Fabulous at 90!

I finally finished the artwork for Lola's 90th birthday celebration come August 15th-- took me a week to decide on what to do, but only a second to conceptualize when I saw Mama's rough .odt file design. Sorry nanay..hehe -- it was an inspiring moment for me.

The decided color theme for her birthday is purple. Color of royalty. Naks! Everyone's excited going home to Palawan. Even the kids and yaya. First plane ride ba naman eh! Had to write a letter to Diego's school sa San Benildo requesting a special schedule for exam (swak naman kasi for their 1st grading exam). At least Andee will be done with hers (week before). Mama will be leaving one week ahead of schedule to help out with the preparation. On our part, we are still fine tuning the program. The kids (grand apo's) will be dancing to the tune of 'Oh Carol'; while we, (immediate apo's) will be singing Lola and Lolo's 1940's theme song 'Yours'. Mama and her sisters will be singing AND dancing 'Sweet Caroline'-- now that, I needed to see!

Fuss over a cellphone

My recent FB status shows the following:

My Eric died a natural death.. been together happily for almost 5 years. He already hinted last year that he can't be with me any longer. I was stubborn and I won't let go, yet he struggled to stay. A few days ago I reluctantly turned my attention to BB.. and that was when he finally let go.

Reading it over again made me feel a lump on my throat, heaviness inside. Akala ng iba, kung sino na yun. Actually, it made me think that I did refer it as if it were an actual person. Am I getting over sentimental with gadgets?!?! My SE810i has been a faithful companion for the longest time. Given to me by my brother, Earl, it has survived a salt-water plunge in Dubai when he was assigned there. Had it for a while then replaced it with an iPhone. So 'Eric' has been with me and recorded a lot of good (and bad) memories.

Last year, Eric showed signs of slowness and blacks out every now and then. Life expectancy would be less than 24 hours until I revive him. But then sometimes even that doesn't work. Then he'll surprise me one day waking me up from my sleep. Happy ulit. I was reluctant to replace him mainly because he is all I could ask for. But then there were instances when I needed him the most and he is not there.

Work finally introduced BB Curve. He catched my eye because he doesn't look too intimidating as his other companions who are too 'Bold'. It took a while for me to decide, and I finally did. After two weeks, I introduced BB to Eric. Their exchange went on smoothly and they got along pretty well. Then last week I began spending most of my time with BB. Eric probably knew that it would be inevitable. The other day when I checked to see how he was doing, he lay quiet. Efforts on reviving him proved unsuccessful. I will miss you, Eric. Thanks for the memories!

... and thanks for giving me the inspiration to start writing again.

A year that will be

2010. It was a bad welcome for me.

New Year's Eve, Andee was taken to the emergency room due to vomiting and loose bowel movement. January 2nd, it was Diego's turn. January 3rd and 4th, I was running a fever. Then now, for 3 days now, my allergies are more like a burning sensation on the skin.

But getting that aside, there are major looking-forward-to's for this year. February 20th will be our high school reunion's Silver Jubilee! Wow, 25 years na!!! Our batch holds reunion every 5 years. Each year handled and organized by a specific barkada, then 'assigning' the next barkada-organizer during the event. This time, everyone pitches in. As usual, I get to design the main tarpaulin for the event and take care of the physical arrangements. I will be (hopefully) posting a separate entry for that (fingers-crossed).

The next main event will be Lola's 90th birthday on August. It's going to be a grand family reunion, and everyone will be going home to Puerto Princesa. Exciting!

The last quarter of 2009 left a 'hole' in My Scratch Pad. After the Ondoy incident, phone and internet access are still non-existent. There were quite a few events that I should be blogging about, and of course, pictures to post. That might need to wait, I'm afraid, as I don't normally visit internet cafes.

So here's to 2010! :-)