Last night, the 9-day (actually night) novena for my mom had finished. It’s been 10 days since we cremated her body and placed her ashes inside a box. You could only imagine how a human body could easily be reduced to a handful of dust. It’s already been 14 days since her last breath, and tomorrow, on my birthday, my mother who was with me for 22 years would be 15 days dead. It’s ironic really, for me to be celebrating life on the one hand, when on the other, I’d be mourning my mother’s death. But it’s really that simple, life goes on. Come to think of it, death does so too. But then again, we’d have our philosophical differences here and we’d end up discussing something else when in fact I’d like to talk about another.

Anyway, I’ve been on blog/text/chat/email sabbatical for a week. I guess it is part of the ritual that people do when they experience a life-turning event. And for me to talk about it in such a casual tone now would lead you to think that I’ve been able to cope well with everything I’ve had to face. I’ve been strong, thanks to all of your support. I really appreciate your warm texts and messages of encouragement and concern. Although I wasn’t able to reply to all of you, know that I really am very grateful and I feel so lucky to have you as friends. I’m taking this time now to say thank you to you all.

This is actually a day delayed blog entry. The thing is, yesterday, we lost our internet connection due to whatever reason globe can think of (or maybe they did have some technical problem or perhaps it was just the regular system maintenance). In any case, I wasn’t able to share this with you the day before.

I believe you can say that this would be another start of my blogging escapades (yeah right!), since I think I’m now ready to get back on track and pick up from where I left everything off. I’d like to think that new things have opened up to me despite the others that have closed.

Last week, I started work with Azeus. If you don’t know what that is, google it. Google is your best friend (next to what’s-her-name). Anyway, it’s been a mix of fun and tough lessons. Yeah, we’ve been training for more than a week now. And tomorrow, we’ll have our final exams for this specific lesson that I am not telling, ‘coz you might say that we’re such pussies having a hard time on something that you find easy to do. Spare me the criticisms, I’d rather not hear what you have to say (so it won’t hurt me) – based on a personal experience that I haven’t been too keen on forgetting. (Talk about bitter!)

I am supposed to be preparing for that exam now, but knowing me, I’ll always have the time of my life for anything and everything (that I want, that is).

Yeah, I guess that’s what’s been keeping me busy all this time, keeping my mind off things, and giving me something else to look forward to. But you know what, no matter how strong your façade seems, there will always be that weak spot that when hit would make the whole fortress crumble. Yeah, I cried. And I guess I needed that.

…

But hey, I took some pictures while we were on break earlier, and look at how the view is like on the 29^th floor.

That’s it for now.