Health needs wealth

Mommy was rushed to the hospital again. She'll be staying in the ICU for a while then getting an angioplasty. It's been very challenging for the family, financially speaking, because she just got out of the ICU on Feb and it took selling one of their income generating properties to pay for part of the bill and save up for her upcoming major surgery. And now she's back at hospital. Hay.

While I don't worry about it directly because I'm not with them and I'm not obligated to contribute, I know we're a few emergencies away from getting zeroed from paying hospital bills. With no HMO, and no stable source of income, eventually the cost will come down to us, Jec and I specifically. And we don't have much saved for medical emergencies. Specially from both sides. At the same time! My mother-in-law is also in a midst of a health crisis right now and I could only pray it's nothing serious. Or at least not too expensive.

And me? I just had an ortho consult earlier, which confirmed that there's something wrong with my right knee the way it's getting twisted more frequently lately. Doctor said it's kind of loose and needs to be scanned. Will be getting an MRI and hope for the best. Hope it's nothing serious like another ACL tear. I know I have a meniscus tear there from way back in highschool. It doesn't really hurt right now, and I'm being careful about it. But yeah, really need to strengthen my legs. I don't wanna undergo another ACL surgery and lose another full range of motion. Haaay. And while I have HMO, I would need to pay for the implant out of pocket again. I'm screwed (pun intended).

Aside from my knee, I've been advised time and time again to get a bridge for the gap in my teeth. Somehow it's causing my front teeth to move now and eventually it's gonna look bad. I've had a molar removed over 10 years ago and I never really worry about it because it's at the back. But you know because I'm lacking a molar, I couldn't chew on the left side of my mouth. That's been the case for more than 10 years. My dentist this time was able to sales talk me into getting a porcelain crown. It will cost 45k to do, which I'm seriously considering but I don't know I need to prioritize my savings first. I guess I'll wait for my mom to finish her surgery to see if I have the capacity to spend any more money.

Hay Lord.

Ugly good

Let's start with the ugly things first because hay. 

✱ My husband just left to go out with his friends. Again. I mean he goes out with them every week. I let him because I have no good reason to keep him at home on a Friday night. On one hand, I get to have time alone to write this and probably do my review backlogs. On the other hand, I cannot get rid of the sadness I feel every time he leaves. What if he dies? Yeah seriously.

✱ One of my orders got delivered to the wrong address. Driver never communicated, and he has no number on the app. I had to get it from customer support, which didn't help because the number cannot be reached. Rider chat was closed even when I have not marked the item as received, which is weird. The only good thing he did was attach proof of delivery in the app, which confirmed that he left my item in the wrong address. A condo on the other side of town.

✱ Koomi has been vomiting bile quite frequently lately. We tried increasing his food intake because we thought he just needed to eat more but sometimes he wouldn't even finish them. I feel bad calling him a bad boy and delaying his dental treat whenever he doesn't finish his food. :( 

✱  I've been over ordering food, again, and it sucks. For merienda I had pancit, shanghai, rice, and biko. And I only finished the pancit, the rest I could't finish. Then dinner came and I over ordered again. I had pad thai, pork krapow, lemongrass juice, and thai milk tea. I only finished the krapow and the lemongrass juice. I had rice, pad thai, and thai milk tea left over. On the plus side, I had the rest of the biko for dessert hehe. So yeah, lots of leftovers, hay.

✱  I was so lazy today I literally didn't do anything at work. It's the Friday curse. I was productive 3 days so maybe that counts? haha

As for the good things... let's see if I get to 10...

✱ The trending ghiblify me prompt is so cute. Creatives hate it for good reason, but I really love the output. Just look at these...

✱ I finally got to try a camera filter for the iphone. I bought a cheap option first, a phone case with a 58mm filter mount then I got a CPL and a dynamic ND filter. Set me back 1.2k, which is cheaper than my original preference which is a magsafe filter mount which of course needs magnetic filters as well, and they're mooore expensive.

It's really cool BUT the camera takes longer to focus now because there's a lens that's very close to it. This is a major one for me because it slows down my point and shoot process. I guess I'll stick to my default setup, which is nothing haha.

This is the type I got:

✱ Other purchases that made me happy: a new strap for my watch and a wrist wrest for my keyboard. Hopefully I don't get rashes with the strap cos it's nylon and breathable. And as for the wrist rest, it comes off a bit too high for my low profile keyboard but it is comfy! ♥️

✱ Unilab set off fireworks three times this week and it's amaaaaazing. We had the best view. It's the closest fireworks display we've ever witnessed in our unit and I loooove it! Better than NYE! 

✱  I just ticked off a big to-do at work so I'm now ready to start on my other projects lol. Gotta learn Power BI! 

✱  I've been buying a lot of things lately. I bought a new set of clothes from Uniqlo, intended for active use. Hopefully we get back to working out regularly in the coming weeks. :)

Oh well, still a good list. Happy weekend!

Everything hurts

My left hand hurts. I maaay have carpal tunnel syndrome according to youtube haha or a pinched nerve. I really shouldn't be spending more time on the computer. But yeah, my hand hurts when you put pressure on my thumb. Like a pinched nerve that won't go away. I hate it. Everything hurts. I'm an old hag. I've been twisting my right knee more frequently. It's so painful, like something got dislocated. And the only way around it is to snap it back into place by slowly straightening it. It's freaking torture I have to endure. The other day was the worst. Happened twice in a day within 4 hours of each other. And the 2nd one was fraking hell. Felt 2 snaps when I was straightening it. I really should get checked.

Friday's 10 Happy Things

✱ Slow RTO days

Like I said in my previous post, I enjoyed my time alone this Monday! I think I love walking around, but slowly haha

✱ Mama's birthday!

Went to celebrate mama's birthday in advance on Sunday. Since she can't go out yet we just ordered in food and I bought her flowers ♥️ 

✱ Beautiful flowers

I think it's the first time I bought someone flowers myself. My sister usually buys for us then I just chip in. But on Sunday after church I decided to get mama a small bouquet, after checking the price of course! Haha I didn't expect flowers to be this expensive? I think it's because I bought at Designer Blooms so it's definitely more expensive hehe Terai usually buys flowers in the market where it's 3x cheaper haha I'm very happy though because it's super beautiful and mama loved it!

✱ Team dinner

Came to the office again on Wednesday to meet with the team. I kinda looks forward to days like this where I can meet the rest of the team. Our manager brought food for everyone, we had games, and had fun!

✱ New personal Bible

On ate RJ's suggestion, I bought a personal Bible. I did have a personal Bible before but that was so long ago and I didn't get to really read it that much. I spent so much time choosing which Bible to get because there are so many pretty options right now. I know I want to get a CSB version because it's midway between word-for-word and thought-for-thought translation which makes a good balance between accuracy and readability. I bought this particular one because it's pretty haha. Hope to be able to read it a lot! 🙏

✱ Cure Aqua Gel

I recently discovered Cure Natural Aqua Gel from someone I follow on Instagram and holey moley it's instantly the best exfoliator out there! It doesn't have abrasive microbeads. It's just some form of hydrogenized water that instantly turns dirt on your skin into balls of skin cells that like libag but white. It's so cool. I couldn't believe it at first so I did 2 rounds to test if it's just the product that's clustering like that but wow the 2nd round didn't yield much libag unlike the first round so I was convinced. It also made my skin feel very smooth and clean. I love how it's so gentle yet super effective! 

✱ Bible study with ate RJ ☺️

Had Bible study earlier this afternoon despite both of us feeling sick from our allergies. We just did a recap of our previous sessions, discussed the Best Decision booklet and prayed. 

✱ Manam dinner ♥️

Ordered Manam for dinner because we didn't do the grocery this week and I'm too lazy to cook!

✱ Saitama mousepad haha

Bought a cute mousepad for Jec and I haha

✱ Beautiful sky earlier

Just marveled at the beautiful sky earlier after praying.

Slow walks

Today's walk was lovely. I sometimes look forward to RTO days alone because I don't have to rush walking around BGC to match Urielle's pace cos she walks so fast haha! 

Had ramen, froyo, and enough time to spare looking around Muji where I bought stationery.

Iced coffee and fries on the way back cos I got hungry again!

BGC cats are adorable!

It was so chill, I wasn't rushing, at times I would even stop just to ponder.

I love slow walks.

I had trouble getting into my parking slot but thank God I was able to get in properly without scratching the car beside me!

Thank God for today ♥️

Friday's 10 Happy Things

✱ Enjoying my macbook! Love the audio. Still getting used to the interface but so far so good. Also, the battery life is superb!

✱ Had Bible study earlier with sis RJ. It was just the two of us but I'm very thankful for her. 

✱ I'm 72kgs now, from 76 last November. I stopped working out cos I got lazy, but I'm doing intermittent fasting with my husband and it's been quite effective.

✱ Been shopping the past few weeks. Our bonuses came in this month so I feel rich right now. Key word: right now haha. Got new sheets, pillow covers, dish rack, organizers, mats, decor, etc. from Nitori and Ikea.

✱ Restarting my skincare routine with Laneige. It's been effective for me before, but I couldn't sustain it cos it was so expensive for me that time. That was 6 years ago. Now I think I can afford it. But it still comes down to discipline though. My thing about skincare routines is that I can only do it at night, but I'm hesitant to cos I want to cuddle with my husband before going to bed and I'm afraid all the product will just be wiped off haha.

✱ Reinstated our Vitality policies after learning from a friend that it boosts our ACP100's coverage by 250k. And my dad said it was okay to not pay it because we're not using it anyway! Hay! Haha

✱ Happy that once a year I get to buy off almost all of the things I want without worry because #bonus haha. Most of the stuff in my cart are 1k upwards and it's difficult to splurge on them every swelday kasi mahal! haha

✱ More on my macbook. I bought a 1TB version and I'm just happy that I have finally transferred product review footage from my phone and ipad, freeing up a loooot of storage on my mobile and tablet. I was finally able to update their software lol. I moved like 50GB worth of videos. I'm so behind my product reviews!

✱ I drew a bit today! I was listening to some Ghibli lofi BGM which had really cute visuals so I decided to copy from it, not realizing they were AI generated lol. I haven't drawn in a while so this is as good as its gets haha

✱ Cooked buffalo chicken thighs tonight!

Happy Weekend!

Got mac!

Finally! Got a MacBook Pro M4 this weekend! I've been looking around for good installment deals but their retail price and cash price at the mall is usually higher than the listed price at apple.com.

Beyond the Box is the only one that offers cash price near the official price and sakto they had a promo this weekend for BPI. I got it for 36 months 0% interest on cash price + buy now pay 3 months later. It's like the best apple deal ever! Instead of paying straight, I'd rather let the money earn in HYSA like Maya or CIMB while slowly paying it off.

I wasn't in a rush to get a macbook but I am actively looking around. I remember they had the same promo a few months ago but there was no stock so I decided to wait.

I'm excited about a lot of things, mostly airdrop lol and the possibility of learning to edit videos better.

I'm frustrated about a lot of things as well. I consider myself a Windows power user and I'm very very dependent on keyboard shortcuts and would prefer typing to using the mouse. In that regard, this macbook is slowing me down.

Hopefully it's just a learning curve. I've been struggling to remember new shortcuts like print screen, lock screen, new tab, quit tab, address bar, etc. Instead of being able to type on the address bar I keep making bookmarks haha. And it feels weird that the command button which acts like the control button in Windows is beside the spacebar. It's messing up with my muscle memory lol

Nonetheless, I'm more excited than frustrated so I pray it's just a matter of time. 

Thank you Lord! ♥️