#56 Torn

I have been busy for the past few weeks with the move and finding new things to work on the house. Finding time to sit down and write just felt elusive but I am forcing myself now to post something and put a marker of sorts.

House. It’s been a mixture of excitement and frustration for me. I love the idea of having the ability of being able to design how my house will look like. It feels like I have a blank canvas and it’s up to me to decide how I want it to look. And that brings me to the frustration part of this homeownership. I just see an endless list of things to do that it gets tiring and overwhelming. I really need to set up a Product Backlog or Kanban Board that I can work with so it gets organized. I just need to sort more purchases that I need to do to make this house more livable. My Miele vacuum cleaner arrived today so I can start more cleaning.

Rhinitis. I was telling my friend Dave that I think I have fully assimilated here in the US because I think I have allergic rhinitis. I’ve felt congested and been sneezing for the past few days and a dose of Claritin really helped me a lot. Yes, I’ve made it. I just need my American citizenship and I’m set.

Knee. A few weeks ago, I just decided to go to a sports medicine facility to have my knee checked. I chose Beacon Ortho due to great reviews and accessibility. The doctor and his student quickly assessed my knee and ordered an MRI. He thinks it’s both patellar tear and chondromalacia with the tear more grave than the other. That prognosis was confirmed by my MRI – I have a partial patellar tear. Sadness. He recommended that I go through a PRP treatment (Platelet Rich Plasma) but I am having second doubts with it. That will require some major downtime and it can also get expensive. I’ve been reading about eccentric decline squats which seem to help rebuilding patellar tendons. I’m giving this a month to see if this helps and if not, I will probably go through the PRP treatments. More on this.

#55 33

I was trying to get some inspiration of sorts for my birthday post by reading through my past entries. All I can think of was gratitude to be honest. Some of my closest friends would attest how birthdays throw me to a funk because I’ve always felt aimless and to some extent, a failure to an unreasonable standard I put myself. I’m my worst critic. But, looking back, I want to learn to be more grateful without settling down to mediocrity. I want to shoot for the stars but I should not be bogged down when I do not reach it. I should keep it high and above and continue to strive to reach it.

My 33^rd year of life is no different. Originally, I wanted to kick an item off my bucket list – travel to UK. That’s not happening this year, and I need a big dose of fiscal discipline to make it work next year. But, the flipside is that I purchased my first house. It’s surreal for me to be honest, because a part of me tells me that “I do not deserve this”, but another part screams “you worked hard for this. Own it”. I always thought of it as a dream, and not something achievable by this time. Heck, a house was never in the picture!

This year, I celebrated it with some good friends at Bella Luna (as per my request). It’s all fun! When I looked back at my old posts, I’m pretty surprised that there were tons of milestones close to my birthday. In 2011, I moved to the US for good (July 30 is the exact anniversary actually. Happy 5^th!). In 2012, I celebrated my birthday in New York. In 2013 (my 30^th!), I spent it with friends in Chicago and gained new ones to boot! 2014 was a low key birthday here in Cincinnati, but I bought my VW Golf. 2015 was spent in Singapore for a business trip, but since I know a ton of people there, it was pretty much a pleasure trip as well. And this year, another low key one in my new house. So yes, I am grateful for life. 33 years and going strong. Maybe next year, I’ll put this up in London! Stay tuned.

#54 closed.

Last Thursday, I officially became a home owner. I closed on the property at Creekview. The process itself was pretty smooth and I did not really have big problems to be honest. The biggest problem I faced was second guessing myself on this choice. Have I changed my mind on this? Do I think that this is the best path forward? I still do not know but time will surely tell. All I can do is work with this choice and move forward. It might work out better than I expected or it can be catastrophic, but I know to try it out and figure it out on my own.

#52 July!

#52

I cannot believe that it is already July! As cliché as it sounds, time is really flying so fast because it’s already the second half of the year! The next thing you know, 2016 is over and we are ushering a new year! It’s crazy in a good way. It’s pretty an exciting second half for me and there are more things to look forward to! Let’s start it with 4^th of July weekend where I spent it at Chicago, IL and Saugatuck, MI with some Chicago friends. It was my first time in a gay resort and it was just interesting to experience such stuff. Let’s just say what happens in Saugatuck stays there.

The house progress is practically done. I have scheduled my closing date to be July 21. Originally, I set it at July 22, but I figured I can just do it on a Thursday, so Friday I can do some cleaning, and fixture changes already. I’m also quite overwhelmed with all the things that I need to do for the house. My top priorities though are: (1) W&D, (2) office table (standing desk), (3) dining table and chairs, (4) new door knobs and locks, (5) lawnmower. Big ticket items, right? Well, I still want to get a new bed & frame, new television, and add more furniture. Then, I also want to update my basement, change the carpet in my “entertainment” area, and open up my kitchen with a bar or island. Yes, I am ambitious!

I want to do so much work in my house that maybe my knee problem is a blessing in disguise. Yes, my knee is still a problem unfortunately. Since my pain meds are gone and the knee pain still persisting, my PT has already referred me to go to a specialist. I will see how this will work out. I played volleyball yesterday since I will be restarting my knee pain treatment plan. Yes, I am terrible in the sport. Ugh. It’s friggin’ bad.

The perfect distraction while I wait for my house is this Pokemon Go game. It’s been fun but I’ve realized that I’m not a gamer anymore. My attention span is too short for this.\

PS: It’s my birthday month too! Cheerios for being 33 this year.

#51 Quick blurb.

Okay, since I seem to not find the time and strength to sit down and write a proper post, I’ll just ramble it down here. This will probably be incoherent.

I’m still tired generally but getting better. I’m focusing better and maybe that’s because of L-Thyrosine. Read up on it. Pretty interesting.

House is still moving along. Everything is squared except my loan. So once that is approved, I’ll be officially a home owner by the 22nd of July. Cross fingers for me.

Pride last weekend in Cincinnati! First time to march and it was awesome! Great positive vibes from the crowd and the team. I wish we just shower each other with love and not be hateful. Thoughts to Orlando massacre victims and their families. That totally put me in a funk.

I played volleyball twice and now I’m paying for it. After my meds wore off, I’m experiencing knee pain again. I guess the pain killer was hiding away the real effects. PT is not working as per plan. No volleyball again for me most likely. Started the Limber 11 though. Let’s see if this helps.

 

#50 i’m tired.

i’m just tired. there are so many things going on with work and with life that I am wishing of ways to extend 24 hours in a day. I am finite.

#49 updates

Super nice weekend again! I am really loving yung mga ganitong weekend where the weather is cooperating and there’s really nothing too drastic to do. Happy mode. Anyway, let me put out some quick updates…

House. As I blogged before, I’m looking for a house. The Boloquis are returning soon so kelangan to find a new place for me. It’s exciting but also nerve wracking. I had a ton of flip flop thoughts about this because I was not so sure if I wanted to really plant my feet and settle in a way. After all the thinking, I just really closed my eyes and just proceeded with it. My offer to a house was accepted yesterday so I just need to let the process happen. I have home inspection planned this week and then if there are no issues with that, then I am ready for appraisal and finally closing this down. The journey does not end there because I need to personalize/update the house with my taste. Let’s see. 

Knee. I still have not played volleyball. The last time I played was the Saturday before I left for SAPPHIRE in Orlando. It’s been 3 weeks already. I went to my doctor and got referred to a PT. The official diagnosis is PFPS (Patellafemoral Pain Syndrome) or Runner’s Knee. I believe it’s because of my heavy squats and also my frequent volleyball dives. Well, I am paying for it so I’m still resting it and I already opted out of the Chicago volleyball tournament. Leche. Next step for me is to send a follow up email to my doctor that taking Naproxen did not really help much even after 1 week of taking it. I’m still doing the PT exercises so let us see.

Fitness. Since I have not been playing volleyball, I’ve been swimming in the LA Fitness pool. The only problem is that it causes acne break outs for me. It’s so annoying. I don’t know what to do about it but I have not been doing any solid cardio lately so I’m fattening up!