The one with the superstitions

My parents aren't superstitious at all. My entire family isn't, my siblings and I just didn't grow up believing in old wives' tales and folklore. My mom does say "pwera buyag" which is the Bisaya version of "pwera usog" every now and then, but I think it's more of a habit than actually shooing away "usog" (I don't even really know what "usog" is). And there was that time when they didn't let me go out with my friends two nights before my wedding. That's about it.

Pregnancy, however, can bring out the paranoia in you. Something unusual happened one night a few weeks ago when I was over at my parents' house, and let's just say that my mom scared me so much that I seriously considered sleeping with a pair of scissors on my bedside table. Crazy, right? I told Abet all about it, and even he has become paranoid, he now double-checks all our windows before we go to sleep to make sure they're shut tight.

Now, I would have been okay with sleeping with scissors (I don't) and I don't mind the tightly-shut windows. What I do mind is the fact that my mother now refuses to cook her squid in black ink dish, which is one of my favorite dishes in the whole wide world, because my baby might turn dark. No use trying to explain that food intake has nothing to do with melanin production. (I did eat the singkamas that my brother Joe's classmate gave me 'para pumuti ang anak mo, 'te', but that's just because I love singkamas.)When I'm at my parents' house, I get everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--I ask for when it comes to food, EXCEPT the black squid dish. And not being able to eat it makes me crave for it even more. It's so frustrating.

I guess it's the probinsyana in her that's making my mom believe all these things, as probinsyanas are wont to do. You can take the girl out of Bacuag, Surigao del Norte, but you can't take Bacuag, Surigao del Norte out of the girl.

The one with the hair issues

I am so frustrated with my hair right now!

Pregnancy hormones are causing all these changes in my body, it's honestly driving me crazy. My usually-smooth forehead is now a pimple farmland, and my hair is so oily I feel like I could fry an egg with the oil in it. The pimples don't bother me as much; I just refrain from looking in the mirror and touching my face and I forget that they're there. The hair, on the other hand, is really causing me grief. My head is just one big ball of grease, even right after I take a shower. I don't even bother with conditioner anymore.

Most of the time, I just tie my hair into a tiny bun. Good thing it's already long enough for that. I'm seriously considering cutting it short, but I read that my hair is supposed to grow thicker, more beautiful, and faster as I go further into the second trimester. I guess I'll just suck the greasy feeling up for now.

Hopefully, by the time I give birth, my hair will be long enough for me to be able to do those pretty fishtail braids and high buns that are so hot right now. I hope they'll still be hot then. That would make the oil spill on my head right now all worth it.