10 Things That Happened Recently

I promised Neye that I'll do this. So here it is. Ten things that happened recently. And by recent, I mean things that transpired since I last blogged religiously.

1. I had chickenpox. If I could wish something to happen to a person I despise most, it is for her/him to get chickenpox at age twenty-five (and up). But of course, that’s just half a wish on my part. I think the nicer part of me would still not want someone to suffer the hell I’ve been through. It was December of 2014 and I was on an out-of-the-country trip to accompany travel grantees for a study tour. I was even in denial when the first batch of blisters started appearing, thinking that there’s no way I’d get chickenpox because I’ve had it as a child. Turns out, I never had chickenpox before. So for two weeks in Indonesia, I had to lock myself up in my hotel room, eat yogurt, watermelons, and other liquid food for breakfast, and pass time crying for my mother. It was miserable. And don't get me started on the post-chicken pox scars. Ugh.

2. I got a cat, lost it, and found it again. An old friend gave me a cat few days before the chickenpox incident. The cat is the bastard offspring of a female Siamese cat and a neighborhood stray cat. He has white fur with grey streaks on top of his head and blue eyes as a baby. I named him Mjolnir. He was a rather affectionate cat––wakes me up at four in the morning right in time for prayer, kneads my tummy, and basically invades my personal space as often as he can. The problem was he does not know when to choose the right timing. So one night when I was a bit more tired than usual and he a bit more hyper, I kicked him out of the house. The next day, he was gone. Eight months later, our elderly neighbor knocked on our door and said that she had found my cat. Mjolnir, now eleven months old, is a dirty, skinny, green-eyed cat with an x-shaped scar on his back. I was thinking of changing his name to Catshin Himeowra but my cousin thinks it was rather mean. Two months after he returned, we bathed him often to wash off eight months’ worth of dust and managed to nurse him back to decency. Now the x-mark is gone and he’s back to his smothering old self. Darn. Well at least, Mjolnir’s story is still a thousand times better compared to my other cat stories.

3. I fought and made up with people. Last year was a bit of a ride with regard to my personal relationships with people close to me (e.g. sister and some rather close friends). Perhaps I was a bit more sensitive last year and my tolerance to people was really low. On second thought, I appreciate that I let time heal things and did not force everything to be okay quickly. I had time to mull things over and learned more about coping up with disappointments toward people I trust the most.

4. I’ve been the receiving end of Adele’s Hello. I think this is rather self-explanatory. Hahaha.

5. I had at least nine pages of my passport stamped. From December of 2014 to March of this year, I’ve traveled to seven countries. Which leads me to…

6. I’ve set up a travel blog. This is a blog I share with my friend, Hope. It is supposed to document our local and international travels. We currently have nine posts in the blog, six of which are still unpublished. I’m crossing my fingers that we will have enough “time” to work on those posts and publish them as soon as possible. 

7. I fell in and out of love with a celebrity. It’s funny because I’m too old for this shit. But then again, I still did. Haha. Well, I always say I fall in love with something every time I find myself enjoying it more than I expected to. More of this here.

8. I made someone feel better and less suicidal. This person isn't really a close friend but she's one of those kids in college I had no idea how I ended up befriending. I remember feeling intimated by her to be honest. She is smart, always so sure of herself, and is very firm on her beliefs. She’s the type who everybody thinks is a bitch but is actually very nice. The other night, she posted a rather emotional personal post in FB––something she doesn't really do. I conversed with her for an hour about it simply because I was worried that she will kill herself.  It was really an effort on my part considering how bad I am with emotional stuff. I sent her photos of my cat and tried my best (in the most INTP way imaginable) to distract her of her worries i.e. very logical way of avoiding the topic of what made her feel bad and introducing a better topic like her ambitions and goals in life. For a moment, I am thankful of my background in peer counseling because I actually managed to make her feel better without necessarily sugarcoating the incident, talking about myself, or belittling her problems. Apparently, I am the only who took time to talked with her through her troubles. She thanked me and I felt good not because I helped her but mostly because I didn't fail at trying to make someone feel better.　

9. I ate on a buffet restaurant alone. I wasn’t really hungry, to be honest. I just felt like I should try doing it at least once in my life. Hehe.

10. I’m back in blogspot! And I hope it would be for good. I feel that this is a good way to help me ease back into writing. My brain has been stagnant for months! I cannot even write properly anymore. I feel that my write-ups are boring and too technical. I’ve tried to immerse myself with creative nonfiction by reading Bapa and Neye’s blog. So far, the most decent thing I’ve written in the past year was this. Hopefully, I’ll be writing more this year.