20 for 2020

Another plot twist for this year -- me, updating this blog 😅

I thought I'd spend the last few hours of this year listing 20 .... hmmmm ... notable (?) things about my 2020.

Source

There are A LOT of notable things that happened this year all over the country, well, basically all over the world, but this list would just be those that had the most impact on me.

Oh by the way, this is going to be really old-school so more stream-of-consciousness and less photos (or maybe none? Let's see how this goes haha!)

1 My 40th birthday 

Staycation, piercing, pig-out and time with the daughter. Then the bestest surprise party ever the next day, thanks to the daughter and the favorite boy 💜

P.S. During this time, Taal has already erupted, while there were news of this *virus* from China. Darice and I even attempted to buy face masks in Watson's when we had to buy saline solution for my piercing, to no avail.

P.P.S. This might be the only notable thing before the pandemic 😔

2 Lockdown 

When lockdown started, I really thought it will just be a few months at most. (That would be evident with the GrabCar codes I bought from our Flexible Benefits, which was already less than what I bought the previous period, and I still have a lot of unused codes from the first batch of codes even though I've already shared them to the favorite boy and my brother.)

I was a bit anxious at first, but I was luckier than most because we had a grocery very near to us that was walking distance, and I was not at the mercy of MetroMart's schedule. The first few weeks were SURREAL though to be honest -- getting a quarantine pass, making sure you always have an ID, then seeing all those military personnel when you do go out. It was like out of an apocalyptic movie, but instead of zombies threatening us, it's an invisible killer.

And now, 9 months later, we're still supposed to be in quarantine, but during the rare times I have gone to the mall, it's like the only difference is that people are wearing masks and face shields. People are still out and about but we're still in a pandemic. How?!?

 

3 Work-from-home 

Working from home has its pros and cons, and I still can't decide if this is really my journey or not. Maybe I can decide when there is a choice involved where I want to work?

Pros: no need to wake up early, no traffic, less transportation and food expenses, everything can be documented through chats / emails, no need to socialize with other people 🤪

Cons: a lot more distraction, never-ending work hours, less structure, awkward calls, and no face-to-face interaction 🤪

4 YouTube

Some people went through Netflix during the lockdown (I did too for some time but I went for rewatches of Sherlock and Community and Sense8), but I was mostly on YouTube, especially as my background sound while I work (okay, maybe the reason why I get distracted?!?). 

I DEVOURED content from RawBeautyKristi, MannyMUA, Robert Welsh, Bailey Sarian, Jackie Aina, Snitchery, Samantha Ravndahl, and lately Emily D. Baker. I also watched a lot of videos about iPads (lol because I was trying to decide on what iPad to buy), LOTR, Community, Hamilton, Umbrella Academy, Taika + Jojo Rabbit + Thor Ragnarok, MCU reviews, analyses, video essays, and of course, Karmageddon.

5 Subdivision community

So so so grateful to the Facebook group of our subdivision. I already found our laundry service and water refilling service through that group before lockdown, but I also found so many other product suppliers through the group -- from raw ingredients like eggs, vegetables, seafood, chicken fillet to sinigang, lechon kawali, Potato Corner, takoyaki, cookies and cake! And so lucky to have a keto supplier also in the group who would make a variety of dishes AND DESSERTS to help me during my non-cheat days  (you know there be more cheat days hahaha). Also, I didn't need to cook most of the time for the daughter because I only had to order a few dishes from one of the suppliers and we were set for the week. We also had a haircut done by one of the neighborhood parlors through their home service a few weeks back!

The group was also a great resource for news and updates concerning the subdivision, city and the province, with anecdotal commentary lol.

Commercial break: I'm actually writing after midnight so it's technically January 2021 already BUT imma timestamp it before midnight LOL

6 Debit card loss

So what happened was a month into lockdown, I needed to get cash but the BDO ATM near our subdivision gate was again out of service. I still had enough cash but I was worried I might run low so I WALKED to the nearest mall (because there was no public transportation yet) to try my luck there. Lo and behold, the BDO ATM there was also out of service, so ok, Imma withdraw cash using the BPI ATM instead, f*** that service fee.

Then the BPI ATM machine malfunctioned and ATE MY DEBIT CARD 😭 I went home just cursing BDO, BPI, and the mothereffing heat because it was already noon then and I had to walk home 😭

Okay, while walking I figured that I can transfer money to the daughter's BDO account and withdraw the money using her ATM card. But even though I had that option, the mothereffing machines are useless!

There was a time that I only had 100 in cash and the machine was under repair! Good thing was there was public transportation already then and I was scheduled to go to the office to submit receipts, so I knew I'll be able to withdraw cash then.

Anyhoo, I've been transferring money to the daughter's account and using her card to withdraw cash. Let's all 🙏🏻 that her card doesn't get eaten because I have no other bank account or card to use!

7 Attempts at physical activities

Yes, there were attempts made lol. 

Early in the lockdown period, aside from walking to the subdivision gate for grocery or ATM errands, I would walk around a few streets in the morning or in the afternoon every few days, encouraged by the daily collection of energy for Wizards Unite (more on that further down the list). And then further into the lockown, I got so obsessed with Wizards Unite that I was walking EVERY morning (or even in the afternoon!) to collect energy and ingredients for events! However, because of game updates, it became harder to be excited for the game, and combined with the rain, no more walking for me 😔

Also, attempts were made to do a Chloe Ting workout challenge. Sports bras and a yoga mat were brought to prepare, and also a plan was made to document the whole thing. After two days of the workout challenge, guess who gave up? 🥲 (I better delete those videos of me "working out" from my phone to free up space lol)

8 House clean-up + decluttering

Before the lockdown, we no longer had a helper, so the daughter and I were already used to cleaning up after ourselves. However, I would ask my mom's helper to clean the house thoroughly every month as well because the daughter and I are proudly, and unfortunately, two tamad girls. (Like I would sweep the floor daily, but the helper would be the one to do the mopping when I have her over)

With the lockdown, we had to do the thorough cleaning ourselves 😟 The house felt so big LOL but hear me out, I've lived most of my life with a helper (and so does the daughter) so this felt a bit daunting for us. But through the months we "upgraded" our supplies (like buying better mops or brushes) and skillz lol and we have "survived" (I know sounds silly for some but we can really be ratchet 😬). I do am thinking of getting professional services to do general cleaning early this 2021 for all the nooks and crannies we gave up on hahaha!

And so as I gradually eased in with working from home, I finally came around to decluttering our second floor space, which basically became a stock room of what-have-you's, into my work area. I did plan out to have that space as like my home office pre-pandemic for my online presence journey (like blogging, maybe like a fiLmiNg SpAce wuuut) or for my personal ~creative projects, but *stuff* happened meaning it became that space where I would just dump stuff. It took me several weeks to be truly satisfied with the amount of stuff I kept and the amount of stuff I let go (or will eventually let go as I don't know how to dispose of them) but here I am now writing this post in my sort-of-organized and decluttered work area 😄

9 Ulysses

Wow, this was personally a curve ball because I never thought it was going to be THAT BAD that the flood will enter the house. After Ondoy, over the years, our subdivision would get flooded during the heavy monsoon rains but the worse it got for our house was only up to our garage, and never inside the house. This was the first time I experienced a house flooding because the daughter and I weren't home during Ondoy (so we just went home to a topsy-turvy house with mud and broken stuff) so I didn't really experience the hauling of stuff upstairs etc etc.

So by noon, the water was still creeping outside our gate, but by 1pm it was inside our garage already and rising 😟 The daughter and I hauled ass and brought up all the stuff and food we can carry upstairs and by 3pm the flood was INSIDE THE HOUSE already 😩 I think at its peak the flood was around a foot or so inside the house, but outside on the street it was almost 3 feet (based on some dude walking in the flood water distributing his frozen bangus to the neighbors to be eaten so they won't go to waste). As the night wore on, the water started slowly subsiding, and I slept thankful that we were okay, but dreading the clean-up the morning after.

And then another ~plot twist happened the next day, which is actually part of a "development arc" described further down the list.

10 Home improvement

Because of Ulysses, I was "forced"... okay... not really forced but I was given the push to replace our old items and return some to their owners so we could finally have stuff that were not a mish-mash of hand-me-downs. This furniture overhaul was already being planned pre-Ulysses so I was sorta ready and Ulysses just gave me that extra push to check out my orders lol.

So new sofa (old one from my parents, got flooded, so bye), new dining table and chairs (old set were from the ex in-laws, returned), and a new TV rack (old one is still outside in our garage, and I don't know what to do with it yet). Also bought a new shoe organizer / rack because some of the shoe cases got flooded (threw them away).

And of course new throw pillows, an aesthetic throw, and new banig rugs to tie everything together. The kitchen is another story though as the cabinets are falling apart and they're a hideous apple green color, but I dunno if I want to invest in fixing them up if we are planning to move out (another story for another day).

Commercial break again: Guess who's still writing this post at 11am New Year's Day lol

11 E-commerce

When lockdown started, most of our online purchases were through the subdivision community, but when restrictions eased in June, boy, we did a LOT OF BUYING.  I thought I already did a lot of online shopping before the pandemic, but wow, this year, we would have a delivery every week from Lazada, Shopee, MetroMart, GrabMart, BeautyMNL, GrabFood, FoodPanda and the like. 

All our new furniture were bought online through Ofix.ph or The Cubbyhole in Facebook, while all new appliances (rice cooker and toaster) came from Lazada. Skincare and make-up came from BeautyMNL, Human Nature, or retailers from Lazada. iPads were bought from Elishanjerr from Facebook, while tech accessories were bought from Lazada and Shopee. Household items moslty came from Lazada and MetroMart. And all the odds and ends that the daughter sends links for from Lazada and Shopee 😄

Some purchases I'm super happy about: Christopher Pike books from Shopee to add to my collection, Unsolicited Advice 2021 Planner by AdamJK, and the Sherlock manga series which I have to receive as the box is still in transit 💜

Also I would just like to thank GrabFood and GrabMart for making it harder for me to stay low-carb because we can have all kinds of food delivered to the house 😄 And making it possible for me to get receipts for liquidation when we have more buojee food delivered hahaha!

12 Playing with make-up

It goes without saying doing something ~creative is therapy for me and I poured all that need for creativity in doing my make-up this year. Also, I had a bunch of complexion products that I didn't want to got waste so why not do it for the 'gram? 😊

Not going out = doing more "outlandish" lewks and thankfully I got the Sorbetes palette before lockdown so I had a colorful palette to work with during the first few weeks being stuck at home. Eventually I got the Conspiracy palette, and then the Jungle rock palette so I had more than enough to create and "hone" my colorful lewks.

You can check most of them from my everydayshelley IG account 😄

Commercial break once again: I hope I finish writing this before the whole world enters 2021 LOL

13 Having my teeth fixed

One of the things I planned to do in 2019 was to get my teeth fixed but not really a priority and I felt it was too expensive so it got pushed back and back. Now we here in 2020 with inflated pandemic rates lol BUT I committed on that first visit to the dentist and I'm starting 2021 with my almost done brand-new pre-molars!

I wouldn't have been able to do this with the particular circumstances 2020 brought upon me -- the dentist was a neighbor and was a two minute walk from our house, who I found through our subdivision Facebook group. I also had a few coins "to spare" because I haven't had any big expenses this year, and I think this one was the biggest one yet for this year I believe?

I know it's like why have my teeth fixed when my mouth is almost always covered with a mask when I'm going outside but I didn't want it to get worse to be honest. Also the daughter pushed me when she wanted to go to the dentist to have braces done and I told her to make an appointment with the dentist I found through the Facebook group, and she asked me how about my teeth 😬 Okay anak, I'll have my teeth fixed na po 😅

14 Financials

To be honest, I have a lot of credit card debt, have several on-going loans, and not really good with money (bahala na si Batman mentality, especially when it comes to travel and luho) that I don't have that much savings. So I never expected that I will have the capacity to buy new stuff for the house, have my teeth fixed, and still have some left over for 2021!

I'm one of the truly lucky ones this year because aside from the ATM fiasco, I never felt anxious about my financial situation during the pandemic. I kept my job, and the company I worked for did their best make it easier for us to get cash (albeit taxed) benefits like medical subsidies in our FlexBen, and liquidations for tax benefits (for middle management above) using work-from-home equipment and also medical equipment.

Daily essential expenses were significantly reduced as we were "forced" to stay home, as well as other extraneous expenses like Starbucks coffee, or buying extra food even though I already have a packed lunch with me. We also had to cancel our supposed-to-be trip during the Holy Week, so that was one big expense that never transpired. No desire to buy new shoes or clothes or bags because what the hell for? (All the shopping desire went to skincare, make-up, and house stuff as mentioned earlier hehe)

The favorite boy also offered to pay off one of my biggest credit card bills, and just pay him off monthly without interest 😭 so that was really a load off my financial burden. I still have credit card debt, but I'm also s l o  w l y paying them off bit by bit.

15 Online meet-ups and celebrations

Earlier in the lockdown, most friend and family meet-ups occurred online, and a bit more frequent (can't say that now because there are some doing meet-ups and gatherings outside as if we are not still in a pandemic 😒) -- remember when your feeds were full of these Zoom screens?!? 

Work socialization was also done online, with our group scheduling a Friday game night almost every week (being anti-social me, I stopped responding to the invites after a few weeks sorry). The company I work for also celebrated its 25th anniversary online with loads of enterprise social media activities, online games, and an online program to end it with a bang (yes, I was part of the comms preps for this LOL)! 

I dunno what the point of this though hahaha but I gotta say, these online socializations may have helped us in surviving the year, but nothing beats face-to-face interaction (and that's anti-social me already saying that).

16 The ex-husband

Let's just say the ex-husband went on a development arc during this year that I think is taking him one step forward, but sometimes two steps back so I don't know if he's really taking it to heart.

He's been offering to get groceries for us, bring us food etc., or just pass by with the food already. He had a few nights of sort of reflection and apologized for basically how he treated me before, and how it reflected on the daughter etc etc, which prompted me to ask him if he was currently going counseling / therapy -- it was so out of his character! He also was the one who mainly cleaned up the house after Ulysses. 

But there's still this ego-feeding narcissistic person (look, this was the psychologist's analysis for our annulment) that comes out in the way he talks (about his work, the stuff he buys for people, the things he do for other people), and the way he behaves (he expects people to behave or comply only to his timeline for his own benefit).

So I don't know. Maybe all the "good" things he's been doing is just to manipulate the situation to come off as the "good" guy. Maybe he's sincere yet still learning. What I'm sure of is that I'm wary, and as the daughter said, "I'll believe it when I see it" and this ain't it yet, sis 😬

17 Friends

Just a shoutout to all the friends who gave who will randomly message, call, reach out, send ayuda, give receipts lol, answer my adulting (read: cleaning) questions, send help, give recommendations, etc etc -- thank you for making 2020 bearable 💜

18 The fam

Also, a shoutout for the fambam especially to my parents for paying my credit card bill online for me because I can't go to the branch to pay it myself lol but also for all the food sent to us, for the receipts lol, the messages, the advice, and of course that holiday trip which started the year (2020 was like that Moroccan ferry ride experience TBH lol). Hoping we can all travel again together sooooon 💜

19 The favorite boy

Can you say LDR?!? Since there was no public transportation available during the early months of the lockdown, and having no cars ourselves, we weren't able to see each other for a little over 100 days 😭 He finally came over in June so we can celebrate our 7th anniversary in our garage (open air) as we ordered food and sprayed ourselves crazy with alcohol lol 😄 We eventually made it a monthly thing and sometimes he would come over, or we'd schedule our receipt submissions on the same day, so we can spend time together.

And even though it has been a crazy year, trying to adjust to the "new normal" (online shopping for him), being anxious for all sorts of things (my credit card bill, for one), our relationship survived! We did have a few times wherein we reached a sort of limit and just butted heads but we got over our egos and talked about it, promised to do better, and the best part is I can see that we do try to be better. I love you, Maki, and I hope 2021 will be kinder and better for us 💜

20 The Star

2020 may have brought difficulties to me, but I know it has been extremely difficult for the daughter, as her life was much more severely impacted than my mine was 😩 

Her junior year just fizzled into whatever the school decided on as their final grade for the year. She started her senior year in lockdown, and going through senior things online and away from her social groups and curricular activities while she's stuck with me 😭

I'm thankful she's already in college and I really don't have to homeschool her (see there was a silver lining for getting knocked up when I was in college :P), but I feel like I can't offer her the comfort she needs from her friends. I do indulge her shopping for tech accessories, hair color, skincare, etc, and also for her food cravings, but I think that's all I can do for her 😩

Even though I think she's less independent now (because I have to do all the purchasing as she doesn't have e-commerce accounts yet AND she deleted the Grab app as she won't be taking rides naman daw but how about GrabFood right?), she has been my partner all throughout 2020 in taking care of the house. Okay, I'm giving her too much credit because she takes care only of her room and bathroom but she does wash dishes without being told to do so LOL. Okay I'll give her credit for helping me bring up our stuff when Ulysses happened hehe. But credit to both of us really for not pulling each others' hair out after all this time under lockdown 😅

And so anak, I hope you will have the strength and resilience to power through 2021, and if you get tiredt, Mama is always here for you. I know you hate going out now (my, my how times have changed) but maybe we can go for a coffee run once a month? I love you, anak 💜

Last commercial break: so it's 2021 already all over the world.

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Well, that took me longer than expected -- I started in 2020 and I finished this post the next year *badumtss* 

I know we will look back at 2020 as like one of the WORST years ever, but I hope that all of us who made it in 2021 can look back and at least say, "I survived that shitshow of a year".

I'll say that, but I know I can also say that I was (oh my god this is so cliché) #blessed because there were more than a few gems in my 2020 💜

Oh and btw, this might be my last post for the blog. 

Bye!