between deadlines: whinings etc.

arggh. this is one of those weeks that would be the equivalent of hell week in college. but the worst thing about it is, every tight spot i'm rushing through i created for myself. i mean deadlines at work are understandable, even though it's a little hard to finish editing a 34-page terminal project report if your boss gives it to you at 4pm and expects it back at noon the next day. what's a little harder to swallow is that the more stressful thing in my life right now is my volunteer work for a parish that i don't even go to for mass.

not only was i assigned to do a slideshow for the december concert at short notice (again, the theme of my life), but i'm also expected to interview a couple of people and write articles about them within the week, PLUS i'm also expected to sit through a meeting (every wednesday night) that can drag on for two hours and listen to a group of rich chinese people (business people, average fortyish to fiftyish) talk about charity projects that i totally can't relate to (i think it takes a certain income level and social status to get what they're talking about), while my stomach grumbles at being starved again.

thankfully, God loves me. by some miracle i've finished editing the report (with time enough to have a free lunch at holiday plaza for the powerswitch campaign (CLEAN, RENEWABLE ENERGY NOW!)), and now i'm in the process of doing the slideshow before our meeting tonight. this journal entry is my idea of a break =P

i have to finish these things now because i have other deadlines in the next few days, all writing-related. things are getting busy. despite the deadlines, i still went to last night's Joey Ayala and Noel Cabangon concert (even bringing my laptop so i could start working on the slideshow =P). towards the later part, i just decided to stop working and enjoy the singing and the dancing and the creative energy all around, which i'm thankful now i did, because i found out JoeyA's not going home to davao this christmas, which means no free concerts there.

concert finished around 1130, and guess what the last act was? me and JoeyA himself singing a duet. mwahahaha. i requested for "Ikaw at Ako", which is a Tagalog-Cebuano duet (which, since i first heard it, i've sworn to have as my wedding song if i marry a joeyA fan). and since he didn't have anyone to sing it with, he asked if i could sing the other part. i didn't actually know the lyrics of the first stanza, but so what? i've long wanted to sing that song in public, and who better to sing it with than him? hahaha. and i'm glad he still recognized me after all these years, since we first met in manila, where after seeing me for the first time, he recognized me as the daughter of his college contemporaries (my parents).

that WAS less embarrassing, though, than that concert of his i think exactly two years ago where i danced in front of an even larger audience at The Village BY MYSELF just to get the ethnic dancing started. everyone was wound up with musical energy, but nobody wanted to let loose, so I did. just another one of those weird, embarrassing things i do without the influence alcohol or drugs.

for whatever reason, i couldn't sleep last night. at 3am i decided to just write in my journal because i felt it a waste of time to be tossing and turning in bed, and i felt so uncomfortably warm even though i took a shower at midnight. was it embarrassment from my "performance"? stress from the thought of so many deadlines? love (and its elusive nature--almost but never quite... =P)?

and to think i was really tired because i had just come from my 3-in-1 bohol adventure organized by cebuweek.com. three days of kayaking, rapelling and spelunking and walking in the rain and the cold wind. it was great! even though i didn't know anyone there, and i felt so old among these yuppie kids. plus, i was in my solitary autistic mode and didn't really feel like socializing. not that i'm good at socializing in the first place.

but can i just say that the island was BEAUTIFUL, and it was even more beautiful in the moonlight. i saw the sunset on my way to the island, and saw the moon rise a little while after i landed. it was my first time to kayak, and though it's tiring, i love cutting through the water fast, and just hearing the silence.

anyway, maybe i'll just write a separate entry for that, since this is getting long and i need to finish that slideshow (!). of course, i'll also be writing an article for that. also, aside from the photos i took with my camera, i still have to get copies of the digital pix all the other people took (i swear, that group was like a showroom for digital cams and hi-tech, do-it-all phones).

in the meantime, i'll just post this photo of me as i'm about to let go of the bridge and rapel to the river 100 feet below ;-)