Rise on 5

The month started with resumption of he annual Antipolo trip (since we weren’t able to go last year), and couple of days earlier this time. We went to Antipolo for papa’s birthday on the Labor Day, instead of on the third. We had lunch after the Mass. It was fun, the family, bigger now with the Contis. We did get lunch outside (I took the day off) that Wednesday, his birthday. Before the first weekend, I got to go back to TV5 Phase 2—now complete—to give the Voyager office a look. The floors are still being fitted out by the tenants. I did some load and reinforcement checking later on and initially thought I got things screwed up. It turns out, I didn’t.I finally got the Lego Double Decker couch from the pleasant ebay seller. After Sunday mornign Mass and breakfast, I let Mhae assemble the set. It was really heart-warming on my part to see her so happy building a Lego set. I’m pretty used to it, but this is something she kinda missed as a kid. Looking back, I was really lucky, even with the smaller sets, I got to enjoy Lego, thanks to papa.

I got a notification from Abenson that the bluetooth speaker that we got free from the laptop purchase was already available. Mae and I actually inquired when we went out on Papa’s birthday and it wasn’t available yet—some customs thing. The (mis)adventure the night I got the speaker was that I walked along EDSA from Ayala to Evangelista. I should have taken the bus. Traffic was only upto Arnaiz. I’m pretty lucky, though, that I didn’t get scolded by Mhaelord. Later that week, I saw Mr. Millanes and greeted him. Quick conversation. And somehow highschool-related, Goey already got himself a Ryzen 5 pc. I almost felt bad but I just thought, I’m meant to get that Ryzen 5 CPU eventually. Before the weekend, mama and I got worried when papa wasn’t already home from his Laguna trip. He apparently had a tyre accident, but thank God, no one got hurt. We enjoyed the lomi he bought when he got home. Mothers’ day weekend came and the lunch-out celebration with the Calimon side was pretty simple at Aristocrat—with special reminder of Tito Feds in a butterfly. Later that Sunday, Ate accompanied Mhae and me to Landmark to get the gift mhae picked for mama size-changed. Another really great thing about being with mhae is that she thinks of the special things I don’t really get to give much attention to—like mothers’ day gifts for mama, tita chato, tita fe, and tita trining. The mothers’ day gift from ate was a Dunkin Donut bouquette. I think mama liked it.

Third week started (well, towards the end of that Monday) with me having to play at last for the chess team—something I successfully avoided until that supposed last eliminations game. I lost, but the team still won the game agains EnE. We ended up at a draw with CM, though, so we were set for a tie-breaker the following week. As for basketball, we’re goint to battle for third after we lost drastically to CM. Going back a little, I got to go out of town for a site inspection after seemingly more than a year. Quite relaxing with a nice vacation scenery and almost 4 hours of sleeping travel. Ate’s birthday celebration that Thursday was simple. She celebrated with Buds and mama, papa, and I, along with mhae, celebrated here in Makati. It was also the week for the MM outing and we were in panic mode until the night before. Despite all, I think my companions in the Core made it a success. It was also a nice goodbye to and from Fr. Ting. Personally, I feel so happy that my memory of Monte Vista is now more about the Music Ministry, and a day I spent with mhae—who was also very helpful to the core even more than me. It’s also heartwarming to get to be with the active members of PEMC after we officially dissolved, and seeng former companions in SMC, still active in the MM as a whole. And the choir family thing didn’t end that Saturday. It was followed-up by a meeting Kuya Jonathan, Daisy, and Marly. We had lunch at dampa and a movie at MOA. Fun bit that day—Yaluts cameo at McDo Evangelista. SMC is much more of mhae’s choir family than I got to get connected myself. But still, it’s nice to spend time with good friends.

SEMP Chess team finaly goes to the finals after tie breaker against CM. I was fortunate enough to not need to play. I was in corparate attire that day for the photoshoot/acting with the NBAQ4 team. I think that helped get me distracted from thinking about the game. Isang linggong kabado. It’s kinda sad, though, that despite that win supposedly erasing the doubt of our team’s ranking, negativity and bitterness still shows up. Oh well. On lighter stuff, G69 viber group chat got a bit computer-related (as I noticed, since that when I usually participate) with a bit of wedding (yalut’s) discussions. Moving on. Wednesday that week was great. Third time’s a charm with my call to gigahertz and learning that the laptop (that was not ready on my first call two weeks before, and long fixed but not ready by my second call the week before) was already available for pickup. I went ahead on taking the afternoon off from work and not telling mhae of my trip to megamall, passing by the house because I didn’t bring the receipt with me. It was the feast of Mary Help of Christians, and I consider that a gift from her intercession—that I see mhae so happy and even more inspired to do her schoolwork. Oh, and it’s a personal miracle, that I celebrated that day, that I finall found a seller who offered Ryzen 5 outside of a bundle. Back to the ASUS laptop, mhae planned to do some feasibility study work here at home after we sang in church for the feast day. My heart was filled with gladness at the sight of her joy in seeing our laptop fixed. I think I was happier to see her happy. And she was really really happy. We worked until dawn on formatting their paper. She even missed class the next day. There was more feasibility study stuff though the weekend, including a trip to RP for their group meeting that Sunday. As for office work for me, there was sufficient masinloc progress and the month-long billing was quite easier this time around.

The title is supposed to be a pun on ryzen 5. Oh well. Cutting it short, this past Monday’s Ryzen build was really satisfying. I got to upgrade at last, and deciding to not go for aftermarket air or aio liqiud cooling kept the cost around the nominal 69k. My PC-69 plan 6 years ago actually happened. I’ll eventually go above but it’s amazing still. I have yet to re-activate Windows but I’m ending with a happy note. And the month closes. I got to sing for the Flores de Mayo celebration before fetching Mhae at the LRT. Prayers are with her for their defense tomorrow. It’s nice to have the month bookended by Masses. Oh, and this month was really special as planning for August 2018 has started.