TOPAZ HORIZON

Just want to say that I'm loving where I am right now. To make room for the baby, who will stay in our bedroom for his first year, we've transferred my gorgeous Prizmic & Brill writing desk to Vince's study. In one corner, him; in the other, me! So now I actually get to spend more time with him!

This isn't a good photo of me (hair unbrushed, no makeup) or my desk (messy!) but I'll post it anyway just so you see how happy I am to be in the same room as my hubby...

Yikes, am I huge or am I huge? Looking at that photo, I can't imagine ever losing abdominal fat ever again! Omigas, must get back to fighting form by Christmas! Will possibly happen as I am hell-bent on breastfeeding and everyone tells me that that will absolutely shrink all the fat away.

Missed my breastfeeding class last weekend, though. Can't seem to wake up, get up or do anything anymore. I'm so heavy! And I really wanted to go to that class (unlike the Lamaze ones) because I hear this all the time from mommies: "I'd rather give birth again than breastfeed. Breastfeeding is so painful!" That is scaring me more than giving birth! So I resolved to go to a nursing class and--surprise! surprise!--I missed it. Thankfully, so many kind mommies have offered to be my breastfeeding coach, or just meet up so that they can support me because they say that the next few months (years!) will be tough and mommies must help each other. I almost cried because that mommy who said that to me, I haven't even met her yet!

Which reminds me... You know, this past weekend, I was feeling very sad because something happened that made me realize that this world is filled with mean, nasty, evil people. And here I am bringing a kid into this awful place. It's insanity really, on my part, to bring an innocent life into this evil world. And then I looked at my mommy blog and my Facebook wall and my emails and text messages, and I was reminded of the kindness of friends and even strangers who send me and my family lovely gifts and good will. People all over the world are sending my little family so much love!

So I really should have faith in the goodness of mankind and the beauty of life. Thank you for reminding me of that. God bless you all! 

A blog reader corrected a couple of posts I wrote. Upon review, yep, I did make some grammatical mistakes. Tee hee. Thanks, Darce, for spotting the errors!

Remember when I said that I'm so grateful I hired staff who are better than me? Well, that's why OK! magazine is fabulous. My features editor Joanna Mendoza is such a grammarian! She's taught me and the rest of the staff a lot! Yesterday, over merienda, she whipped out a style guide for all of us to refer to (yes, while we were eating and gossiping!). For example, did you know that it's always an 's when you refer to a singular possessive even if the noun ends in s? So in my last post, when I said, "photo from Chuvaness' blog," that is incorrect! It should be "Chuvaness's blog."

There's a host of other rules that I won't bore you with. I will confess that I did get bored at yesterday's grammar session and just flippantly told Joanna, "Well, my rule is if I like how it sounds, then that's what's correct!" Oh, such a beeyatch I can be! It's a good thing Joanna and my staff have taken to treating me like a spoiled brat (meaning they ignore me when I throw tantrums like that)!

To be fair to me, I'm quite a fabulous editor. I'm a better editor than writer actually. That means when I look over other people's work, I can spot very quickly what's wrong and what's right. But when it comes to my own work... well, let's just say I don't like looking at it too much! That's why I love having Joanna, Elaine and Lana on the OK! team.

So, to my dear readers, if you spot an error--spelling, grammar, fact, usage--do alert me. Truth is, this is my blog and I usually just type away without thinking, unlike when it's for work where I really focus. Why? Well, aside from the fact that it's work, our editorial director Jo-Ann Maglipon once barked at us, "If you have more than three mistakes in your magazine, just go kill yourself!" Since I don't plan to take my life anytime soon or ever, I do take extra care with my work!

My husband edits me sometimes when he deigns to drop by this blog of shallowness. He's also forever correcting my pronunciation. I'm Bisaya so my spoken English and Tagalog can be, uh, weird. For the longest time, for example, I thought it was blah-tant (blatant), jew-dorant (deodorant) and picha (pizza). Oh, the humiliation! I'm so glad Vince is so patient with me. I'm much better now!

Chuvaness is holding a contest over at her blog and the prizes for this particular one are outright spectacular!
She's giving away these Kamiseta suitcases packed full with the most amazing goodies: from beauty products and fashion finds to computers! There's bags and jewelry, too. And thousands of pesos worth of gift certificates and discounts to restaurants. And if that makes you fat, you also win weight loss supplements and a gym membership. How crazy is that???

Man, I wish I could give away prizes as insane as those in this blog. I will be giving away some beauty products over at my beauty blog and I've been giving away stuff at my Facebook page but nothing approaching the prizes of Chuvaness! Sigh. I wish I can make my readers just as excited. I'll have to make this blog bigger and more popular then so I can attract contest sponsors! Wish me luck!

*photo from Chuvaness' blog.