A Gift of 29 Years

The birthday month of September started with a Muslim Holiday. Mhae has recovered from her viral infection (unsure really if it was dengue). It felt great accompanying her to school that Saturday after a week of being sick. I also got to hand it to her—doing her best to recover and getting back to her routine once able. Quite sad she hasn’t recovered enough to accompany me in singing during the street Mass. I got to do some room cleanup while Mhae was studying. Of course, when it was time for her needed a break, we had dunkin donuts. The week at work got a bit exciting with new life in the McKinley project and the earlier meeting regarding standards got an update. I also went on a site visit and after-meeting drinking dinner (after no lunch) at the lamesa intakes with boss dan, sir kelly and staff, and a new acquintance in royal haskoning. The week ended with the first of a good number of weekday Mass services on Mama Mary’s birthday.

That weekend, Mhae had a seminar at adamson and I got to do quite a bit of action figure / geek posing and photography with my mafex wonder woman figure that I finally opened. Sunday time after the Mass was fun here at home with snapchat. There was a work suspension on Tuesday (though I insisted on going to work only to go home after doing some settings on the office PC), and that game me some time to do some pc geek stuff. I also got to resume watching South Park, and interestingly, I happened to have picked it up at the 100^th episode. I remember falling asleep watching that so technically I kinda ended my previous run on the 100^th too. I also managed to do some very minor adjustments to the eva rebuild display—side stands for the 1.0 part. This 2^nd week also marked the emergence and my passive solutions to the problem of ants in my room. Sadly, that also meant saying goodbye to years-stored food that I initially forgot to eat then eventually took as mementos the following week.

We spent the last of my bpi starbucks coupons on the last day of claiming. I guess it is gonna be quite a while until I get to order another venti drink at starbucks. Oh, before going to the secret starbucks, Mhae and I checked out som 2-burner stoves for mama and picked up some snacks at the supermarket. A relaxing Sunday, we watched Star Wars Episode 1 as part of our halted Star Wars Extended Marathon. It’s nice the Mhae got to enjoy it and despite the flack it’s received all these years, I still enjoyed it. Sometime during the week, mama found a little tshirt that she said was one papa got for me and he had a similar one for him. Cute, but I really don’t remember wearing it. Well, I was 1 or 2 years old anyway. There were pretty terrible news this week including news of Claudio’s brother’s tragic death. The nation is also not getting much better but I choose to be optimistic seeing that I have more friends on the side of life. Church stuff, we had our MM representatives meeting moved to the 3^rd Thursday to give way for the Formation Team meeting on 4^th Thursdays. Throughout the month, we were pretty active with weekday feast day Mass services but still have some pending work to complete. I also attended and will be regularly attending at least 4 meetings a month as MM secretary. Kinda fun thing about it, I get to attend the ppc meeting with mama. I just hope I can sustain and contribute. This month, we started singing at the fron pews instead of the choir loft. Pros and cons of either, I find it pleasing to receive positive feedback and thanks from the presider. Mhae and I had a date last Sunday before her birthday to buy some toys for gifts and had our best mexicalli lunch so far with a burito without beans. Back at the apartment in the afternoon, we brought home J.Co. donuts for snacks and enjoyed Star Wars Episode 2. Yey!

And alas, Mhae’s birthday has arrived. I really had minimal planning and preparation and took a leave from work to cram. After running out of paper for printing her homework, I went out to buy paper and 12 preserved roses. Fetching her at Libertad after school, we bought her cake (c/o Tita Chato) and headed home (aboy brought the cake to their apartment) to rest before going to Mass. I finished up some work and we ordered Ambers pancit malabon and pichipichi (c/o mama) before going to Mass. As expected, the delivery came 30 minutes earlier, to my irritation, because we were not yet home to receive it. I wasn’t able to finish the Mass to receive the call from ambers dispatch. At least, Mhae was able to hear Mass completely and asked Fr. Beng to bless her for her birthday. At the apartment, the delivery rider returned shortly after Mhae and I arrived and calmed down. Party was simple and filling with KR’s boyfriend and Aboy’s girlfriend (who brought another cake) as guests. Of course, it’s a fun sight, Bonbon and Aboy enjoying ambers pancit malabon. After the birthday, the week was quite hectic but not stressful. At work, I accomplished a few things for the prospective lamesa project, and the posco monitoring is pretty polished now with around 75% completion (which is practically 80+% not considering the items to be deleted from the contract. Mhae got to experience a college lakwatsa somehow but I was a little drained from work, Mass service, and parish formation meeting to fetch her. I’m happy that she somehow experienced he chillout things I did what seems to be a long time ago. On the spending aspect, my Citi Mercury card got cancelled earlier this month and I settled a few pesos in charges and I’m waiting for the response on my request for hsbc credit protect cancellation for easier use of my hsbc card, for which I’ve requested an annual fee reversal. I also successfully contacted bpi phone customer service for the second time in recent time to also request for reversal for my bpifamily credit card. Month closes with nice hugs and kisses after miscommunication about fetching. I think I got to greet all my kabarkadas and +1’s with September birthdays. I’m excited how next year’s September will be.