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| Photo by Dan Kiefer on Unsplash |
It’s just 5 days to go till Christmas and seriously, I’m feeling so lazy to do anything work-related. I’m actually more in the mood to blog today, which is quite rare, so let me just jump right at it before I lose it.
It was last November 5 when Malacañang de-escalated Metro Manila to Alert Level 2 after a decreasing number of COVID cases. This meant that many restrictions are loosened and all ages are now allowed to go out.
COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila continue to decline averaging to about just less than 100 cases a day. In Pasay, we’ve been logging zero cases for days now. There is no local transmission of the Omicron variant yet although two confirmed cases were found, both of which are incoming travelers. Nevertheless, it’s easy to say that the COVID situation these days is so much better than in the past few months.
My nephews are out and about again. We have visited malls, arcades, museums and play places. I can’t blame them when I see them having so much fun. They’ve been cooped inside for months and kids had to be kids. This pandemic has stolen so much from them. So whenever I can, I bring them out just so they can enjoy themselves. That is, even if some people do not agree with that as they say the threat is still there.
BTW, I had my COVID booster shot last Friday. No after-effects felt which was great.
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I turned 45 last December 6 and celebrated it with family. I booked a hotel staycation earlier but had to cancel when I was informed that the hotel can only allow a maximum of 3 people in a room including children regardless of age. Visitors are also not allowed. So no, thank you. I wouldn’t want to spend my birthday babysitting my two nephews and not being with the rest of my family.
Turning 45 felt like being punched in the gut. I’ve been feeling it way before but this time, it’s official: I’m old. In five more years, I’d be a Golden Girl and hopefully by then I won’t look like a “Golden Girl” really (think of Bea Arthur or Rue McClanahan) but more of a JLo or a Monica Bellucci because, why not?
I don’t have any regrets, or maybe I do, but it’s more on some of the choices I made in the past. But getting old and being where I am now? There’s nothing to regret about that because I believe years are wisdom and I turned out fine. I came very far from the person I was before and I know I changed for the better.
It was okay. My birthday this year is still way better than last year. Although I would have wanted to celebrate it the same way as my 40th birthday—which was my happiest birthday in recent memory—with more parties, meetups, and get-togethers for days on end.
So my family and I had a lunch buffet at Vikings - MOA, with everyone except for Danna who can’t go on leave that day. We enjoyed it very much even if the buffet place was jampacked considering it’s a weekday.
It seems many people are just trying to get on with their lives before we have another COVID surge and restrictions are put in place yet again. Many more people are going out. Just yesterday—the last weekend before Christmas, the crowd inside Glorietta is the same how it was pre-pandemic. There is no more social distancing observed inside public transportation like jeepneys. Taxi drivers are again declining passengers—a far cry to how they were during ECQ when they will stop in front of you and beg for you to ride. The past few days, I have encountered some erring drivers.
It seems everything went back to normal that if it weren’t for the face masks, I would forget we’re still in a pandemic.
Also, after many years, I was able to attend Simbang Gabi. For those who are not familiar what that is, Simbang Gabi is a nine-day mass held daily from December 16 to 24 as a sort of anticipation for Christmas. Masses are held anytime between 3 AM - 5AM (Our local parish has two masses at 4:00 AM and 5:30 AM).
I went to attend Day 1 of Simbang Gabi at 4:00 AM. This is the first time in a very long while so it gave me all sorts of feels. I realized I have not attended a Simbang Gabi in almost two decades and going back to the parish where I served for most of my childhood to early adulthood brought back a lot of memories.
It might be difficult for me now, but I used to complete the nine days when I was a lot younger. I remember how our choir would go on caroling all night (it’s our only way to raise funds), sleep for an hour or two, then attend the Simbang Gabi that very morning. Thinking of it now, I wonder how I have the energy to do that every day from December 16 until Christmas Eve when I can barely keep my head up during last Thursday’s morning mass.
I wasn’t planning to complete the nine-day novena as I work so early at 7 AM, but I tried to at least be able to be there on the first day (and hopefully on the last day) to offer thanksgiving to the Lord for all the blessings and to also pray for my mom and my family's good health — which happens to be my only wish this Christmas.
So that’s it so far. I have stories in-betweens but maybe I’ll tell them next time when I’m not as scatterbrained.
