The Upper Blog: April 2023

4/30/2023 ‒

There is a day for everything. Sure, most of it are marketing devices more than actual commemorations, but, I suppose, better something than nothing.

Today, apparently, is National Pet Parents Day.

National. It's funny how these things are almost certainly of an American origin, but we take them on anyway because, again, marketing devices. And while I am a first-time pet parents - I've been doing this for almost two years but, still, it is my first time - I'm not calling to be celebrated. I'm not looking to shout from the rooftops, proving somehow that I am an awesome person. It's too much of a faff.

4/29/2023 ‒

Does it have something to do with my heart?

"Ang galing," my cardiologist said, noting that I had gained weight.

She had always been concerned about my weight loss. I found it weird. I always thought me losing weight was a good thing, especially when I learned that my BMI was finally within what's acceptable for my height. Was it sticking to chicken breast? Likely.

But I know my diet had shifted. Not necessarily in a bad way, though. I had the freedom to cook what I want, so I was finally having the stuff I long wanted to cook but couldn't because the other person in the flat didn't like it. Maybe I overdid it. Chicken breasts became chicken thighs. I have nothing against the former, but you will easily overcook it, and it's not a good idea if you're making adobo, for example. The parts with the bones in - they're just better for braising and stewing.

4/27/2023 ‒

The ways we delude ourselves

"It's not your loss," they often say. "It's their loss."

Just another way to delude yourself that things are actually going smoothly.

It's always been a weird thing to say. Something just ended, and you didn't lose anything? It's even weirder when the end arrives suddenly and you're the one at the receiving end. In the process you have a keener sense of what you had, and what you can no longer have, and what you might be able to get again, and what you ultimately can no longer have. All of that, bouncing in your head.

4/16/2023 ‒

Empty room

I really was going to write something here, but then I realized something.

I used to write here a lot. You might remember that. But at some point, I slowed down. I attributed that to many things, but one reason I didn't realize was a factor until today was that, especially in the last few years, I had someone to tell my stupid anecdotes to. The time I would've spent putting my thoughts together in paragraphs ended up being time I spent just saying things until I end up releasing and forgetting.

Now, well, I don't. So it should mean I'd have the energy to write things down, but, well, no. Work and everything else aside, I am left with the feeling that if I do write these stories down, nobody ultimately cares about them, so I just let them linger until I end up releasing and forgetting.

Niko Batallones writes The Upper Blog. Subscribe to this blog, follow him on Twitter, or check out Nicksy Once Monthly, his monthly (for now) music newsletter.

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Some photographs have been edited using post-production curves from Shalla Yu.

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