I started writing when I was 8. My mom got me a journal where I could rant (prob so I won't be an annoying brat). I stopped writing for 8 years until the pen and then later on the keyboard called on me again. I blog because I like writing and that's just about it. Hope you get inspired though... Bite the apple!
Found a bunch of old photos from a birthday celebration 15 years ago. I couldn't help but be bewildered over the length of time since this party. It seems just like yesterday when the get together with (mostly) blogger friends happened. It was held at SM's Taste Asia. I'm not even sure if the place is still there since we rarely visit Mall of Asia now.
This is one memorable celebration since I had friends from other cities who came. The celebration also merged my friends from different eras of my life. My parents were both still very healthy and a few friends who are gone now were still around. This was also my last birthday before my body changed because of pneumonia.
Well, happy days are meant to spur you to create more happy memories. Looking back serves as a reminder for me to be grateful for what I have. It also reminds me that I was strong enough to fight back whatever challenges I come across.
To be honest, I stopped celebrating my birthday for awhile now. I just didn't feel like there was a reason to celebrate. I only started celebrating after I had my second PE*. I realized our time here is short and we should continue to make more happy memories. It doesn't have to be big celebrations like I used to have. Simple and with your loved ones will do.
The only thing I want from 15 years ago? My perfect weight, haha.
I had an amazing birthday. We decided to just stay home since I wouldn't be able to dine anywhere. We also decided not to have visitors since I'm not vaccinated and have to be more careful. Nonetheless, I had a happy birthday even with the restrictions.
I was overwhelmed with so much love and care from family and friends. I thought it was just going to be a normal day, but I got a lot of surprises from the time I woke up. I did not have to worry about food because it just kept coming! Breakfast from Jac, a cheese platter from Ms. Myna and lechon from Cathy and Mike! The food will last until tomorrow. Our tummies are super happy!
The day was also made beautiful with lots of flowers! Oh my! I wish I could preserve them since they are all so beautiful! I love flowers because they remind me of my Mom and her beautiful garden. I hope I'll be able to have my own gorgeous garden in the future. Thank you my Westies family for making my day beautiful. Hope to see you soon once I complete the good news I shared with you guys last night!
I spent an hour on the phone with my Mom last night. I always celebrate my birthday with my Mom. The last we were able to do that was in 2019. We spent the whole day out together with Sweetie and Miggy. That was in 2019 and that year me and my Kuya gave her a surprise party for her 85th birthday. I told her that we'll get to celebrate her birthday this year together.
I'm so grateful for all the lovely greetings. I also got surprise video greetings from team QSR and close friends. I teared up when I saw the greetings from my teacher community. I miss all of them and it was a good reminder for me that I did some good in the past 15 years of my life.
I thank God everyday for the gift of life. After having another PE and getting poked from tests often I thought I wouldn't make it. My Mom reminded me yesterday that she went through the similar issues when she was my age, but she's now 86 and strong. I got my strong will and positive outlook in life from her. So I told Sweetie yesterday, we'll have to go for gold*!
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. I wish I could comment back to each and everyone of you, but I might get blocked again from commenting! I'll have to do it slowly I guess haha. Love you all! Keep fighting!
*Gold - golden anniversary
Day 29 Minimalism challenge, Say no to something. It took me years to learn to say no. I realized though I got into this health mess because I allowed myself to be bullied into doing more than I could. My body and mind battled with each other for many months. They're good with each other now, but I have to be mindful that they continue to agree with each other haha. So no, no, no, no and bullies be gone!
You need to set aside money to celebrate. That's one thing I learned from my Kuya when he taught me how to manage my money better (shared about it here). I used to just save and save and it was hard for me to spend money for myself. With a better perspective on managing my money I learned to enjoy life better. It also allowed me to learn new things.
Last year I made sure to celebrate my birthday for a whole month! Haha. It was the first time I did it. Of course the "celebration" was just at home. It culminated with the Westies surprising me with some cake and flowers. I like how that month went even though we were cooped up at home and far from family. What I liked about it was showing gratitude by celebrating my life.
I always took it for granted that I'd wake up everyday. After having two PEs I realized that our time here is borrowed. It's really up to God whether we're still around the next day. I struggled with shortness of breath for many months. Thanks to the intervention of my doctors, I got better. I'll never be the same, but I'd like to believe that God has other plans for me.
So this month I'd like to celebrate life and be joyful that I'm still here. I have several birthday wishes: (1) Be reunited with my family; (2) Have good results for another procedure I have to go through; (3) My whole family to be healhy, safe, secure, blessed and happy; and (4) Understand what my next mission is.
Day 4 Minimalism Challenge, Get rid of digital devices. I had a lot of online errands today so I couldn't stay offline. What I did today was review old devices I still own and don't use anymore. I have a netbook and an old laptop I don't use anymore. The netbook still works I think and might work better if you use Neverware on it. The old laptop will need a lot of repair because the keyboard died already. Good thing there are ways to get rid of your e-wastes here in SG. I'll probably ask Sweetie if he has any stuff he needs to get rid of too.
My plan for my birthday was to just hibernate since I felt it's just best to celebrate quietly. The universe and the doorbell had other plans. When I woke up Sweetie told me to dress appropriately. I didn't know what he had in mind so I took a shower and wore a shirt and decent shorts before I went to the living area. And that was when a day full of surprises started.
My friend, Shad, suggested I make a birthday vlog. As requested, here it is!
Surprise strategist:
Sweetie Jay DJ
Collaborators:
Ms. Myna, QSR and the Gaylas
Marcus and Shirni
the neighbors (Myra, Ralph, Jason and Phil)
Thank you to my family and friends who made my day special! Love you all :)
This is the birthday week of my boys and we are always together on their birthdays. I normally decline travel at this time because it's important for our family to be together at this time. We rarely do big celebrations for our birthdays and normally just have a good meal somewhere outside with the grandparents. Sometimes we celebrate with extended family and friends.
Last year's June birthdays celebration. Just the three of us.
When Miggy was growing up we usually had his birthdays at home. I always had fun thinking of a theme and then organizing the whole party. I'd order balloons, rent chairs and tables, order cake from Goldilocks and then we'd cook the food at home. Yup, traditional home organized birthday parties.
Blast from the past.
That's how I also celebrated my birthdays growing up and most of the guests would be family and neighbors with their kids. Those big birthday parties would culminate on the 13th year and then we just eat out or do much smaller parties. We never had a kiddie party in Jollibee or McDonald's. I only experienced it eventually because of Sweetie and friends (like the Jollibee party last year).
This year is so different. This is the first time that we are not together. We surprised Miggy with lunch delivery and we had help from a friend to have cake delivered to him. We ate dinner together via Google Meets. It's a very unusual situation and this is the longest time we haven't been with Miggy. I wish this pandemic would end and we can all be with our families.
Happy, happy birthday Miggy and Sweetie! 2020 may have succeeded in keeping us apart, but I'm sure we'll soon be together again. Love, love, love!
I celebrated my debut last Saturday, 22 years too late. It was worth the wait though and was magically perfect.
Being an introvert I see-sawed between wanting to have a party and not having a party. There were days I'd be gung-ho at celebrating and there were days when I just wanted to hide in a hole on my birthday. I didn't actually want to be stressed out about worrying if people would actually go to the party and entertaining a lot of people in one go is just really hard for me. It was Boss (yes that's the name of my friend) who swayed me to celebrate. His winning statement was, "You don't just celebrate a birthday just for yourself. Your friends also want to celebrate it with you." And so I said yes and promptly emailed Jigs to book a room at AIM Conference Center.
A lot of people asked me, why at AIM? AIM is a core memory I have with my Kuya. When he was a student there I would hang out at the SA Store all day, decorating the window, selling stuff, generally being a nuisance at the school. I think I was just 10 or 11 then, but I spent a whole summer at AIM learning retailing and getting to know students and professors. I naturally chose AIM because it's a comfort zone for me and they already know what I like.
After booking the place I promptly left for Singapore and apparently left Sweetie and friends a lot of time to scheme for my party. You see, I was kept at the dark about what was going to happen at my celebration. I had no idea who was actually organizing the evening and I had no idea what was going to happen. Sweetie wouldn't even give me the list of organizers because I wanted to buy gifts for them. I managed to get a list though using Google Calendar! Sweetie forgot that his calendar is shared with me and so I saw the list of the mafia scheming to organize my party.
I wanted to be at the venue before 6pm because I wanted to welcome the guests, but Sweetie insisted that we come at 6:30pm. I kept tripping on my long dress on the way to the room and was nervous about falling flat on my face. I had no idea what to expect. When we arrived at the room I saw familiar faces, all smiling and excited to greet me. I was welcomed by my Mom who exclaimed, "Are you really now 40? But you're still my baby!" Mom then hugged me tight and whatever nervousness I had went away.
I had no idea about the program so when I arrived I went ahead and went table to table to greet everyone who came. It was overwhelming to see all my loved ones in one time! When I finished greeting everybody I was ushered to my seat and the program started with a very beautiful prayer by Ate Edith. After that Ate Neysa and Harry did their rendition of some of my favorite Disney songs. Then we had dinner and a few speeches from my Mom, Sweetie, and Miguel (finally broke his silence!).
After that the Gaylas Filipinas (Gab, Iosif, PX, Sephy, JK, James, JD and Philip + Rose) marched in and transformed me into a fairy (watch at 22:45 on the vid)! After dressing me up they did a fabulous 80s dance number. It was then followed by my best friend's, Darwin, speech (who I had a huge row with a month before my birthday). You have to watch his speech (at 27:55) to hear about his big revelation (we're good now, row forgotten). And then I was surprised with a sharing from my favorite brother, Kuya Jojo, who described by turning my name into an acronym. He made everyone laugh and cry and everybody thought he was on a live hangout (he was good at anticipating my reactions too!).
And as we always do in work events I run, we had a breakout session! Each table was asked to work on a craft project. I managed to read through and appreciate the projects made just before I left for Singapore. I'm still trying to figure out how I could best preserve and make the projects easy to re-read (haha). So I thought the evening was over with the craft project, but there was still another huge surprise -- a flash mob!
I was talking with TJ about crisis response when Gab pulled him away from me. And then I saw Sweetie approach me and he just suddenly started dancing (35:05 on the vid), the gaylas joined in and then almost everyone in the room was also dancing! It was a feast! I'm glad we have it on vid so I can appreciate the gesture again and again.
The evening capped off with me blowing my birthday candles. Jay really wanted me to use his 40th birthday candles but he left it at home (haha!). I just made a simple wish and heartfelt gratitude to everyone who tirelessly prepared for my birthday celebration (the list is very, very long!).
Thank you to all my family and friends who prepared to make this the happiest birthday I ever had! I've been working on this post for over a week now and I'm still very much overwhelmed, happy, joyful, galak, on cloud 9 (insert all happy synonyms here)... Thank you to everyone who travelled to come -- Marcus, Shirni, Andrew, Darwin, Mica, JR, Jas! And thank you for those who braved the traffic (and the INC protest) to come over, your presence was much, much appreciated!
My debut came 22 years too late, but I must say the wait was well worth it.
And now let's wait another decade when I become a golden girl.
