Arrival

Arrival - September 21-22, 2017

I was on the fence about whether to go or not. Money was a factor. Work was a factor. Time with family was a factor. I had to go through the process. Money was tight, but I was getting paid on the 20th so I could financially go albeit, it would set us back a little. Work was really busy right now as we were winding down the first quarter. My Co workers gave me a vote of confidence telling me I should think of my family first and take care of the work when I get back. That felt good. Finally I've been away the last two weekends. I know my family has been missing me. Michelle has also been going through a lot of crap at work, coupled with the fact that I've been absent put her in a depressed state. She really is struggling. That was my major concern. I tried to make it so it wouldn't be so bad. But it was, I'll be gone at least 6 days. That was tough on the family.

I dropped my parents off on Sunday September 24th at 7:30am. During the drive to the airport, I told my parents that I was thinking of flying over if I could get everything taken care of. On Monday September 25, I called King to see what flight he was on. He texted me his itinerary and I booked the same flight. Michelle helped me with the purchase of the ticket through Cheapo Air. The cost was about $1000. That would put us in the hole for a time, but I felt that no money would be enough to get a chance to say goodbye to Lola in the Philippines.

I had to create my subplans. It actually took 2 hours to create them. I was exhausted trying to create them. The stress was taking its toll as I had to get packed in a short amount of time. I'm not too good under stress and ended up finding a way to relax. Thursday came around. It was Friday in the Philippines and everything had to go perfect in order for us to make the funeral. We took off from Hawaii at around 12pm and took the 10 hour flight to the Philippines. We landed at about 4:30pm Philippine time, went through immigration and customs and took a 30 minute shuttle to Terminal 2. We ate dinner and mulled around. We waited at what we thought was the boarding area, but we were wrong. We hurried to the 3rd floor and ran to get onto the plane. My heart was heartpounding, but we made it.

We landed in Kalibo at around 8:15pm. It was raining. My dad was there. They drove us the 1 hour to Ondoy. When we arrived we were swarmed by family. They just finished the 6th day of vigil. I finally got to meet Kikito and Leilani, my two cousins whom I never seen in 36 years. Adrenaline kept me up because I was running fumes.