Lately, I am becoming an outgoing person again to the extent I don\’t feel shy or scared anymore of other people\’s reaction, it looks like meeting new people made me become bubbly and carefree again, to look always at the bright side of things no matter how dark and dirty the water is.

When enrollment is starting I have a told a friend that she will be the one to speak up and asked questions and I will just behind her, but guess what? It is the other way around, I have even guided her the procedure of enrollment when she arrives late from previous errand and it was me who talked a lot, I have been blurted out to her, that I think getting older make you so very confident about things and interacting with people, unlike when you are young that you are so scared of the teachers and the older people around you, which she agreed and said, because we are already older now.

When we had our school ID made, while waiting for Sir L, my friend and I meet our high school teacher who hardly remember our name, she was already retired since five years ago. She blurted out, that I look very pretty today compare to what I look like when I am still a high school student, which I jokingly replied, … that there was no Kojic acid and Glutathione during those time (lol).

Anyway, when we meet Sir L, he  blurted out I never changed, it was still the talkative me (lmao). If he only knew what I had become, prior of meeting me again…

Well, a lot of things have changed since I graduated and got my degree, the university became technically progressive where you can now view your student profile and grades online, and since we are newbie and the secretary of the college, we are enrolled in, didn\’t teach us how to access our data nor give our username and passwords, we disturbed our schoolmate who is already teaching at the college to teach us on how to do it, which he obliged because there were two of us annoying him (hahaha).

It is Sunday today and it is Thanksgiving Sunday at church, the service proper started at 8:30 in the morning, there was no Sunday school service to give way for the Thanksgiving celebration, the flow of the program was a bit different than normal Sundays, there was also a part where you have to go up front to give testimonies of Thanksgiving, I went up front to say something, the last time I spoke in front of the congregation giving testimony was when I graduated from College, that was 11 years ago and I didn\’t go there on my own because my name was listed in the program, when I return to my seat Mrs. E held my hand, only few has the courage to go upfront and I think she felt happy that I took courage when every Sunday I just silently sit in front and listen to the sermon.

The scripture reading was found in Psalm 103: 1-5 with a scriptural topic of \”Bless the Lord, O My Soul\”, Pastor E talked about what are the verses all about and he said that someone called these passages as  David\’s \”Hallelujah Chorus.\” Pastor E, cut the verses into three parts as follows;  Praise the Lord and count your blessings (vv. 1-2), Life in relationship with God is whole and healthy (v. 3), and Life in relationship with God is meaningful (vv. 4-5).

In verses 1-2, he set David as an example, that instead of complaining about his burdens, he counted his blessings.  The two verses were a prayer of nothing but praise to God. There is no supplication, no request, no petition or plea in this prayer.   Verse 3, God heals our diseases, soul and physical. In verse 4, God forgives our sins, because He gives us a relationship, because He heals our soul’s diseases (Psalm 147:3), then we see that life is meaningful. This verse can be rendered, \”He keeps your life from going to waste.\” God gives His people purpose in living. He gives us meaning. He keeps our lives from going to waste. Our lives are lived with eternal purpose. All life, not lived in Christ is only a shell of what they are intended to be. This is one of the benefits of knowing God, our lives count; they have not lived in vain. They have eternal significance. This is one of the things David is praising the Lord for. In verse 5: He satisfies our  mouth, he gives us satisfaction in our old age, it says that one of the benefits of being God\’s people is that when we are old we will not have to look back upon our lives with regret. Regardless of your age, or of how many years you have walked upon the earth, God will give us satisfaction.

Well, I am writing the sermon every Sunday and when the verses or the sermon fits into my life situation I took it personally, as if God is talking to me, giving me hope, assurance, answers and etc.

When the Thanksgiving Sunday service was finished, there was lunch as expected. Every zone brings their own food, my aunt asked for the contribution the day before in our zone, the church celebrated two Thanksgiving Sunday and the Thanksgiving in March is the biggest one where the church shouldered all the expenses and slaughtered pigs.

There was a raffle event after lunch, contrary to the norms where the church bought items to be raffled and members have to buy tickets, the method used today is to bring items to be raffled and it will correspond to two tickets, bringing one item to be raffled will give you two raffle tickets, I brought two items so I got 4 raffle tickets.  I got a clothes hanger as one of the minor price, then a plastic pitcher, and a red pail and the second major price which is a pot. #feelingthankful

Yep, all of my 4 raffle tickets won a prize. While doing the raffle, I have told my cousins I am going to get a pail and as I told, I got the last pail, then my number was called for the second major prize and Mrs. E gave me five and his husband too, and guess what they got the major prize which is a flat iron. I even jokingly says, I passed my lucky vibe to them (lol).

Student life. I had a week off and two days but I spend it procrastinating (Mañana Habit), and today I am cramming on what to do first, online examination, watched informational videos, study online, do online assignments and quizzes and do some research.  I have already downloaded the videos and pdf files provided by one of our teacher through Google Classroom and what is left for me is to watch and read them but I can\’t bring myself to do it, I went directly to Quiz 1 (Basic Concepts of Assessment) without watching and reading because they doesn\’t seem related to each other, it looks like the quiz depends on your basic knowledge about assessment or our from the short introduction that was shared to us on our first class, that\’s what I think, but upon reading more before I submitted my answers, I have found out it is okay not to answer the quiz yet because we didn\’t discussed it yet (lmao).

Anyway, went to cemetery twice today for the burial of distant neighbors. One in the morning at the old cemetery and one in the afternoon at the not so new cemetery, went to two wakes last night with my family. We really didn\’t stay long, went home thirty minutes before ten o\’clock. You know what, it was so surreal that I felt a bit dizzy, it was almost a month ago when my grandmother has its funeral and burial eh.

Mornings should make us refresh and energize but I am not feeling that way three days in a row, I woke up feeling sick, tired and have puffy eyes today , I have a dream again last night and as usual I have forgot what is all about after getting up, I have remember it when I suddenly woke up but when I return to bed and sleep and then wake up again to start my day, I can\’t remember anymore what was my dream last night aside from a white shirt, people wearing white shirt, my dream the previous night was all about leaves/trees but I can\’t really remember the story, the first night was I already don\’t know, hahaha.

[Photo courtesy of Free-Photos/pixabay.com]

Well, I guess I should write down my dreams before going back to sleep so I won\’t forget it in the morning. What I hate when I dreamed at night was I felt so tired waking up that as if my soul is wandered the whole night.  I have read that \”waking up exhausted after many disturbing dreams is a common experience for many depressed people\”. LMAO, does it mean I am depressed? And does it mean, when I dreamed every night last year I was too depressed, I was just so procrastinated to write about my dreams those times because I forgot them after doing house hold chores. I have only stop dreaming early this year, which mean my mind was already at peace and my dreams started again to visit me every night, I think I need to eat more ice cream, huh?

Anyway, was feeling blue last night while washing pet dishes. I have remember my grandmother and I suddenly missed her, the thought of she is not around anymore made me sad and before tears fall down my eyes, a leaping frog hops towards me and I  knew it already, my grandmother doesn\’t want me to feel sad and blue.

It was been a few years ago when I first saw about Monasterio de Tarlac from relatives residing in the city and since then it has become my goal to see it once I went home to Tarlac. When my relatives asked us where do we want to go I literally voice out where do I want to go, so when we had a lunch at my aunt house on November 4, we didn\’t waste much time and heads up there.

The travel time to Monasterio de Tarlac was about one hour, it was my first time seeing the outskirts of the city and I realized it feels like home (Tablas). The monastery is a popular tourist destination among locals where the relic of the True Cross can be found, it is situated in top of Mount Resurrection Eco Park in the barangay of Lubigan, San Jose, Tarlac.

Since it was Sunday, there are plenty of people visiting and waiting for the mass at 3 o\’clock in the afternoon, there was no entrance fee to the monastery and you are free to walk around the park and take many pictures as you want. Getting a solo picture under the 30-foot colossal statue of Jesus Christ is pain in the ass because it looks like it was the main attraction at the monastery.

We really didn\’t take long because my aunt told my foreigner uncle that she will be home early, so after taking pictures we immediately left. Arriving back to my aunt\’s house we ate some snacks and then one of my uncles brought us home.