Farmville, Sleeping Beauty, and Long Distance Marriage
Oh my poor neglected blog. To think it's the beginning of the year. Usually around this time I MAKE myself blog as part of a New Years resolution. Or I'm simply more organized and so have time to blog. Unfortunately, if Twitter and Facebook had overtaken my blogging time last year, this year, it's Farmville. This addiction is eerily similar to my SimCity addiction years ago. Seems I can't resist the thrill of growing virtual plants and caring for virtual animals. You don't even have to feed them! It's insane. And it has taken over my life.
Embarrassing.
But I get to blame Jogo for all this. Kasalanan niya ang lahat ng ito and hindi niya mapagkakaila.
Fortunately, blogging and TV seem to be the only victims of my Farmville black hole of time. Aside from American Idol, and only if I remember to watch, I don't watch any TV at all. But I seem to be accomplishing almost everything else on my task list. The supermarketing gets done every week, repairs get done in the house. Our finances are in order. I put my kids to sleep every night, I still play with them and read to them (not as much but I'm trying). I'm able to turn in Chinese painting homework every Saturday (which means I practice at home AND attend sessions), I made detailed drawings of my proposed design for my sister's bedroom. I go out with friends to watch movies and plays, I'm even able to read books! And am now on my second Jasper Fforde book of the year.
Right now I'm busiest with preparing for Lia's birthday party in school. What a to-do that had the potential to become. Ever since the end of Christmas, every other sentence out of Lia's mouth is, "When is my birthday? Is it February 16 yet?" And then she launches a detailed account of what WILL happen when her birthday comes. "I will go to school and the lights are closed and I'll say, 'Hello? Anybody home?' and my classmates will say, 'surprise!' and I'll say, 'why?' and Marianna will say, 'It's your birthday!' And I want pink heart shaped balloons on pink sticks, and a Sleeping Beauty gown just like in my book but small, and a seesaw and a sand box...." ad infinitum. The expectations are staggering and they are raised every day. Just this evening at bed time she thought of something new. "I want a ribbon!" she said, I said, a ribbon for what? She said, "A ribbon on my gift on my birthday because I like ribbons." Ribbons I can do. Seesaw and sandbox... Nyehhh.
So this is what it's like, to feel pressured by a four year old. I want her to have a happy birthday, and I don't want to disappoint her, and really truly I am doing my best to fulfill her fantasies (I managed to find pink heart shaped balloons AND pink sticks!) but I refuse to give her heaven and earth because she's turning four. Whatever will she think of when she turns five?! I'm hoping just getting SOME of the things she wants will do. After all, despite her seemingly exacting and borderline obsessive-compulsive nature, Lia is rather easy to please and is actually quite forgiving. The trick is figuring out which of her wishes are the most important, and which she will manage to forget at the sight of a Sleeping Beauty Gown.
And this is how I manage to not miss my husband, by filling my life with task list after task list. He's been away for exactly a month today, and I only have to wait twice that before he returns. With my planner quickly filling up as each week comes, time is actually running faster than I thought. Normally I don't like blogging about Mike being out of town, I don't mind sharing this with people I know, but I hardly think it's the business of the unknowns who read this blog (AS IF MERON!) how often Mike has to travel. But I think it's worth recording how well we're all doing despite our distance.
The day before he left, I couldn't stop myself from crying because I knew I was going to miss him terribly (and may I use the pregnancy hormones excuse once again? I'm pregnant! I get to cry!) and he assured me three months were going to fly by so quickly I'll say when he returns, Nandito ka na? Bilis naman! He said the thing he learned from running (because yes, he runs. Sumusunod talaga yun sa uso.) is that when faced by a challenge, like a particularly long or difficult route, before you run you're really scared. But during the run itself, you're too busy running to be scared or in pain or anything else. And I think in the past month he's been quite right. In fact, inspired by the thought of making sure the house is in complete order while he's away, I've finished tasks that I've been procrastinating about for months. Like the cleaning of the mess room was accomplished less than a week after he had gone. That really made me feel quite fulfilled. Especially since I did most of the cleaning myself. No bringing in people to move stuff around for me. Although I probably shouldn't be blogging this, it annoys Mike a lot that I insist on climbing up step ladders and lifting boxes while I'm pregnant. But cleaning feels SO GOOD when you're nesting, I really didn't feel like sharing the pleasure with others. Haha. But don't worry, Mike, I didn't do any of the HEAVY lifting. And I let Felma do the vacuuming after I finished clearing everything away. I was too tired na by then.
Another small blessing is that, since we've established a daily schedule of skyping, we get talk face to face nearly everyday. For at least 15-20 minutes. And on weekends, if he has internet, we get to talk for over an hour. And at four years of marriage, this is probably more than we would have talked had he actually been around. Sorry friends who have notions of happily ever after marriage bliss. At some point after the honeymoon, you will largely ignore your spouse unless you need something from him. You will likewise be ignored as well. But I guess that's another reason we don't miss each other as much as we thought, or I thought (I suppose he was under no illusions that he would miss me much at all. It's not really in his nature to dwell on things he cannot control.) I really enjoy getting to talk to him regularly, and getting to share in all the new experiences he's having in a foreign land. Snow, foreign friends, Filipino friends in a foreign land, the things he's learning in class and out of it... It gives me a strange kind of joy that my dreams of going to London and watching Wicked have come true to him. I guess it's because I know for sure that someday, he will go back and take me with him.
In the meantime, I have a Sleeping Beauty party to plan, and crops to plant and harvest.
Embarrassing.
But I get to blame Jogo for all this. Kasalanan niya ang lahat ng ito and hindi niya mapagkakaila.
Fortunately, blogging and TV seem to be the only victims of my Farmville black hole of time. Aside from American Idol, and only if I remember to watch, I don't watch any TV at all. But I seem to be accomplishing almost everything else on my task list. The supermarketing gets done every week, repairs get done in the house. Our finances are in order. I put my kids to sleep every night, I still play with them and read to them (not as much but I'm trying). I'm able to turn in Chinese painting homework every Saturday (which means I practice at home AND attend sessions), I made detailed drawings of my proposed design for my sister's bedroom. I go out with friends to watch movies and plays, I'm even able to read books! And am now on my second Jasper Fforde book of the year.
Right now I'm busiest with preparing for Lia's birthday party in school. What a to-do that had the potential to become. Ever since the end of Christmas, every other sentence out of Lia's mouth is, "When is my birthday? Is it February 16 yet?" And then she launches a detailed account of what WILL happen when her birthday comes. "I will go to school and the lights are closed and I'll say, 'Hello? Anybody home?' and my classmates will say, 'surprise!' and I'll say, 'why?' and Marianna will say, 'It's your birthday!' And I want pink heart shaped balloons on pink sticks, and a Sleeping Beauty gown just like in my book but small, and a seesaw and a sand box...." ad infinitum. The expectations are staggering and they are raised every day. Just this evening at bed time she thought of something new. "I want a ribbon!" she said, I said, a ribbon for what? She said, "A ribbon on my gift on my birthday because I like ribbons." Ribbons I can do. Seesaw and sandbox... Nyehhh.
So this is what it's like, to feel pressured by a four year old. I want her to have a happy birthday, and I don't want to disappoint her, and really truly I am doing my best to fulfill her fantasies (I managed to find pink heart shaped balloons AND pink sticks!) but I refuse to give her heaven and earth because she's turning four. Whatever will she think of when she turns five?! I'm hoping just getting SOME of the things she wants will do. After all, despite her seemingly exacting and borderline obsessive-compulsive nature, Lia is rather easy to please and is actually quite forgiving. The trick is figuring out which of her wishes are the most important, and which she will manage to forget at the sight of a Sleeping Beauty Gown.
And this is how I manage to not miss my husband, by filling my life with task list after task list. He's been away for exactly a month today, and I only have to wait twice that before he returns. With my planner quickly filling up as each week comes, time is actually running faster than I thought. Normally I don't like blogging about Mike being out of town, I don't mind sharing this with people I know, but I hardly think it's the business of the unknowns who read this blog (AS IF MERON!) how often Mike has to travel. But I think it's worth recording how well we're all doing despite our distance.
The day before he left, I couldn't stop myself from crying because I knew I was going to miss him terribly (and may I use the pregnancy hormones excuse once again? I'm pregnant! I get to cry!) and he assured me three months were going to fly by so quickly I'll say when he returns, Nandito ka na? Bilis naman! He said the thing he learned from running (because yes, he runs. Sumusunod talaga yun sa uso.) is that when faced by a challenge, like a particularly long or difficult route, before you run you're really scared. But during the run itself, you're too busy running to be scared or in pain or anything else. And I think in the past month he's been quite right. In fact, inspired by the thought of making sure the house is in complete order while he's away, I've finished tasks that I've been procrastinating about for months. Like the cleaning of the mess room was accomplished less than a week after he had gone. That really made me feel quite fulfilled. Especially since I did most of the cleaning myself. No bringing in people to move stuff around for me. Although I probably shouldn't be blogging this, it annoys Mike a lot that I insist on climbing up step ladders and lifting boxes while I'm pregnant. But cleaning feels SO GOOD when you're nesting, I really didn't feel like sharing the pleasure with others. Haha. But don't worry, Mike, I didn't do any of the HEAVY lifting. And I let Felma do the vacuuming after I finished clearing everything away. I was too tired na by then.
Another small blessing is that, since we've established a daily schedule of skyping, we get talk face to face nearly everyday. For at least 15-20 minutes. And on weekends, if he has internet, we get to talk for over an hour. And at four years of marriage, this is probably more than we would have talked had he actually been around. Sorry friends who have notions of happily ever after marriage bliss. At some point after the honeymoon, you will largely ignore your spouse unless you need something from him. You will likewise be ignored as well. But I guess that's another reason we don't miss each other as much as we thought, or I thought (I suppose he was under no illusions that he would miss me much at all. It's not really in his nature to dwell on things he cannot control.) I really enjoy getting to talk to him regularly, and getting to share in all the new experiences he's having in a foreign land. Snow, foreign friends, Filipino friends in a foreign land, the things he's learning in class and out of it... It gives me a strange kind of joy that my dreams of going to London and watching Wicked have come true to him. I guess it's because I know for sure that someday, he will go back and take me with him.
In the meantime, I have a Sleeping Beauty party to plan, and crops to plant and harvest.