Althea Writes Here

I am so busy with my freelance jobs, I didn't make time to work on my Palanca entries. No excuses, just a rearrangement of priorities... that wasn't well thought out, but still ended up rewarding. I like making money. But I sure would like to get that medal once and for all. With that said, I congratulate Louie in advance. (And this entry will be proof I was the first to do so in public, because I believe in him and because I love my friends.) More news below-- 1. I'm leaving for Bacolod on Monday, April 30, to meet up with some of the guyguys, including Jonathan , who's joining us from Zamboanga City! I'll stay in Bacolod overnight--to check out those old houses from Bacolod's Spanish haciendero days, eat chicken inasal ( recipe here ), buy piyaya , and do every touristy thing I can do in a day. Just kidding. I'm actually just curious about the old houses, because in between job exams and interviews a few days ago, I read a Mabuhay Magazine ar

I have my browser (Firefox) arranged so that it's an instant picker-upper. The moment I sit in front of the computer, I'm given a jolt of positive energy. For starters, I've changed the default homepage, which used to be Yahoo, then Google, to The Daily Motivator , a page by a man named Ralph Marston that posts short motivational and inspirational words on a daily basis. Today's words hit the spot for me. Someday has arrived Life is now. Stop waiting for your opportunity to fully live and realize that it is already here. Perhaps you have always thought that someday you will follow your dreams. The fact is, someday has now arrived. Your authentic purpose is calling out to you. Now is the time to be fulfilling that purpose. Go now in the direction you've always known you must go. Allow the unique and beautiful person you are to come fully to life. Let go of the excuses and rationalizations that keep you mired in disappointment and frustration. Move quickly fo

Life seems so easier, I've realized, when you always come from a space of gratitude. To keep me in this space, I've started to keep a gratitude journal, where I list five things I'm grateful about. I first heard this from Oprah, years back. She started this long ago, she said, and her life has changed dramatically since. I think it's also because when you're grateful for the things you have, you are free from all that whining and griping and complaining and hating and criticizing. And you are in a better position to see the opportunities that keep coming your way. My gratitude journal is a resurrected 2007 daily diary. At the beginning of the year, as usual, I bought two planners, one for appointments (a weekly) and another for my thoughts and illuminations (a daily). I realized soon enough that to keep a daily diary was too ambitious for me. But because I wanted to keep at least one of my New Year's resolutions, I said I would fill up those 366 pages,

This Law of Attraction thing is really amazing--I'd been looking forward to my fully-booked week, but then in the middle of all the things I have to do and traveling to Pasig City (that's four to five hours of my day already), it suddenly dawned on me that the deadline for the Palanca Awards is twelve days away. I looked at my calendar and wished more at-home time for myself ASAP because I already have a story revision brewing in my head. But just when I thought I'd have to work on my entries in between income-generating work and long bus rides, my schedule cleared up--without any opportunity sacrificed. As early as last night, Tuesday, I was already fatigued. After meeting Jing on Sunday, I slept over at her apartment (and of course we talked the night away). I got home Monday noon, having hitched a ride with my brother from Port Area. On the way, we picked up Keona, whom I babysat with pleasure, so I didn't get enough sleep (it was worth it, though, because she

I have a busy week ahead, which actually started since Sunday, when I went to the OCCI office in Pasig, but that's good. Most of my appointments are income-generating projects, so I'm happy. I'm also looking for a steady part-time job (or a not so demanding full-time one) that will give me time for freelance writing, creative writing, and thesis-writing. I'm looking into teaching ESL. I saw this ad looking for English trainers for Europeans, and they're opening in Alabang soon. I have an interview and test at their Libis office on Wednesday. Leave me a comment if you're interested, and I'll give you the name and email address of the lady I sent my resume to. I'm a little nervous about going on job interviews again-- but I've always done okay, so I choose to be powerful, courageous, and committed to earning money to finally be independent. My first FLEX enrollee My first enrollee, Jing, a friend and former officemate at The Philippine Sta

Remember that Las Piñas book I was looking for back in February ? Well, I picked it up today--also for free! My signed (by Congw. Cynthia Villar, I believe) copy of "Las Piñas: A City with Heritage" is now sitting right next to my "Captured Culture: An Interpretative Portrait of Parañaque City" on my study table. That puts the Villar Foundation on the list of people and groups I'm dedicating my thesis to. My Las Piñas book experience wasn't as eventful as my Parañaque book one. It was still fun, though. Partly because it came so easy. I'd been hunting this book down since I first read a press release that the Villars were publishing a book on Las Piñas City. The article said it was going to be in bookstores early 2007, and so I looked for it in all the bookstores I went to. I turned up with nothing. After getting the Parañaque book, I realized I was too desperate for the Las Piñas book. So I let it go and just imagined myself having it, and for fre

My mom and I went with my sister, her family, and the in-laws to their Visita Iglesia for the Holy Week. I'd never done this before, but I had such an interesting time, and I think I'd like to do this again next year. We didn't do the Stations of the Cross, though. We just prayed and lit candles. A lot of candles. Here's a list of the churches we visited. Recto The University Belt churches, all of which are within walking distance to each other. The path to all those churches were lined with vendors hawking all sorts of things, from food, like calamares (I'd never seen calamares being sold as street food before! Lucky U-Belt kids!), all-sorts-of-balls-and-the-like (chicken, squid, fish, kikiam , and kwek-kwek ), to bottled water and flavored beverages, to candles and religious paraphernalia. 1. The San Beda Church , which I loved for the gilt of gold on the statues and the ceiling, and because once a Bedan, always a Bedan, though I didn't go to San Beda

It's now Holy Week, and I've officially refrained from red meat and chicken for 40 days. But that's the only Lenten resolution I pulled off successfully. That, and abstaining from resentment and bitterness. The rest, I broke, even the going to mass daily. Strangely, I don't feel so guilty. In the middle of Lent, I had what's called a paradigm shift in terms of my Catholic practices. When I took the ALC, which I wrote about here , I realized that my energy is better served if I focus on goodness and pursuing my happiness. Really, the time to mourn is over; now, and always, is the season for joy. Which is not to say I don't respect Catholic Lenten practices anymore. Maybe I'd been doing it all wrong, and I now understand it better. I always thought if it didn't hurt, it wasn't a sacrifice, and that that was all there was to it. Now, I understand that it's not about hurting for a while, it's about hurting for a while and then getting better