The year that was...

Year 2009 has been a very big year for me. Very colorful, very exciting. Intense, I may say!

The year started with a traverse! This is my first time to summit a mountain! Mt. Anawangin it is! As first timers goes, "it was exhiliratingly fun and tiring!" It wasn't my first time in Anawangin, but a traverse is not pump boat ride. As it goes, a pump boat ride is not a traverse! Read The Many Facets of Anawangin Cove. That's for January.

Come February is my (and my co-batchmate Fhiley) probationary period as a Cathlab nurse. Apart form the 3-month training is this 6 months on probation status wherin I will be on my own but watched and evaluated for regularization. The feeling then was kind of nervous while excited. Excited to see my name on the board and nervous because I might do something stupid!

My good old friend from Highschool came home from Saipan in March. We went out on a gimmick in Greenbelt and ate at Red Crab and partied 'till eve in Ice Bare where it is prohibited to smoke, damn! Anyway's it was a fun night!

April marked the start of the Cathlab staff practice for the PSCCI Fellowship night dance off rivalring all the participating Cathlab staff dancers in the Metro. The theme was Disco Inferno! Our line up of disco medley: Last Dance, Carwash, Single Ladies, Burn Baby Burn, I Feel Good, Play That Funky Music, etc. We converted our Recovery Room into a dance floor! This month, we also discovered another getaway, Nagsasa Cove. Also in Zambales as its cousin Anawangin cove is. Equally attractive, though Anawangin is majestic but nearly commercialized. Nagsasa on the other hand is serene, lonely, lovely, nearly placid, quiet, private, and has secrets. BTW, our trip back to Pundaquit is freaking scary! To cap off April is the SLMC summer outing held in Ocean Adventure, Subic.

May was the month of Science and Artistry! The Philippine Society of Cardiovascular Catheterization and Intervention, Inc. held the annual scientific convention. This was the 16th and it was held in Crowne Plaza Manila. It was a two-day conference (live cath, lectures, Q and A, case pesentations and dance presentaion for the Fellowship Night). We failed to bag the top price because of technicalities, but hey, we are second and we know we won the popularity votes that night, I've never been so applauded in my life 'till that day. hehe. After that is the after party at Tagaytay dubbed as Tagay-Tagayan sa Tagaytay! We visited Mt. Pinatubo later on this month. truly majestic and truly cloudy! It was always drizzling there. Though the volcano won't be erupting anytime soon, there was a moment, that time, that marred my excitement during the trek. Our guide said that it was unusual for us to climb on that rainy day, and moreover, it is usual to have a 2 or 3 small quakes a month. So it's a slim chance, but still! BTW, there are still indegenous people there, the Aetas. FYI, at the latter part of 2009 people died while speeding up on a slope on their way up to the crater. Sad. Scary.

June was a busy month. Work, work, work! I have to prove my worth as a nurse and it was my 5th month evaluation as well.

July marked our sixth month probationary period. Thankfully, I was regularized! Lucky Me! As for the celebration, hmmmm I have to save up for next month.

August was set for Mt. Pulag alone! This is the much coveted climb of the year! Mountain specs: 16degrees34'5'8"N 120degrees53'15"E, 2922+ MASL. Climb specs: Type -Major, Difficulty -3/9, Trail -class 3. This mountain is located between Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya. The trek was long and interesting, you'll start off on the mossy vegetation then the pine trees then the grasslands. It was freezing there during the night, one of us got sick! But everything's worth it, you'll have this unexplainable feeling once you're up there and all you could think about it how to document this and upload the pictures you took in facebook for everyone to see how beautiful the Philippines is. whew!

This month is my Birthday month, September! So i treated myself with a dose of an island... Boracay! It was off peek and the sun was as well off peak! It was cloudy, rainy but definitely not gloomy beacause we partied for two nights at the Summer place where I met my Boracay flame. On the latter part of this month is when the typhoon Ondoy strucked Luzon and pooled the metro with water and mud. It was devastating, but knowing us we can survive anything! Though still it was a dark part of the year. Many lives were claimed. FYI, we were stuck in SLMC cathlab the day Ondoy strucked.

October was welcomed with a triple treat! Jon's, Mark's and my birthday bash at our birthplace, Bamboo Grande! As usual, we drank the night away!

This month is the start of get-togethers. This is a November-must get-together, reunion at the Cemetery with my family! We can't miss this! And later that month is the JayVie FaEl SarGo annual meet-up. Another dark part of the year that could equal the Ondoy tragedy is the Ampatuan Massacre, this tragedy is saddening and full of anguish.

December parties started off at Dr. Posas' abode where I ate my favourite paella and baked lasagna and coke-wine. Then trailed to Club Manila East for the SLMC Cathlab Christmas Party that was so successful despite of the technical glitches! We had sumptuous dinner, presentations, games, awards, gift-giving, drinking, cash-giving, swimming, people throwing, dancing, more drinking, stripping, more drinking, vomitting then sleeping. I had a Michael Jackson impersonation that night, right before I slipped and fell on the tiles. Then ithe month was capped off with The Alcantara clan's christmas reunion. So much for gift-giving! I almost gave everyone a gift, except for those who I don't see very often.

I've learned so much this past year, work-wise, inter-personal and about my own self as well.

This year also taught me that you'll eventually lose good friends but you'll gain equally good ones too. People who stays are usually the true ones! People who gave up and went away could be just fed up, miscommunticated or just found new exciting ones. Communication is important, therefore I am guilty.

For sure, 2010 is another year of hellos and goodbyes.