DECEMBER— my favorite month (and? but?) also the month that gives me the most stress. Christmas should be about love and joy and giving but for the past few years it just means GASTOS to me. Add to the fact that it’s also my birth month. My stress levels have doubled because I’m turning 30 this year and I still don’t have a party plan. Arrrrgggghhh! What is birthday blues?

ANYWAY. I trust that things will fall into place and God will not allow me to celebrate my special day and His special day in agony. 😀 In fact, He gave me a good end of November and a great start of December.

What what? Here here. :p

Yesterday, after my shift in our Career Cafe 2 Go booth in Trinoma (Eperformax, Level 3… go visit!) I went to UST. One of my closest boybud’s Tita has been sick and we visited her in the UST Hospital. At first I didn’t want to go because hospitals freak me out but for me and my family, there’s something special about the UST hospital.

You see, the last time I was there was when I was 6 or 7 years old. My mom was sick. She had benign cancer (one teeny bit away from becoming malignant) and the trips there when I was young were, of course, worrisome. Being there after 20something years just made me realize that there really is hope and that I love the UST hospital because my mom was cured! Without the very able UST doctors, I wouldn’t have my mommy now! :,) Therefore, I trust that they will also make my friend’s Tita okay. Well, with the help of St. Thomas, I guess. :p Please God, make my friend’s Tita healthy!!! Please, please, please!!! :,)

After the hospital visit, we went to Almer’s in Dapitan.

How I missed their sisig! When I was still teaching in University of Perpetual Help, my students would always bring me to Almer’s and we’d go back to school still smelling like sisig! Hehe! Asenso na ang Almer’s. Their gravy is now in aluminum pitchers and they have new stuff on their menu, like JERK CHICKEN.

I swear, I know a jerk who loves chicken. This is what I call douchebag food. Harhar! But wait. Let’s rewind a bit. Gravy, you ask? Yes, in Almer’s, chili-toyomansi is not the cool thing to have with sisig. It’s gravy. The more, the better. Drown your sisig in gravy. Drown your rice in gravy. Go. I dare you. You will like it. Joko did! 😀

I actually drowned my rice in lomi. Good lomi. It’s just 55php. The sisig’s 50php, I think. Sorry, I didn’t have time to take a good picture of the sisig because we were too hungry and too excited to eat. We had to go back to the campus to catch the UST Symphony Orchestra.

But we didn’t leave without having dessert first. Shempre kelangan sosyal na sosyal rin ang dessert para lumevel sa Almer’s dinner namin! Mwehehehehe! Ano pa nga ba? Eh di chocnut! 😀 Only 1.50php at the nearby sari-sari store!

After our awesome dinner in Dapitan, we headed back to Uste. To the Santisimo Rosario Parish. There, we witnessed a good number of the university’s Conservatory of Music alumni sing English and Tagalog Christmas songs. My favorite (and the crowd’s, too) was when they got a little boy to sing with them. And the little boy reminded me of Happy Feet 2’s Eric! Super cute and super talented kid! Btw, I will blog about Happy Feet tomorrow or next week. 😀 Going back,  another crowd favorite was the number of the soprano, Miss Rachelle Gerodias. She’s a-maaaa-ziiiiing!

After the concert, we went to our friend’s house for a couple of bottles of Tanduay Ice and SML, sugar-free cafe latte ice cream and kwento. We talked about the friendzone, costumes for the bookclub and company Christmas parties, life, sickness, gratitude, family solidarity, love, hearts in a jar, douchebag exes and a whole lot more. We finished around 12:30am, December 1. I’m grateful that I was able to welcome December in the company of great friends in a 1920’s house in a city far from home. Not how I expected this month would start, but grateful that it’s how it came to be.

And before I end this entry, I want to share my like a boss pose at my friend’s ancestral house’s sala.

Happy December, everyone! Eat great food, love your family and friends, sing Christmas carols and continue to hope and pray for the best! 🙂

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listening to: Kampana ng Simbahan