daily dishonesty

Remember here when I told you I have a hard time lying and that this one lie (above) I had to admit I actually do tell?

Well, I discovered this blog that very prettily (via her hand-drawn typography) features the lies we tell every day. And it made me realize there are a few lies I do tell myself...

I just cannot give up junk food & candy.

Oh, they won't. Because I am really never getting on that treadmill. Remember these yoga mats?

But yes, these actually do.

Oh, and the quintessential lie of a crammer...  

Nah, I'll do it at the very last minute. :)

But this, I never lie about. I know I will have more than one glass. Okay, possibly a whole bottle.

Neither do I tell this lie.

I guess I'm an unapologetic drinker. Haha!

It is true that I find it really difficult to lie. These next two are pretty common lies that I really cannot bring myself to tell.

I'm always honest about this. I say "I just READ your text".

I struggle especially with this next one. 

I'd rather text where, on the road, I am so the person I'm meeting can estimate what time I will arrive rather than commit to 5 minutes when I'm not sure I can make it on time.

But there still are lies I have no trouble telling myself. This one I actually believe. 

I actually believe that I lose weight from shopping all day! Yes, I've lied so well to myself about it that I don't realize it's a lie anymore. Turns out, I am guilty of some daily dishonesty. 

Photos from dailydishonesty.

old wives' tales

There are some old wives' tales - "mga pamahiin ng matatanda" - that I realize I instinctively believe for a few seconds until my good sense takes over and reminds me there is no truth to them. Like when I saw this photo of a child sitting on the hood of a car... My automatic reaction was that she'd get "balisawsaw", that peeing problem my Lola [grandmother] said I'd get from sitting on hot things like a car's hood or concrete stairs that have turned hot under the sun. I feel the same about itchy palms. When my palms get itchy, my automatic reaction is to put my hands inside my pockets... until I realize I can't suddenly turn rich & lucky by merely putting itchy palms in my pockets. I still believe that touching your eyes after touching a butterfly can make you blind. Gosh, is there any truth to this? Or is this also an old wives' tale?

I have to admit though that there are myths I wish my kids still believed. Particularly those old rituals on New Year's Eve. When I look back on New Year's Eves of my childhood, I remember how fun it was to jump 3 times with my brother & cousins when the clock struck 12. I also remember a NYE when we crawled around - underneath our dining table - with huge luggages believing that ritual would assure us of travel that year. 

Noah is quite a realist, reluctant to jump this past NYE because he found it ludicrous that jumping on NYE would make him tall. To some extent, I agree that we shouldn't propagate these myths (Just last week, a co-parent at Noah's school said Noah was "handsome. Pwera, usog.", licked her thumb and reached out to touch Noah with it. Thankfully, another co-parent stopped her, saying, "Hindi totoo yang usog-usog na yan!". Thank God, coz I was too shocked to keep her saliva from touching my son!). But it's still a shame because the NYE rituals we did when we were kids were quite fun to do. And I can't help wish that Noah embraced the fun of it more (vs. half-heartedly jumping). After all, while they're really old wives' tales, they still make for such happy, nostalgic stories of childhood. 

Photo from annnniegirl. 

Today, I am unloving...

... the hubby's and my poor family vake planning skills. The last time we went on a family vake to the States was during the Christmas season. We scheduled our theme park trip between Christmas & New Year and it was our worst decision ever! Waiting time at the line of each attraction was at least an hour, 15 minutes. And the park streets were so filled with people that we couldn't scoot to each attraction. We had to inch our way slowly with the throng. 

We ended up splitting up just so the kids could experience as many rides as they could. Noah and I rode It's A Small World while Isabella and the hubby rode the Matterhorn.

Photo ops were close to impossible - unless we wanted a photo of the attraction with a mob of people we didn't know. So our best one of Cinderella's castle was one that skimmed the top of the crowd's heads and captured just the upper part of the castle.

I would have thought we'd learned our lesson after that awful trip to Disneyland. But we didn't. We recently booked a family trip to the States in April and turns out, our days in Disneyland & Universal Studios will fall during Spring Break. Aaaagggghhhh!

We're hoping it won't be as bad as our December trip. Maybe we can go around the park together as a family this time. But I expect we will again end up with photos of just the top of the castle.

With our vake planning skills, maybe the only way we can get a photo of the bottom part of the castle is if we build one ourselves. :(

Sigh. Today, I am unloving... our poor family vacation scheduling skills. 

Photos are my own and from annnniegirl.

Click here for another theme park wish of mine.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

Not knowing if it should be Happy Heart's Day or Happy Hearts Day or Happy Hearts' Day would normally bother me. I am sure it's Valentine's Day because Valentine is a person and it's his day, so it's an apostrophe-S. I struggle too on Mother's Day. Most write it with an apostrophe-S, like it's the day of just one mother. But isn't it a day for all mothers? So shouldn't it be Mothers' Day: S-apostrophe?

But this Valentine's Day, I let it go. Last year, my post read Happy Heart's Day. This year, it reads Happy Hearts Day. I don't know which one is correct or if it should even be written with an S-apostrophe, but I've learned to stop obsessing about it. It doesn't matter what the right way of writing it is. Maybe I'm not as neurotic as I thought I was. :)

Yes, it's okay. It's okay to NOT know where the apostrophe should be, or even if it's needed at all. Hmmm... But no, "its okay" is NOT okay. The absence of an apostrophe on an "it is" contraction is NOT okay. Oh, and notice how I have trouble typing just OK and make it a point to type the whole word? Gah! Just when I thought I was no longer neurotic... Oops, maybe my neurosis is showing after all...

Photo from acupofjo.

Click here for previous posts from the Oops, My Neurosis Is Showing... series.

rambling about getting old & not feeling it

I celebrated my birthday 2 weeks ago. Let's just say that I've gotten to that age when I don't automatically remember my age when asked (and I mean asked on a form to be filled out rather than, God forbid, someone actually asking me out loud) how old I am.

Seriously. I have to calculate it just like I do when asked how old my mom or grandmother are: 2013 minus year of birth...

And no, it isn't memory loss from old age yet because I remember my kids' ages perfectly well.

In a few years, I will go back to automatically remembering my age because I will have reached a milestone age. Ironically, I think it is nearing that milestone age that makes me forget my age today. :P

The funny thing is I don't feel old (until I have conversations with friends about cholesterol & SGPT levels). But seriously, I feel like I just graduated from highschool or college. Maybe because I've kept my highschool & college friends and still see them at least once a week. Of course, I realize I didn't just come out of school when I get to talk to the trainees in my old office who actually just graduated (who, by the way, described Leonardo DiCaprio as "middle-aged" in a recent Pinoy Henyo game! Horror!).

But when I paid for our realty tax last month (I used to ask my mom to do this for me), I left city hall like a kid bursting with pride having accomplished something so grown-up. Strange, because I am actually grown up.

I guess age is really relative. And maybe the point of birthdays is not to make me feel old, but to let me celebrate my youth (even in my late 30's). After all, on my birthday, I am younger than I'll ever be.

Photos from acupofjo & lushlee.

my birthday wish

*I wrote this post before my birthday but wasn't able to publish it on time.

My birthday wish... is to sleep in even for just 1 day. I just want to wake up on my own, when I've had a full REM. Not because of my alarm blaring in my ear.

Weekdays, I wake up at 520 to wake Noah up and nag (yes, nag!) him to go through the morning's necessary activities like eat breakfast, eat breakfast fast, eat breakfast faster, dress up, brush teeth, etc.

Saturdays are the same because Isabella has track practice at 730am and Noah has basketball school.

Sundays, we have Sunday School which isn't so early but Noah wakes me up early (why does he wake up early on his own on the one day he doesn't need to?!). I eventually get to go back to sleep. But that just gives me a few minutes before my alarm goes off to remind me to get ready for church.

So I just really want to sleep in...

These days, it would be the best birthday gift! :)

P.S. I was down with a really bad flu during my birthday week. And I got to sleep a lot. I felt horrible, but I did get my wish to sleep. Birthday Fairy, boy, you are one mischievous little imp! Sigh... I guess it's true you should be careful what you wish for.

Don't worry, I had a fun 5-day-long belated birthday celebration after I got well. I had 1 breakfast, 2 lunches & 3 birthday dinners with dear friends - with 2 of those birthday dates at Cafe 1771 so I got to have 2 slices of my fave coffee pie from here. :)

Photo from heritage.