On their way home from the hospital, my friend Jackie’s 9 year-old son, Ernie, pointed at two cows fucking on the field, and asked Jackie to explain what they were doing. This stumped Jackie momentarily, but then she brilliantly answered… Read More ›
June is Cockroach Month. Or more accurately, Kill-A-Cockroach Month. It must be the general wetness of things, but these monsters just spring out of every available crevice come June without consideration or shame. When I took my car out of… Read More ›
Smoketh has finally finished her thesis. So on top of being a nephrologist, she is now a faculty member of the Department of Physiology. When we were in first year medicine we were all terrified of the nephrology physiology module,… Read More ›
I’ve recently finished reading Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. It was my first Alice Munro book, and as soon as I’ve read the last page I wanted to run to Fully Booked or Solidaridad to get another one…. Read More ›
“Bakit ang inet!” I yelled to Countess Anastacia Romanova, my clinic secretary. I wasn’t being a jerk, I just had to yell through the two layers of face mask and the industrial-thick face shield. I had just finished chemotherapy on… Read More ›
At around 9:30 am my friend, Love, picked me up from the clinic and we dashed to the hospital penthouse for our second dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. After my first injection 3 months ago the injection site had… Read More ›
I sometimes find it puzzling that some patients don’t have the contact details of their doctors. Ever since hell-owship, all my patients would have my number and social media contacts, and surprisingly I never found it bothersome. They were mostly… Read More ›
I’ve been eating–no, DEVOURING–more food than usual in the past few weeks. I’m not used to eating too much. I hate the feeling of being bloated, as well as the thought that these things are plotting to clog what shouldn’t… Read More ›
Number 4 in today’s list of trending shows on Netflix is No Boyfriend Since Birth directed by Jose Javier Reyes, starring Carla Abellana as Carina and Tom Rodriguez as Carlo. Wedding planner Carina has been secretly in love with campus… Read More ›
I woke up at around 4 am, drenched in sweat, and whined: ang inet! The aircon in my room is as old as tube-type televisions, the sort of ancient appliance that hums and gurgles for a few minutes before releasing… Read More ›
As I was about to start Joel’s chemo I rattled off the laundry list of pertinent symptoms he might have neglected to disclose. Some patients avoid revealing too much, for fear of a chemotherapy cycle getting delayed. This is not… Read More ›
At this point, it seems like The Handmaid’s Tale is just thinking of new ways to terrorize June and the audience. In the previous seasons we saw the ff: a girl was chained to a metal ball and pushed to… Read More ›
Around this time 8 years ago I bade farewell to PGH where I’ve studied and trained for almost 13 years, and went back to the province to study for the upcoming medical oncology boards. I would have been very sentimental,… Read More ›
The paper straw in my cup of iced latte started to collapse. I had placed my drink on top of numerous nurse stations, brought it inside patients’ rooms, lugged it around from one hospital wing to another. After the fifth… Read More ›
One of our classmates from way back, Praphycyst, has been always full of political fury on Facebook. His Red Lantern level of rage was apparent not just in his posts but also in his comments on news sites which, for… Read More ›
Back in 1998 I used my only 3-unit free elective to enroll in The Short Story, a course offered by the UP Institute of Creative Writing. It was a delightful experience, and as expected all my classmates were interesting, eclectic,… Read More ›
Reading through all the messaging apps sometimes feels like a marathon. Muting, pinning, archiving and all these things are supposed to make things easier, but the volume of stuff catches up as soon as I figure something out. I can’t… Read More ›
Haven’t had a good night’s sleep the entire week. Either my patients would get admitted in the middle of the night, or patients who were already admitted would deteriorate or be in pain. Some of the specialists decided to go… Read More ›
I was asking Armando G. if he thinks there is some new nefarious way that the COVID virus is getting transmitted, since we’ve all been covering our faces with all sorts of things (masks, respirators, mini-buttplugs) and the darn numbers… Read More ›
With the summer heat and the heightened anxiety levels it’s starting to feel like March 2020 anyway, so what better way to complement this deja vu than by doing another spring cleaning and nostalgifying with re-discovered remnants of the past!… Read More ›
"Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive.." -- Matt Cameron
Life as a consecrated Brother
A temporary haven for my restless words
Life as an expat in Maldives, freediver and hotelier
only trails to leave
Fashion - Lifestyle - Travel
A Blog for Eaters
Alone No More
The Stories of Our Time
Life snippets documented
Personal blog of Jessica Zafra, author of The Collected Stories and the Twisted series
simplicity in food and travel
Beneath the nurse’s apron and soon-to-be doctor’s coat.
Snippets of our journey in life, love, and everything in between.
Discover • Motivate • Inspire
Write. Shoot. Sleep. Repeat.
working mom. wife. student. ofw.
