Vaginal Realm

PLDT was awarded as Best Managed Company for, I dunno, two or three years in a row. Some people may agree, especially those who enjoy up to 20 months bonus. But you know, life is not all daisies here, in fact I found a rather odd exception in PLDT's health benefits for its regular employees.

Health benefits extends limitedly to immediate members of the employee's family. For the employee himself/herself, all hospitalization and other medical-related expenses are shouldered 100% by the company. Go to Makati Med or Asian Hospital or Medical City for a sprained ankle, without a single penny in your pocket, and the hospital staff will even thank you for availing of their service as long as you bring your company ID with you. No hassles, just fill up this form, sign here, and you can go! They'd even give you a free lollipop after every visit.

Yep, they got you covered inch by inch up to the last tooth and hair. Except your uterus.

You pay for each cent you pay the hospital, doctor's professional fees, pre- and post-natal care, everything, as long as its related to childbearing, miscarriage or abortion. You'll just get your usual maternity-leave-with-pay for 60 days. It's like they are discouraging their female employees from bearing a child, and having a baby doesn't really need benefit.

"Hi. I need to see a doctor. And I may need a room. Here's my PLDT ID."

"Surely, madam. May I ask what kind of doctor and/or service you need?"

"I'm about to give birth any minute now."

"Oh sorry, we don't honor PLDT IDs for deliveries. You'll have to pay us for everything."

"But...but I thought..."

"Orthopedic services are free, though. We have a physical therapist coming in in 5 minutes. You have got to see him, he's the best doctor in town."

Labels: gripe

I received a quite intriguing forwarded email today. It goes like this:

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Type in "Failure"
3. Look at the first listing and laugh at what comes up first
4. Tell other people before the people at Google fix it

As it turns out, the first hint is Dubyu's official biography. How apt. *lol*

Labels: nonsense

Dear Santa,

Please tell me its name.

Love,
Ellen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Addendum 08/17/06 5:33PM

This is Kogepan, a burnt red bean bun (hopia) who ran away from the bakery because the baker won't sell him and the other red bean buns laughed at him. After living life adrift, smoking and drinking milk as beer, he decided to come back home to the bakery. Now he is on a never-ending quest to become the perfect bread. That blue cloth tied to his neck is actually a knapsack of his things when he ran away from home.

Cute story. Heehee.

Labels: nonsense, random ramblings

When I was a little girl, I would always get lost in the mall each and everytime my parents would take me there. It happens so often that everytime before we leave the house they would never forget to reiterate their instruction of what to do when I get lost. Ironically, each time I had the strongest confidence that I will not get lost this time. And each time I was found, a hefty scolding will follow soon after.

Almost 20 years after, I’m back in that state of confusion and hopelessness. That I wish there is some grown-up out there that will help me get out of this mess I got myself in, maybe the security guard accompanying me to the customer service to have my parents paged. Someone. Anyone.

I was confident I will not tread the wrong path. I was sure I’m making the right turns. I had the strongest confidence. There wasn’t any scolding. Things apparently don’t change that much when we grow up, after all.

I’m lost. Help?

Labels: random ramblings

................ or so they say.

It's been 9 months since my father moved in with me. He retired from work about 8 months before that. Since then I took upon myself the responsibility of carrying the weight of being the house's mistress, in the absence of a mother and a more responsible older sibling. I would pay for house renovation expenses and cable TV, while my brother shoulders half of the telephone and electricity bills. And more often than not I do the grocery (which I'm about to do later), do the cooking, and then wash the dishes thereafter. On weeknights if I had an early night off I would press my clothes, and on weekends I would clean the house and do my laundry. All these I have to juggle with a very demanding job, quality time with my SO, dentist appointments, and weekly visits to my mom, my other brother and my dogs in the province.

This is not a rant. This is just simply a recollection of how active I am despite the feeling that I don't accomplish anything. Hah, talk about quarter life crisis.

Going home to the old house has become a regular for me even though I moved out of it about 4 years ago. I started living on my own at the age of 20 and since then have learned to take care of myself. Now I'm 24, the weight of role-reversal starts to kick in as I now take responsibility on father, and my immediately older brother takes care of mother. My parents are in their 60's but not decrepit; they're still pretty active for their age. But loneliness kills the heart like cancer, and for two people who have been together for 33 years, they need not tell their children that for an old person time is all he has, that time is all that he wants, because at this age of carbon monoxide and monosodium glutamate and bone marrow anyone can run out of time anytime.

I will not deny my father of my time. To calculate, for the first 20 years of my life he raised me, and now that he's 61 I'd be damn happy if I'd be granted an equal number of years to return the favor. In fact, I wanna do something more for him because I know that he and mother had to let go of most comforts in life to send their 4 offsprings to good schools. That the lost opportunity of leisure when you can best enjoy it is irreplaceable and sadly regrettable.

For Philippine economic standards, I'm a middle-income earner for the workforce of my age. That is assuming that at my age I only spend for myself, with some scraps saved little by little for the rainy days, or for a grand vacation in summer. But I want to earn more, so that someday...

I can take father to a trip around the world
Maybe we'll stop at England for a week or two to watch Wimbledon
And get him an autographed shirt or ball from his favorite players
Buy him the most efficient tennis racket available so he'd always play the best game
Get him a lifetime subscription of Inquirer or Newsweek so he'd never have to worry about alzheimer's
Hire a driver to let his failing knees rest when within horrible Manila traffic
And of course, pay for the best doctors to take care of his hypertension

I also want to take mother around the world
Go to a shop-til-you-drop European tour where we'll ransack the churches and the shops
Eat shortcake and drink tea al fresco while listening to the music of the European streets
Enjoy a full beauty treatment together for a whole day
If she wanted to, she can get botox or diamond peel without worrying about the bill
Build her a small house in Tagaytay beside her mother's and her sister's, where she'll pass the time tending her little garden
Buy her a reliable spacious car with a driver to boot
And of course, pay for the best doctors to take care of her hypertension

I wanted to do all these for them. Because I know this was what they wanted to do together. I love them both so dearly, and I wish someday I'd have the courage to tell them just that when they can still hear me.

Labels: random ramblings