12/31/2023 ‒
The last year (and a half)

I articulated this for myself at some point. Horoscopes aren't there to tell you exactly what will happen.

I suppose I really was just remembering it from Zenaida Seva. "Hindi hawak ng bituin ang ating kapalaran. Gabay lamang sila." Otherwise, everybody born around the same time as me would have exactly the same circumstances, and that's more fodder for dystopian sci-fi, I think.

It's not that I didn't believe in horoscopes before. It's just that I wasn't really that exposed to it. Didn't give it that much attention, even if I read newspapers back to back as a kid. Only in the last decade or so, when I met someone who did psychic readings for a living, did it all start clicking with me. And then, in the last year and a half, when I began reading them more deliberately, did I end up understanding... somewhat.

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12/29/2023 ‒
Touch therapy yourself

One of the downsides of living alone is that, when you get sick, you do have to fend for yourself.

Nothing serious, thankfully. I imagine if I had, say, COVID-19 now, the logistics would've been extra difficult. When I knew I was going to catch that bug - it was during that three-month period; she had it first, and it was a matter of time - it was I who went out to do the groceries and sort the laundry as soon as we confirmed it. I was masked, of course. I'm not that reckless. But I knew that if we were going to be stuck here at home for a week, we might as well have no piles of laundry and no unnecessary reliance on food delivery.

But there is the catch. I had to do the cooking. Now, I have to do the cooking. Sure, this is a different bug. That flu bug, or whatever that is, that's been going around the past few weeks, I assume. All I've had is a cold, which almost always transitions into a dry cough. I'm in that stage as I write this, and I'm certain it means I'm on the mend.

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12/27/2023 ‒
Because you're neurodivergent

While I slept last night, my cat chewed through my Apple earphones.

You can't imagine how much this distresses me.

I mean, I was set up to do something different this morning. I wouldn't eat breakfast at home; instead I would go to the Starbucks next door, maybe stay there for an hour just getting lost in my thoughts elsewhere. My earphones would come in handy. I would stream a radio station - I hadn't decided - and have my mind travel elsewhere while I stared out the window.

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12/24/2023 ‒
When did you plan on checking in here?

Yeah, well, first of all, I've been busy. I had a guest over. Just a few days, but I had to reactivate the muscles that have laid dormant since I started living alone, which took some getting used to.

Also, I've been writing elsewhere. I don't know. That seems more fulfilling? Although it does risk boxing me into certain genres. I mean, I've done what passes as cultural criticism before, but it's also a muscle that needs to be reactivated again.

Also, as always, I have been writing a lot of things in my head for this blog. At some point - inspired by my recent trips to Singapore and Hong Kong - I found myself with several concepts in my head, and of course those are still concepts. I thought I had a spurt of inspiration. Well, true, but I then had a spurt of procrastination. You know the drill.

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