Update Attempt

WAAAHHHHH!!!!! I am SO behind on my blog updates that it’s all piling up on me! I can’t take this anymore! You know that feeling when you know that you have to do something but do not have the capacity to do it. Then you hate yourself for not being able to do what you have to do because you know that if you had the time, the results would be so great! Since I am still busy this week and there’s the Tobit weekend, I’m sure I will still be unable to blog in peace. So, I give up! Blogging is supposed to fun! It’s not supposed to be stressful! I am supposed to be the God of my blog site. Not it’s slave! Instead of putting separate entries from events that I deem blogworthy, I am just summarizing them. Bwahaha! I know it doesn’t have the same effect but at least I had those events stamped in my blog history. Here’s what’s written in my One Note. I’m just going to doodle on it and hopefully make sense:

To-Post:

• My First Chapter Outing – posted
• Cheriboys Session – posted
• Mother’s Day – posted
• Fellowship on Ryan’s birthday – posted
• Toxic – This is the week of 05/15/06 to 05/19/06 when I was so harassed and stressed with my job. My capacity is so stretched that I really feel toxic the whole week.
• PowerSlam practice – I was supposed to explain how I went back to sharing whatever minute talents I have in dancing for HIM. Hehe
• Carl’s resignation – This one I really hate not writing about. My mentor in Accenture just resigned and I was quite reflective on his last day in the office. Before he left, I had a few private conversations with this guy and his words really brought a lot of realizations and memories for me… I really would like to expound on this one… but…. argh!
• MMLA – My first ever attendance of the Metro Manila Leaders’ Assembly. I would have posted the side stories of the travel going to the venue, the MMLA itself, the MetroWalk after etc etc. Oh well.
• Da Vinci Code – I watched it after our music min practice. My thoughts and reactions basically.
• Bingo – it’s a term we use in our Chapter that means that we have an activity for all the days of the week. That is my state this week and I was supposed to write why.
• Mother’s Birthday – Today is my Mama’s birthday! My parents are on leave so I’m sure they’re making the most of their time. Happy Birthday Ma!

Ryan’s Birthday

Go shorty! It’s your birthday. We gon’ party like it’s yo birthday…..

Finally! Ryan no longer has the right to call me ‘kuya!’ because we now have the same age! Yahoo!

All the guys from our chapter decided to have a household/fellowship on the actual day of this SFC bro’s birth (05/15/06). Since it is his birthday and he is the host of the household, we asked Ryan to lead all the guys into the activity. So there we were fervently praying when we noticed people coming in… It was the girls! What?!?! All the female heads in our chapter decided to pay him a surprise visit. Haha! They got him there. Wow! I just realized that the entire upper households (plus a few members) are present! This hasn’t happened to a household for quite a while now since we had the segregation of unit and chapter households. The girls didn’t join the prayer though since we were already in the middle of if.

After the prayer, we ate the food prepared by Ryan’s mom, Tita Olie. It was gone in 60 seconds! Hahaha! Conversations, laughters, jokes and all the many things that I love about our chapter transpired during that night. The girls went home earlier while we guys started our honoring. Prior to the honoring, I realized that in the years I have known Ryan, he has honored me twice but I have NEVER honored him. So I sought to make up for that by basically saying all the good things in my mind and in my heart about this cool fellow.

To Ryan, Happy Birthday! I’ve said what I wanted to in that household so I’m just going to say, “Take it easy, BRO!”

Mother’s Day

Being extra-busy is no excuse to celebrate Mother’s day. I guess for my family, this is the perfect time. Usually on this day, my mom would treat us out. But now that both my sister and I are working, it was just natural for us to treat her on her day. I was craving for some Buffalo Wings so we headed to Don Hen and ordered the family size among others. That time, there were seven of us celebrating (with my cousin, my aunt, and her friend) so the bill was a bit heavy. Oh well, it’s all for you mom! After dinner, we went to see the last full showing of ‘MI: III’. That was the second time I saw the movie but it’s all good. I watched it for family. The first one for something else.

To my mama, a big happy mother’s day to you! Lav Yah!

No Sleep

With very little sleep from the event in my last post, I woke up at aroud 5pm for the Cheriboys’ version of celebrating Ryan’s birthday. Actually, that event was supposedly for dual purposes – Ryan’s birthday celebration and ‘welcome gimmick’ for GJ as a temporary honorary cheriboy (haha! temporary because he is going back to LA quite soon). But since GJ cancelled, it was all for Ryan that night. We went to Promenade and had some light drinks then proceeded to Embassy in The Fort. The guys thought that the fee was not worth it so we decided to go back to our good old Basement. You see, this is when you know that you are in the company of men and not boys – they have other things allotted for their hard-earned money that they’re just not simply willing to change that just because the place is deemed cool. If I was in the company of the latter, we would have gone there whatever the cost. OK, reading this makes me think if I am just optimistic or simply making an excuse. Hahaha! We went home earlier this time (5am) and then tried to get more sleep. I am one sleepy creature. ZzZzZzZz…

Chapter Outing

No storm could stop our chapter from having fun! No! Not us! Haha! Caloy is nothing compared to our desire to bond and be together. Hehe. Last Friday up to Saturday, I joined our chapter outing – my first time ever! The birthday celebrators prepared the food so no worries for us. We went to this place in Antipolo (sorry I forgot the name) and dipped ourselves in the pool until sunrise. I think that was the first time that I was still swimming up to 3am. Obviously, I’ve been to overnight swimming events before but not to the point that we didn’t sleep and we were just in the pool from night till morning.

There was also this videoke machine. Time to sing again! Haha! In between swims, we would go up and sing a song or two then go back to swimming again. Of course, there was the unlimited picture taking. We are experts at this! Hahaha!

Oh, and there’s the game that we ‘energies’ love to play – anything Q&A basically. Games that would allow us to get to know each other better. I’d say that this fellowship is one those times when I really got to know my chapter mates on a more personal level. We are more comfortable with each other so we are able to open ourselves more and in the process are able to help each other out in each other’s concerns. Oh! And I got to know the new members’ first impression of me! =p

I got home at around 2pm and caught up with my sleep. That was great guys! See yah all next time!

Just wanted to put this out…..

My mind, my body and my spirit is spread thin lately. For some varying reasons, I have so many things going on that I am unable to think, reflect or analyze all of them. I just try to take it one day at a time. Step by step. Thought by thought. Issue by issue. It’s not that I feel physically tired because I don’t. It’s more of an emotional weariness. The highs are really highs and the lows are really low. I just hope that I get out of this “stage” whole, stronger, wiser and hopefully not too jaded. Hayyyy…

God, Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference…..

Happy Birthday Bianca!

To my friend and blog buddy, Liza, have a happy happy birthday! You are beautiful inside and out! Enjoy your day! God Bless!

Happy Birthday Sister!

Happy Birthday to my sister Ryzel! You are 23 years old now! Yahoo! See you later in Something Fishy and in the honoring in my unit household!

I’ve already said my message to you offline so I’m just going to say that may all your wishes, dreams and hopes come true!

GK Luzon Build in Nueva Vizcaya

I think it’s one of those defining moments in your service in Gawad Kalinga when you realize the impact of what you do and when you are totally plucked away from your comfort zone. I gave my long weekend (including the whole day of Friday) to this endeavor and it was worth every moment. Yes, there are times when I question the reason why I was there. It was a long weekend and I could have gone diving somewhere else, or probably tried surfing, or maybe went back to playing badminton again. But instead I rode 12 hours in this truck, slept on a tent, took baths on streams, built houses under the intense heat of the sun, and got myself hurt while barefoot on a muddy road etc etc.

At the end of it all, I know that I did that for love. There was this line that says, ‘Give until it hurts…..’ Well I’m telling you, I felt the hurt. I gave my time, energy, effort and ultimately myself for three straight days. And I’m thankful that I was given an opportunity to do that. I feel blessed that I experienced that kind of service. I went back to Manila a different man, not only in terms of service but also on a much more personal level.

Less for self, more for others, enough for all.

PS: I’m doing an article on this one. That is why I didn’t really elaborate. Hehe.