. I made a vow that if the water rises waist deep inside the house, which meant chest deep out in the streets, we were going to flee.

Finally Mama was able to contact us and we were able to figure out the fire exit keys. I was finally relaxed enough (sort of) to wait it out.

Funny thing was that Wuffles escaped the terrace and decided to make a mad dash at top speed downstairs and dive into the flood water. It was cute when she started to swim towards my room.

Finally the morning came and the water managed to subside from a maximum of just above our 2nd step inside the house to having about an inch of murky water in the house. Mind you, our house is one of the relatively higher ones in our neighborhood, so this was most unusual.

Damage assessment:

Our antique piano, antique turntable shelf, majority of our shelves, doors, tables... All the wood swelled. The paint bubbled, the sofas were wet beyond repair... It was quite a depressing sight.

Bless her heart, from the beginning of the flood to the end, our maid was there for us. She managed to transform into whom we laughingly call "The Incredible Bulk" for her sheer size and her sudden amazing capability to lift heavy objects during a crisis. She also managed to clean out most of the debris by pushing all the mud out and drying the floors.

Cleanup slowly started. Chad finally managed to get to my mom in Century, who had my cousin over so she could help with the cleaning. They came over, and Chad was armed with supplies. We deemed the house unlivable and decided to be refugees in Century Park as a family.

Today, we managed to clean up a little bit and slowly purchase new furniture. Power has been restored and the electrician came in to make sure that the house is safe. The fridge is OK but the spin dryer isn't. The downside is that we found out that the house is not covered by insurance when it came to floods. Thankfully, furniture is not that expensive anymore. I have 3 bags to my name right now... Thankfully I managed to save the XOXO bag Tita Ettie gave me & my black Girbaud, and bless her & Tito Tony's heart, they decided to give me an early birthday present of a Charles & Keith bag.

We are determined to pick up the pieces as a family.

Looking back, we are still a bit blessed relatively compared to the others who have no homes to go back to and have lost their loved ones. So far, I am the only refugee for having lost my room, but I am grateful that Mama is stil her nagging self, my brother is still his apathetic self, Wuffles is still a crazy ass, my boyfriend is still his loving, assisting self.

Speaking of family, Fluffy's preggers!

I have been SOOOOO busy I haven't had time to sit down and blog (nor plurk, I must say). So I will just have to update everyone via blog, so here goes...

Sunday, 13 September:

Went to the Megamall Cosplay with Uich as Jill Valentine. I've been meaning to do a Cosplay for months now and after much debate as to which character I would go as (I'm neither a gamer nor an anime fan, sans Fushigi Yuugi & Ranma 1/2), Fluff decided, based on my hair, looks, & the ease to pull it off, that it would be best if I would go as Jill Valentine. So I did. The pics are on my Facebook. ;) I must say it was loads of fun... I kept getting stopped every five minutes to have my picture taken with people. I say it was because I looked foreign.

Monday:

Ladies night in Nu Vo. I had fun on this one since White Kitten sponsored our dresses. I felt like an ultimate diva wearing a floor length cream gown with a slit upto there. *lol*

Tuesday:

World of Wine III in Nu Vo. Stephanie Zubiri made the hors d'ouvres. Had fun too... Got interviewed by Channel [V].

Wednesday:

Morning: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! Ok. If you've been an avid reader of my blog since its inception, that statement may come as a total shock for you. But I had fun. CSB totally spoils teachers with materials, seminars... And I'm very blessed to have the nice, "vibrant" kids in the class. I have the funnest characters, the hip hop kids, the Mainland Chinese kids, a couple of Korean kids, SC kids... Fun!

Evening: Wine Dinner in Astralis, hosted by the lovely Ines Cabarrus. As you can see with the amount of activities that have gone on as of this moment, I have been laden with activities... So by this tinme, I was slowly developing a cold.

Thursday:

Yep. Developed a cold. I had to stay home to rest it out... And since I must admit I am used to having a frenetic pace, I found myself pacing around my house, sneezing like crazy, and hooking lappie to the net just to do something. I even cleaned my room. I called the school to make an appointment with a co-teacher to figure out how to go about the lessons in a more organized, consistent manner.

Friday:

Morning: Went to school. And man... All the slides for the remainder of the term are DONE. Apparently, all I have to do is come up with projects, grade the kids, & make the lessons more interesting. Uhuh... Makes my life easy, really.

Afternoon: Late impromptu lunch with Chef Gene in Cafe Ysabel. I dropped off the wines he needed for our upcoming event, and since I haven't had lunch, he invited me for turkey sandwiches with cranberry jelly bits & some Vietnamese coffee. Deelish! He invited me to the Food Expo the following day, and since my company was sponsoring a booth, I said yes.

Evening: Had dinner with Chad in my friend Chris Aldaba's new resto. Had their large strawberry margarita, nachos, & chimichangas. Yum!

Went with Chad to the Ms. Miata Club event in Nu Vo. My friend Norman, with his production company, did the event. Chad, Norman, Santi, Gel, Malou & I had fun... Had a martini & a complimentary bottle of Cava, courtesy of Nu Vo.

Later, I went with Chad & his officemates to Cav to welcome Anjy back in Manila. I'm happy she's here but I must say I feel a bad that she wouldn't have much time to hang out.

Saturday:

After lunch, I went to the Food Expo. Chad followed suit. Met up with Chef Gene, who told me & Chad about different restaurants in SG that we should visit during our stay. I must say I am PSYCHED.

Chad & I picked up the dresses I had made in Katipunan. Woot! 4 dresses!

Chad then took me to a photo shoot. The goal of the shoot is to encourage tourism, so they said... I mostly did it because it was my friends' event. The shoot was very artsy.

Much later, we headed off to the Domengs for Jay's birthday party. Had a good dinner of Indian food courtesy of his girlfriend, Tin. Yum!

Today:

Went to church in the morning with Mama. Had a steak lunch. Headed off to the Fort for a failed raket in Serendra.

OK. This was SO not my fault. The person who referred me did not coordinate ANYTHING. The staff of the venue also had a bit of a time sorting things out. Meh.

Went back to church to get Chad's race kit for the marathon.

PHEW!!!

And...

Tomorrow:

MORNING: Breakfast with Chad's folks in Tagaytay
AFTERNOON: Work on school stuff & some work docus
EVENING: Nu Vo for Ladies Night

Rest of the Month:

Tuesday: Dinner event with Chef Gene
Wednesday: School
30 September: Dinner event with the Zubiris

Next Month:

- SG for my birthday
- Weekly events for Nu Vo, New Orleans, & Martini Bar
- Big events on Halloween

Gwah. Will recharge with sleep tonight.

Hell Week begun today with all the prep we needed to do for the coming of our Chilean Bastards - I mean, principals. *lol* My boss is in a bigger panic than I am it's becoming a pain.

Bottom line is, they invest little, I produce little. I know I did, but of good, sure quality. I saw my sched with them and it's completely toxic. Boy am I glad it will all be over soon.

A couple of my friends have love woes lately... I honestly do not know why people run to me for love advice or just to unload, even new acquaintances. So technically I have 2 friends to see for that, and 1 to keep sane.

I'm psyched that my gay childhood friend is coming over on September. It still amazes me that I haven't completely lost touch of my childhood friends... My ultimate best friend, who I don't talk to frequently but manage to catch up with like *snaps* that upon meeting, has been my best friend since we were 8!

I often say I'm glad I know who my real friends are, but sometimes, I'm surprised about how blessed I am to have more than what I initially thought. :) As most of my loyal readers know, my greatest treasures are my friends and my family... I admit to not having much in terms of material possessions (and I will not claim otherwise), but I have more than enough love and support that I don't need to constantly affirm myself.

On an entertaining note, one of my college acquaintances dubbed me "intelligent" in that All My Friends thingie on Facebook. OK, I'm not a big fan of the app, but I find that complimentary. I'm used to being described on a superficial level (mestiza, maputi, etc), and I've often been known to crave for a deeper compliment. I think that's one of the best compliments I've had in a while.

Whee! Chad's back from Cebu! *hug*