Week of Hell: Finals

So my body feels like crap owing to all this crazy stress. I know what it feels like to be at 100% vitality (a unit of measurement used by The Accupuncturist) where it feels like I have tons of energy, my body is humming, and I'm whistling out loud on the street cuz I just feel so damn good. When I feel this good, it's like I'm flying (no seriously, sans drugs just needles)!! Right now, I feel aches in my muscles and my joints are creaking like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, and my injured shoulder is back thanks to my lifting my heavy laundry bag and carrying it like Santa Claus two blocks to my local laundrymat a week ago (you will not believe how much I would give for a washer and dryer in my apartment right now). I could kill myself for being so careless!! I should've known better.

Tried to push up my appointment with The Accupuncturist and I can't get one!!! I like seeing him at the end of the day cuz I don't feel rushed since there's no one after me. He's gotten so popular...in part, thanks to my recommending him to so many people. Folks have seen how good I've been looking these past few months and have asked my secret. Silly me. I told them it was him. Seven people have now seen him, thanks to my referrals! Shit. So no good deed goes unpunished. I mean, I'm really happy for all of us taking charge of ourselves to be healthier people. But this sucks that he's getting popular!!!

Breathe JoJo. Breathe. Note to self: Must learn to share and get over your only-child mentality.

*sigh* Got two papers, both due on May 12. One on the balikbayan box and the other on Karl Marx and his labor theory of economics. Shite!

Ok, I can do this. I can get through this.

Acceptance, submission, surrender. All these attitudes are key to my well-being. This is my journey. I have to embrace it with love.

Remember the light at the end of this week's tunnel. Visualize 3 weeks in Costa Rica in July: surfing, volcanoes, ziplining through the cloud forest, the incredibly diversity of animals and plants, the beaches. Remind myself of how incredibly blessed I am to have the opportunity to study a discipline that really fascinates and excites me, that I have the intellectual capacity to critically analyze and cogently write about topics that interest me, that I have an amazing job that supports me, and that I ultimately have the physical and mental capacity to heal myself and get through this pain.

Perhaps I should re-phrase the title of this post to "Week of Acceptance, Submission, and Surrender".

Costa Rica Surfer Chick!

Costa Rica, baby! Here I come! I wanna be a surfer chick. I wanna be a surfer chick.

I'll be attending an all-girls surf camp through Third World Productions for a week so I can learn to stand on a board and ride a wave. Then, two weeks of traveling around the country. Yeah!!!

I will realize the dream in July!

Publishing in an Academic Journal?

My professor, The Archaeologist, for my material culture class has enjoyed the essays I've written so far on the Filipino balikbayan box that he has suggested that I try to get them published. WTF!! Whoa, really!?!?!?! A lowly MA student such as myself, get published in an academic journal? I can't believe it. I'm definitely going to follow through and look into it. I feel so validated thanks to The Archaeologist's encouragement.

30!

hey hey hey! what's haPPenin'???

30 is here and i feel so LiBerATEd from the shackles of my 20s. let's see. the positive: i traveled the country for free, i met amazing new people, i lived in two other places besides NYC, i truly became financially independent from the 'rents. the negatives: the quarter-life crisis, the uncertainty of life, the constant self-questioning, the depressingly low salary, the people pleasing. UGH. i'm tired of it. none of that shitake ANYMORE! i'm older and i demand respect dammit! so if you thought i was outspoken before, wait till you hear me now!

i've been lookin' forward to 30. seems like i'm the only one of my friends that's not freaked out by it. i'm happy and grateful for all the beautiful life blessings i have. so many amazing things are going to happen in this decade; how can i NOT look forward to it???

a beautiful surprise birthday dinner was planned by a scheming duo: j & mom. i never thought mom had it in her. but she surprised me. and the fact that she and j worked together, shocked me even more. yet i felt sooooooooo loved. later, a part-ay! check out photos on flickr.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom turned another year older today! Here she is blowing out her candles surrounded by lovely roses and some cards and a check from me. Ha!











Of course, there has to be one with the two of us!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy 30th Birthday L!

Here's one of my best friends celebrating her 30th. Her husband, The Chemist, plus 12 close friends celebrated L's (aka "Goober") birthday in elegant style at a Boston lounge and restaurant. With the exception of her elder sister who could not attend, the other four women in her bridal party were there. So we're talkin' just close friends folks.

To the left, you'll see Goober shimmy-ing in one of her gifts, a new blue bathrobe. Doesn't she just look ssssexxy in that bad boy!?!? The Chemist seems to thinks so.

On the right is the birthday gal between me and The Artistic One, who is donning her typical laugh-out-loud-laugh. Don't we look awesome for a bunch of 30-year-olds?

Hey wait, I'm not 30 yet! Haaa!!! I'm the baby in this pic...

The Travel Itch

All this talk of traveling has made me itching to get on a plane. So when this happpens, I just look back at some of the amazing places I've been:

Me watching the sun set at the Delicate Arch.
Arches National Park, Utah (2001)







This statue, like many Incan artifiacts originally intended for display was completely covered with a thin, gold plate. When the Spaniards arrived, they melted all the gold, kept it for themselves, and exorcised the object by chopping off its nose, and branding a cross by one of its ears.

Tiwanaku, Bolivia
(2003)

Iguazu Falls, Argentina (2003)
Me on a ski lift on the Argentinian side of the Andes (2003)

Isla del Sol y Lago Titicaca, Bolivia/Peru (2003)
Hiking the top rim of Isla del Sol,
the island in which the sun was birthed
according to Incan mythology.

Day 1 of the Inca Trail, Peru (2003). This picture may help you understand why the Incas called this place "The Sacred Valley". I look at this photo and ask myself, "How can you NOT believe in a God?"

Day 4 of the Inca Trail. Arrival at Machu Picchu.

Chillin' on the beach in Zanzibar (2004).

For more pics, check out my flickr album.

It won't be Ghana this year

Well folks, it looks like Ghana isn't happening this year.

Based on my work demands, the only month that I can get away is July. And Ghana in July is HIGH season. This means that a round trip ticket from JFK to Accra is $1700! I almost fainted. I have never spent so much money on a plane ticket, not even to the Philippines.

If The Roommate remained, I would've saved the money and visited my friend E, who is in Accra on a fellowship till August (If I go, it would be the 3rd continent E & I would spend time in. We met on the Inca Trail in Peru). But now that The Roommate is leaving on April 1st, my typical monthly savings will go to rent. So I really can't pull off a $1700 ticket.

This situation leaves me with two options:

• Visit someone I know and stay in free lodging
• Visit someplace closer to home (read: Central America)

If I were to go to Central America, it would have to be Costa Rica. Why? There is so much to do in Costa Rica: the beaches, the rainforest and jungle, the biodiversity, the really good infrastructure. What else can you ask for in a country? And a trip to Costa Rica would not be complete without learning how to SURF.

Which then got me thinking about my wanting to try something new. And since I've always wanted to learn how to surf, maybe now is a good time to learn. If I end up hating it or not able to do it, at least I would've tried it. But a 3 day, all-inclusive surf camp in Costa Rica looks like it'll cost me $800. Yikes! I'll have to use my frequent flier miles to get there and really go budget traveling. As of right now, I do not have a travel companion. Even though I have no problems traveling alone, it would probably be better and cheaper to travel with someone.

This then led me to thinking about my first option which is to visit my uncle and his family living in Maui. Maui!!! Apparently, the most beautiful of all the islands of Hawaii and the island which my uncle has been inviting me to visit for the last several years. I could stay with them and take surfing lessons too.

Thinking thinking. Will be thinking about this for a little bit. If you have any suggestions, I would welcome them.

Re-living New Wave Music: Depeche Mode

Yeah! I've got tickets to see them at the Tommy Hilfiger Center in Jones Beach this May!!! I'm soooo excited. Look, you do not understand. I was not allowed out of the house when I was a teenager. Only tasted real freedom when I left for college. So I led a real boring HS existence, which is why I always felt like I missed out on what everyone else did: no concerts, no sleepovers, no late night outings for JoJo.

Seeing bands like Erasure, Depeche Mode (Who's next, the Pet Shop Boys or OMD? Geez, I remember jr hs classmate, PY, had all the band names etched on the front flap of what would be the progenitor of the messenger bag.) in concert is merely making up for lost time!! Because I couldn't do it when I was 13!!! I've waited sooo long...17 years. The wait is well worth it. :) The first single off their album, "Precious", is old-skool DM!! If you've heard it, you would know without a doubt it was them.

*sigh* Listening to their music reminds me of the days when my high hair was stiff from hairspray and when the only color in my wardrobe was black. I love the 80s!!!

Rest in Peace: DD 1907 - 2006

My maternal grandmother and my last surviving grandparent, passed away at 4am today in a Philippine hospital from complications of pneumonia. She was 98. She is survived by 6 children, 20 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren.

When she was alive, she used to say that she was comforted by the fact that at least two of her grandchildren would remember her when she was gone (As if the rest would not! She was definitely dramatic...I see where my mom gets it from.) because one is named after her and because the other shares the same birthday with her. The grandchild that celebrates the same birthday with her is me.

I will never forget a beautiful memory I have from 2001. I traveled back to the Philippines to co-celebrate our birthdays: I turned 25 and she 94. Early in the morning before the big party, our whole extended family came to her house to greet her happy birthday. She was showered in kisses and hugs. I waited until the crowd subsided and I went to give her my own well-wishes. When I was done, I began to walk away from her when she called my name. I turned around to see her waving her hand and signaling me to return, so I did. When I looked into her face, she said, "Don't let me forget to greet you because it's your birthday too." And then she held my face in her hands and kissed me on both sides of my cheecks. I started to cry, overwhelmed by the poignancy of the moment. She was startled and asked me why I was crying. I told her that I was so happy and I felt so honored to share the same birthday with her. And she smiled.

(These pictures were taken later that day at a birthday party in our honor. The top pic is right before we left for the restaurant. The bottom pic is me blowing out my "25" birthday candles with grandma and mom looking on. There we are, three generations of the D women. I love this photo.)

I love you Lola! May God welcome you home! I look forward to the time when we will see each other again in a place where no pain or sorrow exists.