The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

So much to blog about but doesn’t have the time nor the energy to blog about it. Every blogger knows the exact feeling. Also I think it is borderline to losing that blogging groove.

Anyway, I’m still crunching that job at W and that explains mostly why my brain is switched to the direction opposite blogging. Though there’s FB to keep me updated with what’s going on within my circle of friends and vice versa, I still feel that visiting blogs is more fun and personal. It actually saddens me that when I blog hop these days, most blogger friends aren’t updating as often as they used to. They’ve caught the FB bug as well.

‘Been alone here since the New Year. A was here for 10 months in 2011 but went back down South for another gig. Then my family came for the holidays and it was just heartwarming after not seeing most of them for a year. It was heart-filling spending time with them and most of all with Raine. It was just kinda bitin. The holiday season went by so fast. Then it was time to get back to regular work mode again.

It’s both weird and sad being alone. Quiet yes, peaceful at times. A lot of ME times, yes. But it’s just lacking. I guess I am not used to it anymore.

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year and it’s a holiday now. Imagine that?! Well I’m just grateful for the additional rest day after a really hectic week. Nothing more.

Hello indeed. Daragang Magayon is still alive in kicking. ‘Factory worker’ at the moment, spending an average of 4 hours a day on the commute. It’s been a month since I moved into my own apartment. That was a huge accomplishment! No complaints so far, except the commute time just takes too long. So I’ll most probably be moving to Calamba in a few months — depending on how my contract turns out…we’ll see.

The best news however is that Globe Wimax was installed just now. So expect me to be more visible online in the coming days. Actually I’m so excited to blog again, (even if it’s just about top anti aging products and totally unrelated to what I used to do) I can still use the moolah you know.

To say that I miss blogging and having my own internet connection at home, is a huge understatement. Anyways, I’m just glad I haven’t been ‘fired’ by the blog network yet. Now I know what I’m gonna spend my nights and weekends on. He he.

Now that it’s been a week, I can comfortably talk about it. I’m back in LB and I’ve started on a new day job. It’s a project-based (documentation and writing) gig for a pharmaceutical and nutritional goods manufacturing plant nearby. At first I thought I can still blog at night. But now it looks like I can only do so on weekends.

My first week was both fun and funny. Fun because I’m working with a bunch of young, hardworking and happy folks. Funny because I realized I’m too old to run after buses and jeepneys. Well i”ve been working at home for more than four yeas and so my legs and knees are ‘complaining’ about the daily commute. Oh alright, I’m not as young as I used to be, that I admit! He he

Anyways, it’s my first weekend off and so it’s back to health blogging, htc desire reviews and all that stuff that I do online.

Been home alone since Thursday night, hoping I could do some decent amount of work without Raine in the house. (I sent him packing to Lola’s house after class on Thursday afternoon. Regular class for him resumes on Wednesday.).

Since he left though, the rain never stopped. It’s been the 3rd night and I have weathered heavy downpours and thunderstorms. I’m really surprised there is still electricity as that’s always the first to go even at just the sign of heavy rains. Fortunately, I just experienced flickering of electric power.

As far as the internet connection is concerned, the connection always slows down whenever it is raining. Is that really true for Smart Bro? I just don’t get it.  It shouldn’t be right? Anyways, I just used those down-times to get some much-needed sleep.

The internet connection is holding on for now. I’ve been ‘locked up’ here for days (I just went out once last night to stack the food supply) and it would be a disaster if I get disconnected to the rest of the world. I’m giving myself some 24 more hours here, then I’m off to the barrio to be with the family in time for the November 1 activity (All Saints’/Souls’ Day a.k.a. Day of the dead).

It’s a special holiday today in my city because of the Kasanggayahan Festival. (Excuse the ugly website, can’t they make a better one??)

Anyways, I’m just happy that Raine has Monday off to rest especially that his second periodical test just concluded last Saturday. As for me, I really don’t get day offs with the kind of work that I do. Sometimes I wish it’s just inserting click heres in ready made articles. He he.

It’s already mid-month and I haven’t reached 50% of my normal productivity level. So I can’t really afford any day off at all.

Love. Life. Health. Have undoubtedly gotten in the way of blogging. Those and lots of technical issues on both sides of the fence. (Hello Smart Bro?!!). Anyways, life (and love!) generally going crazy was really the baddest combination when you are blogging for a living like I do.

(Well, nobody really works on  their h***y***n right?)

Anyways…

Now that health is being kept in check… and both love and life is a lot better now (at least it has reached some sort of equilibrium)…why do I feel like I’ve just purchased a bunch of Branson vacation packages??

At night, I can’t even stay up beyond 10 pm. In the mornings, I’m having a hard time getting up before 6 am. You know that’s really bad if you have a second grader who has to be up by 6. At least I wanna have a head-start before I get stressed out too early in the morning.

Then in the afternoons, I’m recently taking 2-3 hour naps. What the heck, Glo?! You’re supposed to be blogging your heart out! Hmmm…maybe it’s the daily rains, you know cooler temperatures…really conducive for much-needed power naps. Could it be the meds making me sleepy? Or I’m just being lazy really? He he.

But I cannot be lazy you know…it’s still difficult catching the good old blogging mojo that’s been trying to elude me. Come here boy! It’s just you and me once more.

This week has been really stressful. What with being the last week of the month for wrapping up blogging duties and due bills to pay.  It was a little difficult to breathe as I was also neck deep in house and mommy chores.

At last it’s Saturday and I can rest for 2 whole days. When Monday comes, it’s going to be a totally different story. ;)  Then the week after that is Raine’s first quarter exam.

It rained blogging duties since May. And I’m having a blast. A little tired of course, but at the end of each month (when I get the blog p$y)…it is always worth it.

Recently, somebody in Raine’s school sorta ‘interviewed’ me. Well I joined her direct selling store/company that’s why she had to ask some personal questions.Then we ended up chatting for 2.5 hours! He he. Can you imagine?

She got curios when i entered in the registration form - under occupation - Professional Blogger. She said…’what is that’? Really a comment I always get when some people (non-bloggers, non-internet savvy folks) ask what it is exactly that I do. So I explained. In lowest terms.The moment I mentioned ‘ sort of a writer but online, on web logs’… her next question (of course!) was: what topics??

Honestly? I lost count already. All I know is that they span a huge range of blog topics: from Chicago Search Engine Optimization to Korean Cooking, from salads and granolas to laptops and smartphones, from women’s health to cloud computing, from the iPad to home mortgages. Isn’t that great??!!!! I told you it’s huge. Ha ha ha.

During the summer season I was commuting from the barrio to the city on a daily basis in order to work online. On the average, I was just working 8 am to 2 pm days, with the hope of accomplishing more during school days. It’s been two weeks now that classes are going on and my days have gone really crazy.

I have already mentioned that a cousin is staying with us here in the city to help me with chores and with sometimes with Raine. However, he is also a college student (whom I am sort of helping out financially) and unlike last semester, he’s got a crazy class schedule this time.

Therefore I am mostly alone here… favorable to the fact that I need some peace and quiet while working. However, a disadvantage at times because - like any parent with school kids - my mornings can get really hectic. And so I have recently been starting my day at 4 am just to get a head start on stuff.

However, after a few days of waking up too early…it has taken a toll on me…that by Wednesday I am already snoozing during the 7 pm news, leaving Raine to close-up the house, practically. It’s good to sleep early right? It’s just that when I sleep too early in the evenings, I’ll be up and about by midnight.

So instead of staring in the ceiling and tossing and turning in bed, I’ll be working instead. And you know how that goes…I’ll be online through dawn! Worse, I just have to be up by 6 am to take care of my school kid. You get the picture… Ill be a zombie the whole day!

The downside to working at home is you get cooped up inside your house, in front of your computer all the time. Even breathing can get difficult at times. Air inside can get stale you know. Your electric fan blowing hot air in the summer heat. A/C is still too expensive.

With my meager blog pay, the fan and the computer alone brings my electric bill to a sky-high level. Electric power is just too expensive around here…not to mention the crappiest service that these electric coops provide us with…

I wonder when Smart Bro/Wi-max/Whatever-DSL or something else (Satellite internet? 50+K PHP for the unit alone! On second thought, that’s just 1+K USD! He he.) will ever reach my barrio?

Hmmmmmmmmm… online business…online business…shopping cart system..not to sell used books ha! Secret muna.

Oh well…in my mind there’s a perfect scenario I’m dreaming about. In my conversation with A over YM just now, this is what went on:

Me: u know.. times like these? i should be outside in our yard
kahit small table and beach umbrella lang
laptop ko andun
may internet!
that would be THE life!

open air,
crickets in concert
cool wind caressing the leaves
the branches swaying with the wind.
maybe a moon in the sky
starry skies
tapos mag yo yosi ka
tahimik! ahahha
SARAP!

A: this is not negative, how about mosquitos?
baka ma-dengue

Me:  may electric mosquito killer naman
yung may UV light!

A: ok

Me:  a cocktail in the other hand

A: take it easy

Me: ang mga mahal mo sleeping soundly sa loob ng bahay

A:  yeah u want them sleeping kasi pasaway

Me: exactly!
hahaha

I’ve decided to add 2 new categories to this blog that hopefully will take this blog to a new direction.

1) Letters To Raine (LTR)

It won’t be long that Raine is going to discover and read this blog to the letter. While he is mainly in 99% of the archives, I want to write blog entries that speaks directly to him. After all, he was the main reason this blog was created in 2004.

Letters to Raine will range from the mundane of stuff to life lessons I wanna document for him. I guess it would be nice that aside from talking a lot all the time to Raine, I have something in black in white to show him.

2) Glo’s Life Goals (GLG)

For somebody who has not been into resolutions and checklists, I wan’t to create a list of sorts for myself. Something I can tick off as I accomplish them. There’s just too much thoughts going through my head enough to keep me awake at night that I want to write them all (if possible!)  before I forget about them in the mornings.

So there…I hope you’ll watch out for it.

Happy weekend everyone!

Yesterday, I had the longest day ever! It was really crazy… Because I slept early the other night while putting Raine to sleep, I was wide awake really early the following morning - at 3 am! So I decided to go ahead with my online stuff, thinking that I’ll be able to accomplish way much before it’s time to prepare Raine for school at 6 am.

So when 6 am came, I took care of Raine, helped him prepare, brought him to school and I got back excited to get back to writing. However, less than an hour into it…I ended up voice-and-video chatting with a long-lost friend of mine. Before I knew it, it was already time to get ready for Raine’s lunch break.

After lunch, my brother was buzzing my computer when I got back here. He wanted to chat too. So we did. For more than 2 hours! I told you…yesterday was indeed chika day! He he. Anyways, I was able to insert some more blog entries after chatting with my brother. Then it was again time to pick up Raine at school by 4 pm. When we went home together, I still had to take care of Raine first for various things. After which, I cooked/prepared dinner while hand-washing the laundry. Talk about multi-tasking, right?

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