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what happened on days 4,5,6,7,8,9..
Posted by adp
on
2:21 AM
There were only 2 things that could have been reasons why I was not able to sustain the simbang gabi posts..
1) holiday rush
2) exhaustion
It's actually the second one. This simbang gabi routine messed up my body clock big time. Being most active beyond midnight, I was not able to force myself to sleep before 12 hence a very bad sleep cycle. I used to sleep 1am the latest and wake up 6am on a work day. On a regular day, I figured my system wakes at 7am. I knew this by making a simple experiment of sleeping and waking on the same hour for 5days then sleeping at the same time but forgoing the alarm for the next days. The time you wake without the alarm is when your system is up and about (ideally). This bothers me big time because if I snooze at 1am and wake up at 7am, that's just 6 hours of sleep! Oh no! Well maybe my body just needs 6 hours of sleep to recharge.
So what happened.. Let me try my best to remember..
Day 4:
Church had been same every morning hence. Same faces I see, same amount of people. At this time I'm starting to feel the difficulty to wake up. I really really thank my trusty alarm. Decided to change routes going home to stop by jollibee. The 24 hour store nearby was deserted at 5:30am. I even thought it was closed for the day! Gladly I was brave enough to walk-in. I love quiet dine-ins, I'm weird like that. I like the calmness of being alone. I guess I'm really anti-social.
Jollibee wins over Ronald in terms of food choices ( and hot chocolate by default). Because of that I had a hard time deciding what to order. And so.. I had pancakes, rice and longganisa.. bwahaha.. I'm using the excuse that breakfast should be the heaviest meal of the day :)
Day 5
The nights are getting longer and longer.. This day I went directly home after mass and it was still dark! I was also way too sleepy to think about food so straight to bed!
Day 6
My cousin informed me that the bishop is saying mass on another nearby church today. And so I decided to go to this church instead. Fyi, the church mentioned is actually our parish church. It's nearer (walking distance actually for non-lazy people unlike me) BUT mass starts 30mins earlier! The time was one of my biggest considerations. Although I rarely go to sunday mass here because it's more crowded and humid. My family had been attending mass in the 'farther' church because of parking concerns so I technically think of it as our 'community'. Another weird fact is that the mentioned cousin is the only other person who attends dawn masses BUT he goes to the 'nearer' church. Haha. Funny we leave the house separately everyday and people think we actually go to mass together yet it happened only once! The mentioned cousin is a teen so this set-up is actually not weird. Go figure. (clue:simbang socials)
And did I mention? The world supposedly ends today. No mention at all in the mass. We just joked that if in case, at least both of us are blessed by the bishop.
Day 7
I can see the finish line, and it keeps me going! The dawn mass pilgrimage is actually not a huge sacrifice on my part. I do not have to go to work or rush somewhere on any day. My to-go-to's are all flexi time. I can sleep all I want after mass except for 1 or 2 days I think on which I had errands. But because I'm a night owl, it's always a debate whether I sleep or just do an all-nighter and sleep after. All the time I snooze before the alarm rings. Ergo I'm a groggy mass goer every single day, fueled only by 1-2 hrs of nap. There were days when I wanted to just quit my promise and succumb to the wonderfulness that is my bed. But I know that there are things greater than me. And this sacrifice is way way smaller than what I always ask and receive from God. That simple thought and the knowledge that I can sleep afterwards is what got me going. Haha.
Breakfast was bacon and eggs! Been craving for the longest time. Afterwards I felt too guilty with all the bad cholesterol I consumed.
Day 8
I was lucky to have a mass celebrant who has tons of humor in him even in the wee hours of the morning. When we almost falter, he reminds us everyday of how harder it is to be the celebrant and a servant of Christ. Of how tedious the journey of Jesus' family on the days prior to his birth. We should always be reminded of how privileged we are to share the blessings brought about by Jesus' birth.
Day 9
Maybe I skipped to church this day. Upon waking all I thought of was 'I made it!' Thanks to the Lord's guidance I was able to make a sacrifice. The church was also at its happiest today. All of us felt accomplished and worthy of all of the blessings to come. By the end of the mass, the sacristans asked for an audience and did a mini(?) concert for the mass goers. They sang, danced, joked. Yes for fund raising but they did a good job to entertain the people. Whatever they got from the baskets they definitely deserve in my opinion. What I didn't like was that when they were about to perform, teens who usually are the ones who appear lazy, distracted and/or socializing rushed to the front to find a good spot. These girls were looking for their crushes! And the teen boys of course were sizing their competition. Teens, teens, teens. I am aware that the fact that I am annoyed by them is brought about by a widening age-gap and being a boring adult. This actually scares me but how can you prevent it? Age definitely makes you wiser but not 'cooler'
So that folks concludes my 9-day dawn mass promise. It's the least I can do for Jesus' birthday. Definitely it was one of my greatest accomplishments of 2012.
Posting this 14 days after Christmas, day after my birthday. My commitment to post more is a little fail. The holidays definitely is the busiest time of the year. After this I still have a backlog on 1) year in review / holidays post 2) my new year resolutions and my 2013 goals 3) my birthday post.
Late, late, late. Let's change that one step at a time. Haha.
1) holiday rush
2) exhaustion
It's actually the second one. This simbang gabi routine messed up my body clock big time. Being most active beyond midnight, I was not able to force myself to sleep before 12 hence a very bad sleep cycle. I used to sleep 1am the latest and wake up 6am on a work day. On a regular day, I figured my system wakes at 7am. I knew this by making a simple experiment of sleeping and waking on the same hour for 5days then sleeping at the same time but forgoing the alarm for the next days. The time you wake without the alarm is when your system is up and about (ideally). This bothers me big time because if I snooze at 1am and wake up at 7am, that's just 6 hours of sleep! Oh no! Well maybe my body just needs 6 hours of sleep to recharge.
Day 4:
Church had been same every morning hence. Same faces I see, same amount of people. At this time I'm starting to feel the difficulty to wake up. I really really thank my trusty alarm. Decided to change routes going home to stop by jollibee. The 24 hour store nearby was deserted at 5:30am. I even thought it was closed for the day! Gladly I was brave enough to walk-in. I love quiet dine-ins, I'm weird like that. I like the calmness of being alone. I guess I'm really anti-social.
Day 5
The nights are getting longer and longer.. This day I went directly home after mass and it was still dark! I was also way too sleepy to think about food so straight to bed!
Day 6
My cousin informed me that the bishop is saying mass on another nearby church today. And so I decided to go to this church instead. Fyi, the church mentioned is actually our parish church. It's nearer (walking distance actually for non-lazy people unlike me) BUT mass starts 30mins earlier! The time was one of my biggest considerations. Although I rarely go to sunday mass here because it's more crowded and humid. My family had been attending mass in the 'farther' church because of parking concerns so I technically think of it as our 'community'. Another weird fact is that the mentioned cousin is the only other person who attends dawn masses BUT he goes to the 'nearer' church. Haha. Funny we leave the house separately everyday and people think we actually go to mass together yet it happened only once! The mentioned cousin is a teen so this set-up is actually not weird. Go figure. (clue:simbang socials)
And did I mention? The world supposedly ends today. No mention at all in the mass. We just joked that if in case, at least both of us are blessed by the bishop.
Day 7
I can see the finish line, and it keeps me going! The dawn mass pilgrimage is actually not a huge sacrifice on my part. I do not have to go to work or rush somewhere on any day. My to-go-to's are all flexi time. I can sleep all I want after mass except for 1 or 2 days I think on which I had errands. But because I'm a night owl, it's always a debate whether I sleep or just do an all-nighter and sleep after. All the time I snooze before the alarm rings. Ergo I'm a groggy mass goer every single day, fueled only by 1-2 hrs of nap. There were days when I wanted to just quit my promise and succumb to the wonderfulness that is my bed. But I know that there are things greater than me. And this sacrifice is way way smaller than what I always ask and receive from God. That simple thought and the knowledge that I can sleep afterwards is what got me going. Haha.
Breakfast was bacon and eggs! Been craving for the longest time. Afterwards I felt too guilty with all the bad cholesterol I consumed.
Day 8
I was lucky to have a mass celebrant who has tons of humor in him even in the wee hours of the morning. When we almost falter, he reminds us everyday of how harder it is to be the celebrant and a servant of Christ. Of how tedious the journey of Jesus' family on the days prior to his birth. We should always be reminded of how privileged we are to share the blessings brought about by Jesus' birth.
Day 9
Maybe I skipped to church this day. Upon waking all I thought of was 'I made it!' Thanks to the Lord's guidance I was able to make a sacrifice. The church was also at its happiest today. All of us felt accomplished and worthy of all of the blessings to come. By the end of the mass, the sacristans asked for an audience and did a mini(?) concert for the mass goers. They sang, danced, joked. Yes for fund raising but they did a good job to entertain the people. Whatever they got from the baskets they definitely deserve in my opinion. What I didn't like was that when they were about to perform, teens who usually are the ones who appear lazy, distracted and/or socializing rushed to the front to find a good spot. These girls were looking for their crushes! And the teen boys of course were sizing their competition. Teens, teens, teens. I am aware that the fact that I am annoyed by them is brought about by a widening age-gap and being a boring adult. This actually scares me but how can you prevent it? Age definitely makes you wiser but not 'cooler'
So that folks concludes my 9-day dawn mass promise. It's the least I can do for Jesus' birthday. Definitely it was one of my greatest accomplishments of 2012.
Posting this 14 days after Christmas, day after my birthday. My commitment to post more is a little fail. The holidays definitely is the busiest time of the year. After this I still have a backlog on 1) year in review / holidays post 2) my new year resolutions and my 2013 goals 3) my birthday post.
Late, late, late. Let's change that one step at a time. Haha.
