It’s been a minute and half since I’ve written in here. And still it seems like this pandemic isn’t really showing signs of stopping a year into the whole thing. It’s just been crazy and a rollercoaster ride for everyone, and holy shit I am alive to live and witness it. Who would have thought we’d be here? The future is uncertain, but no one and their mother thought that we would have to live this future. We’re all feeling the same things, the same uncertainty, and navigating a totally new experience collectively. Excuse my lack of a better phrase, but that’s fucking insane.
I guess I wanted to check in because the bouts of anxiety I’ve been experiencing all throughout this year is something that I can’t really place. There are highs and lows but it’s a
I’d like to navigate this entry into a more positive note by listing down things that kept me sane through this whole year, and still continues to.. even up until this pandemic ends, or will it?
It’s been a hot minute (almost 4 years to be exact!!!!) since I posted one of these things. With everything going on in the world right now, and my recent state the past few months of anxious highs and lows, I feel like I need to do one of these again.
1) Laughing so much from our cousin group chat. This afternoon my cousins got into a bit of a funny streak of roasting each other and they were just the funniest. I recorded some
2) Meeting deadlines. Can I get a fuck yeah?? This week is one of those crazy work weeks—both for my day job and side hustle—and work just kept pouring in. I only have a bit of stuff to do before the week ends but other than that, I’m good! On to next week’s grind.
3) Good food day. It’s the last day of my the monthly visitor and I’ve been eating up a storm the past 3 days. My coworker who is in charge of ordering lunch for us today made a really good choice
4) Nice weather. The rain has sort of been non-stop in Cebu for the last few weeks. Today was a nice welcome as it was sunny in the morning, and rained for a bit in the early afternoon, nothing too crazy, just the right amount. I hope my plants are happy.
5) The COVID situation in Cebu is sort of better, should I say? I don’t want to jinx it.. because while it hasn’t completely gone away, I can say that things are finally starting to normalize with the “new normal” and that’s due to the crazy strict protocols we’ve had for the most part of the year. People have been diligently wearing masks, face shields, and practicing rules that are working, and now the city is starting to open up.
6) Spotify’s Time Capsule. This was such a welcome playlist and the past 2 week’s rotation of songs have been such jams and take me back to simpler times.
7) Home hangs. In-person social life has sort of restarted for me and my friends here in Cebu, but we’ve mostly kept it in each others’ homes. It’s been so nice to finally be around my friends and reconnect with everyone without being it coming from a computer screen.
8) Tomorrow’s salon appointment. Technically it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m looking forward to finally step foot in one after a few months! My last one was quick because I needed to just chop off my long quarantine hair, but tomorrow is something to look forward to. The salon also made me feel a bit better by sending me a long list of safety guidelines.
9) Bills paid. Even though this has been stressing me out, I realize I have to turn it into something happy because it means I can actually pay bills, I have work, I can buy things I want, etc etc. I have to be grateful!!!!! Amen.
10) You know who you are. If you don’t (haha), just know I am grateful for you.
FEELING A little bit all over the place. It’s nice to feel that my weekends are finally coming back: hanging out with my friends on a Saturday, and brunch out with my family today. We’re living a “new normal” world right now with all these safety precautions, the need for life in the outside world will always be there.
A friend brought up something very important last night where he said life can’t just stop for everyone. These 6 months have been hard on us to say the least, but it just can’t stop. Life has to keep going, and people need to keep on living. As real and obvious as that sounds, it just really hit me hard.
On another note, it’s been an emotionally exhausting week for me. Unseen evils can’t help creeping back in but the best thing I can do is to rise above it, as difficult as they are.
WATCHING Just finished 8 episodes of Emily in Paris on Netflix. I love these kind of shows. An escape from life. I didn’t even try to finish it in one go coz I’m not going to have something to look forward to anymore. I’ve always been a fan of anything from Darren Star, from Sex and the City, to 90210, to Younger.. so I knew this was going to be my cup of tea.
LISTENING I’ve been listening to a lot of pH-1 lately. I hope he releases more English tracks.
READING When it comes to reading books, I haven’t been really active lately but I just got a copy of Jessica’s Shine so I’m probably planning to pick it up one of these days as a light read. I’m not really into YA anymore, but I’m definitely curious about the story of this book.
EATING Not currently eating anything but I had a good food day today!
THINKING In my previous TSC (a month ago?? holy shiz time flies) I wrote about how I was happy that I didn’t have any conflicting thoughts but it’s the complete 180 right now, there’s been this though that’s been bothering me for days and even making me cry. That’s life, I guess.
HOPING With the way things have been going, I just hope this year ends on a good note. We all need it, the world needs it. It’s crazy how this year feels like it just started then boom, it’s now October and we only have a few months left until 2020 ends. I hope the year ends and we can start the new year on a much brighter note. It feels like a tall order with everything that’s happened but that’s why there’s hope, right?
FEELING I’m now in my room now with A/C on full blast, but was feeling ridiculously annoyed a while ago because of tonight’s humidity. I have a feeling rain’s gonna just pour in a few hours hitting us hard. That feeling when you feel fresh after shower but start sweating as soon as your change into your new clothes? I hate it. The evening too!
WATCHING I watched 2 no-brainer movies on Netflix today, both were meh really but still had enjoyable moments.
Because you all know how much I’m a sucker for rom-coms. Also Rachael Leigh Cook, who’s 40 this year, and the princess of 90s romcoms, did great here despite the overall subpar quality of the movie.
This was stupidly fun, a good time passer.
LISTENING I was reading about this old chat with a close friend from high school and came across this gem (LOOOOL) because he said it reminded him of me. I listen to this song about once a year and each time I still know the words to the song 1000000%. No shame.
READING Life by Lu Yao. I’m not really sure how this ended up in my Kindle but I just started a few chapters this week after finishing Kevin Kwan’s Sex & Vanity (which wasn’t as great as the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, but still an enjoyable read). With this pandemic and having little agency of a social life, that means I can hopefully complete or even beat my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year.
EATING Nothing right now, but for dinner my close friend who runs TheThursdayGrill delivered me some yummy bbq!
THINKING It’s nice to write about not having any conflicting thoughts right now—at least not one that’s bothering me so much, but I have been thinking about this one person subconsciously, I don’t know how to explain it. The just-running-through-my-head kind of thoughts.
HOPING For this pandemic to keep slowing down and hopefully eradicate itself from this world. We’re finally adjusting to the ~new normal~ of things, and it’s been feeling like a slow burn. I’m just looking forward to when we can finally freely travel and live life as we should.
EDIT – I was going through my drafts and found this gem right here from 2015. It’s crazy how it still applies even 5 years later, so I thought to just go ahead and post it.
It’s been years since asofterworld stopped publishing these kind of comics, but I still find myself going back to the website once in a while to check (or hope) for something new.
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of my asofterworld posts. Truth be told, I am this kind of person.
