Roses and Valentines

(I posted this short article on Valentine's Day at our NGCP-Visayas website with "roses" to boot. It speaks about my sense of romance. My male colleagues responded haha.)

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner – the weekend actually, and what better time to dig romance than on this special day?

I am not saying romance should only be observed (implemented?) at peak hours of the day (no offense meant to the power users of Visayas region who are beset by generation deficiency) or peak season. I am saying we could allow ourselves to be overly mushy on this date.

Again, let us qualify mushy. You can be soft and squishy not only to your spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend; you can even extend the same maudlin feeling to your living parents and more importantly, loving kiddos. After all, our kids adore us. Or don’t they?

So, for all the romantics this side of the universe, more particularly to the women of substance whom I have the privilege of sharing gender with, who love, cherish and wish for roses to come their way not only on Valentine’s Day, here, I’m giving you your first Valentine roses.

Enjoy valentine weekend!

Lose your grief

(After father passed on, I wrote this article. Perhaps to help me cope.)

I have been thinking about changing my hairstyle again after Father was buried. I had to do something different. Something out of the routine.I wanted to curl my hair but Hezekiah Kit and Shiloh Ruthie are against the idea.

So here I am, after a visit at my favorite hairstylist, sporting a brand new hairdo...or not so brand new at all. I had this same haircut in 1999. Ah eleven long years ago and still I remember. This same hairstyle back in 1999 inspired me to start growing my hair long.

From then onwards, I have always kept a long mane. And then, lo and behold in September 2009, after all the stress and hassle of my new job, I radically cut my hair short again...only to make a personal statement that I am kicking out all the stressors from my system.

Ha and I succeeded! I loved my new hairstyle starting September last year. And it surprised so many people, most especially my family and close friends alike in Bohol and Gen. Santos City.

But now, I needed a change. It's no longer the stress and hassle of the job. It's the death and burial of someone I love. I probably wanted to write about death and not hairstyles but it's so much easier to write about the latter.

Post Script: When I lost my Mother, I felt empty for a long time. I felt I lost a portion of my foundation as an individual. I grieved for a long time then.

However, it probably prepared me for the inevitable. Right now, I felt more ready to lose Father. Maybe I'm just saying it. Maybe I'm still in denial. But I will miss him. I will miss our banter about politics. I will miss consulting him about my job decisions. I will miss fighting with him. We come from different generations and so, we look at things quite differently. We have different perspectives about a lot of things.

Ah what a sad reality that when a loved one goes, life goes on.

Coffee and Avel

Eleven months ago but not necessarily today, Avel and I decided to have coffee. We kept on postponing it until the new management of our newly-privatized company then transferred me to my Visayas post. Hence, the coffee break didn't come to pass.

But like one writer wrote, things have a way of coming full circle. The Bible calls it: "In the fullness of time". And so it came to pass that today, finally after eleven colorful months, the coffee break materialized. That's coming full circle, I tell you.

Avel encouraged me to blog. Hmmm. I told him I will try. I just lost a parent and whenever I do, I always lose inspiration to write.

I lost my mother in 2001 and I did not write for a year. I lost father on December 14, 2009. Similarly, I am still grieving over his loss.

But I found inspiration in the way he encouraged me. Most often than not, inspiration can be derived from people. And because of that, here I am writing my first-ever blog after father died, thanks to Avel. If I become famous, you can only blame him for inspiring me. I take no credit.