Jasmine. » Housekeeping

Too much to do with too little time.

joybeth — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:33:47 +0000

Once again, I am faced with juggling several tasks and the clock is ticking super fast. When you are in the same shoe, I bet you’ll pray for clones to do all the other responsibilities and not end up giving half-baked expectations (in any of them).

Saturdays and Sundays are supposed to be fun days, errr, family days. Not for me though. More often than not - weekends are still work days. For instance, right at this moment as I am ranting on my blog, I am fixing all the laundries from yesterday, while simultaneously writing my take-home-from-the-office assignments, cooking, and de-cluttering.

It’s too early to complain, so I will not consider this a “complaint” but more of a therapy. I cant help but laugh at myself. It’s proven, blogging is less expensive than going to a psychiatrist!

Taking Off.

joybeth — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:31:33 +0000

Blank, empty, white, clean space.

I’ve been straining my eyes staring endlessly at my monitor, wondering how to start converting a 500-paged report into a single page file. Overnight.

For a while, I thought ‘relaxing” would do the trick. You know the drill: clear the mind, be still, be positive, etcetera etcetera. It’s not working for me though. Re-reading and going through the file makes it all the more complicated.

How do you perform such a “miracle” without losing the essence of the entire report? What are the odds that what you will produce will still be able to cover all the essentials of the document? I am speaking here of a year’s worth of accomplishments – replete with figures and numbers, and hordes of technical/scientific terms. The paper is literally pregnant with all that.

How about employing some “black magic”, I told my officemate, if only to comply with the requirement. Times like this make me want to double-take and question whether I am staying at the right place, at the right time.

When situations similar to this crop up, I imagine how easily I brushed through my work as program director for scholarship in one private company, or how fulfilling it was working in the academe. I think about the excitement of my NGO stint as a fresh graduate. Is it worth my sanity now to be worrying on a task so simple yet so daunting?

Then again, aren’t challenges supposed to enrich us? The universe is trying to make a point, and a very good one. It might be trying to instill how “immediacy” can create a state-of-the-art learning environment. You get all the benefits akin to a traditional workshop setting, like you’re being subjected to a schedule that must work for you!

My respite? Crafting a compelling piece or article. Funny, but somehow I get to manage my own life that way. By taking a “detour” in order to prevent stagnancy. You don’t stand still when you’re stuck in a rut lest you become vulnerable to extinction. You get a diversion and do something else.

When you can’t take off with a certain task, celebrate brilliance and creativity!

There. I am so magulo. It shows.

Flowers from Nanay’s Garden.

joybeth — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:04:57 +0000

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Hamatreya”

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant! ~Edward Abbey

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Afternoon on a Hill”

The caterpillar who will never ever become a butterfly.

joybeth — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:09:06 +0000

Good or bad, there will always be people we will encounter who will leave an indelible mark in our lives. They are permanent fixtures that had either scarred, burned or made us blissful at one point or another. Somehow, it reminds me that there are no mistakes in the way we live our lives, only lessons to be learned. The harder you gained those lessons, the better, I think? Makes you tougher as an individual.

Some may have left really painful wounds that despite healing, may seem fresh still. And anyway you avoid thinking about it, makes it a futile act. The memory lingers – imprisoning you under its terrifying claws. At times, you think you’ve finally let go of those unnecessary baggage. Only to find out they have resurrected. Like ghosts unable to find their final resting place. I wish I did not learn about a sad truth. I wish people were more truthful to themselves. And I wouldn’t have hurled those ugly words, only maggots can take.

There is a huge difference between being friendly and being deceptive. You will never be a “butterfly” (like you think you’re becoming) because to me, you are perennially nothing but a creature possesing the itch of a thousand and one catterpillar. Guess what, there is such a thing called karma.

I remember what you did in 2004.

And I remember what you did in December of 2010.

Most of all, my brain is intact when I read all the transcripts of what you did in April this year. Like somebody needs some serious kick in the ass!?

You have the temerity to deny? Burn in hell. You deserve it. And hey….just when the caterpillar thought the world was over? Its entire population got decimated. Good riddance!

Accidentally “sporty”.

joybeth — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:34:03 +0000

Fresh from last night’s laughing spree (thanks to Vice Ganda and Anne Curtis) and from playing badminton the whole weekend – I felt energized coming to work today. Miraculous, even. Imagine, I came to my office super early. I was in my desk exactly fifteen minutes before the flag ceremony began! Now, if only I can sustain that. =)

This is quite typical of a Monday, though: brushing through previous week’s unfinished tasks, following-up deadlines and requirements, updating calendar of activities, etcetera etcetera.

I suddenly miss all the activities during the long weekend. In just a matter days, I was able to visit my folks in Bicol. And during the Nueva Ecija day, which was also declared a non-working holiday, I and my husband went through Campo Cuatro, doing brisk walks and playing badminton as an exercise. Great way to bond.

Suddenly, I started loving outdoor activities. My entire life, I didn’t play any sports because my lungs are weak. Doctors advised me not to participate in any physical activity. I don’t even know how I passed all my PE courses then. But the way things are turning now, aha, I discovered I can also do a bit of it. I found out I can also strike a shuttlecock with a racquet. Yahooo. That, even though hubby said, 1/3 of the game was spent on picking the shuttlecock from everywhere. Another 1/3 of it devoted to freeing the shuttlecock from the racquet (yo, we used cheap racquets, that’s why!).

But it’s all worth it. Actually, I am looking forward to this weekend’s tournament.