I've been a very bad girl so go ahead, spank me

I've neglected posting stuff in here for the last month and a half because:

1. I was so depressed during the holidays that I let myself be sucked into the black hole of self-pity. The -ber months mean something more to me than Christmas shopping. Beb and Alyssa celebrate their birthday in September, Bom's birthday and our anniversary is October, November is Thanksgiving and December is Christmas.

It was my first Thanksgiving and I burned my hand on the grill while roasting the turkey which was so big I could've sworn it was a baby ostrich. It took us eight days to finish it off. Turkey salad, turkey sandwich, turkey wrap, turkey rice...I don't think I'll be able to eat turkey at this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

It was also my first Christmas here and I missed the bibingka and the puto bumbong, the simoy ng Pasko (there really is such a thing pala) and the tiangges. The good thing was I finally got free from all the pesky neighborhood kids singing Jinggam Bells.

2. I was busy with Alyssa and my future mother-in-law (FMIL). The whole thing with FMIL staying with us for a week because she hated staying with her brother and his wife and going on a long drive to Connecticut just to see a hospital has pretty much eaten up my time. For those of you who don't know, FMIL and I aren't really on good terms. We get on each other's nerves. And that's the polite me speaking. If you think I'm a bitch, just wait, you haven't heard nothing yet.

3. Most of my time is spent going to New York everyday for work. But it's all good because I'm having a blast. The people are fun and the workload is mala-mala. And get this: I wear jeans and sneakers to work! Cool huh?

4. We're having immigration issues. Most of it has to do with how Americans define middle name. You know how Pinoys like giving two or more first names to their kids? Mas mahaba, mas sosyal ka. Well, being sosyal won't do you any good because they'd consider your second first name your middle name. Now, take a deep breath and read it again. There you go! So, Gianna Alyssa P. Del Pilar is Gianna A. Del Pilar to them. Ang labo no? Now I have to go through all the trouble of letting them know how my kids' names should appear.

There's also the thing with my brother's application to adjust his status. All his documents got lost the day before his immigration interview. Unbelievable. My sister is now working to get his case reopened.

5. I was left to run the household while my aunt and my sister enjoyed Vegas and California for eight days. Inggit! They took Alyssa to FMIL kasi kulang ang 24 hours para magawa ko ang mga kailangan kong gawin. I had to wake up at 4:30, cook breakfast, get my brother, my cousin and my son ready for school, get myself ready for work, arrange for someone to pick up my son from school, rush to work and do whatever I have to do, go home, clean the house, cook or buy dinner (depends on how exhausted I am at the end of the day), make sure everyone does their homework and finally, sleep. Add the stress at work because I just started and was still feeling my way around. Yeah, New Yorker baby!

Whatever time I have left on the weekend was spent catching up on sleep, doing laundry and preparing stuff for Monday. Grabe, ang hirap! I didn't even have time to call Beb or my family back home.

The whole ordeal made me appreciate my mom even more. Mahirap pala maging superwoman.

That pretty much sums up everything that's happened during your idol's absence.

Launch Party and office tsismis coming soon.