inklingfair I began this post over a month ago. What with the frantic cramming of the campaign season, the post-elections heartbreak, the scrambling to get up and get things done, this got lost until today, when Ribi messaged me out of the blue with a screenshot of an old blog entry she wrote, quoting Walt Whitman: “Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost… Ample are time and space” and here I am, monster voice and all. Winded by half an hour of sitting up, immune system held together by spit and a prayer. Not COVID, at least what the rapid antigen tests would lead me to believe.
Despite the aforementioned heartbreak, I’m happy that this year (unlike in 2016) I can say that I didn’t take the sure loss sitting down, with DAKILA, the PHINMA Ed students, with Heroes Hub, and the palengke tours. You bet I’m not going to take anything else sitting down for the next six years. A couple of weekends ago I was in Cebu with DAKILA for the final Heroes Hub sessions, and it was cathartic, to say the least. We’re not alone. As Chanyeol and Sehun would say, we young, we don’t stay down. (And I’m delighted to say I’m not quoting them ironically; apparently my k-pop musical taste is less rap/EDM-forward and more R&B/dance-pop, exactly right for EXO. They have taken over my playlists and watchlists, so help me.)
A few things happened since the beginning of this year that broke my once-a-month posting streak: I started daily morning journals and we moved house. I’ve started biking to work once a week, though lately Josh has had to pick me up going home because I’m not confident about biking in the afternoon rains.
Amy’s already gone through the first four Narnia books, The Secret Garden, Island of the Blue Dolphins, A Wrinkle in Time, and Harriet the Spy, and I think it’s time for another book haul soon. Thank goodness for secondhand book shops. Her school is now offering a hybrid learning option for the next school year. Her vaccine stats are stellar (including the two Pfizer doses for kids), but I’m already bracing myself for the bugs she might catch in school and bring home.
So far no one’s gotten sick the past few months except for Paul and his family, and Ate Nita who tested COVID-positive the first week of January but was able to recover at home. And this virus, of course. Daniel caught it first on Sunday, and we rushed him to the Baguio Notre Dame ER because he nearly broke 40 degrees and was alarmingly lethargic. Apparently he needed a much higher Paracetamol dose because of his weight (he’s taller and chunkier than most babies his age). Amy began coughing next, then me, and today Josh has a sore throat too. I’ve had two negative antigen tests, but apparently they’re next to meaningless now, so we’re staying home, mostly confined to our rooms. Hopefully no one else catches anything.
Josh just asked me if I wanted to have dinner, and I don’t really have an appetite, but anything to beat this bug, I guess. The backyard durian’s been dropping fruits, too, and the chilled one we had for dessert at lunch was just like ice cream. Here’s to waking up hale and bright soon, to “grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.“
