The first thing I tell people when they ask me about myself is that I am a crazy bunny lady. And that I am. A bulk of what I earn is spent towards giving my two rabbits a better life. For real. Because life as a rabbit person in the Philippines is a challenge, and I wouldn’t encourage anyone but the most committed to actually make that 12 year commitment.

First of all, here are the bunnies in question:

Cute right? They are adorable. They are also the most destructive forces I have ever met. Chester has chewed through two macbook cords, a Calvin Klein belt, a Coach bag, a Nine West wallet, a Dell laptop cord, numerous pairs of Havaianas flip flops. Chibi has not met a bed sheet she’s liked and has proceeded to chew holes into each and every single one she’s ever seen.

They eat a diet of 90% Timothy hay, which I have a few special stores to hit every week, and can go through a P300 bag a day. They also eat fresh greens, basil, and fruit. They are proof that a vegan diet does not make you skinny.

They have two vets, and both host a national TV show. They are hard to pin down because of their schedule, and yes, they cost a premium because rabbit savvy vets are hard to find.

My first rabbit that stayed with us for seven years was kept mostly in a cage eating pellets from a pet store and kangkong (water spinach). When we got Chester 2 years after my first bun passed, we did a lot of research, and under the sentiment that this time we had jobs and worked from home, could give them a much better life than my first bun had.

And they are, but they’re a handful. There are no rabbit kennels. Planning vacations can be quite challenging since we have to make sure the person who’s looking after them know how and when to feed them. We have been quite lucky that I have a sister that has been willing to do so every time we have to go out for long periods.

They are not affectionate. Only dogs snuggle on a regular basis. Chester nips when I’m asleep and their food or water bowl is empty or he just wants pats on the head. Chibi has never tolerated being held, and require three people to hold her steady for a checkup with the vet.

The only reason I don’t have dozens of bunnies at home is because we had them spayed at the first sign of sexual maturity, and the operation plus aftercare required a lot of attention and thousands of pesos.

So don’t get a bunny. Rescue a dog from PAWS or CARA. Feed the strays you meet on the street. Sponsor a neighbor who always lets their dog get pregnant for a spay. Save yourself the trouble and don’t do it.

But if you really really want to love a rabbit and commit to more than a decade, do your research.

Here are a couple of sites I regularly consult:

House Rabbit Society: https://rabbit.org/frequently-asked-questions/

Binky Bunny: https://www.binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Bunny Bunch: http://www.bunnybunch.org/pages/rabbit-care-health-behavior/

And let me know if you want help. I am a fervent advocate of making sure rabbits live good lives.

When my blog domain expired in September of last year, I thought I had kissed blog writing goodbye. I had this thing about disconnecting online and connecting in person and I wanted to do more of that.

But you know the cliche “Life happens when you’re making other plans”? Well that happened to me. Life threw a gut punch of a game changer my way. What I realized in hindsight was, I cannot change too much of myself and forget that most of my life, how I processed things was through writing. Whether privately or through vague hints here and there on a public space, writing has always gotten me through the trying parts of my life.

This isn’t my old home, as jodythinks.com was purchased by another person. Ten years of writing, albeit sporadic, and it’s time to move forward. Time to become an adult and move to a domain that feels way more grown up.

Honestly, I was not a successful professional writer, let me tell you that. I guess it was because my writing isn’t very structured or grammatically correct, it was, and still is, all gut feel. What feels right, sounds right, all emotional.  I shifted from a writing job to something else quite quickly when that didn’t pan out, and am currently doing something different, but so far, moving along.

But I never forgot about words and putting them on paper. This January I started a DAILY journal as a project for 2018. Yes, daily. Full pages of my day that mostly come to, “went to eat at the same place, had a good day with my bunnies”. Seeing the words connect to paper though is quite satisfying, especially now that I’m actually using gel ink pens, not ballpoint. I never used to do this since I’m left handed and when at any point I get sweaty everything smudges and it’s all a big mess. I’m not sure if I’m writing slower or the pages just absorb better but I am feeling better about the ink. I may have to buy my first pen in a decade, from years of hoarding pens from hotels or doctor friends and relatives.

But as always, I digress.

I may not always be writing, and I may be saying goodbye to jodythinks, but I will be putting words to paper, typing, and so forth. This new domain feels like a new beginning. Not just to a more grown up me since I will always have the sense of humor of a thirteen year old boy, but maybe one that will be more of a stretch than just my waistline. Life may have punched me in the gut, but the bruises are healing.

So hello to my 5 readers again, and don’t worry, I won’t say goodbye anytime soon.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, the first thing I ask about when visiting a place is how the food is. I have recently come back from (mostly Taipei) Taiwan after a six day visit, and got a taste of what the place has to offer. A taste meaning that the limited amount of time can only give me the opportunity to touch the surface of what the location can present. I also have to tell you that I didn’t seek out any place but was brought to places that other people had researched and looked for, as I was lucky enough to get an inside track from a friend that had been to Taiwan three times and has an unparalleled enthusiasm for the country. So here are the favorites from the six days of eating in no particular order:

1. Taiwan Honey Beer: A twist on their classic beer, this one has a touch of sweetness, which, for a non beer drinker like me, had me looking for it every chance I got, but it was only available at the Family Mart down the road from our AirBNB and some stalls in the night market. I drank a few (well, more than a few) of these after long days of walking with a bum knee and cold weather, and it made me feel so much better about being a slowpoke. $45 NT a can at Family Mart.
2. Grilled mushrooms

   

   At the Raohe Street Night Market that was a street parallel from our place, there were several stalls that had grilled mushrooms so I knew I had to try at least one. They take these mushrooms and grill it, and then give you a couple of choices of seasonings. I picked lemon pepper. It had a really subtle taste, a cross between button and shitake, and the lemon pepper helped boost its natural flavor and added a bit of a kick. $70 NT per serving.

3. Grilled scallop: Shilin Market has a stall that grills scallops and oysters with butter and cheese. I really don’t think I need to expound further, do I? $140 for one scallop and one oyster.
4. Mala hot pot: Featuring amazing meats, and a Haagen Dazs all you can eat freezer, at $650 NT is a steal. All the fresh vegetables and variety of options had me dizzy in happiness. Drinks like teas, beers, sodas and juices come with. Bring your appetite and get a reservation. Groups only get 2 hours each per table so come hungry and come in a group to compare soups. We ordered the spicy and the vegetable for variety.

   

5. Cabbage buns, pork buns and garlic chive buns: Traditional steamed buns, great for breakfast on the go with warm soy milk on cold days, you can definitely eat one of the three varieties each but soy milk really fills me up. Would go back any day and fill up on these.
6. The selection at Aquatic addiction: Our first night in Taiwan, we headed to Aquatic addiction, a market/hotpot/grill where there is a massive selection of fresh seafood, meats, baked goods, liquor and most anything you can get in Taiwan that needs little to not much more cooking done. We had sashimi, a salmon bowl, roast beef, grilled shrimp, sushi.

   

   7. The handmade mochi at Jiufen. When walking down that narrow street at Jiufen (I don’t know the name of the street, but you’ll know when you head to Jiufen), you’ll see this stall making fresh mochi. I had to try one since the store was so well organized and the mochi looked so pretty. We took a bite and it was so soft, and the cream filling so fresh, we ended up buying three boxes of the stuff. Do know that you can get mochi all over Taiwan but this stall had amazing mochi. Try the blueberry and the red bean ones.

    

    

   And this list doesn’t include all the food we ate even if we were full. Taiwan offers a selection of great street and restaurant food. A lot of fresh vegetables and seafood, a lot of specialty stalls that show you how things are made, and how fresh all of these things are. Eating street food will set you back around P150-P200 a dish but you’ll be hard spent to find something that isn’t worth the money.

So go book a trip to Taiwan now, if only for the food.

Committing to one person for the rest of your life is difficult. Think about it. You decide that this person, who was not raised with the same values, priorities, wants and needs as you, is the person you’ll be with for the rest of your life. This makes a lot of things very difficult, as even something as mundane as how clean you want your space to be, would be a challenge if clean means something different for one person, and is distinct from the other’s.

We watched Sa Wakas, a play based on what was our favorite band several years ago, and while I didn’t know what the play was about going in, I figured based on their most popular songs that it would not be a comedy. What I found out during the play itself was it chronicled a breakup from the end to the beginning, and the big and little things that break a relationship. And while the main character had a girl on the side that fractured them, his fiancee wasn’t perfect either. It was little comments, micro, passive aggressive comments belittling the other person, and not believing in the other that contributed to the end.

It really struck me to hear these things and see them on a stage being acted out, because I hear them, little things coming from me through the years that have broken not just my romantic relationships, but my friendships as well. Thinking I was better than this person, and preaching from my soapbox when I wasn’t faultless on my end either. I think in my own little way, it’s the insecurities and trying to justify my actions and lifting myself up, I use these microaggressions to bring people I feel resentment to down to my level, or worse, break them as much as I think myself as broken.

Of course painting yourself as the victim every single time is tempting, and I admit I’ve used this card a lot. It’s been easy to blame the world for my problems when I know I can pick myself up from the pity party I’ve been continually throwing myself time and time again and move on after letting it out.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I will try and stop playing the world’s victim and take more responsibility for what I’ve done as well.

And if I forget? Remind me.

“It is what it is”. I hated that phrase. I had an old boss use it every time they had bad news. It seemed like a catch all phrase, an excuse when they couldn’t find a decent reason, or didn’t take the time to do so. Every time I heard it, I got quite frustrated because I didn’t even warrant a good explanation that they were crushing my dreams, or give me a good answer on how I could get there. It was a vague, inappropriate, insensitive answer that I couldn’t work on or improve, it was a lame “No.”

Why do I bring this up now? Why dredge up old wounds, why humiliate myself again after years and moving on?

I say this because I’ve found myself tempted to say it. And being on the other side, it stinks. You want to give your people all you could, or give them all the breaks you can, because you know how it feels, and how hard it is sometimes, but you also want to be fair to the company that’s paying you to do work, and make sure that they continue paying you for the work. I want people to be engaged, motivated, excited, but I also want to make sure the company WANTS to keep the team long term. That the short term goals coincide with the long ones. That we don’t take too much holidays to impact production but also make sure the team has time to spend with their families, to not have to file leaves or ask for time off to do so. I’ve realized the Philippines has a crap ton of holidays that we’d lose a whole lot of production if we honored them all, so we reached a compromise of honoring the important ones that are hard to miss.

I guess it’s a wake up call that management, even though it’s the most fulfilling thing I’ve done in my career, is a mixed bag of things. You know you’re going to have to have the difficult conversations. People will think you’re a hag because you check on their every move. They’ll stop conversation mid-word when you come into a room because they can’t be flawed in your presence. You hold yourself to a higher standard because you have to set a good example for everyone. But you’re also the person to share their good news, their promotions, salary raises, thank them for their hard work.

No post is perfect and will test your patience, intelligence, and emotional status every single day. But the thing to remember is, you’re there for a reason, and the least you can do is the best you can offer, because ultimately, you’re the one you’re cheating if you’re doing things half-assed. You cheat your career growth, you cheat the people you work with, you cheat the progress of everyone involved. Projects will get affected and in the end, you’ll get less work, because you get less results.

We all have our role to play, and if it takes you being the bad cop, the one who people get annoyed when they see show up, but it helps the team in the long run, take the hit for the team. They might not like you personally, but their performance will get better, the company will trust the overall team, you’ll all get a better tenure.

Have you had to play a bad guy for the good of your team?