my long weekend

oh, how i wish my long weekends were more exciting. (consider this as a warning, haha!)

unfortunately, this long weekend for me meant fulfilling duties to my family and to Tuloy. not that i'm complaining. after all, i did spend a lot of time sleeping, hahaha.

{commute mode!}

i rarely bring the car when i go home to the province. it's not just the gas prices nor is it the toll. rather, i think that old age has made me quite lazy to drive. ironic considering that i drive a 'matic now. so, wednesday evening, i braved the crazy crowds to travel to nueva ecija. i was under the impression that people were smarter than me and would've taken a leave to go home earlier. apparently, everyone was under the same impression.

{undas shades}

so this was me, waiting for tita celia to get ready. i had left my sunglasses at home and since my family usually spends the entire day at the cemetery, shades (IMHO!) were a must. so over at lunch on halloween, i trooped over to my happy place (landmark!) and got myself cheap shades. these were Php125 only. and i love them. i love tita celia's headband too. unfortunately, they cost way more than Php125, and not borrow-able. i don't think they ever will be. but i'm keeping my fingers crossed!!! ☺

{driver mode!}

one of the things i usually do for tita celia when i'm in the province is serve as her driver. i've driven her old cars, but she recently got a new SUV and it was a bit freaky venturing out in the land where the tricycle driver is king. still, when i was stuck in the parking lot doing nothing, i couldn't help but take this pic of myself. yes, i do have the tendency to take self-portraits when i'm bored. just check out my twitter feed and my instagram account.

in any case, tita celia was just supposed to check on a patient who had just checked herself into the hospital cause she was experiencing contractions but was only 1cm. however, after a couple of minutes (and thankfully after i had taken the pic above!), she came back down to tell me that she'd have to perform an emergency c-section. so that meant i also had to go down.

{so this was how i would've looked like had i pursued a career in medicine instead}

when i was young, tita celia brought me with her to the delivery room to witness a childbirth. according to her, it was to prevent me from getting pregnant at a young age. considering how i'm still single and child-less (and considering what happened to my cousin who didn't get to go through a similar experience), i'm beginning to think it worked. this time around, i did ask tita celia if it would be okay for me to be in the operating room as she did her work. what can i say? i was curious of the life i didn't pursue when i switched to education and eventually became a lawyer.

to me, it felt like they were doing miracles. but listening to their conversation, it didn't seem like they knew it. i had to text a doctor-friend and shared how it felt so complicated and big, and how it seemed so simple for the doctors. she pointed out it was similar to how contracts and affidavits are scary and intimidating to non-lawyers but an everyday thing for me. okay, point taken.

{grandparents}

eventually, we made our way to the family mausoleum. for some reason, this year's undas wasn't as festive as before. could be cause of how times are hard, or cause everyone's off vacationing, or cause everyone already went over the weekend. well, you wouldn't have known from the the crazy crowds at the bus station!

{lola, and namesake}

i always claim that i'm my paternal grandmother's favorite. except that my real paternal grandmother passed away when my dad was about to turn twelve. i never met her, but as you would see, i'm named after her. the rosa is from my maternal grandmother. i'm named after dead people.

{brother dearest}

this is my brother. and he hates being on this blog. so you won't tell him i posted a picture of him. he arrived last friday with his fiancee. i'm still not sure how i feel about the events that led to this engagement, but i've grown to accept it. after all, there's nothing really i can do about it. and he's an adult - i AM only ten months older than him. ten months ago, i felt every bit the adult i feel i am now. so he should be fine.

he asked our lola to make sinigang na hipon for him for dinner. and she did not disappoint. see ...

{ginormous!}

i've seen sugpo and they're generally huge, but these babies were mutants. it was even bigger than the cup. and they were YUMMY. sigh. i wish i could've eaten more that night, but i must admit, i was FULL. i even ignored the crispy pata that was also on the table.

i came back saturday (now THAT trip was no way uneventful, but too horrible to recall), did my tuloy duties, and slept early. and today, well today i'm crazy bored but too lazy to go outside cause of the heat. later, i'm getting the car washed, meeting a friend for coffee and doing church duties.

as for tomorrow, it's back to the grind. long weekend over and out.