20 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
After almost four months of being househelp-less, I do think it is time to get one, again. In my entire married life as well as my entire mommy life, I have had a maid slash yaya for only five months.
I keep saying that it was so much easier to take care of the baby when she was younger, meaning, the only things she knew was to eat, sleep, pee and poop. Now she can do this:
I like mixing my things with my mama's. They make for great floor decor.
and this:
I love ripe mango. I love it on my clothes and all over the floor. It is great for practicing swimming on the floor.
and a gazillion other things.
I do not want to keep tidying and arranging and re-arranging things over and over again, two to three times every single day. Lia is now a proficient walker, which I should be thankful for since really, I can no longer carry her in my arms like I did just last month. She is waaaay too heavy now. But Lia being the efficient walker she is, always wants to go out the front door as well as the gate. She wants to run after dogs and cats. She wants to open cabinets and take out clothes and linen. She wants to open the kitchen cabinets under the sink and take out all the cleaning materials as well as the tools out of its box. She wants to play soccer with the dog. She wants to ride her bicycle. She wants to climb up the stairs, up the chairs, up and into her crib, and up into tables. She wants to get her hands on everything and empty baskets, boxes and bookshelves.
A few days ago, as I was buying myself a new computer chair, I was tempted to hoard Lock&Lock plastic containers into which I’d keep every single thing little thing in this house in – just so she would not be able to get her hands on them.
I need househelp now – if only to tidy up the house.
19 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
Reposting this for all my friends who are expecting or who are thinking of, hoping to be, expecting. I hope you find this useful or insightful in any way. Cheers everyone!
***
Walanghiya, anong petsa na?! Yan ang paulit-ulit na linya ko sa bawat araw na lang na dumaan.
Eksayted na eksayted na talaga ako sa paglabas ng behbeh. Eh ambigat kasi eh. Iniisip ko nga, siguro akala ng iba nagdadrama lang ako kasi mukha namang maliit ang tiyan ko para sa six months, eh ambigat talaga eh. Kung ganito kabigat to, pano na lang ako next month at next next month? Walanghiya, anong petsa na ba?
Okey lang naman kapag sumisipa, sumisirko, nanununtok, naninipa, namimitik, sumasayaw, tumatambling yung behbeh eh, wag lang mababa. Masakit pala talaga ang hitting below the belt? Nuninuninu.
Sabi ng libro, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you…â€
Kapag di makakain, nagsusuka at nahihilo buong araw, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Kapag masakit na ang pagsipa, pagsuntok, pagsirko, pagsayaw, pagpitik at pagtambling ng behbeh, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Kapag masakit na dahil matagal na nakatayo o naglalakad, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Kapag di na makalakad at makagalaw dahil mabigat, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Kapag hinihingal sa 10-minute walk, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Kapag di makatulog dahil nangangawit ang paa, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Kapag di makahiga ng flat ang likod sa kama, kelangan daw naka-side kundi sasakit ang likod, “pregnancy is not designed to torture you..â€
Ryan: Wifey, ang ganda-ganda mo na.. Hayluvet!
Angku: Yesh, ang taba-taba ko…
Ryan: Oo, pangarap ko talaga yan eh. Yung patabain ka.
Angku: Sabi ni Ryan, “Gagawin ko ang lahat para tumaba ka lang. Bubuntisin kitaaaa!â€
Ryan: Dati nauubos na ang pera ko kakapakain sayo, di ka naman tumataba.
Angku: Sabi ko na nga ba, desperado ka.
**
Angku showing ultrasound pictures to friends and relatives:
Angku: Kita mo ba?
Friends/relatives: (binbali-baliktad ang ultrasound pictures) Uh…., asan?
Angku: Psych test yan. Pag kita mo, ibig sabihin, above average ang IQ at EQ mo. (straight face)
**
Ryan and Angku naglalakad sa labas. Angku suot ang black blouse na binili nya last, last year pa.
Angku: Ang cool ng damit na to ano? Pang-buntis. Siguro alam ko talaga na magbubuntis ako very soon kaya puro preggy blouses na nabili ko.
Ryan: Deep inside, gusto mo talaga mabuntis.
Angku: Right.
Ryan: Pangarap mo yan eh. I just know it!
Angku: Right… Ka-level ng “Deep inside, gusto mo talagang maging housewife.â€
**
Ryan and Angku in doctor’s office for monthly check-up.
OB: O, dapat bumibili ka na ng mga damit.
Angku: Pwede po bang hindi?
OB: Eh ano isusuot mo?
Ryan: Lagi lang po siyang hubad.
Angku: Hehehe (sabay big, toothy smile)
O.B.: Aba, eh magdamit ka naman. Pano na lang pag lalabas ka?
Angku: Pwede po bang wag lumabas?
Ryan: Nagiging primal na po siya.
O.B.: (buntong-hininga) Haay naku, kayo talagang dalawa. Never a dull moment.
**
Ryan and Angku in mall.
Ryan: Bigyan kita ng 2,000 bumili ka lang ng damit.
Angku: No, thank you. Shopping mode off.
Ryan: Eh kelan ka bibili ng damit?
Angku: I hate shopping. I hate the mall.
**
Angku: Hubby, asan na yung mga luma mong damit?
Ryan: Bakit?
Angku: Isusuot ko.
Ryan: Wag yan. Wag yang Guess na polo shirt ko. Marami nang butas yan eh.
Angku: Oh wow! It’s just my type! (Sabay suot ng Guess polo shirt na may limang libong maliliit na butas)
Anhirap naman magbuntis. Kelangan bumili ng damit. Pwede bang bumili ng isa lang tapos gawing official preggy uniform? Yung yun at yun lang isusuot kapag lalabas ng bahay?
Bawal daw matagal na nakaupo. Bawal din daw matagal na nakatayo. Yesss! Walang sinabi tungkol sa matagal na paghiga. Hehehe. More dvds please?
Dahil O.C. ako, kinokontrol ko ang aking weight gain. I-endeavor ko rin ang pag-kontrol ng weight loss after.
Ryan: Bakit tapos ka na kumain? (tampo-drama mode on)
Angku: Bakit ganyan itsura mo?
Ryan: Gusto ko tumaba ka.
Angku: Gagu, sabi 4 lbs/month lang. Hindi 10 lbs every freakin month. 106 lbs na ako kahapon sa ating scale na madaya ng 4 lbs. May 4 na araw pa til check-up slash weigh-in. Gusto mo batukan na naman ako ng OB?
Ryan: (straight face)
Aba, lumalaki ata ang mga braso ko, iwork-out na yan! Aba, wala daw akong hips. Walang hips my a, magpalaki ng hips! Wala namang masama kung i-endeavor kong takasan ang CS di ba? Kelan daw ba ang due date ko. Pwede sa April 5? Bakit naman sa April 5? I like the number 5, it’s lucky. (Eh yung 5 anak kaya, lucky pa rin?)
Ryan: Wifey, gumaganda ka ata.
Angku: Baka bumabait lang ako.
**
Angku nagbabasa ng Guide for Expectant Fathers na libro.
Angku: Ganito na pala kalaki ang fist ni behbeh kapag 24 weeks. Kaya pala nakikita na natin kapag bumubukol.
Ryan: Why you reading my book? That’s my book! (tampo-drama mode on)
Angku: Ambilis naman nito. Fist pa lang tinitingnan ko, pag-turn ko ng page, labor na agad!
Ryan: Eh pang-lalaki yan eh. Sa mga lalaki, lahat mabilis.
Angku: (stares at Ryan)
Gusto ko pabilisin ang panahon. Anong petsa na ba? Eksayted na eksayted na ako.
Quote from preggy guide book from O.B.’s office:
“You may feel shortness of breath when pregnant because of your increased need for oxygen. During the late pregnancy, the pressure of your growing baby on your diaphragm may make it harder for you to breath [but] you should.â€
Pregnancy is not designed to torture you… pregnancy is not designed to torture you.. repeat n times till fade…
…
..
.
.
.
Written January 7, 2009
This was originally posted here.
And as a post-script:
I just want to share how much I am a fan of Cathy Thorne‘s cartoons. I have it on my links list, and you may also click on the individual images to view the source site. Or you may click on the following link too: Everyday People Cartoons (Cartoons about women, and the people who love and annoy them.)
19 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-pop-color-selectively-using-channel-mixers-and-layer-masks-in-photoshop
18 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
I found another site that inspires me. I guess right now I can say I am in love with photos and words – which is never a bad thing. *smiles*
17 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
Today was another day for a meeting although its not work-related (That was yesterday and tomorrow). I met with Lia’s First Birthday Party planner at Starbucks in Eastwood City Walk and now have a clear overview of how the party will be. Now there is a venue, a caterer, a cake and almost everything else! I only need to finalize the menu and the final head count before signing the contract. One less (huge) thing off my mind, thank God for that!
While Ryan was inside the cafe chatting with the planner and going over the details, Lia and I went for a walk outside. Lia kept coming into the People Are People store and had her eye and her hands on a shiny, sequined, all white top. I had to tell her that we were in a store for people like Mama and Papa and that we would go to a store for babies like her later on.
Gosh, my baby looks so tiny there! 
16 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
It has never occurred to me to walk around my hometown – Pili, Camarines Sur, and take photos. I am only thinking about it now after looking at the few photos I took last time I was there, which was about a month ago.
PNB on the left where the bus stop is and South Star Drug as well as Lucky Nine Convenience Store on the right, right next to where the pedicab terminal is
The streets of Old San Roque
During Sundays, the streets of Old San Roque are transformed into one big wet market, with streets made impassable to any kind of vehicle that can seat a person as entire streets are crammed with cartfuls of all kinds of produce – kakanin, vegetables, dried fish, fresh fish, clothes, toys, plastic wares, plants and even animals like rabbits, chicks, ducklings. The baranggay of Old San Roque has been one big market as long as I can remember. It has the Wet and Dry Markets of the town, though except for Sundays, its streets are empty and passable any other given day of the week. I remember tagging along with my mother or my father during market day, as they picked as well as tried to teach me how to pick vegetables and fruits. I fondly remember how I insisted on going so I could pick out little ducklings that I brought home as pets. I remember how I woke up during Sunday mornings eager to eat kutsinta, kalamay and puto that my mom liked bringing home to us.
I’d like to come back and take photos of the frenzy that is the Sunday market in the streets of Old San Roque when I have the time.
A snapshot of an empty pedicab as well as a relatively empty highway on an early morning weekday
The dormant volcano that is Mt. Isarog
I am afforded a good view of Mt. Isarog every time I take the long route home – a route that involves taking a pedicab that costs P5. At a height of 1,976 meters [6,483 ft], the mountain imposes its unimpressive form on our little town. What I always dreamt about was taking a photo of the mountain after a good, heavy rain – simply because it makes visible a trail of waterfalls on its face. A trail of waterfalls, the biggest of which is as tall as my thumb that always makes me think, “If I could see this waterfalls from where I am, at the foot of the mountain, I imagine it would be gigantic up close.†I have always asked my father about the waterfalls and whether someone has ever been close to it and he always said, “No, because when people try to get to it, they get scared by the thunderous sound it makes even if it’s still nowhere in sight.â€
The street on the right leads to the baranggays of Santiago, San Vicente, La Purisima and Curry
The church of the Parish of St. Raphael the Archangel
A few years ago when I did not have a Flickr account yet, my husband gave me a link to the photo stream of one of his university frat brothers who was a photographer. The guy had been to my hometown and had taken photos. I distinctly remember being impressed by how pretty he had captured the little church where I was baptized and confirmed, had Chiro meetings as well as children’s mass at four in the afternoon during Sundays all through my grade school years and had CFC-sponsored Sunday morning masses with my family during my high school years.
I would love to take a photo of the church in the early morning or late afternoon light on any regular day and a photo of the interior of the church during Christmas season. My parish never had elaborate Christmas decorations but I would take photos only so I can look at them and remember all the past Christmases I spent looking up at the parols hanging on the ceiling during mass.
The building that used to house the Inajem Enterprises as well as my father's cousin's furniture showroom
The Evangelical Christian School in San Juan
My sister Jasmin who is two years older than I am was the third batch to ever graduate from elementary in this little private school. I was on the fifth. That is how I got to witness the transformation of this school through the years. I have not really gone back to walk the halls and enter the classrooms ever since I graduated in 1995. I would love to come back one day and take photos and compare them to the many grade school photos my mom still keeps in a faded and worn out photo album in our house in Santiago. The old principal and pastor, as well as half of his family, had moved from their house in the campus to the lot next to ours. We are now neighbors(!). In fact, last Christmas vacation, my mom had insisted that I, along with my husband and daughter, pay the family a visit – as we share the same narrow driveway and we pass by their front door every time we have to go out of our gateless yard.
The highway where one takes either a pedicab, a tricycle or a motorcyle going inside the Provincial Capitol Complex or what is now more popularly known as the Cam Sur Water Sports Complex or CWC
The Co Say Oil Mill in La Purisima
I had a close friend who lived in La Purisima. I and a few of my friends who had their own bicycles, often went to visit her in their house in the middle of rice fields during our grade school years. We would ride our bikes past the bridge, past the stretch of road made all muddy and broken by the constant passing of heavy trucks that came to and fro the copra mill, past the vast green rice fields, past the mill and past more rice fields until we reached her house. In my friend Joanne’s house, they had binggalas (guinea fowl) and all kinds of vegetables planted all around their house. Down the street they had a bigger farm where she showed us the grapes growing around bamboo sticks. I distinctly remember saying out loud that I thought grapes only grew in the mountains or cooler places.
I always loved looking at that vast expanse of green field with the oil mill standing out in the scenery. I grew to love the smell of the copra carried by the breeze that blew my hair as I rode my bicycle at the age of nine.
I haven’t been back to see my friend Joanne and I do not know whether the fields still teem green with rice. I did catch a glimpse of what I thought was the oil mill on the way to Sabang, San Jose when the van I was in took the Pili Diversion road that took off from San Agustin, cutting through San Vicente, Santiago and La Purisima to emerge in Anayan. The diversion road was built right after the bridge.. the bridge that where there used to be a little stream that was a tributary of the Bicol River, where I used to go to watch my neighbors wash their laundry and to swim with my playmates is now dead and dry. (As a side note, the stream is dead because of the oil mill. Read about it here; though this should have been done a long time ago. I remember writing about how the mill killed the stream when I was thirteen and in my first year of high school in what was then called Colegio de Sta. Isabel).
So many things have changed.
That is why I want to and I should take photos before everything changes all the more. Right now all I have are the pictures in my mind of what used to be. I’d like to have photos of what is there now so when the time when this now is the past, I will have photos of what was there half-way – half-way between what I remember from my childhood and what will be there in the future.
15 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
I would like to thank Eshei Mesina for introducing me to Stumbleupon.
And for my very first stumbled upon site, here is a site where you can listen to the sounds of the rain, thunder, the ocean, songbirds, gulls and even chimes and vibes!!
This brings back memories of being The U.P. Repertory Company‘s Sound Manager and combing the collections of the College of Mass Communications for sound effects for our plays and full-length tula dulas like U.P. ng Ina.
14 Mar 2010
by angkuletin Uncategorized
I have been writing a long time. Not writing professionally but just writings – letters, journals, essays and little articles for myself and for sharing my thoughts with my friends. I have been trying to clean up my internet clutter in the past few months. I have all kinds of stuff all over and some times, such as this one, I want to clear everything and just keep them all in one place. That is why I have been posting old writings.
This desire to clean up and gather all my writings together in just one place has also been rekindled by the fact that Peyups dot com is down. I tried accessing my profile and was unable to. The owners of the site has informed me that the database is down but that does not mean that the site is dead. They will put Peyups back up again when (and if) they find the time. I am only concerned because I have, perhaps, from what my degenerating brain can remember, about four articles that were published during my college years. I have only been able to copy two of these articles into this site and I am fearing that, if Peyups does not come back up, they may be gone forever.
I have to admit that I like reading my old articles and blogs. That being said, I have to admit that I am a fan of my own writing. I do not say that in the narcissistic way (I am not saying I am not narcissistic either) but that sometimes when reading my old writings, I forget that I was the one who wrote it and think, “Wow! This is such great writing!” (*now laughing out loud, can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous I am*)
Yesterday I was making sure that I was catching up on all my housework backlogs with all the laundry, ironing, cleaning and re-arranging. I want to be able to start work next week with a clutter-free mind. Yes, I will be officially working starting next week. Surprise, I will be a writer.
I am excited about working, writing, learning new things and meeting new people. I am basically excited about being able to use my deteriorating brain cells. I am excited for the year 2010. It seems like a very promising year. I hope and pray that things will pick up, that I would be able to do the things I set out to do and that at the end of the year, I will be able to look back and say, “I am proud of myself.”
Finally, I hope to be able to nurture the writer in me, whatever it is I choose to write about. I have always loved writing and it would be nice to actually do it for a living.
Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries
Twitter
Flickr
YouTube
Facebook
RSS
