Unfortunately, I mean that literally.

Today, I went back to the city after first attending my sister’s graduation yesterday then spent the night at our family home. I almost fainted inside the cab, or at least that’s how I felt, because of the extreme afternoon heat. It felt like I was inside an infrared heater, and my sisters were complaining as well so it’s not just me.

I don’t know how long this hot weather will last, but I’m really hoping for some rains—not cyclones, please—as soon as possible. We could use some reprieve from this scorching heat.

Just another random thought. I feel like I haven’t experienced rain in a while (not that I’ll actually get to experience rain since I’m working at home most of the time!), except for that few minutes of heavy downpour while we were in Singapore about two weeks ago. Today I decided to work on our apartment’s rooftop again and as I look at the clear skies—and the airplanes flying by—all I can think of is that I want to travel again, locally this time. I have pretty images of the beach in my mind right now.

Then boom! I realized I am here because I am swamped with work and rather … no make that very late with my work schedule. This work thing will be my biggest foe again, not that I’m complaining, even if I don’t have an office or any equivalent to nurses uniforms to show for it.

I bought a planner for this year, and despite my sister’s ogling I wrote my name on it and started writing weekly and monthly to-do lists and even a to-accomplish-by-the-end-of-the-year list. Then I took on as many job assignments as I can get and before I know it, it’s now the third month and I’m nowhere near accomplishing half of my January goals.

The good news for me is, I’m counting down the days before our big trip next week.  I’m taking five days off so yay me! Maybe this will give me a good chance to refresh and have a clearer perspective of where I’m going next. Not exactly my next trip, although I wouldn’t say no to a chance to stay in luxury new york city hotels someday, but more on building a clearer life plan than just working my butt off every single day while waiting for other (good) things to happen. Let’s see what a few days without having all these manuscripts to think about can do for me.

Primetime soap operas are by design outrageous. The storylines go to every imaginable direction, just to drag them out and keep the story going for 30 minutes a day, five times a week. I find myself watching a lot of them lately just because they follow the night news program, and I decided that I’ll make myself start watching  the news just so I’ll stay abreast with current events. At least it started that way – I was too lazy to change channels so I left the TV on and while doing some other things, such as my editing work, some household chores, or some other trivial things like making use of my blackhead removal strips, I eventually got the habit of watching everything the local channel has to offer until I get too sleepy that I have to go to bed. I still think they’re outrageous, but it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching them for what they are.

I don’t want to complain again that I have no time for a lot of things. In fact, I won’t. I realized that I’ll never really get that time I can call “extra” because of the choices that I tend to make; it’s not even a bad realization, it’s just something that I have to accept or else accept that I need to make some adjustments. Again. The thing is, if I have, say, 1 month of free time when I can do anything I want except for work, I can imagine I would get so bored and that I’ll wish for it to be over after a few days; ok, maybe a week. What I’m sure though is that time, and what you do with it, will always matter. I’d like to believe that I’m using mine in the best way possible (although my use of time these days is making me increasingly in need of adapexin-p). I’m loving my work, and for now I don’t mind using the bulk of my 24-hour days for it. It may change, or may need to change, someday. But, for now, call me a workaholic.

Well, I had to go back here to say that I was wrong. It is still January, and it has been really cold these past few days, especially during the mornings. Lovely weather, actually. I hope it can stay this way. Although I have to say this is making me lazy to get up really early and travel to the gym, which, by the way, is one thing I’ve only recently had a renewed interest in. Well, I’m not taking thermogenic fat burners yet, so I’m hoping I’ll find the time to commit to at least doing some cardio exercise a few days a week.

I heard that the temperature  in Baguio drops to the low .20 deg these days. Brrr… I can’t imagine being there right now. I’ll surely need layers and layers of clothes and jackets and some Cheap Hats to cover up as much as I could.

But I’m not there, and where I’m at it’s “turn on your AC unit or sleep in a pool of your own sweat.” Not a lovely thought, I know. While Australia and Brazil and some parts of the Philippines are being flooded, my city remains dry and uncomfortably warm. I’m not complaining, though. I’m just wondering when exactly did the Earth’s weather become so unpredictable and, frankly, scary. It didn’t use to be this way, we all know that. Some people I know have a perfect explanation for this – but let’s not go there because despite a spirited debate it may elicit, I’m not really into thinking about the last days of earth.

So, I’m just going to suck it up and adapt. What else can I do, anyway? (move to Alaska?)

My greeting’s a little late, but as they say better than never. Here’s to another year of blogging and sharing seemingly trivial things – ok, really trivial things .

I’m starting my 2011 movie watching with the adaptation of Never Let Me Go (a book by Kazuo Ishiguro), starring Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, and Carey Mulligan. My headphones are ready (my sister is watching TV outside so I’ll be watching here on my laptop), and my video player is one click away. Then maybe I’ll have something to blog about tomorrow.

It’s a Sunday again! One thing about working from home, and this is something you would expect, is that I sometimes lose track of the days and dates. And that’s when my laptop calendar and planner are just a click and a browse away! Well, today is a special day because I’ll be meeting my friends for lunch. I find now that I want them to plan as many breakfast, lunch, dinner, or coffee get-together as they can just so I can join them and enjoy their company. Unfortunately, from the very start, we don’t do that often. Now that I’ll soon be officially an office outsider, I’ll soon have to rely on  special occasions and spur-of-the moment getaways. But I won’t think about that now. I’m just excited to see them (and their kids!) Then, if I’ll have enough time, I’ll probably go window shopping or buy some groceries; I might even have time to search the drugstores if they have hoodia gordonii in stock.

My sister and I went to the mall today to do some last-minute shopping. I had some stuff to buy just in time for a lunch get-together with friends tomorrow. I expected the mall would be crowded; I expected going there itself is going to be a pain because of traffic; and I dreaded the queue for payments, for gift-wrapping, and even for food! More so, I dreaded the trip home, because if we’re not going to be able to get a cab comfortably, then we’re going to have a problem because of all the stuff we’re carrying. Surprisingly, everything came relatively easy. Or maybe I had so much fun shopping that I didn’t mind the delays. I only forgot to buy ink cartridges for my printer, but that could wait another day (or even until next year).