Business As Usual

Ahhh, I think we've finally achieved what's usual at home. We had Mom's home blessed again and her friends came over for a visit yesterday. I'm glad we took the proper steps to get to where we are now. I think what changed it for my Mom was her haircut! Haha! I wanted to do it at a salon so we can do it together, but she said she preferred Ate Belen to come over. I wanted her to feel that things are back to normal, so I got help from Mom's best friend to contact her hairdresser. 

I had a chat with Mom via FB Messenger about her party. I'm really happy to see she's now using the phone I gave her last year. She just kept it uncharged until now. I was planning to get an extension for our landline so I can chat with her frequently from my craft room. Looks like we can just use FB messenger now. The reception of Google Meets is much better though, so I'll probably try that tomorrow. She was so excited to talk about her get together. It's what she really needed. 

And the best thing about where we are now is I'm sleeping better! As soon as Miggy turns the light off I immediately fall asleep. That took years to resolve! I guess I've been worried about Mom for a long time now and resolving the issue at home is what finally relaxed me. I've also been able to start sewing again. Finished one of the long block curtains. Hope to finish the other one tomorrow.  

Now that things have quieted down, I'm picking up where we left off in late Feb. Miggy and I were supposed to get our booster shots together with my Mom. They only had Moderna. My doctors required me to get Pfizer again to avoid complications (i.e. clotting). We hope to get it this weekend. I've also restarted our home project. We've been in our new home for four months now and it's still a mess, haha! Ahh, one thing we're having difficulty with is getting medical insurance for me. Oh well, I hope our agent can find me a good one. 

It's Friday! Happy weekend everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Bless Our Home

Yesterday, we had my Mom's home blessed again. We thought it would be good to do that to recharge the house and bring back the good times it has seen. Our family with many friends and neighbors experienced a lot of happy times in our home. We had Tita Pet's wedding reception held at our home, countless birthday parties like Kuya's debut where his friends poured beer on him (with the younger sister rushing in with a towel haha), a gazillion get togethers with the CWL, the Knights of Columbus, the choir and clan reunions. 

My neighbors always tell me they like visiting my Mom's home. They always feel welcome and they like hanging out in the lanai. My Mom also is always ready to party. She has party plates, huge shaping dishes, and those things caterers have to keep food warm (she already sent it to my Tita Olive when things slowed down). Whenever I had a gathering with friends I still brought them to my Mom's home. 

Grateful to Fr. Rene for coming yesterday to bless our 52 year old home. I wasn't even born yet when it was first blessed. We were also happy to receive holy communion after more than 2 years! It was surreal to go around the house for the blessing. I was teary eyed when he blessed Mom's room because he also gave a blessing for Daddy's soul. I used to find Dad on his cozy chair watching TV whenever I went to their room. Mom removed his chair and took over his closet many years ago (it now houses her craft materials hehe). 

Fr. Rene hung out with us for awhile. It was great to catch up with him. Mom used to invite them (the priests) for dinner. I always looked forward to those dinners because we'd always have a lot of food (matakaw much). I also had the opportunity to hang out in their home when I used to write for the parish newsletter. Maybe I could republish some of the stories one of these days. They were fun recounts of the lives of priests before they were ordained. 

I'm happy we were able to do this for Mom. It will hopefully help her feel better. Her friends have scheduled to visit her as well. I hope these activities will help reassure her that the bad guys are gone. I could see she's still wary and haven't started the quilt project I made for her. I hope she'll start it in the next few days. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Next Level Adulting

 I was going to blog about this yesterday, but got distracted and the thought slipped my mind. Remembered it a few hours after when I was, well... adulting. If I new there was a next level to "adulting" in your 20s, I could have saved myself from the pain I've been going through the past few weeks. 

If you're in your 20s or even younger, I have one important advise for you -- keep your affairs all in order. The only thing I have in order are... my photos. Majority (I can't claim all) of my digital photos are in proper folders and kept in Google Photos. I used to store them in countless CDs, but after Typhoon Ondoy I have been putting them on the cloud. Well, managing photos is the easiest of the lot. Managing countless documents and papers requires skill and a lot of patience. 

Here's a general list of what you need to keep in order:

1. Medical records

2. Utility Bills

3. Car/vehicle documents (OR/CR, maintenance records)

4. Property records (mortgage, title, real property tax records)

5. Bank accounts 

6. Employment records (or business papers)

7. Travel documents (passport, visa etc.)

8. NSO Certificates (birth, marriage etc.)

9. School documents (diploma, transcript of records)

10. Legal documents (contracts, affidavits, SPAs etc.)

11. IDs (license, TIN, voter's etc.)

My idea of organizing documents was to put them in folders/envelops. Sweetie leveled it up and put them in clear folders so it's easier to find. Good thing we'd spend time organizing papers whenever we went home. It made it easier to manage things remotely. Miggy just had to find the right documents for car registration and paying real property tax. 

My Mom was really good at managing. Her long banking career was interrupted only because of me (I was fragile since birth hehe). She had a proper filing cabinet and an enviable filing system. I remember she started purging documents after Daddy passed away. I've had to rebuild her system the past two weeks. It was hard especially since the papers were not properly kept. I did discover though that most utility companies have online customer portals now. That helped a lot especially for bills that were missing. 

I feel so accomplished after rebuilding my Mom's documents. I still need to find a couple of things and I hope I don't uncover more unpaid stuff. The boys are taking care of the docs for our homes. We're trying to find the best way to file everything properly. It really gets gnarly when you don't organize often. I digitized all of my Mom's bills and now I'm asking her if she had a pool installed because there were two months last year when her water bill was 5x than usual. 

And having everything organized is a good way to understand how you could live better. My cardiologist forced me to organize all my medical records so it would be easier for other doctors to review me. I just share an online folder for my newer doctors. I also have a calendar of when I have to do annual car registration and pay real property tax. Keeping scanned copies of all your docs also helps. 

Oh, now I understand when elders used to tell me that high school is the best part of your life. :)

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Our Summer Cove

I have been making two posts a day. I've still been feeling morose and angry about what happened at home, but I'm trying to stay positive so I've been keeping the other post in draft. I release bad vibes that way. I guess I also need to heal from what we went through. 

I spent an entire day cutting fabric for my Mom. I hope this will jumpstart her passion for quilting. I noticed she stopped sewing. She didn't even unbox any of the materials and books I sent her. She kept all of it in her cabinet. Well, I hope she starts working on it and takes it slow. She sews much faster than I do, haha. I also made some templates for her because I know she won't use the quilting rulers. 

I haven't sewn for a month now. The last project I finished was the pink vinta throw pillowcases, the Harry Potter coasters and potholders. I need to work on my summer curtains since it's been very hot lately. I got block curtain fabric via Lazada. I wish though there were more options for block curtain fabric. I'm figuring out how to make them look nicer. 

The boys and I have been staying in the craft room to escape the heat and the bad air quality. Sweetie installed an old TV in the room. That means we'll likely have movie nights in the craft room too. It's just been really warm even at night to stay anywhere else in the house. It's funny because we have more space at home, but we're just naturally convening in smaller areas to be together. 

My step count has gone down drastically since I've been cooped up in the craft room. I used to hang out during the day at the dining table and that forced me to walk far to get things or go to the toilet. The boys though prefer to get things for me so I don't breathe in the bad air. My step count has been cut to a third

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Reviving my 2010 PC!

Now that we have most of our stuff in one place, Sweetie has been reviewing our old devices. He found the desktop I bought in 2010. It's still working, but it's still on Windows 7. The first thing we needed to do was get in, which meant remembering my password. The last time logged-in to it was more than 5 years ago! 

No, this isn't the desktop Sweetie is reviving. This is a desktop at the Computer History Museum in California. This was how my first desktop looked like. It was a hand-me-down from Kuya.

I got it on the second try! I was so pleased with myself for remembering the password hahaha. I didn't get it on the first try because Sweetie was using his keyboard. I had him plug in my keyboard and I guess I typed the password by instinct. Next step was to copy all of my files. It took about 7 to 8 hours to copy all the files. Whew!

And then Sweetie realized that the PC did not have wifi capability. Good thing Miggy had a wireless adaptor. Apparently those things still exist and you can buy new ones in Lazada/Shopee. Sweetie told me earlier that he's been able to upgrade my desktop to Windows 10 and will try to upgrade it to Windows 11 at a later time. 

I still prefer to use a Windows machine to manage my photos. I'm able to transfer photos from my camera through my Chromebook, but I'm able to do it faster if I use a Windows machine. I normally borrow Sweetie's old laptop to do it. I was seriously thinking of getting a netbook and I've been holding out because the expense isn't justifiable. Sweetie reviving my 2010 PC solves the problem. He said we'll just get a second hand monitor. Yes! Tipid! 

Ahhh, good thing I got a branded PC back in 2010. It's a Core i3 which is probably why it's still useful even 12 years after. If I get annoyed with it, I could always turn it into a Chromebook hrhrhr (hello Neverware!). Next thing to do is remove outdated apps like SmartBro, Picasa, SketchUp 8 etc. I had Skype on it because of Uncle Fumio. We had a call when we were preparing to visit them in Japan. That was circa 2014! 

Looking forward to having my desktop back. I abandoned it for a long time and didn't want to sell it since I thought I'd be back home sooner. I'm glad it's still working and I can use it again. Yay!

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

There's Something in the Air

Taal Volcano has been erupting again. It had several phreatomagmatic eruptions in the past two days. The air has been different. I've been having allergies and have had to stay indoors. Unlike the 2020 eruption though, there's no ash fall. It was reported that it rained after the eruption, so that must have helped keep the ash there. I hope the families affected by the eruption are all okay and can go home soon. I pray that the Taal Volcano will quiet down soon since the businesses in the area are just picking up and recovering from the lockdowns. 

On a positive note, there are happy changes happening. Mom finally got her hair cut and she even had her nails done. I hope to get my booster shot in the next few days. I got some help from a friend since I'm required to get Pfizer. Got Mom more groceries also so she can have a variety of dishes that can be cooked for her. She's been eating a lot more now and has been more energetic. 

I watched the CaMaNaVa rally yesterday. It was a music extravaganza with 64 performers! I tried to stay up to finish it, but I conked out after Tanya Markova performed. I stayed up mainly to wait for my friend's band to perform. It was so cool they also observed Earth Hour. VP Leni cut her speech short for it. She wasn't really scheduled to join the rally, but she still showed up despite her very busy schedule (plus helping out for the Taal evacuees). I heard they have initiated house-to-house campaigning. This is very important to do and I mentioned this in a previous blog post. 

Planning for a less busy week since I'm getting my booster shot. Sweetie was down for a few days when he had his booster shot. Hope to finish everything I need to do before my schedule. We wanted to do it earlier, but had a hard time finding a non-hospital vaccine center that offers Pfizer. Too bad the Nayong Pilipino vaccine center only offers Moderna. 

Looking forward to have a better week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend guys. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

I Felt Unsafe

Yesterday, my Mom had an unexpected visitor. It was one of her former drivers. We haven't heard from him in more than a decade now. Good thing a neighbor dropped by at the same time and was able to watch over Mom. 

It's hard not to be suspicious of anyone at this point. I was advised not to trust anyone also so I'm quite paranoid. I know I'm probably annoying Mom a lot, but I just want to make sure she's safe. Someone popping up after a decade long absence made me question his intentions. Mom said he just passed by and happened to see her. Really? 

It was a good reminder that we still need to be cautious. It triggered my anxiety though and by early evening I had to lie down. I pinged Kuya at 1 in the morning because the worry snowballed into other things. Good thing he was still awake and gave me some advise. 

Retired this door lock after 52 years of service.

I realized that I could take comfort in the fact that Papa Jesus will always be there for me. It is only in Him that I could feel truly safe. Overthinking will just stress me out and make me sick. I fell asleep immediately after that thought. 

My cousin posted this morning, "Don't stop being good because of bad people." Tomoh. What they did to us is not unforgivable, but it will take time to get it out of our system. I've SOS'd Kuya to help Mom get over it. If not, I'm afraid her room will be full of things she thinks may be taken. It's also hard for me because her assistant calls me in a panic whenever they can't find something my Mom misplaced. 

In time those cruel people will face the consequences of what they've done. Si Papa God na bahala sa kanila. I'll just continue working on putting things back to order. Suspending non-fun tasks this weekend to do some quilting.

Happy weekend everyone. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely