A Series of Unfortunate Events

The year ender has not been good to me. Two and half weeks ago, Rachel ended up getting high fevers for 4 days but eventually she bounced back. A week later, I was laid up for a day with fevers myself. I feel that I actually jinxed myself, a few weeks before, one of our office girls were giving me a box of Tylenol since we get them for free and I said "What do I need them for?". Fighting words which eventually backfired on me. When I got to work, I still had a low grade fever but I popped a Tylenol and was fine but our practice administrator was telling me I should get some Tylenol arthritis as well which I refused.

On Christmas eve morn as I was going down the stairs, my foot slipped on the second to the last step and landed on my big toe on the left foot. I was writhing in pain and could barely move, Rachel kept on asking me if I have a boo-boo and kept on kissing my foot. Monster kept on going around me unsure why I'm on the floor in pain. And Carlos, that unsympathetic husband of mine was laughing at my agony. I felt so nauseous from the pain that I just had to lay on the floor for a few minutes. Eventually, I was able to hobble, take some ibuprofen, find some shoes that can fit my otherwise swollen great toe and I was off to work. When I saw Tim, our administrator, I blamed him for falling since I felt that I got jinxed again from refusing the Tylenol arthritis. Sigh. So there I was hobbling and limping at work. I work in a Rehabilitation facility where patients get their physical therapy on an inpatient basis. I had patients giving me a hard time telling me to pull up a chair and sit among them for therapy. Of course I fired back that they should keep an eye out for their walkers since I might just steal it since I'll probably need it myself. People were teasing me how short I was without my heels. You'd think this is the end of my dilemma, right? But no.

My MIL is in town so Monday I told the hubby to bring her to Philly for some sightseeing. I said I'll be fine. What would happen? I just need to get to work. The next day (which was yesterday), the family left early since Philly is a 2-hour drive. SO around 8 am, I got bundled my self up, got my stuff and out I went through he door. Brrr, it was cold and windy. When I got to the car, lo and behold the car lock door was frozen! I tried the other door but it was frozen as well. A quick consult on the Internet suggested I use a de-icer which works great but unfortunately works only if you have one, which I did not. Next I can try to use petroleum jelly, which again I don't have. Heating up the key with a lighter or a flame helps. But then it was super windy outside so the flames will go kaput in a second. SO there I was stuck at home with no way to get to work. Luckily, one of our office girls who I'm in friendly terms with was on her way to work and would be able to make a slight detour to pick me up.

The year ender has not been good to me. But there's just one more day and I'm hoping for no more mishaps. Let all the bad stuff end with the year. Sigh. Next time I'll post about the lovely stuff that went of during Christmas.

Stinky

I haven't posted anything about Monster of recent record, so, this whole posting is just for him.

Monster is a picky and messy eater. We've had to try different types of dog food for him. He prefers human food however it doesn't always agree with him. Recently, we bought Chef Michael's gourmet dog food. He is that new Iron Chef America guy. It has pieces of real chicken which Monster looves.

Usually, at nighttime, while waiting for Rachel to fall asleep, I'll be on the other bed and Monster would usually cuddle up next to me. Hubby cuddles up next to me as well and lately I've been accusing him of giving out malodorous scents up my way which he flatly denied. Me being skeptical, did not believe one word he said.

A couple of days ago though, it was just myself and Monster on the bed when I had a whiff of toxic fumes coming my way. Seriously it was like having a toxic cloud hovering around him. Since I knew it wasn't me, it must have been Monster who was giving stinky but silent farts. Damn that dog. Had to kick him out of the bed. I blame the new dog food for this.

Board Certified

YES! YES! YES! (With arms pumping in the air and dancing around the room crazily). I just passed my sub-specialty boards in Spinal Cord Injury Medicine!! Yay!!!

Part of the reason I was quiet in my blog since August was the fact that I was studying for my boards. I took a month ago and I just got the results 10 minutes ago. I thought I didn't study the right material, but I guess I knew enough to pass. (Insert sigh of relief here).

Rambling kwento

I know this is a recurring theme in my past posts but seriously I just can't help but say it. Holy Schniezels! Where did the time go? Did I just go through a blackhole and sucked up the time. I can't believe I totally missed November. Damn! The sad part of all of this, nothing really super significant happened this November that remotely excuses me from not posting. Now I don't even know where to start.

I guess I'll start with the story about my brother and sister in law. I got home from work one day and finally got to my cellphone and listened to my messages. One of the messages was from my sister and she spoke at a fast clip and I gathered from her message is that Cid (my SIL) is pregnant and to give her a call back. This shocked me enough that I who am really bad at calling called back home to Manila. By some short miracle, since it's always hard to catch people there, my mom picked up the phone and conversation went thus.

Me: Ma! Buntis na daw si Cid?! (My bad manners were showing and I didn't even give my poor mom any inkling of what I was going to say or even asked her how she was. I just went to the meat of the problem.)

Mom: Huh?? Aba ewan ko. Wala naman silang sinasabi sila sa akin.

Me: Sigurado ka Ma? Kasi sabi ni Ate, Buntis na daw si Cid.

Mom: Ewan. Basta ang alam ko pupunta sila ng Cebu bukas at pag balik nila eh pupunta sila ng China.

Me: Ah ganun ba. Oh okay. So, how are you mom? (By this time I felt like a heel for not asking how she was and I felt bad because I thought that probably Kuya and Cid have just not gotten around to telling her, so I changed the subject.)

I still felt unsettled on this since I found the news fishy and I was incensed that I was not the first to find out. My brother may deny this but it's true (or at least I claim it to be true and he does not fully deny it) that I'm his favorite sister.

So, I next called him. If I was going to get to the bottom of this story I might as well hear it from the horse’s mouth. I called his cellphone and I guess the stars were aligned for me that day and he picked up the phone. And again without any greeting whatsoever I asked him thus.

Me: Kuya, totoo ba ang balita.

Kuya: Huh? Anong balita?

Me: Alam mo na yun. So, totoo ba?

Kuya: Totoo na mahirap pa rin hanapin yung accountant ni Mama. (He was saying this with a laugh in his voice so I definitely knew he was hiding something from me)

Me: Tumatawa ka, so I guess totoo nga. Tinanong ko si mama kung totoo but she didn't know anything about it.

Kuya. Ano nga yung balita?

Me: Na bunts si Cid!

Kuya: (laughing). (That's a definite yes right there, otherwise he would've denied it already)

Me: Kuya, how could you? (in my best pouty little sister girl voice) Bakit si Ate ang unang nakaalam? Di ba ako ang iyong most bestest and most favorite sister? Huh? So bakit ngayon ko lang nalaman?

Kuya: Wala naman along sinasabi kay Ate ah.

Me: Ha! You lie. She called me and told me bunts na daw si Cid.

Kuya: (laughing) Here's Cid.

When I finally got to talk to her, she was laughing as well but she finally confirmed that indeed she is in the family way. I was super thrilled for them. They've been working on this for a year. After talking for awhile with them and Cid assuring me that they haven't spoken to Ate yet, I was somewhat mollified. She did mention some sort of picture that Kuya had sent Ate on face. I finally put down the phone and went into facebook and saw a fairly ordinary picture of my SIL although she was looking chunky in that pic. Then I saw it on the side. It was the pregnancy kit test results. Seriously the picture was taken such that it just looked like it was a barrier on the side. How wily.

Then stupid me finally made a call to my sister. I asked her how come she knew Cid was already pregnant before I found out. She said she never said that Cid was pregnant, what she said was "Buntis na ba si Cid??" and not "Buntis na si Cid?" Ay engot talaga ako.

So after all of that it was my own dumbness that pre-empted my brother's and Cid's big announcement to the family. Technically, I was still the first one to find out. Hehehe.

All Saint's/Soul's Day

It has come and passed here in the U.S. and I barely felt it. The Pinoys do things right when it comes to this occasion. Everyone troops to the cemetary, set up the candles and the flowers, then comes the table laden with food then comes out the karaoke system. What follows is a raving good party in the cemetery. I'm sure all our dead relatives look forward to this once a year fiesta just for them. They probably feel things are just too quiet around the rest of the 364 days.

To all my dead relatives, you are remembered and loved.

Batibot

This is a public plea to anyone who has any taped copies of this show. Please let me got a copy from you if you have one. This is the best children's show in Filipino that's ever been produced. I hope to introduce this show to Rachel. So, if anyone is reading this who has a copy or knows anyone who does please send them my way.

A long week ahead

It's only Tuesday and I feels it's been a long week already. I've been majorly annoyed for 2 days now. My usual uninvolved self became passionately disturbed yesterday and today I just felt really dumb and stupid.

Yesterday, I was in a meeting with the wound center in the local hospital in our area. There I met one of the doctors and one of them was an elderly gentleman who appeared and sounded Pinoy to me but I wasn't sure. So after the hour meeting with them, where they were giving us the low down on the services that the wound center offers, I was finally able to do some small talk with the Asian looking doctor. He asked me where I was from so I took the opportunity to say that I am originally from the Philippines but around these parts Texas is my hometown. He then said he was from the Philippines too. So me being excited about meeting another Pinoy, asked him in polite Tagalog if he still speaks Tagalog. Mind you the guy has a Filipino sounding English. He said no, he just understands a little. That took me aback a bit but then maybe he grew up here right. So I asked if he grew up here and he said no. He tried to change the topic but then I was persistent. I asked him whereabouts did he live in the Philippines. I was thinking maybe he's from the province and speaks mostly a dialect that's why he understand only a "little bit" of Tagalog. He then said he was from Baclaran. This absolutely floored me. What the hell? You grew up in Baclaran and yet can understand only minimal Tagalog???!!! What the hell is wrong with him. I was so annoyed by him. Is he embarrassed about being Pinoy? I feel he is an embarrassment to the country. How can you forget your own language? How can you stand there and say you only understand a little bit of Tagalog. It shouldn't matter if you've been here 50 years or so, how can you forget the language of your youth? Grabe, inis na inis ako. Kakahiya yung mamang iyon. I was so fired up about it yesterday that as I was telling the story to the hubby, my tone was rising with each word. Grabe, kakainis talaga.

Today, was even worse than yesterday. I made a medical student mistake. I didn't read all of the paperwork before me and instead just glanced through it briefly. I saw the patient and gave my recommendations and prescribed the medications I thought would help her. Later on, when I was dictating my note, I finally went through all that paperwork before me and realized I just made a mistake. Damn! I started scrambling for the phone and called the pharmacy to hold the prescription that I had given the patient and absolutely not fill it. Tomorrow, I have to do a bit of damage control and get the patient back in and run a few tests to confirm a few things. It'll be an ugly confrontation for sure afterwards. I probably am not making too much sense as I had not given all of the details here. Suffice it to say, I made an all too obvious mistake that I'll be kicking myself in the ass for awhile.

The week is still quite young and already I feel I've been put through a lot already. Here's hoping for a calmer next few days.