I can’t believe I missed out on a post this Thursday. I was actually hoping to catch the midnight cut off but ended up having to reconfigure my wireless specs. I was cutting it too close anyway. I didn’t get to sit down with my laptop until a few minutes before midnight.
It’s after midnight and I just did small bits of handwashing for Angel. After a long day at work (and you can tell they really worked me hard today because I didn’t get to post here until after midnight!) — and to think the boss was out — I am still wide awake at this hour. Thinking about our childcare options.. but go to my other blog dedicated to Motherhood if you’re interested to see my take on how it is to be a mother raising a child here in New York. It is no small feat!
Alan’s up and about but between the two of us, he’s the night owl. He is usually up until the wee hours watching his DVDs. (That’s my cinephile!) Angel is fast asleep in the bedroom, tired after a day at the back up childcare facility.
We had KFC for dinner. Makes me miss KFC back home. Instead of the regular rice, they had seasoned rice as a side. We noticed that the smaller side dishes had shrunk and the drumsticks seem to have come from spring chicken! Inflation, I guess. A meal of a total of 5 dark meat chicken pieces, 3 small sides, one drink and one large additional side (the seasoned rice) cost us all of $16 and change. That’s almost P1,000 which I doubt it would’ve cost if I were to buy it at some local KFC back in Manila.
They also don’t give the gravy on the side like we get it back there, because the gravy only comes with the mashed potatoes you order. The plus side is that instead of the dinner roll that you get in lieu of a teeny weeny serving of rice, you get a biscuit — as in a real bread biscuit. (Not to be mistaken with the Pinoy notion of a cookie being the same as a biscuit.)
If I were home in San Juan, it would’ve been easier to drive to the nearest lechon manok stall. That’s something I haven’t had in ages! Lechon manok.. I have tried roasting a whole chicken in the oven and as we would say, tagumpay naman, but I can’t make it the same way they do the lechon manok — unless I borrow my mother-in-law’s convection roaster I’m sure.
I cannot talk about food at this time of the night — I am full, I am full…(Trying to hypnotize myself to believe that I am so that I can resist the urge to walk to the kitchen.)
Friday.. that’s what this blogpost was supposed to be about. I’m not going to work tomorrow — so you’ll probably hear more from me in the course of the day. I hope to get a few things done although I expect I will be working part of the day. I hate to be away since the boss will be back but I have to take care of a few things. Health is wealth they say, and I’d rather take care of myself to be better able to do my job this coming week.
It’s a crucial time for our team — the boss is embarking on a major workshop the following week, so this coming week is devoted to planning and more planning. I anticipate some late nights as it is.. and I have to work that into our alternative childcare arrangements. I cannot afford to be sick next week. Even if I don’t have the same sense of dedication like I used to have back home when it was my career on the line with every project undertaken, here, I have been relegated to rendering support to the bosses. I’m okay with that — less pressure, and as it is, it competes with my wifely and motherly duties — it would wreak havoc on my world if I ventured on a career as I knew it back home.
There are trade offs to having a family, and while I started quite late having married at age 34 and having a son at age 38, I think I have done much of what I had hoped to accomplish career-wise before I decided it was time to settle down.
Fridays are always welcome not because I look forward to the gimmick like I used to. Fridays signal more time to be with the apple of my eye. While we can no longer factor in bar hopping and trying out the restaurants of the Big Apple like we used to because Angel is here, we now think of things to do as a family.
The sacrifice is well worth it. Besides, New York is the city that never sleeps. We aren’t missing out on anything that won’t be there when Mom gets back here and we can go out once in a while again.
Pinay New Yorker 