bethgstories

If there is one thing that 2021 taught me, it's courage.  Art Sector, January This year seemed to have a good start, so I told myself that the slump must have been over. I started waking up early, going out for the first time ever since the community quarantine was implemented to do brisk walking, writing a journal, and hydrating with pretty water. Sounds like That Girl on Tiktok, right? I even planned ahead and expected that some of my WIPs will be done before the year ends. Great! This year is gonna be amazing. Better.  Except that it wasn't. The virus evolved and created many variants like it made it a mission to teach us the Greek alphabet.  Padre Pio Shrine Batangas, February Saturday Afternoon with the Minas, February Brisk walking through the fallen flowers, March But who was I to complain? I was at home, safe and sound. I was with my family. I still have a job that paid the bills and a little bit more. People are dying. Some people I know are frantically looking f...

These days I find it a privilege to be able to finish reading a book. Convenience Store Woman is only 94 pages though, perfect for when you've got nothing to do but roll over your bed for the rest of the night. At first, I thought this is going to be another plotless book, the kind I've learned to expect from Japanese stories like The Nakano Thrift Shop . But it gave me an extremely different kind of entertainment. I didn't find it funny or humorous, unlike the rave reviews I've seen. In this book I got mad, I smiled a little, raised my brows, and exhaled quite a few times.  Relatable Keiko Maybe, I could relate to Keiko. Except that I wasn't a troubled kid (okay, maybe just a little bit). And I could not see myself doing the same exact thing for eighteen years. Plus, I'd like to think I've successfully established my self-identity.  Keiko can't define herself in any other way, except that she was born to be a convenience store woman. She felt the need t...

After a few months of staring at my bookshelf wondering if it somehow just became a decoration in my room to make me feel and look smart, I finally finished reading a book! Apop has graciously provided us with books we can turn to when the whole world appears to be turning its back on us and we need to be reassured it's just a temporary thing. I'd normally shy away from non-fiction and self-help books but I realized I got to do what it takes to feel better in the middle of this worldwide mayhem. So I grabbed the whole set and set aside my scheduled Kdrama marathon weekend (Hospital Playlist 2) and read my first book from the bundle - Kim Dan 's  You Can Wind Down From Time to Time .   Can you tell me what am I going to read next based on what's on my bookshelf? The book is a compilation of snippets from our favorite kid stories, and essays on how they relate to the complicated part of our lives called adulting. Yes, I am an adult and I have no idea what I am doing most...

Here's to another Dori Sakurada drama review. We stan cute villain leads! After the cringe-y  Coffee and Vanilla  I wanted more of him to see when I'd finally stop drooling over him  if he's really a good actor because I'm not gonna lie, cringe-y or not, his acting in that drama was great, along with the other actors. Anyway, Perfect Crime made it up for the previous drama's lack of execution and logic and lived up to the expectations that Love Lasts Forever has set. Although it felt sad and I ached for some of the characters, I'm glad that I decided to watch it.  What's the story about Okay, this is such a tangled affair that I may need a diagram to explain it perfectly. While all of the characters are essential to the story, it starts with four people - Kaori Maejima (Reina Triendl), Haruto Shinonome (Dori Sakurada), Takuma Fuyuki (Hidekazu Mashima), and Miwa Fuyuki (Lee Ayumi).  Miwa started going out with Haruto, but in the middle of their relationship,...

Okay, I think I've seen this before, I told myself as I watch the cringe-y monologue of the female lead. Enter the mighty good-looking super young self-made CEO. Yes, I've seen this before, everything is oh-so-familiar. Then the first declaration of love happened before the first episode ends.  It clicked! It's the many Wattpad stories I've edited in the past. I stumbled upon a 60-second clip of this drama on Instagram, and that scene made me think maybe this is another professor-student romance akin to Do Min Joon and Cheon Song Yi's initial relationship, although the title makes me think of Christian and Anastasia. And because I love My Love From The Star to the moon and back, I decided maybe I also need to watch this. But no, Google tells me its premise is nothing near the story of the mysterious 400-year-old alien and his famous celebrity neighbor. Coffee and Vanilla is a cringe-worthy, toe-curling drama that kept me up the whole night. The cringe-worthy female ...

Reading for pleasure implies the existence of reading for pain, and I wonder if there's something in between. I have been reading books that are supposed to tell me how to do my job well, and they're teaching me a lot. And I've come to think of it, it's been so long since the last time a boss required me to read books that'd help me handle my job more efficiently (it was in a law firm during my college internship) and I think all bosses should do the same. I mean, jobs shouldn't only be just about work and earning money. It should also be about learning and getting all the support you need to become a better employee. And to become a better person.  I've finished reading one of the books before the weekend. It was awesome and the bosses answered all my questions about the things I didn't quite understand. There are two more but I plan to read something else in between. And it's not reading for pleasure or reading for pain. Just plain reading because ...

I wanted this month to be over and write an entry for August. I wanted to share something uplifting - perhaps a piece of good news or a new milestone. Except that I can’t think of any. I feel so tired and my back pains are killing me, hence the turmeric tea, the pain relief rub on my table, and some lo-fi version of Moonlight Densetsu to calm my senses. Oh and yeah, let me include the fairy LED lights on my mesh grid and the faint glowing lights of my keyboard, mouse, and headphones. My life’s looking bright, ain’t it? I discovered the wonders of turmeric tea when my sister-in-law made some, back when our entire household got flu. Its earthy-sweet flavor made it up for its pungent smell, an aroma that I’ve learned to appreciate as it became the smell of relief and answered prayers, much like the smell of hug, companionship, and clarity with coffee. That cup of hot tea took away my body aches and I sweated like I went to the sauna which made me feel a whole lot better afterwards. That e...