Busy Bee

And I thought I'd have a lot of free time after I resigned from my fulltime job. Two weeks since I've become unemployed and my to-do list seems to be getting longer. Much, much longer. And now it's September!

My last day at work was a Saturday. I had a good rest the next couple of days, feeling I deserved to at least sleep two full days before I dove into my writing commitments. So after waking up from the two-day hibernation period, the next couple of days were spent working on the Electronic Evidence module. Emer informed me that my first paycheck was waiting for me at the office and my conscience dictated that I first work on an article or two before I brave the EDSA traffic and drag myself to UP for my sweet, sweet paycheck. So I did. I have gazillions of articles left to write but at least I've already started. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes, "好的开始就是成功的一半。(A good beginning is midway to success.)" It was storming the rest of the week so I had a great excuse for being cooped up at home, cleaning the dogs' cages in the afternoons (we wouldn't want the rainwater to go to waste, would we?) and working on the e-evidence at night.

And then I got a call from a friend looking for a translator for a Taiwanese businessman for an exhibit at the World Trade Center. Naturally, I couldn't pass up an offer of a few thousands for four days of interpreting work. Never mind that I was still far from fluent in both Mandarin and Fukien. The plan was do the translating job in the morning, write the e-evidence article at night. That, of course, did not happen. I was too exhausted by the time I got home each night that all I could do was get to bed and drift off to dreamland. I am now way behind schedule on my carefully laid out timeplan for the writing assignments. (Emer, I hope you're not reading this.) But the job was done, we sold our products, I got paid. All these after I lost my phone, which happened on my very first day on the job.

So I spent the entire week being ex-communicado, my world revolving in and around the World Trade Center with its P60-hotdog and P40-Coke in can. I had no time and energy to go scouting for new phones and besides, I'd get paid at the end of the week. The universe had already decided that the money I would earn would go to buying a phone, so it seemed.

I got home on Friday with the house all locked up and dark. It turned out that Akoh was rushed to the hospital due to dizziness. Naturally I was not informed because I did not have a phone. It was like being back in the old days when you get second-hand information all because there was no way of directly contacting you.

I went directly to the Chinese General Hospital after my last day at work to relieve Nuna from her post of bantay and stayed overnight until Akoh was discharged noon of the next day. I finally had time to get myself a new SIM but without a phone, I was still pretty much out of touch with the rest of the world.

I finally got a new (okay, a second-hand) phone last Wednesday and I'm still exploring all its mysterious features. It's a 3G! Although I haven't used that yet. I wonder whom I could use it for. Besides, I will have to make sure that I combed my hair at least before starting a phone conversation if I were to use that feature. But I've already transferred songs to it! Except I don't have an earphone yet so I pretty much have to share the music to everyone within hearing distance, which by the way, Iel doesn't mind at all. That kid's world is ruled by music and dance.

Promptly after I got my phone, my body realized that I'd run out of urgent things to do and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, started playing with a harmless cold. A simple cold, of course, never kills anyone so I went to the SSS office with Akoh on Thursday to process some papers for her Philhealth benefits. By lunch, it wasn't my cold that stopped us from going straight to the hospital to complete the day's mission but a bad case of dysmenorrhea. We went back home and saved the hospital trip for another day. The dysmenorrhea took up most of my world those couple of days that I hardly noticed my worsening cold until two days after when I was no longer in pain from my monthly torture.

So I now sniffle in self-pity. I have the voice of a frog while my body aches all over and is in bad need of a really good massage.

Oh! And I have to go to Makati tomorrow to meet with my old boss (who might become my future boss again. But more on that in an altogether different blog entry). I think what I need to do now is lie down and sleep.

Crippled

When I said that I'm on semi-hibernation, the Universe must have taken it too seriously and willed the most used communication device in my life to disappear. For that was what happened. One moment my cellphone was there, the next it was gone. With it, I lost a calculator, a watch, an alarm clock, a radio, birthday reminders, phone and address book, notepad, not to mention my hand exercise machine. That is how crippling losing a cellphone is. My hands suddenly felt so empty, as if they didn't know what to do, as if they lost one of their fingers.

Needless to say, I'll be needing all of your contact details again. I'll be using the same number as before but as I don't have a phone yet, please email or PM them to me as soon as you read this. Hopefully, I would have my cellphone transplant by early next week.

Unbelievably Challenging

The biggest challenge about being unemployed is the discipline to stay unemployed. Let me clarify that. I have yet to finish the second draft of my novel and I vow to finish it in a month.  (The second draft, we have a long way to go until the final one.) Still, there’s always the temptation to find a job instead. And typically, finding a job is what a normal functional member of society is supposed to be doing in between jobs, thus I have to constantly remind myself that I am unemployed for a reason. I do have to find a job but it just has to wait a few months. There is of course that voice in my head still shouting, almost hysterically now, “Ayokong maging dukha!” making it even harder for me to not run frantically to the computer and start sending my resume to every other employer I can find. It’s no joke how I convince myself each day that jobs will be there even after I finish my degree and I need only to be patient so I can finally start looking for them soon.

The next biggest challenge about being unemployed is getting out of bed each morning.

My Last Few Days at Work

I took these photos during my last few days at the office. These are some of my favorite people at work. I wasn't able to take pictures of my boss Kathy (whom I really, really liked), Herbert (who loaned me a hundred bucks when I left my wallet at home), and Henry (who's funny and weird so I like him). Oh well. Here's to unemployment!

Cai's Despedida

Because I couldn't find an internet connection sooner, by the time I post this, Cai must be somewhere in San Francisco. Giddy with happiness, we hope. Here's one last look of our dear Cai in Manila.

Celluloid Obsessions - Ragnarok Online - "HOME VIDEO"

http://paolody.multiply.com/video/item/13
Because I'm a closet movie-star-wannabe and my sister works in production, I sometimes get bit roles in commercials or AVPs. Here's one of those. This was done maybe more than two years ago.

If you want to see me, then you are not allowed to blink.

Back in the Game

So that (scroll to bottom of page and read the last few comments) didn't go exactly as I hoped it would. I was depressed for a week, okay, more than a week, but I'm up and about again (at least most of the time) and shouting, forefinger up in the air and an expectant look on my face, "Next please!"

Please don't ask what happened because I'm not telling. (That makes you want to know more, doesn't it?)