Some Happy Things

Now that I'm in front of my blog I can't seem to remember what to write about. And I do remember wanting to write about a lot of things haha

So let's just do a 10 some happy things!

🍔 Estancia is opening a lot of good restaurants! There's Buffalo's Wings n' Things, Shake Shack, and Yabu coming soon to name a few! Love it! Good variety too. Hopefully they add an Indian restaurant naman haha

💻 Came to the office yesterday despite the rainstorm. I look forward to Monday RTO's because I get to have a bit of a me time and also focus on work better. But most importantly, I need to complete my RTO quota for the month haha. 

As usual I enjoyed walking slowly and leisurely to dinner, where I had hotpot at Sichu Malatang and froyo at llao llao. Same exact things I had the day before. I realized I didn't want noodles in my hotpot. I love beef, vegetables, mushrooms, and the various fish balls. I also love the peanut sauce with black vinegar. Urgh writing about it makes me hungry!

🏠 No luck selling our condo. Hopefully we can exit via Maceda Law or PD 957, so that at least we can get 50% of our downpayment back. Hoping for the best. But quite honestly we've already accepted losing the entire investment. We're more excited with the prospect of not having to pay monthly anymore. So it's either 0 or 50% back, and we're happy either way. The odds are against us. Condo oversupply, low market price, and we're competing with the developer too. Yep, the condo didn't sell out 5 years after pre-selling. Can you believe they're offering 20-30% off on it, with no spot DP? It's not fair. That's even less than the amount we need to pasalo to prospective buyers and we still need to cover taxes and fees. There's no way to get a positive return in this investment and waiting for the market to recover means drowning in debt. We're not sacrificing our standard of living for a condo we don't even see ourselves using. Cutting our losses is only way. 

This is a happy thing because we're just tired of paying and we're finally over it! Yayy!

📊 I'm learning and loving Power BI! Really love designing the dashboard and learning data modeling ♥️

That's it for now! Happy Wednesday! 

Life lately

↪ Team summer outing was a success, yeyy! Everyone was so cool. We had fun! We played board games that challenged us physically (taco cat goat cheese pizza ), mentally (poetry for neanderthals), and morally (sheriff) HAHAHA. We had so much food. The grates of the grill was pretty cooked so most of my liempo got a burnt crust huhu but it's still delicious. No one died.

Now that I know how to set up an outing like this I'd be more comfortable doing this in the future! It's a learning experience that paid off for me cos now I feel more comfortable with everyone 💖.

↪ Finally I can focus on working on other stuff on my plate. Namely, becoming an expert at Power BI and doing this local automation via Studio X! 

↪ A major case of FOMO led me to follow most of my Facebook friends again, after unfollowing everyone some 5 years ago. It's become a habit of mine to immediately unfollow any new friend because I wanted to protect my feed from their vanity lol. But lately, Facebook has infringed on that liberty by pushing dumb content from equally dumb influencers so I thought I'd fight back by choosing to hear from my friends again, regaining illusory control of what my eyes consume. But really I'm just giving myself more reason to doomscroll. Fine, Facebook you win. 

Now that I'm exposed to a lot of personal posts again, I'm reminded that there are some people that I actually do not prefer to hear about HAHAHA and so I have to unfollow some people again lol #sorrynotsorry.

↪ I have so much to do at work I don't even know where to begin. Hay Lord!

PBI

Haaay. It's been monthsss since I told myself I'll study Power BI but until now I'm not making progress and it's already May and next thing I know it's June already and I promised my manager to deliver this task by then!

I'm doomed!

Small wins

↪ I sent out two emails to the team regarding our upcoming summer outing. A calendar invite and a poll for venue options. I gave out 3 airbnb options which I already reserved, so I'll just keep the winning listing after the poll. Thank God for free cancellation!

↪ I've been feeling very anxious about this task. When my manager casually told me to organize the outing I knew I had to follow through because uhm it's an order hahaha and also I do want a team outing! I've been feeling very distant with everyone and I wanna close that gap by trying to get to know them better. I know they're all cool and I would love to feel closer to the team.

As an introvert though, it's a nightmare planning stuff. Not because it's hard to get everyone's involvement, on the contrary they're all very game about the prospect of a team building, but because I don't know where to start and what to do and ask of everybody. In general, I'm very indecisive and shy, but I'm pretty enthusiastic about participating. I'm actually quite social but I don't want to be the responsible party.

I wonder how Maki does it back in White & Case, she's always on top of things like this! 

Anyway. It's good practice. Now that the poll is out and the venue is almost secured, this is really happening! Now we just need to decide on the food, carpool options, and collect payment. Should be easy right?

At least I get to design a teaser in Canva! Haha

↪ My head has been hurting for a couple of days now. It's probably period migraines and I hate it.

↪ I got my MRI results yesterday. ACL is intact thank God but there's something about my meniscus that I need to ask the doctor about. It says lobulated parameniscal cyst along the anterior horn. GenAI says it's associated with a meniscal tear, which I know I've had since highschool. So now I need to know my next steps cos it's starting to hurt. I have to wait for the images though cos they ran out of film. Funnily they gave me a CD of the images. Like, who still has CD drives in this age? Oh well, guess it's still a medical standard. They gave me access to the raw files on Google Drive, which prompted me to install a DICOM image viewer because they're in a different format. It looks cool haha. Still prefer the printout lol.

↪ Started our sessions with coach Gene yesterday. I was able to go through the exercises even on a fast. My husband however almost fainted. It's been a while since he worked out. Looking forward to really improving our health and general fitness! And primarily fix my knees! 🤞

Holy Thursday

Just taking the the time to look back on the previous week as I've just uploaded a new vlog hehe

Thankful for mommy's successful operation. It took an entire day! She's now in the ICU under careful monitoring. When her state improves she'll be transferred to a pay ward. Praying for a speedy recovery!

It's a difficult phase for the family. I know I'm not too hands on about it because I don't live with them anymore so it's my dad and sister who does all the legwork. Between watching mommy and trying to collect funds and guarantee letters from charity institutions and politicians, I know it's been terribly exhausting for them. If money wasn't an issue, meaning we have at least 2 million lying around, then this wouldn't put so much stress on them. But the reality is, they didn't have much saved. We all don't. They had to sell one of their properties, and even that wasn't enough. So my sister has to run around chasing charities for guarantee letters to ease up the expenses a little bit. And my dad has to take a bank loan because the bills just keep piling. I'm immensely thankful for the both of them and every day I ask God to continue giving them strength. 

When I visited mommy in PHC I was told to drive the car back to the house because they don't have overnight parking in PHC, even the one along Matalino. You have to pay by the hour, and they're probably staying for weeks so that's gonna cost a lot. I was a bit worried about this little side quest because it's been almost a year since I drove the Vios and I'm always afraid of driving a different car. I wouldn't dare. But this time I had to.

As I stepped inside and sat down to adjust myself, it felt strange. There was no wave of nostalgia, no familiar feeling. It's finally sinking in. This car isn't mine. At least not anymore. It's daddy's car now, has been for almost a year, and it shows. I had to adjust everything to suit me. The seat, the mirrors, where I put my things. I can feel its age, with the tight steering and light brake pedal. I can see daddy's mess as he always leaves personal items in the car, much to mommy dismay haha. I was cautious not to gas too hard because I know it's not as heavy as our new car. But this car is new. It's new to me. There's no traces of my ownership left in this humble orange casing. As I stepped out of it and locked the door, I started to miss Vi, realizing that our bond has been long gone. I guess that's just the nature of ownership, if it's yours it will show.

Much like our relationship with the Lord. If you're His, it will show. And everyday it's a struggle.

May we all have a meaningful holy week. ✟

Aja mama!

In a few hours my mom will be on the table to get a complex procedure done. There's nothing we can do at this point besides pray for a successful operation and a speedy recovery. She's getting a triple bypass and two valve replacement (aortic and mitral) surgeries at Philippine Heart Center. Multiple open heart procedures that will take a day. Be strong mommy! We're all rooting for you! I'm very excited for her recovery! But I also pray for strength for daddy and Terai who's doing all the legwork to ensure a smooth experience for mama. From watching at the hospital to processing grant letters here and there. Ate Necie as well who's been essential in keeping the house in order and attending to mama when she's at home. I pray to God that when mama is back to her good health, we can all enjoy a nice and sweet vacation! 

On another note, we're on the book of Exodus on our daily reading and I'm at the point where The Promised Land started. It's funny cos the show helped me imagine what's going on in the Bible so it's easier to recall. The Israelites sure are a stubborn and ungrateful bunch. They would complain over and over to Moses and would say they'd rather be back as slaves in Egypt. Seriously! If I were Moses I would feel very defeated, forcing a nation out of captivity and getting resented for it. I mean, I don't know if I could blame them. The journey to Canaan was long and arduous and they were bored to death. They probably felt more productive in Egypt, even as slaves, than in the wilderness, free but with no direction. Well they wouldn't be without purpose if they just listened to God but they just had to be stubborn, losing sight of the goal. Oh well.

Health needs wealth

Mommy was rushed to the hospital again. She'll be staying in the ICU for a while then getting an angioplasty. It's been very challenging for the family, financially speaking, because she just got out of the ICU on Feb and it took selling one of their income generating properties to pay for part of the bill and save up for her upcoming major surgery. And now she's back at hospital. Hay.

While I don't worry about it directly because I'm not with them and I'm not obligated to contribute, I know we're a few emergencies away from getting zeroed from paying hospital bills. With no HMO, and no stable source of income, eventually the cost will come down to us, Jec and I specifically. And we don't have much saved for medical emergencies. Specially from both sides. At the same time! My mother-in-law is also in a midst of a health crisis right now and I could only pray it's nothing serious. Or at least not too expensive.

And me? I just had an ortho consult earlier, which confirmed that there's something wrong with my right knee the way it's getting twisted more frequently lately. Doctor said it's kind of loose and needs to be scanned. Will be getting an MRI and hope for the best. Hope it's nothing serious like another ACL tear. I know I have a meniscus tear there from way back in highschool. It doesn't really hurt right now, and I'm being careful about it. But yeah, really need to strengthen my legs. I don't wanna undergo another ACL surgery and lose another full range of motion. Haaay. And while I have HMO, I would need to pay for the implant out of pocket again. I'm screwed (pun intended).

Aside from my knee, I've been advised time and time again to get a bridge for the gap in my teeth. Somehow it's causing my front teeth to move now and eventually it's gonna look bad. I've had a molar removed over 10 years ago and I never really worry about it because it's at the back. But you know because I'm lacking a molar, I couldn't chew on the left side of my mouth. That's been the case for more than 10 years. My dentist this time was able to sales talk me into getting a porcelain crown. It will cost 45k to do, which I'm seriously considering but I don't know I need to prioritize my savings first. I guess I'll wait for my mom to finish her surgery to see if I have the capacity to spend any more money.

Hay Lord.