Bottled ※ Brain

We in Pilgrim Men, the cell group I'm with in church, had our Christmas Party today at a restaurant in Quezon City. Kuya Jayrus, our guest speaker, spoke on Philippians 3:12-14. What a blessing to be part of this group: such godly, wise, Christ-exalting men! Click on image to view panoramic photo in full. Kuya Bobby and Kuya Ferdie share a light moment. Jason, Kuya Dean, Kuya Moncie, and Kuya Ferdie look on. This was the traditional Christmas gift giving portion. Manong Ralph with his new glasses. Ken and Jason, among the youngest in the group. Kuya Vance, our cell group leader, gives away his stash of Biblical literature. I have been blessed to have been taught by him. His passion for the Word, his love and concern for us, his excellent punchlines—we thank God for you, Kuya!

I HAD a quick trip to UP–Diliman today: lunch with Manong Ralph at Chocolate Kiss, and a visit to Nella Sarabia's optical shop at the UP Shopping Center, still my favorite eyeglasses store of all time. We were glad to see it in operation on a weekend; we usually call to make sure.

We won—Marvyn Chan, Ces Tuazon, and I—in the Heart Failure Quiz organized by the Heart Failure Society a few days ago. Praise be to God from Whom all blessings flow. Thanks for your prayers.

Haven’t written anything here recently, so here goes. November has proven to be a very busy month. But I relish—or must force myself to relish—deadlines; only then can I get anything done. I’ve been doing quite a lot of writing, too—mostly technical things I can’t publish here.

As I was wrapping up my 24-hour shift this morning, I was also ending my penultimate POD (Physician-on-Duty) month, my foray as one of Internal Medicine's ER physicians this October. And with it was the thought that in a few weeks I'll be taking on seniorship, leading one of six charity services to sound dispositions, standing at the forefront of administrative battles that happen on a daily basis. Are we ever ready for the tasks ahead of us? I had the same dilemma when I finished my first year of residency training, knowing that the ER would be daunting. Daunting it had eventually proved to be; and at some point it almost became impossible, what with the stronger reinforcement of the admit-all policy, something that has always been there, apparently, but whose effects became more palpable this year. The hardships that came with the doubling of our usual patient load have allowed for my personal growth: my clinical eye, I like to believe, was developed; and the same could be