sleep interrupted

it's 4:45 pm and that blasted car at the parking lot downstairs that woke me up earlier with it's anti-theft alarm is still blaring. i wish somebody would steal that car for real so that it would stop disturbing half the apartment building's tenants. seriously.

so i am sick once again. how many times have i blogged about being sick huh? i really should start taking care of myself now. i should stop ignoring my need for sleep. my sleeping patterns have been so out of whack lately (even when i'm not working). i should also try to remember taking my vitamins daily and exercise more, because hey, that's what the gym membership is for.

because i couldn't take the irritating sound that the stupid car was making i brought my pillow and blanket to the couch and tried to continue my interrupted sleep. i figured the sound of television would help me get to sleep and ignore stupid-blaring-car. it didn't worked.

so off to shoprite i went so that at least i could do something productive with my time and bought myself cold and flu neccesities like tissues (which i'm rapidly running out of), otc meds and any citrusy fruit. i was in and out of the grocery in a flash.

back in the apartment i did a little bit of cooking, ate, took my meds and slept peacefully on our second hand couch. finally the stupid-blaring-car stopped blaring or somebody must have stolen it already and i couldn't care less. i woke up at 1:30 in the morning and finished everything that i've been working on my laptop including this post.

i'll probably be awake the whole day today, unless i take some nyquills. my sleeping pattern still out of whack, i tell you.

another new year

the holidays are long over and if it's true that what you do on the eve of new year's is what you'll be mostly doing the rest of the year, then i would be travelling with friends and having fun. oh yes, more travelling is on the forecast this year. it's because new year's eve was spent driving to dennis' place in philly, watching the fireworks, meeting new friends and drinking booze.

(more pictures on my multiply)

to start off the year's lakwatsa, we celebrated dichi's birthday with a formal (meaning jacket required attire for the guys) dinner. it was at this nice little restaurant overlooking jersey and new york city. it took a while for me and dennis to find the place though, what with all the traffic and getting lost but we eventually found it. we were supposed to go clubbing in new york afterwards but because everybody was tired and rheza was sick we decided to just hang out at dichi's place and watch scary movies, sing videoke to our heart's content and take crazy pictures c/o crazy director senen. (pictures to come soon!)

the next day we drove to poconos to get our fill of snow tubing and skiing. we went to shawnee mountain ski resort. it was so much fun just watching the little kids ski their way on the slopes. it looked so easy but we were so sure it was more than our balance challenged bodies could handle. so we bored ourselves with snow tubing on shawnee's snow tubing park. it got so boring that the four of us (gina, rheza, dichi and i) stopped tubing and just took pictures and watched as the kids kicked dennis' ass as he fall on his bum on the beginner's slope (he he he). at one point i even told the pierced guy manning the tubes that taking pictures is way more exciting that riding the tubes and he was incredulous. he was very nice though because he even offered to take our pictures.

we ended the night driving back to new york and eating at our favorite vietnamese resto in 90th and amsterdam. after stuffing our faces with calamares (which i can't get enough of), cha gio, ca chien and the barbeque chicken, we dropped rheza off at her apartment, senen at the port authority to go back to boston while gina, dichi and i began our search for the missing camera which became the search for the missing wallet later on while dennis is driving us back to jersey.

merry christmas cuervo!

cuervo got into an accident again. yes, second time, same situation. i was driving back to somerville after having picked dichi up from her apartment and was taking the backroads of summit because i figured it's the shortest way back. like any obedient driver i stopped at a red light not knowing that an idiot behind me is gonna slam her beat up toyota highlander into cuervo's rear.


now it doesn't take a genius to know that it was the toyota highlander's fault. there's no way the driver could argue her way out of this. i felt sorry for her though, because she looked frazzled and told me she just got her driver's license. tough luck. she oughtta be more careful next time, not all drivers that she would slam from behind their cars are as nice as me.

so she wanted everything settled without involving the cops and her insurance company and i told her as long as she would pay for the damages, i don't really care and she was ok with it.

so for christmas, cuervo is gonna get a brand new hard spare tire cover. he's been a good car this year. always bringing me places, keeping me close with friends, helping me do friends a favor and always bringing me home safe and sound although sometimes a little bit frazzled.

i am so back

so after countless weeks of having a life i decide to pay my blog a visit and post something. a lot of things have happened and have been happening that i don't know where to start.

maybe i'll start with how i got to meet my relatives in brooklyn. how a death of an uncle got me driving from jersey to new york by myself. how freaky it was that the certain uncle called my parents in davao asking about my phone number and address wanting to touch base with me days before his death. how that freaky premonition moved me to brave the goethals and verrazano bridges and of course new york traffic just to pay my respects for the last time.

things i realized:

• in a big foreign place such as america, it's nice to know i have relatives who despite the distances are still thinking of me and are always there in case i need help. i've always felt alone when i came here and knowing that they are just an hour drive away gives me comfort that i have a family here.
  
  
• death is freaky and it will get you on the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected place.



• there really was no need for me to be scared of driving in new york. i've conquered brooklyn, maybe manhattan will be next.

now on to other things. don't we just love summer? the picnics, the barbecues, the beach. i mean despite our rising electric bills because of my excessive use of the AC, i have to say summer is my second favorite season, next to spring. but then i'm typing this while cool air is billowing in from my open window and the temperature is in the mid 70's. if it went higher up to the 90's i wouldn't say i love it so much but it would still be my second favorite season. too bad it couldn't go on forever. anyway's a lot of things have been lined up for my summer. things like parties, fishing trips, camping trips and a road trip late in the summer are some of the things that i'm looking forward to. hopefully i get to go to all of them. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that i could arrange my schedule so that everything would fall into place.

bullets

this post is gonna be in bullets, because i'm too lazy to string together sentences to make coherent paragraphs.

• thank god we're done moving! we're beginning to get settled, but there are still boxes and stuff lying around the house but right now, i just couldn't be bothered.

• our cable, internet and phone lines have been reconnected yesterday (yay for that!) by two guys from verizon who robbed me of my needed sleep before i go to work.

• it still feels weird having a roommate again but i know i'll get used to it.

• the weather is getting crazier and crazier everyday. why can't it just make up it's mind! i mean, my flipflops are all set to go... he he he

• certain people are getting what they deserve. i just love how karma rules!

• i want a mini break for myself.

• i just realized i haven't read a good book in months now. i miss my books!

• it would be a real treat to watch another sunset again.

• i still haven't gotten around to going to the guitar lessons hannie has been bugging me to go to. i guess i'm gonna be frustrated when it comes to playing the guitar for the rest of my life.

• i hate how i went over my free cellphone minutes last month. how did that happened? i have never went over my free minutes, ever! i guess i should stop talking a lot on my cellphone.

• we're going to washington dc tomorrow to ogle the cherry blossoms...tee hee! i hope the weather doesn't get too cold. we'll leave in the morning, that's why i have to go pack my stuff and end this post....now.

on being thirty

i come home from work tired and sleepy ready to jump into my bed after 12 hours. yesterday, i was 29 years old. today i turn 30... and what a sad day to turn 30, because just a few hours ago i admitted a 2 year old boy who just lost a mother, a brother, a sister and their home in a fire. i heard from the ER nurse that his dad is still waiting for a telemetry bed down in the ER.

it was the most difficult admission i've done not because the doctor's orders were complicated (that was actually the easiest part) but because it was hard to act like i wasn't affected while i was asking the grandmother and the aunt questions for the admission history. i mean how do i ask them about allergies, about their family health history and about that 2 year old's usual bowel movement pattern without eliciting tears from them and not looking like an insensitive jerk. that was so not the way i thought i would start my birthday. i felt sorry for the family's loss. i felt sorry for the boy who all of a sudden has no mommy to come home to. all throughout the time i was starting an IV line on the boy, i kept thinking about what's in store for him in the future and with all the support i've seen from the family, i know that he's gonna be okay.

anyways, i forego sleep and pondered on what i would do today now that i'm 30. i don't wanna do anything special or anything different. i just wanna be with myself.

when i was in grade school, i used to think that i would feel differently when i get to the big 3-0. that i'd be this really matured person who would scoff at people being silly in their carefree ways. i thought that i'd turn into this strict-librarian-type of person who wouldn't know how to have fun. i honestly thought that being 30 would totally suck. but it surely doesn't.

i realized that at 30, i could still watch spongebob squarepants and enjoy it's (sometimes) sick humor. that i could run around the hallways of the apartment building with nicolas (adriana's dog) running after me without feeling silly. i could still play games and ride bikes with my friends kids in the park during our once a year picnic. that i could sit in the playroom with my toddler patient and color books or finish a jigsaw puzzle or just watch the fishies in the tank as they gobble up the fish food and still call it work. i guess i could put it in this perspective. i could still be a kid at heart and get away with it being 30 and all.

a friend asked me the other night over the phone what would be the worst part about seeing my 20's go away? i guess the fact that i cannot go back to it all. that there were a lot of things that i haven't done or tried to do because i was too busy, too lazy or too scared to do it. excuses... excuses... this time there shouldn't be any at all.