2008 books

Last year, with the all the toxicities of hospital work, I must have read only a dozen books. This year I decided to take the 50-book challenge. I ended up reading 65 books (and still counting), not my all time high but still a lot compared to last year. I think I have to up the ante for next year.

Books I've read in 2008 (faves for the year in bold).
1. For One More Day - Mitch Albom
2. The Key - Junichiro Tanizaki
3. Final Epidemic - Earl Merkel
4. Love, Etc - Julian Barnes
5. The Europeans - Henry James
6. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami
7. The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad
8. Burning Bright - John Steinbeck
9. In Praise of Shadows - Junichiro Tanizaki
10. Vita Brevis - Jostein Gaarder
11. 1984 - George Orwell
12. Factotum - Charles Bukowski
13. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
14. The Relation of My Imprisonment - Russell Banks
15. Knots - R. D. Laing
16. The Blue Girl - Charles De Lint
17. I'm A Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
18. Diary Of A Bad Year - J. M. Coetzee
19. Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
20. New Japanese Voices: The Best Contemporary Fiction From Japan - (ed) Helen Mitsios
21. The Wanting Seed - Anthony Burgess
22. After Dark - Haruki Murakami
23. A Verse To Beasts - Nick Bantock
24. A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. The Meaning Of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist - Richard Feynman
27. The Wolves in the Walls - Neil Gaiman
28. Reasons to Live - Amy Hempel
29. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
30. Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah - Carlo Vergara
31. New Spring: The Novel - Robert Jordan
32. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
33. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
34. Take the Cannoli - Sarah Vowell
35. Gut Symmetries - Jeanette Winterson
36. The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
37. The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
38. Tears of a Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith
39. Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
40. Blind Submission - Debra Ginsberg
41. Drawn and Quarterly Showcase Three
42. Next - Michael Crichton
43. Goodbye Lemon - Adam Davies
44. Short Cuts - Raymond Carver
45. The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
46. Drinking, Smoking and Screwing - (ed) Sara Nickles
47. Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story - Tony and Maureen Wheeler
48. Apathy and Other Small Victories - Paul Nielan
49. The Men Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks
50. Animal Farm - George Orwell
51. The Kindness of Strangers - Mike McIntyre
52. Hardboiled and Hard Luck - Banana Yoshimoto
53. Happy New Year, Charlie Brown - Charles M. Schulz
54. The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland
55. The Painted Word - Tom Wolfe
56. The Coma - Alex Garland
57. The Neon Bible - John Kennedy Toole
58. Tales of My Melancholy Whores - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
59. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
60. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! - Jon Scieszka
61. The PowerBook - Jeanette Winterson
62. The Final Solution: A Story of Detection - Michael Chabon
63. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie
64. Side Effects - Woody Allen
65. The Camera My Mother Gave Me - Susannah Kaysen

Currently Reading:
Seeing - Jose Saramago
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

holiday rundown

This December, I have been doing a lot of walking. With all the pounds I still seem to be gaining this holiday season despite the increase in activity I have been thinking of ways to make a healthy comeback.

I started with making Christmas resolutions. I can't seem to stick with my New Year's resolutions, maybe resolutions made on Christmas will.

December 24 - after learning about Kimiko Date's comeback and watching a few matches on youtube, I started making plans.

December 25 - Christmas day saw me playing basketball, something I haven't done in over a year. I was expecting to get sore muscles the next day but I was still pretty okay.

December 26 - I begged for new running shoes from family so I can take up running again. At the mall, the running shoes in stock were not suited for someone flat-footed like me. It was a bummer. On top of that I had to go back to QC afterwards. The 2 1/2-hour bus ride I usually take back to the metro stretched to 4 hours because of all the traffic.

December 27 - Back in QC I had to wake up at 5 in the morning to get to work. It was a slow day, from 7 am to 12 noon I only had to see 6 patients. In contrast to working in government-run hospitals and health centers I had the luxury to spend as much time as I wanted with my patients in the HMO clinic. It was such a breath of fresh air. Sadly, I didn't get my paycheck.

December 28 - I got lucky and was finally able to get new running shoes.

December 29 - I'm sticking to my Christmas resolution. I was not able to run but I was able to play ball for about an hour. It felt good to be sweating again.

December 30 - Family reunion. As the designated "babysitter" I was on my feet the whole time running after my two-year old cousins. Salad made from fresh produce from the farm was as good as ever. The freshly-brewed coffee was even better.

Now I wonder what's in store for the last day of the year? If I can't run, I'll definitely do some walking.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

christmas cheer

Waking up this morning I concluded that I hate Christmas.

No, I haven't been grumpy about Christmas at all. I'm not Scrooge going "Bah, Humbug!" every time someone tries to spread holiday cheer. But for some reason, I found out it's just not my thing.

My blase attitude became a little cheerier when I learned about Kimiko Date's tennis comeback (Kimiko rises again from the WTA Tour News). I learned about this a little late but it's still good news for me. Enough to make me happy this Christmas. (Merry Christmas to me, yahoo!)


Return Date: Kimiko Date to make a comeback from Tennis.com

I used to play tennis and was good enough in the beginning. I was the girl who had perfect form, a single-handed backhand and who chose to play singles while everyone else was playing doubles.

I remember one of the best games I played when I was starting out. I lost. One of the girls who beat me in doubles ended up winning both the singles and doubles title in the Palarong Pambansa so it wasn't really that bad.

Anyway, at the height of my obsession with tennis Kimiko Date was my idol. It's nice to know that after 12 years into retirement she's making a comeback.


I think 2009 will be a better year for me.

----
Another day, another chance to be healthy.

lantern parade

UP Diliman

To be young and healthy without a care in the world . . . except

Patalsikin si Gloria/Oust Gloria/GMA must go
Junk VFA
Stop Campus Repression
Defend OSR
Give us back our tambayans
No Lab Fees

and a whole litany of demands fed to the audience in between cries of "Iskolar ng Bayan ngayon ay lumalaban!"

I wasn't able to watch the fireworks after the parade. I'm still glad I was there. This time as a viewer and not a participant. Ang bilis lumipas ng mga taon. The last time I took part in the Lantern Parade was my senior year in college. That was eight years ago.

Oh, to be young and healthy without a care in the world . . .

december weather

December weather is not agreeing with me. It's not cold enough to be pleasant but my sinuses have definitely sensed the decrease in temperature.

Every morning I wake up sneezing. The buzz given by the antihistamine/decongestant I have to take everyday is not the warm and fuzzy kind. I wake up every morning with a feeling that I'm never fully awake.

Today after all the excitement of meeting friends over the weekend I had the makings of an asthma attack. I had used up all of the 200 actuations from my inhaler and was forced to take the only asthma medication I had on hand - a 2 mg Salbutamol tablet. I haven't taken oral medications for my asthma in a while. I'm sure it made me breathe easier, but I truly hate the side effects. Of course, I'm sure the morning coffee I had with the Salbutamol added to the palpitations and tremors I felt afterwards. I just wasn't expecting it to be that bad.

The last time I remember having systemic effects from my asthma medications was when I was in grade school. I remember having to change meds often because I was having tremors and they were a mighty nuisance during piano practice. I switched to the inhaler as soon as I could figure out how to use them.

I feel so lame having an asthma attack in December, having to stay in the whole night while every one else is out doing Christmas shopping. Not that I have moolah for Christmas shopping. It's still a bummer.

I'm no Scrooge, but Christmas was just never my thing.


Reading: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (seriously!)
Listening to: You're No Rock and Roll Fun by Sleater-Kinney

medical mission numbers

5 hours on the road
8 hours to do the job
3 MDs
4 DNDs
3 RNs
280 patients

TOTAL: A GOOD DAY AT WORK