Wanted: Reconnection

My cousins living in NY flew in a few days ago and I suddenly felt the need to reconnect with them and bond with relatives I've long been in touch with. I was always busy at work sometimes sacrificing my personal gain and happiness. When they got into an accident, I took it as a sign to take a break from work and take care of them while in the hospital for a few hours. Sometimes work needs to take a backseat as it is not worth giving your best without gaining anything.

They stayed in our place for a couple of days and I tried to bond with them to the best of my ability.. We went to our relatives few miles away from our place and had dinner with them.. I never had a personal connection with them and I suddenly had this feeling of regret on why I did not bond with them before.. I now vowed to myself that I should try my best to reconnect.. In the end they are part of the family .. I might need to improve on how I connect with others and treat them as family or friends as well.

I hope they will give me a second chance to get to know them better.

Show me the money!

I just had my mid-year performance evaluation at work. I came to realize that I've chosen to grow old with the company I currently belong to. I trust my skills as well as my superior's capabilities to help me improve in terms of career and financial growth. With the current state I'm into.. it seems that I am not yet financially free.. I have house loans to pay coupled with car loans, utilities, salaries, food expense, miscellaneous and some investments for the future.

I don't have much current savings. My earnings coupled with our expenses almost evens out. We hope to change the trend and come up with better savings once we have earnings when we sell our car in the near future. For savings, I am thinking of not placing my money in bank accounts but rather in investments funds. Mutual funds as they most call it. I currently have some in PAMI and I hope to increase my investments as time goes by. What I am eyeing for is to invest in their AIG Global Bond Fund. Hope that I could embark on it in the near future and have wise financial decisions when in comes to investment and savings!

Choose Wellness Mid-Evaluation

Today, I just had my mid-evaluation for my participation in our company's I Choose Wellness Program. I Choose Wellness is a year long campaign for better nutrition as well as health and wellness. It is the employees prerogative if he wants to be into this program. I joined hundreds of colleagues who took part in this endeavor. I take pride of working for the company I'm currently with as non-monetary benefits such as this motivates the employee to do better in their personal life which in a way has a positive effect in their job performance.

In this program, we have nutritionist who will see us monthly and conducts one on one nutrition counseling based on our eating habits, our physical activity, weight and height. Given this information, she will help us plan a health regimen that meets our own fitness goals. Most of the programs are achievable depends on how much discipline an employee puts into it.

There are daily wellness activities in the company and we can choose which activities we would like to attend to. Group class choices would be yoga, body combat, latin groove among others. I only knew of these 3 as they were the only ones I've been to. If one is not into these types, there is always the gym and almost an entire floor in the office is dedicated for it. If one opts to have a personal trainor, he may do so at his own additional expense.

I've never been fond of the gym before. What I've only tried were the various group classes. Unfortunately, it helped a little in improving my physical performance during our evaluation earlier. I've decided to try out the gym within the week and hopefully would achieve better results.

Apart from these programs, we also have a "nutrition quotient" training where we learn facts about nutrition in a fun way. This would also teach us how to eat healthy. Problem is the application bit as it is easier said than done that "moderation, variety and balance is key in choosing which foods to eat".

What's good about this program is that progress (or regress) is being monitored and evaluated. Pre, mid and post evaluation are being done (all the works! - measuring fat, flexibility, endurance, height and weight etc.) The team (nutritionists, doctors, trainors and employees) are helping each other out to commit to a better and healthy lifestyle. I do hope that other companies would offer these types of initiatives for a better work-life balance amongst their employees.

Lovely Prayers

As I was cleaning up my receipts for liquidation in the closet, I managed to recover a piece of paper with 2 lovely prayers - Prayer to Take Authority and Cleansing Prayer. The sheet was previously handed to me when I attended a "caring circle" for the first time 2 years ago. Unfortunately, the author of these prayers were not listed in the sheet for recognition but given the beauty of these prayers, I would like to share these prayers to the blogging community:

Prayer to Take Authority:
In the name of Jesus, I take authority and I bind all powers and forces in the air, in the ground, in the water, in the underground, in the netherworld, in nature and in fire. You are Lord over the entire universe and I give You the Glory for Your creation. In Your Name, I bind all demonic forces that have come against us and our families and I seal all of us in the protection of Your Precious Blood that was shed for us on the Cross. Mary our Mother, we seek your protection and intercession with the Sacred Heart of Jesus for us and our families and surround us with your mantle of love to discourage the enemy. St Michael and our Guardian Angels, come defend us and our families against all evil ones that roam the earth. In the Name of Jesus, I bind and command all the powers and forces of evil to depart right now and away from us, our homes and our lands. ANd we thank You Lord Jesus for You are a faithful and compassionate God. Amen

Cleansing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, by the power of the Precious Blood of Your Son, come upon us right now. Purify us and wash us clean with the blood of Jesus from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet. Let this Blood penetrate up to the very marrow of our bones to cleanse us from any entanglement, from whatever spirit we may have come in contact with during the course of our intercession. Anoint us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and refresh our body, soul, and spirit. May the sign of Your Holy Cross drive away all evil spirits from us. In the name of the Father+ and of the Son+ and of the Holy Spirit+. Amen.

My Milo Marathon Story

For about 2 years now, my husband has been trying to convince me to join the Milo Marathon. I am not an athlete nor am I a health buff as I am the opposite. Last year, we signed up for the marathon but was not able to go since it was raining hard. This year, we decided that we participate in the Marathon whatever the weather may be. It was both our first time to join the Marathon but it was not my first time to witness one. My first Milo Marathon experience which was about 6 years ago was almost a forgettable one as I woke up late then and when I got to the event location, all the runners were in the different race paths.

I've managed to have a better Milo Marathon story since then. At around 5 o clock in the morning, we got up, got dressed and tried to reach the race area by car. There was a re-routing for vehicles on these times as runners were trying to assemble in the starting line. It took us about 30 minutes to reach Km 0 and the race just got started.

I was mesmerized by what I saw, I used to think that only ants can gather in such a number! There were a lot of participants all having their own Milo Marathon story to tell regardless of age, gender and socio-economic class. Rain poured heavily and a lot of participants did not mind the weather at all. We managed to walk first in the starting line as it was quite hard to run given the volume of race participants.

We managed to finish the 5Km race and was amazed to see that the participant of 42K already was about to go to the finish line with almost the same time as ours. My husband and I vowed to ourselves that we will make it a yearly ritual to participate in at least one Milo Marathon. If weather permits, we would bring our kids for them to experience such a glorious event while they are still young.

Walking Experience

Last Thursday, my husband informed me that Makati was traffic in its most unusual way. We have lived in this city for more than 5 years and it was his first time to encounter such traffic. Rain poured heavily the entire afternoon leaving most of the roads hardly passable due to floods and a few cars bogged down in the flooded streets.

Since I need to wake up early the following day, I was dying to go home early but was strongly advised against doing so. My husband who was supposed to drop some things at home first before picking me up took almost 2 hours to go home from the usual 10-15 minutes drive from a nearby hotel (where he had a seminar for the day) to our place. Unfortunately, all alternative roads were jammed with cars as well. I was advised to have dinner in the office and wait for the traffic to subside for him to pick me up. I offered to take the taxi home but he was hesitant about it as first. He said for me to take my dinner first while waiting for the traffic to subside. We've decided that we update each other whichever comes first - me taking the taxi or him picking me up.

Instead of having dinner, I went to the mall to hail a cab. I saw the waiting line longer than ordinary days. I tried to hail a cab in various areas in the mall to no avail. I decided to go window shopping instead. My husband updated me on the traffic condition. Unfortunately traffic going to and leaving our place worsened compared to few hours ago.

I was desperately wanting to go home and felt an initial pang of hunger as well. I don't know if it was out of hunger or out of desperation that I decided to take a walk back home as my office is just about 15 minutes drive from home. I bought a sandwich and water to go for my walking trip back home. Upon passing by the taxi waiting line, I noticed that it was short now and only 5 people were ahead of me. I decided to take the taxi instead and ate my sandwich while waiting for my taxi turn. Good thing my taxi driver was pleasant - a wonderful surprise given the traffic condition. The ride was quite smooth and fast. Only when we were a few blocks away from our place, traffic was jammed and our cab was not moving for more than 5 minutes. I knew then that this was the area where it starts to get super traffic. Remembering the traffic updates of my husband few minutes ago. I told the driver that I've decided to get down from the cab and walk towards home by foot so as not to involve him in the horrendous traffic situation. It took me less than 10 minutes to arrive at my place from the area where I got out of the cab.

It's been a few years already since I've walked "that far". I am a sedentary person and that walking experience made me realize to get into frequent walking trips these days to be physically fit and eventually lose some pounds. The walking experience made me appreciate things I normally took for granted such as my health, the accessibility and convenience of our place.

Accidental Experience

Last Wednesday morning, after my meeting with a colleague, I received a call from my aunt in Davao and told me my cousins got into an accident!

My cousins based in NY (whose mom is my dad's sister) are in their teenage years and together with their other cousin from NY decided to take a few weeks' adventure in our country all by themselves. It was their first time to travel without their parents. They stayed in their other relatives place many miles away in the metro. On the way to the airport to take a flight to our provincial hometown, they got into a vehicular accident.

I froze for a moment upon hearing the news. I was near the hospital where they were rushed. I got my bag, asked permission from my boss and told him of what happened. I told him that I might not be able to make it in succeeding meetings scheduled during the day as I would like to ensure first that my cousins are okay.

On the way to the hospital, I asked our medical coordinator to check out on my cousins in the emergency room and see what tests needs to be conducted to further evaluate their condition. Few minutes after, I got a call from her and she told me that they had a relative in the same hospital and that she might not be able to convince the ER team to do some further tests.

As I went to the ER, I noticed one of their cousin sitting in the waiting area holding Anne's bags. I asked him where my cousins were and he told me that they were ushered somewhere else. I asked for the resident doctor on their condition and also inquired if their relative working in the hospital was around. I was told that their relative was out of the country and that my cousins were sent to the Radiology area. He mentioned that Andrew had a cut in his nose while Anne had some bruises and traumatized lips.

I rushed to the radiology area and saw my cousins on wheelchairs patiently waiting for their turn. I asked them how they are feeling. They said they feel okay but upon judging on their initial looks, they were a bit traumatized. I asked them if they knew what type of xrays will be done for them and they said no. I asked those assisting in the radiology area of what tests are to be conducted. They mentioned that the boy was for nasal xray while the girl was for dental xray. I asked if there are any xrays to be done for skull as well as their backs and the nurse said none. I requested if they could take additional xrays and was advised to go back to ER to tell the resident my concerns for him to give orders on additional xrays.

I went as told. Good thing the doctor was cooperative when I relayed my concern. I requested their cousin in the waiting area be checked as well for basic xray. As we wait for the results and saw my cousins condition, I asked if they can be referred to neurologists and EENT specialist as well. I was told to wait for the skull xray result and if abnormalities occur, they will refer it to a neuro and EENT.

After the initial xray result, I was strongly advised that a neurologist is not needed since skull xray showed normal results. Our request for EENT however was granted. It was decided that Andrew needs some sutures in his nose. Their mom (my father's sister) called me up overseas and asked on how her kids were. I told her they were doing fine waiting for other tests. I omitted other details that might cause them to worry. I also asked her to get some sleep and that I will watch over her kids in the hospital. We waited for the EENT doctor we've requested for second opinion and true enough he found something from Anne that needs to be sutured as well.

While waiting for the various tests, second opinion consultation and other minor suturing procedure done with my cousins, I offered to their relatives in their dad's side that my cousins can stay in our place as it is accessible and convenient for them in case they decide to just stay home for the next day to rest. They immediately agreed and we also changed their flights to Davao for Friday.

As we went home from the hospital, I mentioned to them, that despite what happened, good thing they are still ok, was not confined to the hospital and that the incident will be counted as one of their Philippine adventure. We always see accidents in TVs but never had we imagined that we can be part of one.

I continue to pray that their bruises and wounds would heal immediately as well as take out the whatever trauma the accident brought them. I also hope that this incident will not happen especially to those visiting our country for the first time as it can be traumatizing, costly as well as lessen their time to explore our wonderful country.