Livin high and takin it easy

After three hours of painstaking yet exciting (big smiles all the way) efforts of searching the internet for images, figuring out how to layer and basically work my way around Photoshop CS4, I finally finished Lia’s “Save The Date” card.

I was actually supposed to go to bed early, like 9:30 pm early, but I sat down one last time to look at some clipart images and I just found myself working until the entire card was done. I couldn’t have picked a better first Photoshop CS4 project on my new Macbook Pro. Hooorah! Hoorah! I feel like a pre-schooler who just finished her first hand painting project. Hoorah! Hoorah!

The card is actually already kinda late. I should be working on the actual invite. After all, the event is a month away and yet I have not done anything to prepare for it. Nothing at all yet! Dang, pressure is building up! Haha!

Now that I have this little card done, I can go to bed with a smile on my face. Aaaaah, the feeling of accomplishment, I have forgotten what that is.. until today. Big smiles all the way!

We were dining at a resto in Megamall yesterday and at a nearby table, another family was also dining. There was the mom, the dad and a little boy who was a little more than one year old. Lia, who is always about meeting other kids, went up to the other table and started interacting with the little boy.

A few minutes later, the boy came down his chair and was standing right in front of Lia. Without saying anything, he went up to her, held out his arms to embrace her and kissed her on the cheek. Lia stood there, an expression of total shock on her face.

I was laughing as I took her away and back to our table. A few minutes later, she started blabbing and indicated she wanted to come down her chair and walk. I let her down and the minute her feet touched the floor, started walking in the direction of the little boy and his dad, blabbing indignantly all the way. I was just laughing. My offended little girl was out to give it to the little boy.

But the minute she reached him still indignantly blabbing away, he stood there, not saying a word, held out his arms once again to embrace her and was about to give her another kiss! The little boy’s embarrassed dad stopped him, and laughingly took him away. I had to take my still incensed little girl away too.

But boy, that was one funny scenario. A classic girl-boy relationship: nagging girl and kissing boy. Here is a nice image..

… or perhaps a better and more apt one would be this.

The past two days has been really busy but exceptionally productive days. In fact, it can be easily said as the most productive days I have had in the past two years! Of course, if you consider having a baby as a very productive, or reproductive, activity, then that one tops the list. I have not done anything else. I gave up my studies, my work, my travels and even my friends to have the baby.

Ryan was in Phuket for a conference and I had to go to a little job interview for a part-time writer job, we asked the in-laws to baby-sit for us. Instead of spending an afternoon to look after Lia, the in-laws thought of getting her to stay with them for a few days – leaving me alone at home to do my own things. I wallowed for an entire day before deciding that that was the best time to do all my pending tasks. Some of them pending for the last two years!

So yesterday I went to my job interview. I was early and they were running late so I did a little banking first because there was a BPI two blocks away from the office. I deposited the downpayment for the Travel Factor Calaguas trip slated for April 17 and 18.

I dropped by my friends’ apartment to leave copies of the “Like Water for Chocolate” film and picked up a few things too, like Lia’s Speedo life jacket.

From there on I went to Columbia Photo in Megamall to leave my Nikon D80 for check-up and cleaning, and from Megamall, I went to the Travel Factor Headquarters in Bloomingdale Plaza in Shaw Boulevard to pick up Leia’s Christmas presents for Lia. What a day!

Oh, more importantly, I got me a Macbook Pro. Yes, I am now officially a Mac user. Hoorah! Hoorah!

I posted here a few months ago about my desire to buy a new laptop. Back then, this HP Touchsmart was the choice. I ended up getting a 13″ Macbook Pro instead! I am ecstatic!

I have cleaned up my IBM Lenovo laptop of all files, transferred it to my Western Digital portable hard disk and is so ready to sell my old laptop. I have installed my Bamboo pen tablet and Canon printer on the new Mac. I am all set!

Ryan was supposed to arrive at seven in the evening (although I thought it was five in the afternoon) from Bangkok but his plane had to turn around thirty minutes into the flight because of engine problem and he was back in Bangkok airport at six in the evening waiting for a replacement flight. He arrived at about eleven in the evening in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and was home after thirty minutes. We had a lot of stories to tell to each other!

Today, I decided that instead of wallowing in my longing for my baby to arrive from her grandparents excursion, I went to my old workplace, St. Paul College Pasig, to work on my clearance. It was due two years ago!

As a side note, I found this while googling for images. An interesting aerial view of the campus, with all of its pre-school, grade school and high school buildings. No, the campus has no college students despite its name.

From St. Paul, I went to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to inquire about getting a student driver’s license.

Lia arrived with her grandparents at about six in the evening and the first thing I said was, “Lia! You lost weight!” I suppose she didn’t get to eat or sleep much or she did a lot of going out.

The past two days has been quite productive and very rewarding over-all. A sense of accomplishment is always a wonderful feeling. I hope to have more of that this year.

I sat on my chair, with myself and the dog, rested my head on the top of the back support, only to look up at a graying blue sky and one lonely, shining bright early evening star; and I think to myself, you are my one shining bright star, even more made lovelier in the wet pools of my eyes.

This is not supposed to be that hard. I am supposed to enjoy this time for myself yet here I am wallowing in my loneliness, missing you like I have never missed you before. I realize that for the past two years, there was nothing else in my life but you. You for whom I quit my job, my studies, my friends and almost everything else to have. You for whom I have basically lived my life for. You, the one lovely, the brightest ever, star to have graced my life.

I sat there and hit my head against the wall. I’m supposed to be doing things I cannot do when you are around. I’m not supposed to be sitting here, doing nothing and just wallowing in my longing for you. I am supposed to do some thing, many things.

So I gathered your laundry and prepared to wash them, breathing in the smell of you. I gathered the dishes in the sink to wash, your bright pink plate, spoon and fork making a plastic sound against the china and the glasses. I took out the Kleen glass cleaner, sprayed it on the giant mirror hanging over our dining area, on the television set and on the living room side table and started wiping your hand prints off the surfaces as my vision blurred, my eyes swimming once again in little pools. I almost held my hand back, hesitant to wipe the traces of you off our little surfaces but I remember that I have to clean it, so you can make new hand prints. I thought of the wonderful big smile on your little face as you wipe and splatter food all over the television yet again and I had to smile myself.

I went up our bedroom and started taking the sheets and pillowcases off to wash tomorrow, hoping that you would not mind the clean springtime smell when you come back. I know you always resent it when the bed does not smell of Mama and you. I know you resent it when I change the sheets without asking you so I always had to change it as you watch so you would know that even if it does not smell the way you like it, it is still the same bed.

I had to clean up our little play-work room so I can work and think better and also so that you can have more fun looking for your things in all their proper places – that is, not in all the places where you last left them, scattered and cluttered about.

After all this tidying up is done, I have to mop the floor. I know you don’t mind the dirty floor but I do. I’d like to walk around and not have all kinds of things stuck to the heels of my feet.

We must get a maid soon I know so I can devote more time to myself and to some form of work instead of spending all my time cleaning up after you and the increasingly amount of mess you are able to make each passing day. I know when we had the maid before, it did not benefit you at all. It was all for me and the next time, it will still be. I know you’d be happy to spend all your time with me here at home but Mama has to do things for herself too. For that, you will have to forgive me and I hope you understand.

If you are wondering why you’re not where you’re supposed to be right now – sleeping in our own room, in your own crib, waiting for your Mama to move you to the big bed so you can sleep the rest of the night next to her and wake up to the sight of her face, it is because Mama has to be out tomorrow afternoon for a little job interview and she has no one to leave you with. Papa is out of the country again because of work and there is no one else to look after you but Lolo and Lola.

I know I asked for some time away but I did not ask for three days and two nights. I know it is not the first time you will be sleeping without me, waking up without me, and maybe you wonder why Mama is all distraught. Let me tell you that I do not mind sleeping in another bed, in another room without you for a night or two, as long as its not in this house. I have always slept with you in this bed ever since you were born. I spent every waking and sleeping moment with you for the past twenty months and tonight will be the first night I will be sleeping in this bed without you. Until this evening, I guess I have never really known the true meaning of longing.

I hope you are having a good time wherever you are. I know you will be very busy exploring your new environment and perhaps might not even notice my absence, until the middle of the night, when in your sleep you search for the scent of my skin or the feel of my arms and even my palms on your own little ones. After all, the kids never miss the parents as much as the parents miss the kids..

… but I will see you soon my love.

Ryan left today for a conference in the wonderful beachy place of Phuket, Thailand – and of course left me to attach an IV bag of dextrose into my left arm’s vein fend for myself with regards to meals.

If you don’t know how much I hate cooking, you do not know me at all. If you know me, you also know how much I love to eat.

So, I came up with the idea of looking up the ultimate ultra easy recipes for the disinterested cook yet over-eager eater, and the first one on the list is… the clubhouse sandwich!

Clubhouse Sandwich
From Country Living

Thought to have originated in the club cars of American passenger trains, the Clubhouse Sandwich — best known simply as the “Club” — stacks three tiers of toasted white bread with classic chicken salad, crisp bacon, crunchy lettuce, and juicy tomato. Diced roast turkey or chopped fresh-cooked shrimp can be easily swapped for the chicken in this variation.

This is supposedly what I had for dinner.

On a work surface, place 4 slices of toasted bread and spread 1/2 cup of chicken salad on each. Add another slice of toast and place 2 slices bacon, 2 slices tomato, and a lettuce leaf on each sandwich. Place the remaining slices of toast on top of sandwiches, cut into quarters, and secure with a toothpick.

To view entire recipe, click here.

If you know how much I hate cooking, you will not expect me to post actual photos of my efforts to follow these recipes. You will simply surmise that I ate it all, no matter how it looked, or even tasted, for that matter.