bluebacon

Just like any other year, 2016 flew by just like that. And just like any other year, it flew by faster than the year before or the year before that. Majority of people have nothing good to say about 2016 and for the most part I agree, based on all the news shared by the media. But for me, I look back and see a year that turned out exactly how I wanted it to be at the end of last year. I had willfully chosen a path of less excitement, flash and shine for me personally, in favour of a supporting role to my husband, kids and extended family, a relatively more regulated work schedule, and opportunity to enjoy my volunteer commitments more. No it wasn't an exciting year for me personally but there were lots to be thankful for, regardless. 1. I went home to the Philippines after 16 years. As much as for various reasons, I did not enjoy that trip as much as I had hoped I would, I was thankful to have been given the opportunity to travel with my family and take my kids to see where E...

So this happened last night. The kids sat me down and asked me about SEX. Over dinner. Of course it had to happen when Eduardo wasn't around to tag team with, so I was left alone to come up with reasonable responses that were as honest as I could, without sharing too much detail, because let's face it, what parent looked forward to THIS conversation??!!! Bell: Mommy, you know what Felix (her friend from school) said? That his dad had to put his "bleep" inside his mom's "bleep" ohmigosh that's so gross! Felix said he never wanted to talk about it again... blah blah blah blah... is that true? And Bell said all of this partly hysterical, partly laughing, partly curious (because why else would she bring it up), partly genuinely grossed out (because who wouldn't). In fact it was all of that at the same time that I had to ask her to repeat her question several times. She was self-bleeping so much, my coherence was getting garbled. In fact I had to ...

Okay, getting my reading act together. I figured the best way to get me going again is to pick a really short book that I can finish right away just so I feel a sense of immediate accomplishment then it should get the ball rolling. Like I said, it's a really short book. I actually read it in half an hour and right away I was ready to starting reading a new one. I was browsing at the library and there I saw one of Sean's books again. It's meant for early teenagers so it's not really meant to be heavy reading, but what I like best about his books and again, with this one, is that he never ends his books with a definite ending. There's always an element for your imagination to keep going and exercise your own interpretation. I wondered at the beginning how scary this story line would be. It is after all a thriller. I would have to say that, there were enough haunting images. However depicted shortly, still enough to play with your mind. Not so sure the plot was ...

      So I finally went and used my Float House gift certificate which was part of a wellness package that Eduardo got for my birthday last year. I tried to get an appointment so I could use it on my birthday but surprisingly, this place books pretty fast and there was no available appointment that day. So I thought about when the next most appropriate time would be to use it? Why after the Goddess Run of course! I have to be honest, I was full of apprehension about this. First of all, it's not easy to understand what is exactly you're supposed to expect when their tagline says "Experience nothing." And when they say that a whole session takes 90 minutes, I mean come on, that's a lot of nothingness happening there! But hey, I am an open-minded person. I will give it a shot. Secondly, upon researching images related to float houses, the enclosed bathtub thingie only reminded me of one thing -- a scene from Final Destination 3 or 4 or 5? Not very encouraging im...

OMG I just ran a 5 kilometer race AND raised over $3000 for my agency!  2016 Victoria Goddess Run So back when I started working for VWTH, this was already on our radar as a department. We're a beneficiary of the Victoria Goddess Run and starting last year, as an added fundraising initiative for the charities involved, the organizing committee came up with a Charity Champion idea where two individuals from each charity will represent their agency and raise a minimum of $3000 each. The idea was to be represented by one board member and one staff member. I started working for VWTH back in November and by February every staff we've asked declined to become the Charity Champion because they were a bit worried about being able to reach the $3000 goal.  So then I opened my mouth and said that I would be happy to be the last resort. If we got to crunch time and still nobody was willing to step up and take on the role that I wouldn't mind doing it. It was mostly infused b...

Happy Birthday to me! Ok, get ready for this. Do you know why this is my 'something new' entry for this month? This is the first time I actually took a day off on my birthday for the sake of taking a day off! Can you believe it??! I couldn't think of anything else better to do that I actually scheduled a PAC finance meeting just so I can make myself feel better that I was being productive and not wasting my day on doing nothing. Had dinner with the family to celebrate but really, the awesomeness of this day came from just having a free day. Amazing!

I know, I know... pathetic. So much for my goal of reading 12 books this year! I haven't read a book since January 1st! Almost halfway through the year and I'm only on my third book. My countdown actually started back in November so I am technically halfway through my year, not that it helps my case in any way. Lol. So I chose to read I Am Number Four. I was hanging out with Bell at Bolen Books. It has become a habit of hers to pick one of the graphic novels in the bookstore and to read it in one seating. Usually I get exasperated waiting for her to finish but I realized that if I'm just patient enough to let her read and finish the book, the less likely that she will ask me to buy the book! So I started wandering in the other aisle when I walked passed this book. I remember watching the movie a few years ago and was actually curious to find out what happens next, so I picked up the second book in the series entitled The Power of Six. But then I didn't want to rea...

Spring Fling. So yeah. Spring Fling. It's something new but at the same time not new at all. I'm not new to Spring Fling itself. It's South Park's biannual event and I attended the last one two years ago. I'm certainly not new to planning and organizing public events either. What's new about this one is it's the first time that I've taken a lead on a dying event that needed to be revitalized and revamped. But it's also a big enough and very public event that if screwed up, well... let's just say everyone will know about it. In reality, nobody would really care or judge me harshly if things didn't work out well. I'm the one who cares. First of all, I personally am not a big fan of not doing well.  Secondly, I've had enough experience of running events that I have higher expectations of myself. And lastly, it's for my kids' school AND for my kids. That's the whole reason I became PAC Chair to begin with. To make sure...

I should be getting ready soon to go head to the theatre and warm up for today's Victoria Choral Society's Songs of Destiny concert, but I feel like I should jot my sentiments down before I go. Last night at our dress rehearsal, one of the pointers we were told was we looked too serious and should find a way to make an effort to engage with the audience during the performance. For me, this is the first time that I'm on the very first seat on the first row of the soprano, closest to the audience, so in my normal paranoid brain, I felt like people's eyes will gravitate towards me, gawk at me, and wait for me to mess up. But keeping those pointers in mind, I started to think of how to bring out the feeling of gratitude into the last movement of Mendelssohn's Lobgesang . And it just hit me -- I've got so many things to be thankful for! 1. First of all, how happy was I that I actually get to participate in this concert because I don't have to be at a gala tha...

Acupuncture. It's not really the most exciting "something new" to be talking about but it is something new for me and it kind of caught me off guard. I got a referral from my family doctor to go see a physiotherapist for my weird hip/lower back/i'm not really sure where pain I've been having for a few years now. It used to be a one-off thing that turned into a recurring pain that turned into an ongoing thing. It's a sharp twinge that feels like a vein got twisted. Anyway it's a pain in my ass and although it's not really in my ass, I'm tired of always having it so off to the physiotherapist I went. Imagine my surprise when the physiotherapist recommended using acupuncture as part of my treatment. I thought oh maybe it was a separate appointment I had to make after I ponder a bit more about it? Noooo.... I tried not to jump out of my skin when she rolled in her acupuncture cart into the room. I'm not shallow or closed-minded at all, I...

Well, "weekend" is a bit premature since I'm writing this on a Sunday morning and there's still a whole other day left before the weekend is over. But yesterday was just so fantastic I'm hoping that regardless of whatever happens the rest of today, nothing can undo how fabulous yesterday was. Context? Here we go. First of all let me start by saying that it was mine and Eduardo's 14th anniversary. Fourteen years since we started dating. FOURTEEN. We meant to celebrate, go out to dinner, that kind of thing, especially since we already missed celebrating our last wedding anniversary due to both of us having a stomach flu. Long story short we didn't go out but did end up having Vietnamese takeout in bed for dinner. I ravel at how quickly our years together jumped to fourteen. I feel like the last time I counted we were just at seven It wasn't always peaches and cream but I feel like since the last time I counted, it has all become peaches and cream. ...

So... remember when I got selected to do this project? (Which I realized I never wrote about in my blog so now I feel compelled to have a record of it so that I don't forget that it ever happened. For context, the rest of the information about this project can be found on the  Citizens in Action  website.) The Institute for Canadian Citizenship has now contacted me again to ask for my help. I got their email a week ago, but didn't reply right away because it took that long to recover from the fact that they asked me if I would sing the national anthem at the citizenship ceremony they're planning to host in Victoria. Me? Sing a solo. In a federal government event. NOT happening.  It also took that long for me to compose how I was going to decline this ridiculous but flattering offer. But apparently that was too long of a wait time. In the meantime while I was busy composing my let-down email, they have even made an effort to contact the opera and were busy tr...

I signed up to attend a writing workshop! It's a women only workshop run by yoUnlimited , a group of women who serve other women by delivering women-centric wellness and networking workshops. Another thing I learned from my new-found feminist environment. It's a series of monthly workshops, and actually the writing one only happens on Tuesdays so the fact that I attended this time meant I skipped choir rehearsal, but whatever. Better now and not closer to the concert. I still have plenty of time to learn the music. I should probably start with learning the name of the pieces, which is in German... and I always blank out on... like right now. Anyway... back to the writing workshop. Why did I want to take it? After my creative writing 101 class back in university, I learned pretty quickly that creative writing isn't what it was cut out to be. It was actually a lot of really serious mental work and after all the critique, I couldn't even remember what I was writing abo...

Last week somebody dear to my family passed away again. Rather suddenly. She was one of my mom's best friends, my brother's godmother and was a professor in my department in college. Fair to say that she's practically family and for the last couple of years ever since she got an iPad, became really active on Facebook and I felt like I got to know her much better. She would always like things I posted and would post comments as well. She loved writing poetry and would post them on FB. Lately she started posting old photos from when she was younger, there was even one of her and my mom in Spain. I remember people always thinking of her as a bit eccentric but now I'm understanding that she's just always been progressive with her thinking and didn't conform to society, which is big for someone who grew up in her generation in the Philippines. She had just celebrated her birthday a week before and two days before she passed away, she was still commenting on my post...

View from Mt. Seymour Provincial Park Mt. Seymour, the mountain behind my sister-in-law's fiancee's house. So this is my "something new" for January. First of all we went on a spontaneous trip to Vancouver on New Year's Day to partake in a group of Filipinos' potluck event at my future brother-in-law's churrch ward, where he reenacted his marriage proposal. Then the follownt morning, we went up to the ski resort behind his house. I left out a ton of details really, but I have no intentions of reliving the amount of rushing we did going and coming home from this super unplanned trip. So yeah, a ski resort. It's the kids' first time anywhere that had that much snow and they were beyond ecstatic. Granted that I've only been to a ski resort once so I should've endeavoured more to take the kids sooner for the sake of experience but when you've spent enough years of your life dealing with this white shit, no resorty anything would m...

Ok, so far so good. I finished one book within a month and this is book #2 and I finished it within two weeks. It's a shorter book and pretty engaging so I would've finished sooner if only I had a window of free time during the holidays in between getting sick and partying. But hey, I'll take all the free time that I can get! So Infiltration. My friend wrote this book. I've been meaning to read it ever since he published his first book, but well you know why I had not been reading over the last few years. But anyway... From the first page of this book, all I could think of was how proud I was of my friend. When we worked together, I knew he had a lot of late nights working on his very first book and it took him a while to get it done and published. But it seems like he just needed to get over that hump because he has published many others after this one and in less time that it took him to publish this first one. I had fun reading this book. Here's part of ...