Dear friends,
Today is the anniversary of this newsletter, which feels like a good time for me to come back to it. I’ve been thinking about how much I miss writing, doing the days and remembering them by writing here. It’s been a trip to read a few back-issues and realize that, at one point in my life, I was so disciplined about churning this out.
I sent out the last update around three months ago. Since then, the major change in my life has been that I stumbled into co-founding a start-up, Sibuyas.PH. It’s been so challenging to sit in unease day in and day out, but it’s also a necessary growth journey for me. I’m a risk-averse corporate girl who enjoys structure and processes. Start-up life is… very much not that. My boyfriend Francis has been my rock through it all, and every day I thank my lucky stars that we met and fell in love. It’s the most stable and healthy relationship I’ve ever had.
For the past few months, I’ve been going through a low season, mental-health-wise. One aspect of it is that I was firing on all cylinders throughout the campaign, and then I jumped into start-up mode, all the while at risk of burn-out. Unfortunately, productivity culture still has me in its clutches. I have to remind myself that rest can be productive too. I recently told Aia that I feel guilty that Francis does most of the heavy lifting in our day-to-day life. She told me, “Girl, non-stop ka since TLR days. Let someone else do the heavy lifting for now. He’s happy about it anyway. I-Elsa mo na! Kahit for now.” Another aspect is that I have anxiety about not having a corporate job, a steady income, because our start-up is still in the infancy stage. I have so much to unlearn! I am often overwhelmed by it!
We’re setting up a blog feature on the site, so I’ll be posting more there about budol specifically, but I do miss documenting the everyday things, so I hope I can keep this up again. I’ll be traveling for much of September, so best effort.
Currently…
Watching Drag Race Philippines. I got to sleep over at my best friend Den’s house and watch an episode with her. Enjoying it! It’s so uniquely Pinoy. They made a valiant effort at translating, but Pinoy humor is difficult to capture. Also enjoying She-Hulk and Bridgerton (I am late to this party, I know!). ALSO: Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist is such a wild ride!
Listening to BBC’s podcast “It’s… Wagatha Christie.” I went on a deep dive into this trial over the weekend and it! is! fascinating! Extremely up my alley. Read this Guardian article first as a primer; it’s such a fun read.
Eating Southeast Asian cuisine at our Potluck Club cooking party. So good, and so happy we could all get together after many years of not hanging out because of the pandemic.
Swimming with the kids <3 I want to build a pool that has a big kiddie-appropriate area so we adults can also lounge in it.
Reading a lot of romance books. I’ve got my groove back! These past few months, I have really enjoyed the following books: Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez, Dial A for Aunties & its sequel Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Sutanto, Counterfeit by Kirsten Chen.
Feel free to share this newsletter, it’s open to the public. I always get excited any time people engage with me about things that I post, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts. Unless it’s mean or mansplainy: in that case, no thank you. <3 If this is your first time reading this, you can subscribe via the button below and then the next issues will land in your inbox.