Under One Roof

My mom loved shopping for home. I remember when we go to the mall, we would stay longer at the home section than on any other part of the department store. She would check out what’s new with china and would often buy a new one if there was any. You should see how many we have at home right now. The ones that she bought when she was alive are enough for me and my sisters when we already have a home of our own. Now, when I go to the mall, I also have this habit of going to the home section to check what’s new there. Just last weekend, my sister and I bought some pillow cases and we saw this Ladybug steam cleaners that I wanted to buy. I just have to always mind my budget otherwise I will go overboard buying things for home.~

It is raining like crazy here in Manila again. I am not sure if it’s the same in the provinces. I love it when it rains but I want for all of us to be at home when it does. I also don’t like rain that will turn into typhoon like what happened with Frank. In times like these, it feels good to just hop on a jet charter and go someplace calm and sunny. Thank goodness there’s blogging to take my mind off the nonstop raining. I just wish there won’t be anymore typhoon Frank coming. Too many families lost their homes and dreams because of that typhoon. We cannot afford another one.

The Singing Bee in ABS-CBN, hosted by Cesar Montano, is a show that our family loves watching together. I think it’s the frustrated singers in us. We love guessing the lyrics, especially the part where the words are being jumbled for the contestant to guess it. The show already produced 3 millionaires to date. We enjoyed those episodes leading to the million win of Rachel Alejandro. More so with the episodes with Aiza Seguerra. That diminutive woman has a really lovely voice. Aiza won two consecutive 1 million pesos. Making her the first contestant to win 2 million pesos! She deserves it, she’s that good.

The Singing Bee is just one of the primetime shows that we watch every night. I momentarily set aside what I do and just shuts down my laptop for 30 minutes. Tonight, it will be the kids’ turn to try their luck in guessing the song lyrics.

I have three aunts in my father’s side of the family. I am close to the three. I don’t mind running errands for them but one of my aunts can be really demanding at times. There are times when she asks her daughter to go here and borrow money from me. It’s like she has a savings account with me when she asks for money. It just pisses me off when she acts like that. It’s like you can’t do anything, you can’t say no, just give the money and wait for her to return it. If it isn’t for my dad, I wouldn’t tolerate it. But because she has done a lot for us when my mom got sick and died, well, out of gratitude, I just let her be.

Now, to take my mind off my aunt, I will just have to go look for DLP tv first. A cousin of mine asked for help and since I am a sucker for favors and errands, I am off to help.

I saw this question at That’s My Answer… Would you ever argue with your boss if you knew you were in the right? And it made me think about my sister V’s predicament.

You see, she is having problems with her boss right now. She just joined the company a couple of months ago and since day 1, her boss made sure she knows that she is just a staff (even though she is actually an assistant manager) and that she should make sure not to mess with her because she has connections. In short, her boss is a brat and she’s proud of it!

Lately, my sister comes home extremely tired and looking dejected. When I asked her what’s bothering her, she told me how her boss loves humiliating her, shouting at her in front of her staff (staff under my sister). She is doing her work and have been performing better than expected but for some reason, her boss loves shouting at her in front of other people.

I remember I was in the same situation before. And what I did was I talked to the head of the company, the country manager, and told him about my predicament. He acted right away and made my boss cut me some slack. But when my boss went back to her old ways, I gave her a dose of her own medicine and quit my job. A week after, I was already working for another company, with a boss who is professional, unlike the previous one.

I told her that she should talk to someone higher than her boss and tell that person about her predicament. She cannot continue working like that. But according to her, the person higher than her boss is the one who got her boss in that position in the first place. That’s why her boss is really “powerful” in the company. And the Human Resources head is her boss’s close friend.

I don’t know if I should be advising her to start looking for another job. If I am in her situation, I’d do that right away! But you know, when dealing with someone else, even if it’s your sister, it is hard to tell her to do something impulsive. She had a hard time finding this job. It might take her longer to find a new one what with the current situation of the economy.

In times like this, being an older sister who wants to protect her younger siblings kicks in. If I can only confront her boss myself, I would have done it right away. But that would be stooping down to that brat’s level! And it will not accomplish anything. I just feel this overwhelming urge to protect my sister from the bat. My sister’s already 27. In my eyes, she will always be my little sister. Maybe I should leave her to deal with her boss. That’s what I am doing right now. Still, when you see someone you love being maltreated by someone, will you just stand by and let it all happen?

What to do? What to do?

Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.
~Author Unknown

This is so true. I love my family very much. But, of course, there are days when you feel like wringing the neck of your sister or kicking your brother’s butt. There are days when you feel like wanting to be away from everyone for a while until you see something that will remind you of why and how much you love your family in the first place.

Or maybe I am nuts already!

=)

My dilemma with my weight will never end. I think I have resigned myself to it. I just don’t think I will ever be slim because first and foremost, most females in my dad’s side of the family are on the heavy side. And then, let us not mention the fact that our family loves to eat and lingers at the dinner table during meals. I guess for me to slim down, I would need a quick weight loss product. Then again, I might just slim down for a while and will gain back the weight I’d lose. You should see the food my relatives serve during family gatherings and parties…

So pray tell, how will I lose weight with a family like mine?

When my mom died more than two years ago, our home was naturally thrown into chaos. She was doing most of the household chores when she was still strong enough but have turned to guiding my sister when she was already weak. Still, she was there to tell us what to do. I must confess, I don’t do much household chores. I simply don’t like it. So now that my mom is not here anymore, what we do is we take turns in different household chores, make a schedule on who will wash the dishes, things like that. When my siblings are at work and in school, my dad does the cooking. He’s also in charge now in taking care of things inside the house, making sure that all are in order. Organizing the storage area is another task assigned to my dad. Just yesterday I saw him arranging what looks like air tools at the storage area.

With a family as big as ours, sharing the burden of running and maintaining a household can easily be divided as long as everyone is willing to share with the load. I thank God that in our family, each and everyone of us is very much willing to share.

There are days that I worry about my family’s health. With heavy meals and not-so-active lifestyle… well, I know you get my drift. We are trying to change our eating habits already but it will not change overnight. It will surely take us months, years to change our eating habits.

On my dad’s side of the family, most cases of illnesses and deaths are caused by heart diseases. On my mom’s side of the family, cancer. I am looking at North Carolina health insurance for each of us. Just to be sure. You never really know when an illness will attack. And you all know how costly it is to be sick these days…

In our family it is a tradition to celebrate one’s birthday year after year. By celebrating, I mean preparing something for the relatives that will be dropping by. Not a big party, just something that will be enough to feed anyone who stops by. Like one of my numerous cousins will be celebrating her birthday by next month. We already got a call telling us about the party. No need for Quinceanera invitations because we’re family. But I think some were sent out to my cousin’s friends already. It will be a lot of fun, that’s for sure. When our family gathers together, you can expect a riot.