work wisdoms: lenten break

It certainly is.  Today is the last of my 6-day break from work.  Here in the Philippines, lenten break usually means going out of town and heading to the beaches.  I watched the news last Thursday and Friday and sure enough, Bora and Puerto Galera were overflowing with local tourists. Someone said that Manila was like a ghost town.  Well, It was really nice because there was no traffic when we did our Visita Iglesia last Friday.  We were able to visit 8 churches and we even swung by my Grandma's house for a visit.  I had a lot of fun. We do this every year and for each church we visit, we would buy some sort of snack or eat a meal.  We call it Station of the Foods haha.  We ate Puto from Laguna, puto bumbong, corn, drank buko juice, and then ate lunch at Aristocrat's (first for me).

There was a tv show that called it "staycation" which means, staying at home for the vacation.  A lot of people, instead of going to the beach and spending money for travel and accomodation, just bought inflatable pools and filled it with water.  Then they cooked barbeques and had fun with their family.  Happiness, in whatever form, will always be grand.

It felt good to do something different everyday and accomplish a lot of things.  I dragged my family to the hospital to get their first shot of the anti-HPV vaccine, cleaned my shoes and clothes and fixed my closet, went to confession and visited churches, visited my grandma, went swimming, went to a hydrotherapy spa, visited a friend who gave birth last week, got a pedicure, a haircut and a hot oil treatment, wrote the script for the comic book project I've started with one of my friends, submitted a short scene and gave a critique to the internet writing workshop, added some more scenes on the short story I'm writing, wrote this blog entry, exercised everyday and took care of my dogs, tried out the new restaurant here in our village and watched four great movies! (Sooner or later, Flipped, Mozart and the Whale, Kiss of the Spiderwoman).

It felt rewarding to finish a lot of things that are not related to work.  These last few days were quite fruitful.  I didn't feel tired at all. It was one of the best vacations I had in my life.

"Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction." - Anne Frank