Ruzielle Ganuelas

Blue polo shirt, black slacks, black dress shoes
I worked at this corporate chain that sold “Mediterranean”-type food for about six months in 2007. I was hired as a counter person, which meant I received two black T-shirts with the company logo. I was in charge of finding my own black dress pants, black dress shoes, and black belt.

Monday
Monday is a “weekend day” for my boyfriend and me, so we went to the movies to watch The Shape of Water. I’m not terribly enthused with fantastical romances, but the movie has garnered favorable reviews and besides, out of all the Oscar movies, this one seemed like the most fun and not at all depressing.

The last time I was on social media I had a Friendster account. I can’t even tell you what year it was; all I know is that it was eleventy years ago.

I want to go to Manila next year. This is a thought that’s been upstream in my mind since early this year and somehow, I’m still trying to make the numbers work.
To be clear, money isn’t exactly an issue, but it’s still not not an issue.

In the 16 years I’ve lived in the United States, I’ve successfully evaded that ubiquitous tradition of immigrants with strong ties to their home countries: sending care packages. The actual word for care packages in Tagalog is balikbayan box. Balikbayan loosely translates to “homecoming,” and isn’t that what most transplanted people dream of? Coming home to the place where their soul belongs?
In reality, we can’t all come back home whenever we felt like it, so we miss out on milestones, birth...

I showed up in America at 17 and immediately started looking for jobs. I literally walked up and down the downtown area and the malls asking for work. Nobody would hire me, as it was hard to explain why I’d never had any previous jobs. There’s no such thing as babysitting or car washing gigs when you’re a kid in Manila. It just doesn’t work that way; grown people have those jobs, not kids who went to private school.
I applied at a temp agency and the hiring person told me to come back when I ...

On our first date, my boyfriend Lukas told me about his parents’ work history. His dad retired at 48 years old after thirty years of working for the city’s sewer and waste water management plant. He started his career at 18 cleaning out “poop tanks,” as he called it, and worked his way up to a cushy management job. His mom worked all sorts of jobs: secretary, payroll, and, briefly, a Baskin Robbins franchise owner.
His dad fascinated me the most; he was so much like my father, and, in so many...

On Money and Men - The Billfold

My Last $100: Anniversary Edition – The Billfold