the perils of

I love Christmas. I love spending time with family, receiving presents, and unwrapping them on Christmas morning next to the ratty old plastic Christmas tree we've been recycling year after year since I was born. What I don't love, however, is the residual clutter than ensues. I come from a very big family, with more than 70 family members from my mom and dad's sides combined. Imagine the volume of presents that translates to! Each year, we give and receive so much stuff that by the end of the holidays, we would have enough content for an entire season of  Hoarders. As a solution to this, last year I came up with (what I thought was) a pretty genius idea. I tried gifting people with gifts they had already received but probably didn't remember because they got buried underneath all the clutter. My younger brother Jiggy received my old barely-working Gameboy Advance from the 1990s, external lamp light and all. My sister Cait got her old Pokemon-themed Tamagotchi that...

Date: December 4, 2019 Time: 6:33 pm Mood: 9 out of 10 smiley faces I'm well into two months of unemployment and I'm getting better and better at it. I hit a low point a couple of weeks back where I felt so depressed and isolated, being shackled up in a tiny condo with nobody to talk to. But lately, I'm hardly ever bored. And these lovely things from my November are the reason why. TV & Movies Broadchurch. My dad recommended this British crime-mystery drama on Netflix and I'm hooked. The show is about the picturesque coastal town of Broadchurch, where nothing truly bad ever happens, until an eleven-year-old boy is murdered and the townspeople are shookt. It's pretty much your run-of-the-mill detective drama, but what makes it so compelling is how well-built the world is. Each of the characters feel tangible, and I found it so hard to walk away from their juicy secrets. Come for the mystery, stay for David Tennant's extremely Scottish accent...

Here's something you don't often hear from people who have passed the boards: unemployment sucks.  I bum around the condo for most of the day. I only ever leave to forage for meals, and some days I just can't be bothered. "Moonlighting" gigs, or temporary doctor jobs, are abundant, but they often get snatched up very easily.  Fortunately, I managed to snag a job last month with the clinic at Ateneo de Manila, through a friend who needed someone to fill in for her. Working at the Loyola Schools was a breeze. It's literally right across where I live, there aren't that many patients, and when there are, they're all benign. It was like coming home. I used to cross this bridge every morning in college. In my excitement, I arrived an hour early. Clinic was closed. The Ateneo campus is just as beautiful as I remember. There's now a self-care room on the second floor the Social Sciences building where you can take naps and rest...

Hi! After much procrastination I've finally gotten around to doing this: writing about the med boards. In this post I'll share with you tips and tricks that worked for me, and what not to do when reviewing for the boards. But first, a little backgrounder on me is probably necessary. I think that whenever you ask for advice from someone, you always have to know where they're coming from so that you know how to temper the advice you receive. So here's a couple of things I want you to know about me you might want to know about me: I am a minimalist. I like to find out the simplest way to do things, and I do that. I read just the main handouts. I buy just one pen. I do the bare minimum, and that's never failed me! I am a willful crammer. During my lectures I would space out, doodle, or browse Facebook. And I paid the price for my laid-back attitude by having to cram everything the night before an exam. Yup, it's a terrible habit, and I probably caused...

Date: idk anymore Time: who cares Mood: 5 out of 10 smiley faces I'm in between jobs right now. I've sent in my application to Doctors to the Barrios, but I probably won't hear from them until a month from now. So it's just a waiting game right now.  Been trying to snag a moonlighting gig but they go so quickly, what with all the new doctors also scrambling to get a job. The really juicy, high-paying ones are in places other than Metro Manila. It's making me slightly rethink my decision to stay in Manila versus moving back in with my parents in Cagayan de Oro. Then I remember those horrible bedbug bites I got from my previous two visits home and I just feel so relieved to be here. I may be unemployed and bored but at least I don't feel constantly itchy. I've moved out of Ortigas and back to Katipunan Avenue. I deeply loved Ortigas. And every day that we were together, I showed my appreciation for it. I spent many hours walking its clean, pav...

Date: October 20, 2019 - a day after oath taking Time: 12:09 AM Mood: 2 out of 10 smiley faces Today was a big day.  In the morning we had our oath taking, which is a prerequisite to the practice of medicine (i.e. you're not allowed to practice medicine until you say your oaths). I'm still bitter about the fact that we had to pay 700 bucks to go to this thing, even though attendance is legally required to practice med.  Oath taking happens in three batches, determined alphabetically. Fortunately for me, because my last name starts with a C, I was sorted into the first batch and the whole thing was done by 11 noon.  Being a formal event, people really dressed up in suits and long gowns. For lack of any formalwear myself, I was fortunate enough to borrow my aunt's custom-made lacy pink dress. Unfortunately for me, I'm still packing some weight from the boards review and I could feel my tummy rolls always on the brink of ripping apart the dress fabric....

Congratulations to us on our productive day. Today we not only conquered the trifecta of adult-y documents (SSS, Pag-ibig, and PhilHealth), but we also managed to box up most of our stuff for moving out, watched Joker on our own, ate 3 complete(ish) meals, and took one bath. Truly a remarkable achievement. To top it all off, not a single drop of coffee was had. Truly remarkable! Strange how despite the many grown-up things I managed to do, I felt more like a child today than on any other day. I woke up late. Skipped breakfast. Had chicken nuggets for lunch. Dropped by the pharmacy and decided on a whim to color my hair, then promptly chickened out and returned the Liese in Chestnut Brown back to its shelf. I did however buy myself a pack of potato chips and a can of root beer, which provided me great comfort during particularly sad scenes during the movie. I don't normally drink root beer but I couldn't resist the novelty of it.  Unemployment suits me well. Tomor...