A Year of Weddings

I remember this dinner I had with some friends, a good 3 or 4 years ago and we were talking about marriage like it's some very distant future. Two of our friends married early but none of us got inspired enough to follow suit, so even though most of our batchmates in high school married young, others already mothers to two or more children, most of just cruised along --- saw our 30th birthdays and for some reason, decided to get married in the same year. Late bloomers and 30-year old brides, 4 of us got married in 2011 and one got engaged.

I started it off with my wedding in May. It was a simple wedding with family and friends and then Didi had hers in June, with a lovely “Summer in June” theme, where I was MOH in pink. Aviegail followed soon, in July and her wedding was absolutely fun, at Shangrila Makati. The dates of our weddings May-June-July, started a joke between the group. As if it was compulsory, we were telling the other single girls that we had AUGUST-SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER and the rest of the year open for everybody else.

Sadly, no one followed after Avie in July but the last wedding of the year was Patty’s. Before the year ended, on December 29th, my friends and I, gathered together, again --- and took loads of pictures. It’s fun when you have a friend who has a nice camera and can take good pictures, because as girls, we love to pose for pictures, and pose for pictures --- did we!

 

Aren’t we pretty?

I remember bringing my friends to my house, sometimes and having them meet my guy friends and they would say: “Crix bakit ang ganda ng friends mo?” (Crix why are your friends so pretty?) I don’t know why they have to ask though, I mean, don’t birds of the same feather flock together? Which means, I am pretty therefore I have pretty friends? Hahaha!

Once upon a time, this group was bigger. Thirteen girls, all in all. Today, two are based overseas; one in Dubai, one in New York, so they couldn’t be with us. The others, are unfortunately, MIA.

I love these girls so much. Most of us use Blackberry and because of BBM we’re constantly updated about each other’s lives (married lives, single lives, career lives, sex lives --- hahaha --- sorry, I’m married, I can talk about sex). Before BBM, it was harder for us to communicate. Today, I’ve put all my group notifications to the lowest volume because it beeps nonstop and Bon doesn’t understand what we have to talk about at 2am in the morning. Also, I’ve chosen to put the volume down because a lot of them are early risers and the chatroom goes live at 6 am on a good day and I’m usually still on dreamland at 6.

Anyway, before this year ends, another friend of ours will be walking down the aisle and saying “I Do”. After which, future hubby will be taking her to China, so our three-time zone BBMin’ will become a 4-time zone affair. Good luck with that!

Gone Back to School

I've gone back to school. Well not really. What I've done is enrolled myself into a course. I've decided to start to learn about dental implants because I feel that I've already matured enough in my profession, and this is the next step. In Dentistry, you only learn the basics --- and you can stop there, or you can go on and learn more things. Ever since I left CEU College of Dentistry, I’ve gone to three different courses. As it is almost compulsory, I took up an Orthodontics and TMJ course in 2007, a course in Periodontics in 2009, and I enrolled myself in a Dental Implant course.

  

I started my class awhile ago, which kind of added to why I have been quite busy the last few months. I’d be honest, I am no longer used to “school life”. I haven't been used to being scholarly anymore and I've had to go back to reading thick books and working on Powerpoint Presentations for my class.  Every time I start I am always excited to be a student again --- but then I realize it's too tiring to do the work I do (treat patients and write) and still have the energy to read books and journals, at night.

Stress aside, I'm having all kinds of fun in class. My classmates are a complete mix of people, so even if I spend a whole day with them, it’s okay. In fact, it’s nice to be with different people. In my job I don’t have “officemates” or “bosses” --- all I have is Monique and Bon (plus the patients that come) so it is refreshing to be with new people. Sadly, I have revisited my love for coffee, which is bad because I have been chugging down cups of coffee in a day and I was told to keep away from coffee.

Anyway, I have already found my first implant patient so I am currently preparing for that. The entire procedure is not hard, really; what’s complicated is getting yourself and the patient prepared for the day. Diagnosis is the most important part of implant surgery and I am currently going through radiographs, casts, photos and ct scans. Am I scared? I am, but at the same time I can’t wait for it. I will definitely show you photos of my successful surgery, when I'm done, but for now --- wish me luck!

I Don't Know How She Does It

The other day I was watching "I Don't Know How She Does It" and I felt so bad because I used to think that I was good at juggling but I've become quite inefficient, lately. In fact, while I was watching that movie, I realized that in my state now, I don't even have a kid yet --- I'm already running around like a headless chicken. Okay, so Sarah Jessica Parker's character is fictional, but I know of people like her in real life --- keeping their careers and then tending the home, quite well, so I really felt so bad. Anyway, there was this scene in the movie where Sarah is lying beside her husband and she’s going through her mental list --- I do that too. I have this list that I write and tick off in my head, every day but I've been so busy that I am no longer able to keep up.

Not that I am complaining. As a dentist in private practice, when you say you’re busy that means a good thing. If you’re busy, that means you’ve got too many patients. When you have lunch at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, that means that the clinic is packed. So I am not complaining that I am busy. In fact, I am grateful and I’d rather say: “Bring it On!”. I remember going to National Bookstore last December, looking for an appointment book for the clinic. I spent 30 minutes going through their entire collection before I found the one that I wanted. Actually, I had come from Office Warehouse already, but did not find what I needed, so I drove to National Bookstore.

I don’t just get any kind because I have certain requirements for one, and it took me a while to find the perfect planner:

• Pages should be arranged by week because it's easier to track appointments this way.
• It should be timed. So that you can assign appointments to a specific hour
• It should have a space for notes, at the bottom, so that you can write other details about the day.
  
  

I chose this planner, out of all the ones I saw because it satisfies all the requirements and I chose this specifically because it was spacious and I told Monique: “Dapat malaki ang space, kasi marami tayong patients next year” (I made sure it's spacious enough to fit all our appointments for 2012) Yes! Positive thinking. I have very high hopes for 2012. In fact, before I gave it to Monique to use, I took a moment and prayed to God to fill it up. I said: "Lord, keep us busy all year. Make this appointment book messy with appointments everyday" --- and God had been great.

That, then, explains my absence in both my blogs. I am too busy as a dentist, a writer and a wife that I am unable to play my role as blogger, anymore. Hopefully, I’ve get my rhythm back and this post is a sign of more to come…

When I Grow Up... I Want to Be A Singer!

When I was younger I used to play the piano. I'm sure I still can but I haven't tried in a long time. I don't have a piano at our house and the piano in my parents' home hasn't been played for very long --- and merely stands in the living room as some kind of antique decorative piece. Once upon a time, though, I played the piano and I would spend hours playing with it. I wasn't so bad. I never really learned to read notes (despite years of going to class) but I widow (listen and play). I remember getting a lot of prizes from aunts, uncles and grandparents for playing the piano during family Christmas parties. It was fun and I enjoyed playing but my biggest frustration was that I wasn't blessed with a great voice. Often times I would play a few popular songs and I'd just sing it in my head --- that's all you can do when you can't sing out loud, you sing in your head.

Oh well, my lack of talent never hindered me from grabbing the mic and standing in line for karaoke nights, though. We have a magic sing at home and when my sisters and I are so bored, we would try to go through all the songs until we can't sing anymore (bless the neighbors). This is the same for our Band Hero. I have a regular line up that I've already memorized... and it's fun!

Anyway, for our Christmas Party, my high school friends decided to go karaoke. Everyone was excited, we forgot that we had a real singer in the house. Hearing Ina sing again (after so long) was so fun. I brought me back to high school when we would sit in the corridors during lunch and Ina would play the guitar and sing (she let's us sing with her too). During school programs and contests you can rely on Ina to be the composer/musical director. We rehearse all kinds of singing performances with Ina coaching us --- and at Beat Karaoke I was reminded of how fun it was to sing with my friends --- and how bad I was at singing!!!

It was our first time to go karaoke together and we tried Beat Karaoke at Fort, Global City. Six of us confirmed so we got the package for six people and only paid Php2000 for two hours (inclusive of 12 drinks – soft drinks, iced tea, beer, sisig, cheese sticks, pancit bihon and chicken fingers). We extend for an hour, I think and the rate per hour is Php360, if I am not mistaken.

The room was a little small, but it was okay. They have a good mixture of old and new songs and the food was alright. Beat Karaoke is on top of Serenitea at Burgos Circle.

Oh yeah, Happy New Year everybody!!!

Beat Karaoke Bar
2/F Unit 1 Bellagio Retail, Burgos Circle,
Forbestown Center, 1630 Taguig, Philippines
(02) 8229683