Psyche-

   For today’s sake of celebrating teachers, let me get down my memory lane circa 1994.  Ms. Florida Dao-ines was my grade 1 teacher in the then Kayan Community School. I thanked that I was bit of a reader so I was spared from her famed stick. Of course, my hearing wasn’t excused of her voice harping on the day’s if not yesterday’s lesson. Oh, I could see her small figure with her short curly hairdo passing by my grandparents’ place because she used to visit her brother on the next house. Ms. Dao-ines taught us room maintenance the organic way— scrub off graffiti on wooden desks with sandpaper tree leaves, sweep off dirt, whip the floor with banana leaves and finish it off with coconut husk. On my second year with my grandparents going as second grader, I had Teacher Jeaneth Juan. She was my first troop leader in GSP and Agadangan became a vivid memory of the Scout Movement. Enamored with her not-so-strict classroom bearing, my classmates and I were saddened when on...

August 14 . A gecko I photographed in Bugallon during our externship way back 2011. The lizards I stalked on perfecting shots of them against the frosty window. W orld Lizard Day, celebrated on the 14th of August every year. As with most of the oddities, the origins of this day are unclear, but it is being celebrated across political boundaries by the niche of reptile-lovers, conservationists and educators. M ost celebrations of this holiday occur at the local level, through events organized by schools, natural history or science museums, zoos, national parks, conservation NGOs etc. These can vary depending on the audience involved, but information sessions and fun activities usually remain a constant. Local pet stores may hold events for kids, to acquaint them with the pros and cons of keeping a lizard as a pet. Online communities also take this opportunity to pay homage to the cold-blooded reptiles, and increase the information flow around them. World Lizard Day has not yet be...

This was my preggo days. Unbeknownst, I visited my OB-Gyne just thrice. The first two for the sonography of the tiny life budding in my tummy. The third time was because of an impending urinary tract infection. I had more time reading this book than supposed visits to an OB-Gyne. G-d had been so good to me and had me a safe delivery of a daughter. The self-help book reached another hand of an expectant friend.  Whiling time during not-so-hectic clinic duty,  I laid a book to gorge on. One co-employee barged in for a photo op.  I met these young minds when I was in Caloocan. One day, we found ourselves dating threesome in a library. Suddenly, I felt like I belonged!  Ah! The student days. No, I don't want to mention my "extended" years of stay studying that degree Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

My first pile of books included biblical stories, poems and, the Grimms' fairy tales.  This Day of World Reading or Book, I am sharing with you the books of my life.  THE MILLIONAIRE MIND. This is Dad's number one favorite he shared to me. And if you want a sequel to a broader mind of the brilliant Thomas J. Stanley, get this for the consumption of your brain.  QUIET. It answered beyond asking about oneself's intricacy for introversion.  THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI. This will lead you to change your life's perspective. MARLEY AND ME. This is an endearing journey of a labrador and the family he got.  GENOME: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SPECIES. I came to know why men cheat. HOLY BIBLE. A professor once said in his class that we should read the Bible and that every genre was there -- romance, action...

For today is mine, let my celebrity feel mode on and let the fishmongers in. My dark secrets are about to get spilled. Back to reality: My gratefulness to the                                                           of my life for making me a                                                   <goddess> (💯% narcissistic awareness),                                                                        a mother, and a .

Original concepts play 😎. Since violet is the year's color, I wanted to come up with something that was about it.  I was thrilled that very second the alliterative violet vendetta made a ping on my mind. I Google-d to add more to what violet or vendetta had aside from violet being a strip of the ROYGBIV and vendetta synonymous to vengeance. And pop! 😂 to my two surprises, one was a band and the other a lady wrestler! Whoa. 😛😅😆 Still, I pursue on the title I wanna think originally made up by me. Make way out of 2018 with exuberance. Solo parenting gets me accustomed to what not's. Profession is whetted with CPD's. Clientele is growing. 2019 calendar is now on the wall. A new 🏡 is about to be called home. More pizza to devour. More toys on the tow. New things to try on.

     Coming home? Home to where high school life empties your memory bank.      Honestly, I don't have a very happy high school life. My heartaches were three-fourths of my circle of fun. My first year diary told about excitement. I was excited about the new everything--uniform, classmates and teachers. I can picture the very first day I stood before class introducing myself -- my name, age and hobbies! More classmates came in turn up front. I remember my seatmate who found one classmate's flared up nose funny while talking. I came to imagine if my nostrils flared up the same and my seatmate reacted the same. I'd like to remember that she got to be amused and that there was no hint of bullying. At least, she was attentive. I felt that all I had was fussing over things that didn't even concern me. Add to things like these was the stiff competition over grades. I developed a bigger resentment on math subjects rooting that it was my Achilles' heel. My...

Iloilo. 2014. Here I was cuddling an asleep toddler. Three years after, I was cuddling my own. Gapan, Nueva Ecija. 2014. I was with a son of a co-employee. He was one of the two siblings I date during days off from work. I brought the kids to the magically iconic fastfood to many Pinoy. Igorot Garden, Baguio City. 2011. I was doing some flexion and extension of a clinician's body one time I spared with a friend's daughter. That kid was so smart. Her mom's friends were excited spectators during her moving up her preschool days.

There is this song that plays in my mind  every Undas. It was taught when we were third graders. It was timely;that year, I with a friend sang it on an uncle's wake. That was the time I saw a family mourning. My mom's shoulder shook real hard sobbing. It was also that time  I observed ub-ubbo evident with the villagers contributing material or non-material. I met relatives I had not seen before. An uncle said, "Han kuma nga kastoy nga panagladingit santu tayo agkikita  nu di ket nu ragragsak met (It should not be these hard times we see each other but on happy days, too)." Filipinos are indeed an embodiment  of what does being close-knit mean. On the night of every Halloween, we visit graves of friends now unseen... The following lines got blur to my memory so I substituted singing to humming. Catholic Online makes clear that Halloween is a secular holiday on the night before November 1. It adds that All Saints' Day fall on November 1 and is a holy day of o...

Canadians have them on October. Americans' on November. Me? Everyday. 😉 Everyone's searching about something...Love. Success. Now, what's that one thing that no one can get more of? Time. (Excerpted from The Internship)      Saying thank you is a good practice. It makes you feel good and so does the recipient.      I have here a string of reasons I am most grateful of at the moment.      OF COURSE, HIM. He has been at the top of my list eventhough I'm not that religious. I'm one theist who believes that there is that Supreme Being being acknowledged for this existence.            MY DAUGHTER. Eversince I became a mother, I do things double time tantamounting to double exhaustion but doubly rewarding.       MY PROFESSION. There are studies that claim  those whose job as veterinarians are close to the verge of emotional breakdown. It is a truth that I myself also experienced...

Peace Day        can be celebrated by everybody,        everywhere. Simply, it can be a shut-eye of a short prayer. Imagine if people do this all at the same day! A peace so elusive can be achieved! Blue has been a color for peace. I pray for peace in my field of practice.

Catrice obviously had the ecstasy atop the Pampanga's eye! Every year has the month of September that makes me remember the sister I love so much. Thank you for the times you have been with me. Thank you for loving Catrice as well like your own. May all your heart's desires in His perfect time be fulfilled.  Happy birthday!!!

Learning to walk:Catrice and Granny Wilma.   Catrice met her Great Grampy Willy. Catrice with both great grandparents. Hello! Hello! Hello! A week ago, I saw my grandmother in my dream dressed up and all made up to today's fashion to whatever occasion it was. She had sparkling jewellery--dangling earrings patterned to the design of a dream weaver and a gold choker!       I wrote about my grandparents, my maternal grandparents and my stay with them for my first two grade school years. I wasn't actually separated from my family, for once in a while when my parents's work permitted, I got to be with them and my siblings.      My stay with my grandparents were the best childhood memories--all about spoiling and spoiling a granddaughter. I felt I was the apple of their eyes! Lucky me! Their pure love so grandparently that was no close to materialism. I wish they'll live another decade or two for my daughter to experience ...

08 September. World Literacy Day. If you teach a child to read,you change a life forever (World Literacy Foundation). T imid, shy, reserved, quiet, loner and introvert. People has all this denominator of me. If not yet contented, they add to it, me living up to my Kankana-ey or Iloko surname that means at the side. I just smile, say at the back of my head, so who cares? Is this a psychological impairment? But then, duh! Can I not just be oftentimes the thinker? Failed performer? The aphonic me after the excitation of being the first to raise hand to sing a tune in our music class. We have this per-class presentation to commemorate the Nutrition Month and ours was a skit. My head ached finding the right words and fixing the flow of the scenes. In our intermediate years, I was pointed to be the cheerleader turned mannequin upstage. I told myself, where did all the scriptwriting I OC-ed on and about. I cannot think so well how I delivered my lengthy valedictory address. So mu...

The dogs and cats at home, Catrice, your children and wife are one in singing you a HAPPY BIRTHDAAAY!!! We wish you a softer demeanor as you age. Health abound most importantly.

Our humble beginning. We only have three wooden planks for our numbered medicines, a rack for our two brands of repacked dog feeds and a table for examining and scribbling down records. Vaccination was made on schedule so that vaccines came in iced packs delivered for immediate disposal.  Three years has gone past. Mostly 👇s that we've been thru but we keep paddling our 🚣 and adjusting our sails. We lack a lot technically to be called as clinic but we're working with what we have. So, lives have been saved and sicknesses have been alleviated.  We hope in the coming years that we can still do the thing -- helping pet lovers. And we fervently ask the L-rd Almighty for all the provisions.  Though we know, we don't need to do that for He is such an omnipotent being. For that, we have a heart throbbing with this big "G." We are graaatefuuul, sooo grateful. And we bring back all the glory to you oh L-rd. We, in Catrice's Animal Clinic, so small yet ...

21May. World Day for Cultural Diversity. (Christ), in whom the whole building being fitted together,grows into a holy temple in the L-rd (Ephesians2:21) In the next coming years, I cannot imagine my daughter, a half-blooded Igorot whose father speaks Tagalog, mother who speaks Kankana-ey and Ilocano and schoolmates who speak Kapampangan or teachers speak English, how her liner would be. Further imagination brings me to hearing her say, "Adiak like idiay kung nasaan sina Lolo tan awan unay tao." 

Dubbed as the "Hidden Paradise" in Consuelo, Macabebe, Pampanga, the mangrove or bakawan plantation caters to those who are serenity hungry. MANGROVE FORESTS Mangrove forest is also known as the “rainforest of the sea.” It grows well in tropical countries, including the Philippines.  Mangroves are an important part of the coastal and marine ecosystem that includes the seagrass and the coral reefs.  Of the world’s more than 70 mangrove species, around 46 species are known to occur in various parts of the country.   MANGROVES PROVIDE ECONOMIC AS WELL AS ECOLOGICAL BENEFITS, SUCH AS THE FOLLOWING: THEY ARE A GOOD SOURCE OF PRODUCTS LIKE ALCOHOL, MEDICINE, TANNIN, CHARCOAL, TIMBER AND HOUSING MATERIALS THEY SUPPORT FISHERIES PRODUCTION AND AQUACULTURE; THEY PROVIDE NURSERY GROUNDS, SHELTER AND FOOD FOR FISH AND OTHER SEA CREATURE; THEY PROTECT COASTAL COMMUNITIES FROM STORM SURGES, WAVES, TIDES AND CURRENTS; THEY ACT AS CARBON SINK BY REDUCING ORGANI...

This is one great throwback from mom's treasure's chest!!! She was once Miss Kayan.

The bun of her hair was immaculately done. She put thru her spotless and freshly pressed white uniform. And she picked up her nursing kit and dashed her way out to the waiting taxi.That was some years ago. I don't know if she is to be the last to take nursing from us first degree cousins. Nursing was a boom around late 90's and graduating high schoolers was putting Bachelor of Science as first priority. Because of its demand, universities and colleges required a high aptitude or entrance exam result. Well, she has the lucky structure of a cerebrum, yes, so she got on it and became another Nightingale.