Bloodletting

Our baby cousin was born prematurely and had to be kept in the NICU. The first of two times he required plasma transfusion, my aunt requested me to be a donor. They had promptly obtained a bag of frozen plasma from the Philippine National Red Cross already but PNRC requires 3 replacements for every bag availed.

I made sure to sleep early the night before and fasted until the procedure was done (although I’m not sure if it was really necessary).

At the local Red Cross office, the logbook shows that I was the first donor for the day. Foremost, my physical data (weight, height, and BP) were recorded. Then I was asked to fill-up a checklist with questions such as history of diseases and sexual activities *very interesting*. The MedTech even attempted to go over the entire form repeating the questions to me. Fortunately, she realized that I’m not in the influence of alcohol or drugs to not understand what I inscribed on the form.

She then prepared a blue solution which I later learned was for blood-typing although she had asked me this thrice already.

All this time I thought that “cc” is the unit concerned when talking about phlebotomy hence I was shocked when Lira (the RMT) stuck to my membership card and donor’s record, identical labels that read: “Blood Type O+.450mL”. “That’s almost a bottle of coke, isn’t it”, I exclaimed. Lira assured me that many had survived that.

Finally, I was led to a room which I’m not certain if it’s appropriate to call an “extraction room” just as I’m uncertain if the chair I was asked to lie on is a chair or a bed. Lira took a picture of me before the procedure (which is another surprising thing although I learned that this is an SOP; maybe at least for them). She tied a rubber band on my arm, searched for pulse, rubbed alcohol, pricked, and released the band. Dark red liquid flowed through the tube and started filling the bag placed on a lower chair. I suppose that the reason for placing the bag at a lower surface other than facilitating the flow of blood was to avoid hemaphobics from seeing it. I was given a soft rubber ball to squeeze lightly. I filled the bag in more or less 10 minutes and Lira checked with a spring balance that I gave the necessary volume.

As soon the needle was removed, Lira asked if I felt dizzy; I didn’t. After 10 minutes, she gave me the go to stand up and leave if I want to but again inquired if I felt dizzy. She said that it was good that I had conditioned myself for donating blood because I may feel dizzy if I haven’t. Thankfully, I reached home safely although a little pale.


POSTSCRIPT
Last August 25, we lost the baby when he was a week shy of being a month old. His tender body and fragile condition surrendered to the intensive treatments he underwent. Despite the sadness, we’re somehow happy that our little angel is finally home.

Party, Evolved!

Good enough it didn’t take long for me to compensate for lost sleep from Friday night’s event; it was our school’s annual acquaintance party and induction of officers.

Days prior the event, my co-officers in the Student Council and I had been stressed from preparations including sending out letters, negotiating for lights, sounds, catering and other services, ticket production and distribution, and most stressful of which was taking instructions from both the real concerned and the self-appointed-concerned people. The programme underwent major revisions. Due to some unavoidable circumstances, I had to function as a one-man committee for the invitation and certificates which I had completed and released only the night before the party.

As expected in such events, work does not end in the preparations. There were a lot of matters needing attention that popped up. Being the emcees, it was our job to keep the program interesting as possible especially that its early part has those messages and oath taking ceremonies which really are not what the students are after. We were also like staffs in a department store's information desk paging wanted fellows and making announcements for lost belongings. The tough thing is that we had to be so upbeat yet we had to make sure that we do not rob the serious parts of its solemnity.

I really can’t understand why the school always gets me to emcee. Maybe because they get my services for free *sigh*. Honestly, I’m getting tired of being the host although I get to work with a different partner each time.

Good enough our 1,000+ audience that night are cooperative enough to clap and laugh on our antics or else I’ll be quitting that very moment!

On the other hand, I have to tell about the interesting highlight of the event which was the Dance Evolution Competition. Students of our colleges grooved to the beats of the eras. Some took off with Philippine folk dances while others started from the 70’s. They were to choose their songs as long as the whole presentation does not exceed 8 minutes. The impressive thing I must say is that despite the short time to practice (prelim exams were just the week before), the presentations turned out spectacular! I even have this impression that since all are equally great dancers, judging might have just been on mastery, and props and costumes.

Of eight competing groups, the Engineering dancers dominated the floor reclaiming the championship from the Hotel and Restaurant Management group which came in second this year. I’m trying to find someone with a video and have it uploaded in YouTube.

Despite the exhausting preparations and annoying incidents, the party still turned out successful. Although quite less organized than last year’s, I find it more fun this time especially the disco party with great lights and music spun by local jock Cyber Bugs who by the way complimented my hosting and said that with very minimal training, I’ll be ready to be on-air should I consider being a radio jockey. Ahem! *wink*

Oh well, I’m looking forward for another fun-packed and eventually better party next year – with me as an audience hopefully.

At the Convention Center's lobby with last year's party host, the fabulous Judy

Double Two!

Just recently, I celebrated my birthday and turned 22. Oh well, a celebration there was none so it’s more appropriate to say that I had my birthday.

Greetings came through different media – SMS, e-mail, & verbal – and from different places from Makati City to two foreign countries. Plus, would you believe that I received a greeting from the President of the Republic of the Philippines? Honest! *wink*

I decided to challenge my mind and think of anything that has something to do with me and is associated with the repeated digit of my age – two.

Begin!

1. I have two given/first names
   
2. My initials are just a combination of two letters used twice.
   
3. This semester, I am enrolled to 5 subjects; I only have to attend to two of which.
   
4. We’re only two students enrolled for a major subject
   
5. Two birthday greetings came from overseas.
   
6. I know two people whose birthdates are a day before and after mine.
   
7. On my most recent birthday, the power went out twice due to heavy rains
   
8. I noticed two most common occurrences that happen on my birthday: it either rains or exams fall on the date (pity!)
   
9. I usually wake up two hours before our official working schedule
   
10. Since I was employed, I was issued two ATM cards. I lost the first one last month.
    
11. The two things I really wish to own now are a PC and a digital camera. (Philanthropists please!)
    
12. I am fond of playing The Sims 2.
    
13. My two favorite authors are Mitch Albom and Bob Ong.
    
14. My blog title has two nouns each having two syllables.
    
15. Other than my own, I usually read the horoscopes for two other zodiac signs.
    
16. The two careers I aspire most are Tourism and Academic.
    
17. I have two pillows on my bed.
    
18. I use two brands of facial moisturizer alternatingly.
    
19. I have yet collected two Transformers^TM toys which go free with a fastfood kiddie meal.
    
20. When I first posted a thank you message in Friendster bulletin for those who greeted me on my birthday, I forgot two persons (Sorry)
    
21. After that post, two more people greeted me in Friendster until this writing.
    
22. 2+2 adds to my lucky number: 4!
    

Cheers everyone!

Metropolitan Immersion

I used to think that a bus and a taxi ride or maybe the rail transit is all one has to take to get to Makati City; the country’s central business district. I was wrong. For more than a month, I had to weave through traffic of confusing instructions given by some people involved in the processing of official travels in our company and that experience gauged that my patience can go for miles although there were few times that I seem to come to a dead end and simply overheat with ire. I though all the papers involved in processing this trip would pile up as high as a skyscraper in Makati!

Jing and I are sent to Microsoft Office trainings. We are registered in 6 courses which we studied for two separate weeks; one course per day, 3 courses per week.

I had been in Makati for many times before but usually, it’s either a whole-day stay or just passing through it bound somewhere else thus this was my first time to get to stay there for days.

Week One (June 4-6)

We set off very early in the morning because the inn where we made a reservation has its cut-off time for payments by 4PM otherwise they shall forfeit our reservation. Since our training schedules are until 6:00, we just agreed to drop by early in the morning and pay the lodging before proceeding to the training center. This is just beneficial for us too because we may leave our stuffed bags there.

Along the way, we had a wonderful time chatting with our driver and as far as I recall, this was the first time that I didn’t sleep in a trip to Manila. I had the impression that we’ll be getting along well with our driver little did we know that the moment we enter Makati City, it’ll be one hell of a ride for us – literally!

“O, yan na yung Makati Cinema Square. Sa’n tayo?(Here’s Makati Cinema Square. Where are we to?)”, said he. I looked at the location map we got from the inn’s website. The map says we are to turn left to a street three blocks away but as I was explaining, he already turned right to a corner! I was stunned. My sense of direction was lost because a location map could not provide as much details of course since it’s customized to the inn’s vicinity. I took out the detailed map of Makati City and still tried to identify our now misdirected location. The problem with this driver is that he wouldn’t listen to directions. (Fact: Studies reveal than most men hate being told what to do if they’re holding the wheel) We’re beginning to doubt if he’s mastered which is left and which is right! To make our situation worse, only few people are familiar with the name of the street we’re looking for. When we asked for directions, they had to turn the map upside down according to where we were before they would know the place. For you not to get entangled with what we really went through let’s sum it this way: we had asked 9 people and the last of them was able to give us detailed directions. Whew!

We arrived in the building of our training center minutes past 8AM. The driver just dropped us off at the park entrance. We’re glad to learn that the training starts by 9:00; first hour is for breakfast.

The training approach is mentored-learning where we shall watch instruction videos at our own pace, do the exercises in the manuals with demo files stored in our computer. The proctor would just check our progress with the videos once in a while and answer our queries if we have any. With this arrangement, trainees of different tracks may be put in a single room yet consultations would still be one-on-one. Our proctor is very approachable and enjoys a fun chat so it didn’t take long before we became at ease with her.

On the second day, we had no hard time riding a taxi from the inn to Robinson’s Summit Center. The blooper was when we got in the wrong elevator just because it’s the first one we saw open. Once we’re inside and had closed the door, only then we realized that there’s no button ‘10’ in the panel and the least other than Ground Floor was floor 17. In our bewilderment we just pushed on button 32. Too good there’s nobody else in the lift to know about our blunder and that we’re wearing smart casual so it’s as if we’re working in the contact center in 32/F. HaHa! The price of ignorance…

With our instructor’s enticement and directions, we decided to show ourselves around the metropolis. We did well until we’ve crossed Ayala Avenue using the underpass but we got confused of the many exits of the HSBC Tower which she said is the shortcut to the famous Greenbelt so we retraced our way out from the building and decided to ride a jeepney. Jing discreetly inquired for directions from her seatmate and the kind lady said that it’s just walking distance. True enough, no more than 2 minutes after, she pointed our destination but since we’ve passed it already she said we could get off in Greenbelt 3 across The Landmark.

We just window-shopped in G3 and enjoyed the luxurious interior and exterior of the place. Although I know how to conceal my awe so as not to look deprived of civilization, it became more intense when we entered G4 where the big names of apparel are housed: Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Louis Vuitton among others which I could only afford to look on in magazines; I was dumbfound with such extravagance!

Day three is just another day in the training center. Tough times struck again when we got out of the building and had a hard time getting a taxi back to the inn where our driver was waiting. Another discovery: Makati’s business hours are from 9AM to 6PM hence rush hour is around 8:30 and 6:00. For 20 minutes we failed to get a taxi hence we had the dilemma of braving the streets or waiting ‘til 911 rescues us. Since we recall from Day 1 that from that street (which we later learned to be Salcedo), the taxi just went straight ahead and turned to Rufino; we just have to get to the other side of the avenue and so we searched for an underpass. We’re still reluctant with the idea of walking hence we would stop occasionally and try flagging down a taxi. Then we would continue walking while relying to our map even if it still has the former names of the streets. Just imagine our joy when we caught sight of the gasoline station which served as our landmark. Hallelujah!

Unfortunately, our misguided driver seemed to have failed to take his supplements again and from the back of the van, we heard him asking people for directions frequently. I was just too tired to navigate for him again especially that it’s already dark thus I just slept. How long were we lost? Imagine: average travel time from Subic to Manila is 3 hours but we arrived home at 12 midnight.

Week 2 (June 21-23)

We’re more at ease traveling the second time; at least no more getting lost or even if we did, it wouldn’t take that long to find the right track. We crossed our fingers hoping to get another driver and thankfully our prayer was answered. We were assigned a different driver although he was misinformed by their dispatcher of the departure time thus he came an hour late.

Fortunately, this guy is really good in his job. He knows the interlacing streets of Manila hence we took shortcuts and was able to avoid traffic. We arrived just right on time. We stayed in a different inn, more spacious but cheaper, but it is in the same street.

We came to New Horizons (the training center), logged in and said “hi” to the receptionists who became close pals too. We’re assigned a different room and a different proctor but the training was just as worthwhile as the previous three. We got a little used to the routine by now. In fact, we would joke that the man in the tutorial video, Chris Paynes, is our best friend because he was the mentor in 5 of the 6 courses which we took. (We love this guy HeHe)

Just like in our first week there, Day 2 is “Exploration Day” for us. This time, we’re more confident of the way and had successfully reached Greenbelt. We just passed through it and agreed to shop for some stuff in The Landmark and meet after an hour for dinner. As expected, traffic’s heavy again and we have to walk around the mall to get to Glorietta where it still took us long to get a taxi.

No much trouble for us the last day because it’s a Saturday and Makati is not in its usual bustling state. We’re able to get out of the center earlier than usual and return to the inn where our trusty driver is waiting for us. Our trip home took us a little over 2 hours only.

Aside from the technical learning I derived from the training, the whole experience taught me significant lessons as well including lessons of patience, alertness, budgeting and others. Although I maybe called a primitive on the modern facilities in Makati, I’m proud to have survived the challenges of staying in the place although in the back of my mind, I wish I had also learned how to go around riding jeeps or buses alone and not taxis. Both our adventures and misadventures are just fun to recall. Sometimes, getting lost has its benefits too!

First night in St. Illian's Inn

Thanks Mae-An for keeping us fed

With Ms. Jen (instructor) and Ms. Erlyn (receptionist) at the front desk

Doing the exercises...

Convincingly focused :-P

With Ms. Jonie (receptionist) and Ms. Mhars (Account Executive)

Makati at night. (Took this from Greenbelt 3 and across is The Landmark

Our room in Amax

Robinson's Summit Center (Took this shot personally)

Colorful Makeover

Alright, the title is exaggerating. It’s not really colorful as the suffix implies but I had random streaks of color. For the first time in my life I finally had the guts to try highlights. Until 2 years ago, I had so much fuss with my hair – traditional barber cut which gets wavy as it grows long, and drying to shampoo and styling gel – hence I refused getting highlights when my first stylist in the same salon recommended it. I can’t recall the strongest among all my personal reasons for having it done but one of these is that I got very stressed with things about work that I seem to get tired of how I look.

Straight from the office last June 14, I went to the salon to have the mission carried out finally since the last time I was there with my sister I had the cost estimated already. Fortunately, the service is on promo; 50% off the dye rate if you’re also having your hair cut and that charged me roughly 300 Pesos (US$ 7) to have both services done.

I told Ma’am Lannie, my trusty stylist, that I cannot have a color which is too bold since I am working and that wouldn’t look very good with me wearing a formal uniform. But being a professional she already know that of course. While I am being shampooed by another staff, she asked me whether I like the color she’s pointing in the chart. Golden brown is a bit brighter than the color I picked when I had the estimate which is rather a discreet shade of brown. I find it fine since it belongs to the same color genre in the chart.

She cut my hair first; a textured cut which I think is both trendy and functional because the fresh-out-of-the-bed look makes it easier to style at the same time my hair won’t look “heavy” on the sides when it grows long because the strands vary in length. That simply suits my busy life.

Next, she put a rubber cap on my head then punctured holes on it pulling random strands out. Pardon my ignorance but I asked her why she rubbed talcum powder in the cap before she placed it on. I’ll not tell you her answer. :-) She had asked another staff to prepare the substance while she’s working my hair.

I later found out that the first chemical she combed in my mane bleaches the natural color first. It smells like pee! She wrapped it in plastic then had it steamed for some time. When done and had cooled, she had me rinsed again before finally applying the dye which of course we let stand for some more minutes to hold fast but didn’t need steaming again. There was the smell of ammonia once more. Finally, the rubber cap was taken off and I was shampooed once more then she showed me how to style it while doing it herself. The whole treatment and service consumed two hours but it’s good enough to know that the salon is meticulous to have it done properly.

I am just happy with the makeover even when my conservative parents aren’t appreciative of it. Well, I’m receiving more compliments than criticism but despite all these, the fact that I felt good with it is what matters.

I enjoy sporting the look. I’m having great hair – not days, but weeks!

Styling by Going Straight. Photos by Nomer