Highlights and Lows in 5-years Month

I don’t really remember if I expected the month to be easy-going or tough—it turns out to be the more of the latter. It doesn’t mean though that it wasn’t a good month, in fact, the toughness made it even more special (cliché or not). I’m quite sleepy and because of how busy days were, I actually didn’t get to update my log/excel journal for the second half.

The month started wih Ash Wednesday and I got to go to Mass in the morning and sang in the evening with a good number of choirmates. I’m not sure if more were appreciative of the old songs I chose for us to sing but I for myself feel good singing them. There were a number of cute food moments at home, and a couple of furniture updates here and in mhae’s apartment. The first week was also basically preparing for work to be left while I went on vacation with mhae in Bicol.

And there we went, to Bicol. It was indeed that relaxing experience I expected with a lot of sleep and the nice feeling of bringing a solar power kit. We met dingdong’s bestfriend who is much like an action hero sidekick;we had a non-perspiring trip to town; I had a couple of playtimes with the kids; and we celebrated mhae’s mama’s birthday with cake and balloons as a surprise mhae planned with her sisters there. The bus trip to and fro was quicker than they used to be and apparently, so was the vacation.

It’s not as heavy as it sounds. It’s that work go harder as soon as we returned. I was back in the office the morning we returned from Bicol for some NBAQ4 requirements. That was just the start of the headaches and frustrations in that bid-preparation. Fast forward to this afternoon, I think we pretty much settled everything with our client’s Dutch partner. As for the other project that kept me busy, the Masinloc Power Plant was pretty challenging for me since I had to manage it more—including the billing. Again, fast forwards to today, I think we’ve completed as much as what our client wanted. Things did get heavy for me since Boss Dan is in the States since a couple of days after I came back from the province.

Work isn’t the only thing that kept me enjoying rest even more. Officer duties in the Music Ministry cost me a couple of tampuhan moments with mhae and inefficient use of time. At the moment, it’s still quite fulfilling and I’m keeping myself hopeful. The joint choir practices are a step up from last year’s. Sadly, it doesn’t get much better than that with an uninspiring PEMC (though I’d mostly attribute it to the founder).

Outside work and singing, I finally had a haircut and some closure with the late Mang Isko’s status. Well, he’s in heaven now. Mhae and I finally got to see yaluts and cata at the triple birthday celebration after not seeng cata for a long time. I also got to use the lazada voucher although the shelves are still in the sala, unassembled, boxed and bubble-wrapped, quite because my room’s getting more disorganized again. Quite work related, we finally wond 2 games in basketball (I participated in one) and secured 2^nd place in chess (losing to admin.) I still can’t get over the fact that even though we lost that match, the team won the respect of chess nerds at the office. Also, eldrich’s game with mayor—with eldrich losing time, failing to stalemate, and mayor having less than 2 minutes left—was probably the toughest game in the tournament. I did meet some deadlines this week—prc online renewal, metrobank bill, bpi thills jollibee claim, and old-generation bill bank deposits. I also realized hat I didn’t get to keep for myself a 200-peso 69bill—it had 68. Oh well. At least It’s still crisp.

And the highlight of the month—mhae. We did have a number of petty tampuhan moments but more than those, we celebrated 5 happy years together. She’s back in school for her third term this school year. Two more to go after this before graduation. She really is an inspiration to me. We had a simple extended anniversary celebration. Since Friday would be hectic for us both—with her schoolwork and my MM duties—she gave me her gifts the night before. She gave me some pics, a picture frame, a pin/badge, and a trophy plaque. Oh, before that, a few days before, she got be a headbands. We got to see beauty and the beast earlier in the week. The weekend, it was pretty standard except for doing some feasibility study tasks and buying a new 15” laptop. I really think it was a good deal and is going o be very useful for her schoolwork. As the month ends, with me doing one of those short visits to her before dinner, I’m feeling relaxed with life, knowing everything’s worth it, because I have her and she has me, in love.