Althea Writes Here

When I went to the store to buy sharksfin dumpling (don't worry, it wasn't real shark's fin), I saw a father and his teenage son buying food as well. The son wasn't feeling well, I gathered, because his father reached out to touch his forehead with the back of his hand. What I found touching, however, was that the son was already over a foot taller.

But not today. Today is all about remembering. Early this afternoon, I managed to connect the old Sony sound system that's been gathering dust in my room to an antenna. I'm pretty sure I'd tried this before and failed to get good reception, so I gave up and left the sound system alone. Almost a decade since I last tried to use it, it's aliiive! I'm afraid to use the tape player, though, because when I pressed the eject button it got stuck for a few seconds and I thought it would never close. If there's one thing I hate, it's a cassette deck that's permanently open. I know this sound system cost a lot of money when my dad bought it. It was top of the line at the time. It has a video CD player too, and I'm pretty sure we used it to watch movies years ago. Unfortunately, now and forevermore, it will function only as a radio. Still, I'm thrilled. I have a radio that doesn't need my laptop to play! When I switched to radio mode, the statio

I also discovered the word carajay. Here's yet another cooking experiment, which gives me a grand total of THREE mostly plant-based dishes in my repertoire. First, a disclaimer: I am not a good cook. I think I cook with common sense and a little knowledge of chemistry absorbed by osmosis courtesy of the family. For the longest time, for me, there was only one way to cook moringa leaves or malunggay: we added it to tinola . In our household, we made a distinction between the two types of tinola we made depending on what leaves were used. The typical tinola with hot pepper leaves was tinola, while the tinola with malunggay was, well, malunggay. If I remember correctly, malunggay could also make do without the sayote or its alternative green papaya. I've always loved both types of tinola, especially during the rainy season. I never thought of any other way to eat moringa, except as tea and capsules specially marketed to breastfeeding mothers. In April this yea

This is my bike. Behind it is Emily's. One of the things I wanted to focus on when I decided to take a short break from working was my health. I don't think I've ever been in worse shape in my entire life. A sedentary lifestyle, work stress, poor eating habits, and suppressing many feelings have all led to my being my unhealthiest self ever. It's not even about looks at all. It's about ensuring that I will be able to do the things I love to do, like travel (trekking in Batad, anyone?) and write (ugh, brain fog) for as long as I live. So, when I got back from the States (where, I have to confess, like many visiting Filipinos, I ate too much) and after I got over my jet lag (it took me two weeks!), I dragged myself out of bed and made a pact with one of my best friends, Emily, to get healthier or die trying. We're on our third Wednesday now of walking in the morning. We've designed Wednesdays to be the day we'd touch base with our progress.

It's been over four months since I left my job. I've done many things since then, mostly traveling (well-documented on Instagram) and meeting old friends and family I'd never met before or I'd last seen too long ago. Life is good, even with a dwindling bank account. But life is also not always good, to be honest. Leaving a situation that brought me large amounts of joy and larger amounts of unhappiness has gifted me with many mornings thinking about all the time and opportunities I've wasted, despite my best intentions. On days when the regret is strong, I escape into movies and social media. Happily, those days are farther and fewer between now, and I know that when the dust clears completely, that chapter of my life will finally serve its purpose as fodder for my writing and as fuel for an even more compassionate heart.  Now let me channel Eddie Vedder and say, "I have faced it, a life wasted. I'm never going back again."