Burst a bubble

We have been planning to unwind from our humdrum existence this coming March, when hubby gets home. And in time for our wedding anniversary. Actually, it is becoming a yearly “tradition” to take a break, go somewhere and chill come Marchtime (usually March but we had it in June last year simutaneous with my company's team celebration) .

Although we still have to agree where the destination is, I have been looking forward to this getaway. Excited, yes. Especially since I have entertained the prospect of bringing our son along.

But now, I believe we might postpone this. Reschedule to another day in another month. Hopefully, still within this year, because the possibility of moving the sked to next year is disheartening.

We really have no choice. Because if company sked would push through, I will be attending a training in Manila for 2 weeks instead!

Tech that rocks!

First there was the Internet. And then there's a thing called SMS (text messaging) in the mobile communication world.

Simply put, Internet is to computers; Voice call/SMS is to cellphone. Before. This still holds true, only there's something more now..

There's voice over IP (VOIP) where you can make calls through the internet. Plus, there's instant messaging, PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone alike.

Then, nowadays, phones can browse the internet too. And phones can read and send emails. (I used to do this when I cannot get hold of a computer to do these tasks, i.e. when I'm mobile -not in the office or at home).

And lately, e-mailing directly to a phone is already possible. (Note: dependent on phone capability and service availability with the cellular network provider).

Like in my case, my hubby sends me email straight to my phone (as in my mobile number as email address). No-- I don't need to access the internet through my phone. They (e-mails) just pop in my inbox the same way as SMS! And I can reply too (even can insert attachments). It works just like instant messaging. There's a hitch though, I cannot see an attachment in my end. I hope they can fix this bug in the future. But for now, I am just grateful for this little innovation.

With hubby thousand miles away abroad, I think this is the coolest and cheapest way we can communicate. Sans the PC. Anytime and anywhere.

Note: I am barred to make international calls since my phone credits are courtesy of the company I am working for =(

When he sleeps, it is time to run…

I find it hard to focus in simple things that used to be so ordinary (before having Matt) like reading a book, watching tv, eating and more. Everything, these days, is a hurried affair. Thanks to my dear Matt. With a kid around, who makes it his duty to make a lively clutter in our room (and anywhere else he goes in the house), the only respite we have is when he is asleep. Supposedly.

(Swear, it only takes one kid to turn a place in shambles. Amazing! )

But when my son is asleep, I have a thousand things to occupy me. And I know it is the time to get things done, and as quickly as possible (otherwise, the sleeping angel becomes a wailing baby). It really is the time to run. Run around the house and retrace his steps to tidy our place. Arrange things back to their usual places. Pick up pieces of paper among other stuff which were scattered on the floor. Scurry to the kitchen to wash his bottles, teats and baby accessories, get some water boiling and sterilize. Dart to the other side of the kitchen and prepare baby’s food.

In the middle of what-are-you-doing, stop. Stop and tiptoe back to the room to check him.

Gasp! Breathless, aye? Do not forget to bring back the heaps of laundry (only Matt’s clothes because we have cleaners who come to the house and take care of our laundry weekly; but mother is adamant that we wash his clothes separately for good measure). And then start washing his clothes.

I am still in the process of perfecting my act and keeping all these things completed in 2 hours. Seriously speaking.

Kitchen Solutions: How to remove sediments from a kettle/electric airpots (stainless steel-made)

I use cane vinegar (any brand will do) to remove sediments from our electric airpot. Here’s how:

1. Empty contents of your airpots/kettle.

2. Pour water in the pot and add a dose of vinegar.

(Proportion: ¼ vinegar for every 1 liter of water)

3. Set airpots/kettle to boil. Simmer for a few minutes.

4. Let it cool. You may also leave the solution overnight.

5. Pour out the mixture. Wash and rinse your kettle/airpot repeatedly to your satisfaction.


Viola! Gone are the whitish mineral deposits that has gahered in the surface.

Works wonders. Try this and you’ll see.

I have also read somewhere that calamansi or lemon will do the trick but I have yet to try this. You may opt for this and then let’s compare notes.

Bruised

I am wearing a new look today. I call it the modern-day ensemble of a battered woman. Sleeveless top, denim leggings and blue-black roundish marks all over my arms to complete the get-up. And off we go to the mall.

Bruises. I have these in my shoulders too (which will easily be concealed though) but these marks are bruises which I am not ashamed to flaunt, so to speak. I am bruised but not wounded. People could speculate as to why I have these but I couldn’t have cared less. These are bites (luckily, I suffered no serious cuts). Yes, human bites. Baby nips, care of my one-year-old son. My sister and parents are not spared too.

These days, Matt seems to get his kicks biting us (playfully) in selected body parts, unpredictably though (the other day he's trying to sink his teeth on my knee!).

Must be part of teething, they say.

Part 3: Etcetera (Kindness)

Kindness never fails to amaze me. And my officemates have been so kind and considerate to me. Some but not all..Heheh..Really. I mean, I could get bitchy with them sometimes but then… It really pays to be kind too.

All these years, they have become my friends, even more like brothers. These are the people who fill in your place when some emergency situation pops up and you find yourself unable to get to work. The ones who keep your ass covered and let you go home ahead of time because it is already raining hard or just because you might want to go home early (like during my breastfeeding days).

The very same people who are willing to drive me all the way home and then go back again, to the office or their home. And without me asking them (honestly, I would never ask) but they just offer. Such kindness!


***********************

Happy Valentine's to all!

Part 2: Etcetera (The ride home)

When I work AM shift, transportation is not much an issue as compared to working in the afternoon. I could always commute or drive to work in the morning (Oh well, I get to drive to the office when I work morning shifts but my father sits beside me all the time; and he brings the car back home). And going home by public transpo when my shift ends at 2PM is not much of a problem.

But when I work in the PM, transpo is one issue to be dealt with. Not to the office though. But from the office, after I logged off from the workplace. You see, I live in my parent's house which is some 15 km away from the workplace (with the office situated away from the main highway). Not tooooo far, but still far enough.

Granting that there is no outage (network trouble) during the shift, the earliest I could leave the office would be 10:01PM.

...if I take a public transpo:
By this time, waiting for a public transpo to take me to the main highway (where I would wait for a jeep to bring me to the next stop) would take about 20 minutes (if I’m lucky) or forever. The wait at the main highway would be shorter, like 10 minutes. But you know how public transpo works. They stop to pick up or even wait on passengers and you lose precious minutes on the way home. That would be 45minutes spent on the road before I get to my last stop, where I board another jeep to finally bring me home. Add an hour and 30mins with this last leg.

...if I take whatever company car is left in the parking lot:
Only accredited drivers can drive the company cars. Currently, my company status is still “buddy-driving.” Meaning, I get to drive only with an accredited driver beside me. And only within the city (which is really not my forte but that would be another story). So if I take a company car at home (if there’s one in the parking lot), this is just the same as signing my resignation. I am unwilling to break this policy yet.

..and then…
I don’t want to bother my father by asking him to pick me up (because he is already 64 yo and should be in bed getting his much needed rest at this hour). And I don’t bring our car (actually my brother’s) to the office with me (my father doesn’t allow me to drive alone; and I have no guts to drive alone yet).

..so…
I am left to either commute or take a cab. Now, calling a cab saves me a lot of time. But time saved is inversely proportional to the cash I’ll be shelling out. The trip home (from the office) costs me way too much in the pocket.

Part 1: Etcetera (My shifts)

My nature of work includes working by shifts. Morning shit, er shift, is 6AM to 2PM. Afternoon is 2PM to 10PM. And night shift is 10PM til 6AM of the following day. The former is commonly called the graveyard shift, obviously because of the time range.

When I was re-assigned to the Switch, I have requested to skip the graveyard shift when the schedule rotates for the reason that I need to be with my son at night time. And I have been so lucky that my officemates didn’t raise much hell with this issue. Knowing that this might pose a little glitch in our schedule since an adjustment has to be made with somebody filling in my place during rotation, I am always grateful to the guys I work with for allowing me this breather.

In short, I’m down to 2 shifts only—alternately, that is.

Morning shifts aren’t much trouble for me apart from the fact that it’s just too early. I would always blink a hundred times per sec just to shoo away the cloud of sleep (an exaggeration of course but i hope you get the pic). Sometimes, being in a hurry makes one tend to forget basic necessities to survive the day. But other than that, I love morning shifts. First, because I get about 3 hours of free time before the office is buzzing with activity (which is usually at 9AM). Second, I can get home earlier and have time to take part in my son’s activity before he goes to sleep.

Now afternoon shifts are entirely a different story. True, I get to be more productive at home before I go to work. But in the office scene, PM shifts are the busiest. And then I get to miss the “sleeping time” ritual I have with my son. Normally, if I commute after the PM shift, I’d get home about past 11PM (with son already off to Dreamland) and find myself already asleep by midnight. But that is if I get by with some luck..

Good news

Since 5PM yesterday, Matt’s temperature has maintained a normal course. God, we have been praying and praying some more for his health. I’ve checked his temp every 4 hours after 5PM (yesterday) til 3 AM this morning. Mercury barely reached 37.5C. Same thing all day today.

But he’s been crankier than yesterday. He wails everytime we put him in his playpen (to maximize the use of the crib, its cushions were removed to turn it into a playpen). And refuses to be left all alone.

But I am not the one to complain. Cranky is better than feverish.

But then..

Matt’s fever was recurring every 4 hours last night. My mother and I alternately kept our watch over him. Sleepless, my mother was. The little sleep I got was because of her. I couldn’t have imagined getting by without her.

Sleepy as she is, she woke up this morning to prepare a decent breakfast for us all. As usual. And Matt, though still getting high temp, is his usual playful self.

He really could turn a room upside down in a jiffy. And yes, he enjoys this as much as it annoys me. These days, he loves to remove everything from their designated places - at least only those within his reach. He’d open our cabinet doors and pull down the clothes. Or would reach over the shelves and scatter the toys, papers, books..the list goes on. Sigh!

I woke up again this morning and found everything strewn in the floor. My dear son has unloaded the contents of our laundry basket. And among the clothes were toys, papers, books all over the place. Simply put, I found our room in complete disarray so early in the morning.


Thanks GOD that I won’t have to work today, being my day off.



(In shambles...)



(Ideally..)

Rays of sun

It’s the 4th day since the onset of my son’s fever. He should have been showing other symptoms other than the beyond-the-normal-temperature. But there was none except for the hoarseness (in his voice). Again, no cough and colds. No rashes. He’s been eating and drinking milk like his usual self. And active as can be.

I had been so beside myself with worry. His father must have been anxious and worried too because he’s been sending me several email in a day. Nanay, tatay and my sister were so concerned.

I had been thinking of bringing Matt to the hospital to have some lab tests taken because I didn’t want to take chances. But this would mean that I would have to be absent from work again today (I was supposed to be in the office at 6AM). Guilt-stricken me felt so unprofessional because I knew they had to tap somebody else to replace me for this shift at a short notice, otherwise there’d be no one working during morning shift (since we are short of hands these days). But heck, my son needed me. The battle of priorities again. Between career and family responsibility, a debate was commencing in mind. But being a mother, the choice was pretty obvious. So in the wee hours of the morning today, I sent a message to our team leader and begged off from reporting for my shift.

So by 4PM today, we –accompanied by my parents- were in the hospital. Extracting blood sample from my son proved to be heartbreaking. He was kicking and crying non-stop all throughout the process. I had explained to him the procedure -- lancet and all -- prior to the actual extraction (as if it would make a difference..heheh).The urine collection was done without a hitch, although Matt complained a little when I was detaching the urine collector which was glued to his skin.

But getting lab samples is not nearly as difficult as giving him his meds. To give him meds, first, somebody has to hold him still, "manually strapping" both his arms and legs. And then someone also has to pry his mouth open while I carefully tip the meds. (But sometimes) In the end, he either spits them out or play gargle with them until they spill out of his mouth (he must have loved the sound he makes when he gargles them). And double this feat during night time when we had to wake him up for him to take the meds. Urghh.

Less than 45 minutes later, the results were already available. I scanned for familiar details and was quite relieved that urine and blood test results seemed okay. But no less than the doctor’s remark could satisfy me. Viral infection, lasting to about 5 days fever was all he said. But he advised to stop giving the anti-viral med Matt’s been taking since Monday and to continue the Paracetamol to control his fever.

Thanks be to GOD. From now on, I could at least give my mind a rest.

2nd day

I am so not in the mood to go to the office today. I barely had sleep last night because I kept on monitoring Matt’s fever.

When I woke up this morning, I took a look around our topsy-turvy room and could only smile. My son’s already up and about despite the fever.

My mother will be attending to Matt today so I can go to work. But I know, despite this fact, I would find it hard to concentrate with work when I get in the office

Before I set off to work, the thermometer reading taken from my son still goes beyond the normal mark. I could only hope it could get better within the day.

Moan-day

Supposed first-day-the-work found me at home “mothering” my one-year-old son. Reason: Matt’s running a not-lower-than-38C fever and it’s so unbearable to leave him to my parent’s care.

No cough and colds. No rashes. Visually, no other symptoms except for the watery eyes and flushed cheeks (courtesy of his fever). And he’s been his usual restless self, running around the house, pulling and throwing toys here and there.

Later this afternoon, we brought him to the DR to have him examined. Must have been a viral infection, and anti-viral med coupled with paracetamol should take care of him, said his pedia.

One of those days

My mother, on a whim, suggested that we go out to eat lunch today. She must have wanted to stress out that today is a Family day being a Sunday. So we (my sister, Joy, my father and my mother, and my son Matt and I) found ourselves eating in a dimsum resto in the nearest mall .

Birthdays. Holidays. Christmas. It's usually on times like this that I so miss my 2 brothers (older one in Abra; the younger one is in SoKorea) , my sister (in Japan) and my husband (of course! who has flown to Japan just this morning).

Emo!

There used to be 3 ladies in the office. Che. Me. And then May Ann. (The order is also arranged according to hiring dates).

We all worked in the Switch (a telecom jargon which could sometimes be called central office or CO to some). When the switch group disintegrated a couple of years or so ago, May Ann was transferred into another group (but still held office here). When that department fell apart, she was relocated to Butuan. Later on, she resigned and took her leave from this company. She is happily working for a telco in Sydney , Australia now.

Che. When our original group disintegrated, she and I were moved to join another group. When we were regrouped, she and I got in the same group again. A month ago, she was given (not offered, but this is a company-initiated move to relocate her) a post in Ozamis. She really had no choice but to go ( This is because from the very start of our employment in this company, we all signed an agreement, a waiver, on possible relocation –anytime and anywhere-- should the company sees the need. Otherwise, we resign.). And effective today, Che (who btw will soon immigrate to Canada with her family) reports to a base in Ozamis City.

So that leaves me with this fact: I am the only “she” in the office now. No big deal. Really. To be honest, I really have no problem being in an all-male environment. Back in college, there were only 2 of us girls in our class. Choosing a used-to-be-male-dominated career, I kinda developed a mindset that should have prepared me for something inevitable such as this. But why am I getting emotional and anxious? Yup, I have no problem with walking around the corridors of this building. And definitely, no prob working with these men. I have been working with these people for almost 6 years, and I am as comfortable working with them as walking in Havaianas slippers. But man oh man, there will be times when we would long for a woman’s company to hear us out with our woes in life. And sometimes we need a little dose of that girly-ish chitchats just to keep our sanity. And then there will be times when we need to ask the point of view of another woman, be it personal or not.

As for the moment, I cannot imagine who to ask whether this email I am composing sounded too emotional and lady-like.

Do you have an extra liner? Or tissue? Or napkin? Questions that I will no longer utter tomorrow and in the future.