Monday, Monday

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I am trying to write with more regularity here and I am happy that Mondays find me with enough energy to write, but I don’t want a Monday Musings blog. But thinking more positively, at least the words are coming.

So how was your weekend?

Mine was productive craftwise. I managed to finish crocheting three winter hats, although technically, it was 2.25. The third hat only needed some finishing with the rim. All done with yarn already on hand, and I’m raring to make more.

Carnival Row. I heard of the show in this article from my hard copy TIME magazine. Since I had an Amazon Prime Membership anyway, I thought I’d give at least one episode a try. It came free with the membership and I try to maximize my benefits given the price of being part of it, so I watch when I can.

Although the review had given me a rather biased point of view, that it lowered expectations helped me to appreciate the film more. I ended up watching 4 episodes and would’ve watched the 5th, but my teen came home daring to play his new video game. So I ceded the TV. But I am looking forward to continuing the series.

Staying in the know. I’ve picked up a morning habit which I’ve found very helpful in staying up to speed with the news. Check out 5 Things from CNN. They promise to be your new favorite morning fix – and in all of 5 minutes.

While I do browse The New York Times and Apple News, the requirement for a subscription to most other service providers limits my reading to an occasional click.

Thank you, CNN.

Weekend binge. While I didn’t go anywhere this weekend, I did go home with some goodies which meant a carb splurge beginning with rice and adobo on Friday evening. Blame it on the food I took home Wednesday night from the visit to Woodside where there are Pinoy carinderias aplenty. I also managed to score a cheese bread loaf from Maison Kaiser near my office which became brunch on Saturday. Rare at the end of the day given that they usually run out, so that was a real treat! (And it comes with my favorite President butter..)

And on Sunday, I made some grilled mango calamansi jam sandwiches for breakfast. Totally yum on all fronts.

Don’t ask me about the pounds gained because I surprisingly kept it within reasonable bounds. I just need to be good from here on out.

There are just those times when I need to loosen up a bit with the dieting and think more of what I need and want. Otherwise, losing weight becomes a chore and it’s harder to stick to my regimen.

More than Monday musings. Goal for the week: write at least one post before next Monday.. fingers crossed.

And the sun will shine again

Sundays usually find me thinking back to a weekend I wish wouldn’t end.  But this time, I’m actually looking forward to Monday.  I had started this post while sitting over my ribeye steak dinner and then had to stop after one paragraph to tend to my number one customer at home who was busy doing his homework.

Weekends should be three days, I always say — and the week, 6.  Ha!  =)  I can’t wait for Monday.. and yet I know I’ll be hitting the ground running at work, and there will be a thousand and one things to juggle.  I’ll live — and I’ll do it all with the Monday optimism that I try to infuse the day to help me get going.  (I have to have something beyond the caffeine!)  But I’m getting ahead of myself..

The weekend was productive, indeed.  Didn’t quite get the gown but got to fit a bunch (6 in all!) and found one but they didn’t have the right size.  The good news is that yes, I lost a size (Confirmed!) and maybe I might make it to the lower size yet.  (Ha!  Optimism…)

Everything went well including another Saturday trip to the city beyond the gown search.  I ate at the counter and sat next to these nice young men who ooohed and aahhhed my burger and shakes — and then I finally went back to Envelopper NYC in Chelsea to get some invitation supplies.  (Work in progress.)

All this, though, didn’t eclipse the sad news I got our Friday evening, that a high school batchmate and fellow Paulinian, Liezl Martine had passed away after losing her battle with cancer after 7 years.  That was a battle well fought by one of the sweetest persons I know.  And I’m not saying that just because she is a celebrity — she’s one who was but never acted like one, even back then when everyone looked at her with such awe and adulation because of her famous parents and her career as a child actress.  We weren’t close — but I know she’s one person who, if I saw her walking a distance away, would not pretend she doesn’t remember who I am.

I am actually closer to Arlene, her cousin, who was a Paulinian from her grade school days.  I remember a few trips home ago, I had actually asked for Liezl’s home address to send her something, but I wasn’t able to — Arlene’s message back was that I should go and see her.  I never did.  I did revel in the positive updates via Facebook.  She shared her cheery countenance every moment she could, savoring life and doing everything she could to live it to the fullest.

That was a tall order considering she had traveled the world over so many times — for the most part, it was going back to places she liked.  This was one person who could truly speak with authority if and when you asked her a question about some famous exotic travel destination because she’s the one who’s been there, done that.  But that isn’t what I envied her the most for — it was the undying love and devotion of her husband, Albert, the more famous one of the pair and yet the luckier one by all indications, having had Liezl as his better half.  And yet he returned that love with equal if not more dedication.

It brought us yet to another “life is short” moment.  Liezl was a year younger than me and she lived and cherished every day she was given, so that was yet another stark reminder that we have to live life to the fullest.. just like Liezl showed us how to.

To the Muhlach and Martinez families, my condolences.  Liezl is in a better place now.  It may seem like an endless night — but the sun will shine again.  Monday is here, it’s a fresh start.

 

Oui

Positive thoughts.  Woke up to a text message this morning that made me whisper those two words.  Oui. =)

One of my favorite words is “Yes”.  When Angelo was yet a toddler when “No” apparently became a favorite word, I would tell him I don’t like that word like I don’t like “cannot”.  So we heard more of  “yes” and “can”.

As I am a closet francophile, “OUI”, of course figures as a favorite word.  It tells me yes.  It says I understand and I’m okay.  I don’t know if it’s more of me saying that to myself or me just declaring it so I will be.  As Fe says, the universe is listening — and I’m listening to Fe.

Saturday morning pancake breakfast.  Oui indeed!  =)  I was getting lazy to mix up the batter and wait for the three pancakes to cook perfectly on the non-stick pan, but I looked at the sun shining so splendidly outside and I told myself it was a perfect weekend comfort food treat I couldn’t miss.  After assembling my pancakes (with tons of butter, heavy cream and maple syrup), I sat on the breakfast counter wrapped up in my own little world here and doing some “me” time, logged on, checked who was online (everyone out), if there were any new e-mails (none).  Just taking my sweet time and I drifted off to YouTube.

Just saw the official video of JASON MRAZ of a now favorite song, “I Won’t Give Up” whose lyric video I first saw and which I fell in love with.  I am officially a fan now.  The official video below is an even more profound masterpiece — you cannot argue with the power of human emotion onscreen, be it as still pictures or snippets of film.  If you had listened to the song and knew of it before watching the video, you’d love it and appreciate it even more after watching the clip below.

“And when you’re needing your space

to do some navigating,

I’ll be here patiently waiting

to see what you find.”

Oui.. =)

Just staying home

Sponge Bob is on TV.  No matter how many times I sit through the show with Angelo, I still don’t get it.  It makes me miss those days when cartoon shows made just a little bit more sense.   I grew up with Popeye the Sailor Man who I watched in black and white.  I didn’t quite know what spinach was except that it was that goo coming out from a can which he popped every time Brutus got the better of him and he suddenly had superstrength.  Of course in Manila, we had malunggay and talbos ng kamote.. even a daily dose of Popeye never quite got me into vegetables.

We’re just staying home today.  Sometimes that turns out to be more tiring for me because my day is denominated by meals cooked, break between cooking and then finishing chores.  I started several Art Journal pieces which I hope to finish later tonight, and while I’m still heavily into zentangle, I’m trying to do other things like do more crayons and maybe hopefully start painting.  It’s the day before the last day of February and it looks like I’ll be doing some of my 28 hearts in March.  I tried.  But I’m pretty happy with my Art Journaling output for the second month of the year.  I actually can’t wait to sign up for the March list.  (We sign up each month.)

Homework done.  Newly-washed clothes are waiting to be put away.  It’s time to start thinking about dinner.  This is why I like that I don’t like being home all day on a weekend.  There just end up to be more chores than normal — than if we had left the house sometime midday for our usual lunch outside and to do our usual errands.  We actually did that already yesterday, but I welcome not being pressured to make the most of the hours left before the week begins again when we choose to stay home..

Another week begins.  I’m actually looking forward to it.

Ending a Four-day Weekend

My Thanksgiving Weekend was rather ordinary, seeing me staying home or close to home through most of it.  Alan had to leave for a business trip which meant having Thanksgiving lunch instead.  We do what we have to do.

There’s at least one more pot in the sink and I’m letting it steep in water so that the cheese can soften up enough to be easy to scrub away.  My movement in the kitchen is almost mechanical everytime I clear the dish rack to make room for more dishes to dry.  I can probably do this with my eyes closed.  From time to time I’ll find a plate or a bowl not in its right place.  That’s the reason why I don’t mind being the one to do it, because I’d end up redoing it anyway if it weren’t me.

It’s been a very productive weekend for me shop wise.  I have posted three new fabric flower brooches in the shop on Etsy, and right before I started cooking dinner in anticipation of Alan’s arrival, I managed to finally create the long-planned drop earrings I had been putting off since the last trip to Manila.  I had made an investment on a set of large baroque cultured pearls but I wanted to be able to create something using 14k gold wire or headpins.  I had to have them made, but I finally got them yesterday.  Voila!  (Pictures need to be edited and will be posted her post-publication tomorrow.)

I really should be hitting the sack after having put the coffeemaker on to brew on the dot tomorrow before I wake up, but I felt a need to sit down and write.

The best part of my weekend was spending time with my little tyke.  I look at how he’s grown and I cannot helped but be awed at how much his personality has evolved even in just the last year.  He knows which buttons to push but at the same time, I see more and more of myself in him.  He makes me smile.  During those times when I am riddled with resentment or anger, he calms me down.  All he has to do is put his arms around me and reassuringly tap me to comfort me.

I’m glad Alan’s back home.  Our weekends are never the same without him.  So we go into December this week.  Where did 2010 go?  Soon, it’ll be 2011.

Is it just me?

.. or has the Big Mac just gotten a teeny weeny less of a Big guy?  I remember when I first encountered McDonald’s in Manila in the 80s, it was quite a BIG sandwich.. hmmmm. 

I just went out to grab some nuggets for the boy (saving myself the trouble of having to rush to the McDonald’s a few blocks away instead of hopping on a bus to head straight home across the street from where I am right now..)  I thought they said rain.. and I heard a high of just below 60.. it’s scorching hot out there and I came back with a headache!  (Making a mental note now to lower the temperature of the thermostats around me!  The mini fan blasting away at my feet under the desk is NOT helping at all.)

I don’t mean to whine.  It is, after all, Friday.  My favorite part of the week — because it starts two and something days of “me” time.  This weekend is going to be busy.  I have house guests the week after next and I have to get things prepped.  I have a ton of stuff to put away, and I have pearls to work on.  I have some “padala” to take care of and pack away.  (That is if the chocolates haven’t melted away..)

We celebrated another birthday this week with my mother-in-law turning eighty years old.  Wow.  I hope to live to that ripe old age myself, but I imagine I would be more active than she’s been.  When I turn 80 — IF I’m lucky enough to get that far — Angelo will be 43, just about Alan’s age right now.  I do think it’s very possible given how life expectancy keeps getting older and older… so I have no regrets that Alan and I found each other in our mid-30s, and we had Angelo at 37.  (Alan and I are both from the year of the Fire Horse, 1966.)

It’s Friday afternoon and I have a big headache.  It is a comfort, though, that’s it’s finally the weekend!