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.

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 call you on the telephone... but you're never home

i just love to hate telemarketers. i hate them so much that i keep our phone beside me and wait for their out of area numbers to pop out on the caller id screen. i then answer their call with total silence and hang up on them every chance i get. you'd think they'd get the message that you don't want anything to do with them the first time i do that, but they don't. so i try to tell them exactly just that the minute they call again, saying politely that all i wanted out of them are the call minutes that i use for whenever i call my family in davao. i would reload whenever i know that my minutes are not enough for an extensive chikahan with my sister. the operators, telemarketers, customer service personnel or whatever they call themselves in directline philippines (there i said the company!) don't have to remind me to reload.

i don't need any offers for any computers, printers, cameras, magic microphones, sacks of rice or whatever it is they're selling. i would go to bestbuy or the nearest asian food store for those things. i also have no time for people who tell me i won a vacation package to cancun mexico because i have things to think about like PTOs (paid time offs) before i jump into giving myself a holiday. also, i wasn't born yesterday to think there isn't any catch to any giveaways like that. you are talking to the most cynic person this side of the world, i mean, what were you thinking? oh and please, do not get me started with those robot sounding people looking for alejandro guerra, because I DO NOT KNOW this freaking guy!

another thing that irks me to no end is when they call and they'd get the answering machine and leave a blank voice message (he he patawa, may voice message ba na blank?). naman! that's what the answering machine is for. you hear the beep...you leave a message. if your call is that important that you have to dial our phone number every few minutes or so, then shouldn't you be leaving that important message? i'm just saying this because i'm tired of erasing forty seven million empty messages on our machine everytime. i hate that bleeping sound our phone makes telling me that the telemarketers are at it again.

i know these people are just doing their jobs. they probably don't like calling me as much as i hate getting their calls. but i am just one person among the millions of people that they bug everyday. is it too much to ask for them to effin leave me alone.

anyway, here's some funny shit from youtube. i wish i could do what this guy did. but i don't have his talent.

ready for winter

i spent most of my day today at home only going out for an hour and a half to go to the gym and the rest i spent puttering around the apartment. the weather was pretty blah anyway to really enjoy it outside. there was a wintry mix of rain and flurries that makes one not care about going outdoors.

so i did something productive. i cooked, sorted my laundry, checked my emails, made sense of the mess that is my desk and waited until my roommate left for work so that i can dig in through my closet and boxes of clothes and say goodbye to summer and fall. i had been putting this off for a while now, hoping that winter wouldn't be here for a couple of weeks more. that, and i really didn't have time to be alone at home. it took me almost three hours to sort through my clothes contained in two extra large plastic boxes and one big luggage. in a way it's a pain to have to go through this task every year but it's also one of the things that i look forward to come winter time. to gear up and accessorize for the cold weather which i don't have the luxury of doing when i was still in tropical pinas.

yes, the perks of living in the northeastern. please remind me to read this when i'm shivering outdoors in below zero temperature trying to dig my car out of waist deep snow. 'coz i'd be really too pissed and frustrated to remember.

today

the sun is shining brightly outside. temperature is on the high 60's and i actually drove with my windows down, can you believe that? i went out for a quick trip to the post office a while ago and dropped by borders to get a little bookstore therapy for myself. before heading home, i stopped by my favorite bakery to buy something that i have been craving for for several days now. something that is sinfully good which is gonna make me pay big time on the elliptical and treadmill this week.

i bought this.

(my favorite brown derby cake. a chocolate cake filled with strawberry and banana custard filling.)

anyways, i got three new books from my short trip to the bookstore
which is reason why i shouldn't be going out of the apartment at all. i step out and i end up buying stuff. come to think of it, i shouldn't be allowed to have web access too because shopping is also as easy as clicking a button. hopefully those books will tide me over the days that i plan to just bum around at home. so on my "to be read" pile of books is nick hornby's newest fiction SLAM, murakami's collection of stories blind willow, sleeping woman and david sedaris' barrel fever. i'm so excited, i can't wait to start reading them.

last time i wrote about an NBA game that we were planning on going this december right? well, just the other day i got a normal looking envelope from the mailbox and guess what's inside? seven tickets to the knicks vs. nets game! woohoo! it's official... we are going to be at madison square garden on the night of the 15th of december. he he he... super excited! i know it's still a month away but its reason enough for me to behave myself and be a good girl at work.

gym drag

i went back to my gym today.... yay for me!

after not waking up for our 9 am step class and having stood up hannie (to which she's probably mad because she hasn't replied to my sorry text yet) yesterday, i dragged my lazy ass to the gym after work. it took a lot of determination to drive to the gym on a cold, rainy morning after a 12 hour shift at the hospital but i did it anyway.

on my way there, i kept thinking of stupid reasons not to go to the gym. visions of my unmade bed, my comforter and my pillows kept popping in my mind. i was really tempted to go back to the apartment when i stopped at a red light, but i was already halfway there so i kept on driving.
despite the muggy weather, there were still a lot of people sweating it out at the gym. the regular old ladies who works out in groups and who i have a high respect for were already doing warm ups. i mean, here i am, a strong energetic girl who just turned 30, thinking about cutting my usual 1 hour gym time to 45 minutes and these grannies are practically at the gym every morning and seems to be enjoying it.

it's not that i don't enjoy working out. it actually kinda relaxes me and keeps me up and about most of the time. it focuses my mind on becoming healthy. it gives me the drive to stay away from evil, evil chocolates, not to mention that it updates me on the latest about britney spears, lindsay lohan, brangelina etc. while on the treadmill. it's the drive going to the gym that is such a drag for me. i almost always feel like there's a lead weight on my feet while i'm going up the stairs that leads to the locker room. changing into my gym clothes takes a lot of effort on my part. but once i'm up on one of those elliptical machines with my ipod on, trying to ignore the chatty mother of two beside me while browsing the latest copy of us and people magazine, there is no turning back for me.

i hope i could will myself to go to the gym tomorrow. good luck na lang sa akin!

taking a breather from fun

"I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life." Eleanor Roosevelt

i was supposed to go to florida to attend the christening of kyla, my college friend's daughter. dennis was bugging me about my schedule for the longest time. sadly it didn't worked out so i will be stuck here to sort out the stuff that i've been putting off for long. the summer months were hectic and it was definitely one of the most fun i've had, but i should slow things down a bit and take some time off from having too much fun. that is until december comes along and we start the ball rolling again with an NBA game between the knicks and our very own nets.
until then i will be this person who will while away the cold, boring days and nights watching tv, playing wii and accomplishing the important stuff that needs to be done.

damn it...i can't wait for december!

so sick

i am sick.

i was on a more than two weeks of hiatus from work. i took some requested days off and used up some of my PTO's so that i could spend some time going away on a long weekend with friends who came from the UK. in between our trip to toronto and driving to and from new jersey, i used up two of those days to renew my expired PALS (pediatric advance life support) certification. luckily i passed the course even without reading any of the course materials those ems guys provided. bringing that manual with me to my toronto vacation proved to be useless, because i never got around to reading it. how i passed the pactical exams, i have no idea.

so anyway, i am battling it out with the colds, a low grade fever and a scratchy throat. post nasal drips are my thing right now. i have gone through two boxes of kleenex in three days and am working on my third box as i type this. i am chugging bottles of water and switching from motrin and tylenol every 4 to 6 hours.

so how the hell did i got sick? well for starters, i didn't get much sleep on those how many days of vacation to canada, i was kinda tired with the drive to and from canada which dennis and i split. i spent the night before my PALS course taking pictures in liberty park not thinking of the very cold weather and then driving back home at 1 in the morning by myself hoping that i'd have a good night's sleep before my class. of course it didn't helped that the weather couldn't make up it's mind. one day it's so sunny and humid and warm, next day it would get so cold. i mean come on... the leaves are turning orange already, just get it on with the autumn weather for god's sake!

so yeah, i'm stuck with my lozenges, nyquils, dayquils and the vitamin c's that i only remember taking whenever i feel like i'm gonna be sick. bad nurse, i know!

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.

life is what happens when you're busy with something else

these past few weeks was a busy time for me. busy in a fulfilling accomplished sense. you see at the end of the month, me and my housemate are moving in another unit, 2 floors below the one we live now. that means we have a lot of packing to do. if you knew of my procrastinating abilities, you'd be proud of me when i tell you that i've packed most of my stuff that needs to be packed. my cds, books, photo albums, out of season clothes and other stuff are all neatly packed in boxes and suitcases. of course there's more packing left to do, but getting a headstart this early is such an accomplishment for me.

in between the packing and going to work, i helped out my friend with his 'super secret surgery'... he he he. i had to drive an hour and forty five minutes to philadelphia to become his personal driver/travel nurse/slave. i had to endure 8 hours of boredom in the surgical waiting room of the philadelphia hospital, was mistaken for his girlfriend and later on for his wife by his doctor and the PACU nurses (which we both laughed about later on) and had to drive back home late in the night by myself (yes dennis, i am writing these things to make you feel guilty...joke!) oh the things i'd do for a friend. see, i'm not such a bad friend after all.

the nice part about it all is that i was able to update my calendar, fix all my schedules and was able to make all the calls that i needed to make in the eight hours that i was waiting for the "super secret surgery" to be over. now for some reason, these things i can't do if i'm just lounging around the apartment doing nothing. the mysteries of life i'd say.

anyways, the weather is getting colder by the day. freezing in fact. the good thing is no blizzards/snow storms in our area...yet. i am probably one of the few people happy about the fact that there is not much snow this year. i love it! oh and i noticed that daylight seems to be stretching until 6 pm now. i just can't wait for spring.