Late Summer Sickness (Day 5-10)

Day 5, Sunday. 29^th of May, 2016. Sleeping wasn’t an option during our bus trip back here. With me on two regular couches were my niece, Medley, and my daughter, Reema. The consolation prize for me were the funny things I’ve heard from their conversation throughout the night. I felt my lower back aching when we get off the bus upon reaching Edsa, Cubao. Good thing there were Ate Myrn and her husband Kuya Jhun who fetched us and I loved the free newspaper we’ve got from Jollybee. It reminded me of my crazy-over-newspaper college days. I used to buy a copy everyday and whenever I miss copies whether for a day or a week, I would go to the local store in Naga and buy them all. In our town, there was an old lady riding a pedicab with her husband driving it who were regularly delivering newspaper to the municipal office. Luckily, our shop was on their way there so I became a regular customer and they would also keep copies that I missed. That was the only guilty pleasure that I never regretted spending on.

Nomads as we always are, we went straight to our residence in Caloocan where I only slept the day, I guess. Even when we finally reached Bulacan, I slept early after a glass of ice-cold coke despite knowing that Harry Potter Deathly Hollows Part 1 would be on at 10:00 pm. Yeah, I’m such a fan.

Day 6, Monday. 30^th of May, 2016. I woke up past 12 am and luckily caught the last parts of Harry Potter’s 7^th movie still on TV, and to my surprise, Reema was still awake. Of course I went back to sleep right after the movie ended, so as Reema. I woke up again not feeling well. I took three Bioflu the whole day, it must’ve been the coke. Haha! The Pork Sinigang that I cooked didn’t make me feel better but drinking more water than usual did.

Day 7, Tuesday. 31^st of May, 2016. My nose hurt from pinching all night because of this stupid runny nose but I needed to set my goals while I’m here so I did. Yeah, I’m leaving for Bicol again, sometime soon. Priorities are attending my daughter’s school orientation, buying her school stuff, platforms registration (fiverr, peopleperhour, 199jobs, onlinebookclub, swarmcontent, dotwriter), and fixing my ATM issues which is for my paypal account, a must in getting paid online. Aside from that, I made an investment today. Haha! Well, I registered a promo via Globe’s *143#; an unlimited text to all network and unlimited surfing for 15 days. It cost me Php 454.00. Not bad eh? Though Ate Myrn was like, there’s no unlimited surfing here in the Philippines right now. She said it was just 800 MB or something which might be true. We’ll see. I’m done with my laundry too despite the second day of having to take bioflu. Oh, how I’ve been missing the washing machine!

Day 8, Wednesday. 1^st of June, 2016. Hello June! How about a pair of happy feet to welcome you? We went to Caloocan in the morning and bought Reema’s school stuff in a shopping mall nearby where Papa dropped us off. I was having difficulty in breathing and I didn’t know if it’s because of my cough or it was asthma which made it harder to decide what medicine to take. Throughout the day, there was a lot of article ideas that popped in my mind which are; Kids Should Play Outdoors Than Indoors with Their Gadgets, How to Say No, Another Face of Do-Something-New, and Better Than The Worst (An Election Scenario). Being on the go really gets the ideas going. And oh, before I forget, I was surprised that Reema’s height is now 46 inches. She was just 44” two months ago which made it a little weird.

Day 9, Thursday. 2^nd of June, 2016. I opened my eyes from slumber listening to a whistling sound down my throat. Oh crap, it’s asthma, I can finally say. At least I was able to name the accurate medicine, salbutamol, and took two for today.

I was thinking of pursuing to write Pranksters Promenade for my young adult novel which I’m planning to put in wattpad.  It’s not about the platform but it’s a way to get audience. Pranksters Promenade is one of my long running fiction idea which story revolves around a prankster girl and her friends who decided to get even with her by pretending that one of them is crazy in love with her. The catch is they’re all girls. One accomplice, playing double agent, suggests a makeover for the protagonist to look less boyish than she normally does and of course, to get a boyfriend, or at least someone who can pretend to be. This is one of my college day’s ideas inspired by a reality show in MTV before. Though instead of writing this, I started an article called Preschool Enrollment Musts instead. I think it’s a timely piece.

After the second day in Caloocan, I pushed to go home, I mean in Bulacan since I have to attend Reema’s school orientation tomorrow morning. Even if I’m a certified nomad, there are times when I feel wasted in a certain place and around certain people. I’d say that’s an attitude that I have to work out and get rid of. Going home, the couple (Ate Myrn and Kuya Jhun) tuned in a radio station that was playing mostly 90’s tracks so I was pumped up. I was a bit hesitant to sing along Meredith Brooke’s Bitch because of my husky voice and hurting throat, thanks to my asthma, but I decided not to care when Ode to My Family started playing that I imagined myself on stage with The Cranberries. Haha! Ate asked if I did the acoustic guitar when we played that song in a radio gig years ago because she remembered she’s on vocals. I guess I didn’t, I might’ve brought some percussion, maybe a tambourine or something. Ah, how come I don’t remember clearly?

Day 10, Friday. 3^rd of June, 2016. Okay, now don’t look at that picture asking what the hell is that? Chicken Pochero, you might want to call it that way.  No, no, it wasn’t salbutamol’s side effect. I can assure you it’s edible, though it was missing the chorizo and other important ingredients. Uh, don’t make me talk about ingredients. I’m starting to make no sense.

It was the birthday of my online career mentor, Ate Myrn, but the pochero wasn’t part of the celebration. There was actually no fiesta-like celebration since Ate wasn’t here. In fact, we’ve been getting used to ignoring our birthdays these past few years. Thanks to being broke that we learned the insignificance of parties to the reality of getting old. Haha! The day revolved around attending Reema’s school orientation and how it changed all my plans. Well, yeah. After creating such a detailed writing and posting weekly schedule, Reema’s first day of school changed and so did everything. It included a pop-up of an idea to extend my back-to-Bicol scheme to one more week. I know, I know. Told you I’m a nomad.