Kris Kringle

Stuff I got for Christmas. If it weren't for the fact that Kris Kringle is more or less "compulsory" in the office. I wouldn't have gotten anything. It's a little sad, actually. But now I'm over it.

Thanks to my Secret Santa. Whoever you were.

Week 1: Something curly.

Week 2: Something sticky.

Week 3: Something hairy.

Week 4: Something "R".

Random Memory: McDonald's and Me

photo credit

My love affair with McDonald's started when I was in college. I didn't really know McDonald's that well in my high school and grade school days. But in college, the true love of my life was McDonald's. It was the witness to all my exultation and tribulation. When I was happy, I went to McDonald's. When I was sad, I went to McDonald's . When I wanted to relax, I went to McDonald's. When I wanted to cram, I went to McDonald's. There was even a time when a bunch of classmates and I stayed at McDonald's for six hours straight just to study for an Accounting exam.

Usually, we went to McDonald's after our evening classes to have dinner. During those times, Josh, a dear friend and project leader, could be heard saying, "Our professor is stupid. He gave us an A minus for our group paper that I spent 2 hours copy-pasting from the internet." Plagiarism was no big deal to us back then, we just wanted to pass. We also went to McDonald's for the brainstorming session of our group projects and on those occasions Josh could be heard saying, "Let's stop fooling ourselves with this brainstorming crap. We all know that I will still end up writing this paper all by myself. You should all be thankful that I am good at copy-pasting stuff from the internet." Whereupon we dropped all pretense of brainstorming and proceeded with our pointless gab-fest over french fries and Coke float. Yes, Josh, we owe you for making our academic burdens lighter. You are the best group leader ever. Where was I? Oh yes. In college, McDonald's was a way of life.

When I landed my first job, it required me to move into a different zip code for the very first time in my life. I remembered being anxious while I was riding the ferry that would take me to the place I would call home for the next two years. I was excited and scared at the same time, the magnitude of my choice to be away from my comfort zone just dawning upon me. I looked out of the ferry, staring at Ozamiz City as it drew near when, lo and behold! A McDonald's! That's when I knew everything was gonna be okay. And so the vicious cycle continued. When I get stressed out, I went to McDonald's. When I get the job done, I went to McDonald's.

Now, since moving to Cebu, I have come to know other places that I love to go to when I wanted to eat. But none of them gives me as much comfort and a sense of home as McDonald's. Oh Ronald, if only you were a real man, then I will have nothing more to look for.

Good Day, Sunshine

I am now officially living in my own time zone. Of course, I'm gonna miss all the benefits of a graveyard shift but it is also refreshing to be updated with all the going-ons around me. More importantly, it feels great to be at the office in the morning, smelling fresh from a morning shower, with the rest of the morning workforce.

Virtues

(This was something I wrote a few months back.)

Let me state for the record that I am not an old-fashioned person. However, there is one old-fashioned notion that I cling to tenaciously and that is my belief that patience is a virtue. In this dog-eat-dog and cyber-driven society, I still believe that good things come to those who wait.

This is not an easy feat. Very few people share this sentiment and it is probably easier to remember the deadly sins than the heavenly virtues. Who wants to be a stuck-up goody-two-shoes when the evil ones get all the fun? Who wants to be labeled meticulous and accurate when everybody is looking for someone aggressive and proactive? Which is not to say that being aggressive and proactive is wrong. What I mean is, how can you sit calmly and wait when you look around you and see that everybody else is living in their dream house, driving their dream car, working on their dream job and going to their dream vacation with their dream significant other?

You look at yourself and convince yourself that your due share will come because you have worked hard and waited for so long that there is no way you couldn't deserve what you were asking for. You repeat it again and again yet you cannot shake this terrible feeling that a little part of you is saying, "Congratulations if you live to see that happen."

Oh no, to wait is not an easy feat. The uncertainty of what is to come in the future is maddening. Witnessing the rewards reaped by those I deemed undeserving is disheartening. Fortunately, just as I am not old-fashioned, I am also not jaded. So I wait, while all around me children grow up and grow old, fairy tales were told and forgotten, and corporate-ladder climbers go up and fall down. I cross my fingers and continue to wait because I believe that my time will come and when it does it's here to stay.

Le Grand Bal

And so it came to pass that the event that I had been dreading for days came and went without any incident. The truth is, I actually enjoyed it. In the world of creative design, where the people you see are wearing t-shirt and jeans everyday except for the big bosses, it was actually refreshing to see everyone at their finest. The guys were wearing coat and tie. The girls were all made-up and wearing fancy dresses.

Of course, I am still not a fan of such events. Nevertheless, I still went all the way. I bought a new dress, shoes and evening bag. I don't have any formal evening stuff in my possession, so I had no choice even if it pained me to part with that much money on clothing I'm gonna use for a grand total of 5 hours.

It was fun. The food was great, of course, as we held the event in one of the good hotels in our city. We had a trivia game during dinner where our group won. There was also a dating game where we laughed our dinner out of our nostrils from all the goofball answers that the guys were giving. There was dancing after the program wherein the guys proceeded to make a clown-in-formal-attire out of themselves. 

My general confusion over the event was the comments thrown at me for the dress I was wearing. For the first time in my life, I went to a formal event not hating the dress that I was in. No, that was an understatement. I meant, I LOVED my dress. Totally. The neckline was low but so? It was a good conversation starter, so that took care of one of my social problems.

Really, guys. I didn't understand why you were making such a big deal out of my dress. You were making me feel like the whore of Babylon. So the decolletage was low but it's not like you haven't seen me wearing less. You had seen me in a bikini, for crying out loud. Please don't go Simeon Ibarra on me. I am not Maria Clara. Wrong year. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

It doesn't look so bad now, does it?

To My Beloved Friend and Minion, Alexis

(My friend Alexis wrote this on her Facebook page. This blog entry is my reply.)

You are right. Day offs are rare gifts. Why do I get this feeling that you spend yours worrying about tomorrow or about the stuff you need to do when you get back to work? You worry too much. You need to relax. If I had a dime every time I tell you this, I'd be a millionaire by now.

You are right. Life is not easy. All of us have some sort of bitterness, regrets, and mistakes. The important thing is we learn from them and move on. Do not let the negative stuff take center-stage.

It is human nature to be uncontented. It is okay to aspire for possessions and a higher status in life. But that should not be your end goal. When we die, we cannot take any of those with us to the after-life.

If you don't like where you are and what you do, you can only do so much. At some point you have to stop and ponder if it is all worth it. Things may not work out but that doesn't necessarily mean a dead end. If you have learned from it then it has served its purpose. Nothing we do is ever pointless, the good or the bad. Unless you just sit in one corner and wait for the day of your death or the apocalypse, whichever comes first. Now, THAT is pointless.

The most important thing in life I believe is to do something which you believe in, something that is worth your time. Not only will your life be productive but when you die and your Creator will ask you what you have been doing with the time He gave to you, you will not be embarrassed with your answer.

Do not wait for things like love, fame and success to happen to you. Make them happen. And if they don't happen, cheer up, it's not the end of the world. There are other things in life that can make you happy, like your family, friends and work. Like everything else in this world, happiness is a choice. It has to be a conscious effort on your part and no, you cannot find that in another person especially if you are not happy with yourself.

Indeed, you are lucky. Your family loves you. We, your friends, love you just as much. I know you will continue to worry. It's one of the things you do well. It's one of the things we love about you. It's one of the things that make you you. But don't overdo it. Wrinkles are never in fashion. Always remember, however deep the pit that you may be in at any given time, some people have it worse. Some people die miserable. As long as you are alive, you have a better chance of getting yourself out of that shithole and die happy.

More importantly, what makes you really lucky, is that you have me. Your semi-perfect deity of a friend who is willing to go out on a limb to give you decent advice. Understand that this is non-compulsory. You may read this and not follow it, if you wish. Though I strongly advice against that because I know I am right and I would totally hate to see this blog space go to waste.

I am kidding, of course. A little.

Now, if I could only learn to follow my own advices, I'd be in better shape than I am today in all respects. But I guess that's just not how it works.

I'm A Daysleeper

"I'm the screen, the blinding light.
I'm the screen, I work at night."



I work at night. Have been doing so for the past 6 months. To be honest, I had hesitations when I took the job. There were obvious concerns like my safety on the way to work since I will be commuting from downtown and, more importantly, my tolerance for graveyard shift since I had never worked graveyard before. These concerns were then quickly dispelled. I have been coming to work earlier than my shift thus reducing my security risk, albeit not completely. I refuse to believe that there is such a thing as 100% safe as you can get shot in broad daylight, in front of everybody. My concern over my biological clock going bonkers was a non-issue since I have been doing the same shift for 6 months without change. As for my tolerance, this also became a non-issue because I discovered that not only do I sleep well but I sleep well at any time of the day. And as long as I get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the day, I can function well anytime of the said day. Of course, there are obvious disadvantages, the very glaring of which is that  everyone I know is asleep during the time that I am awake. But there are also advantages, like the stress-free work environment and the fact that it is more economical because, let's face it, everything's closed, therefore no unplanned eat outs or take outs. I eat breakfast, go to sleep then eat dinner when I wake up.

Just recently, my boss told me that he wanted me to be screening people to replace me at my post during the night because he feels that with my skills and background, I would be more useful to the company during the morning. I am flattered at other people's confidence in my abilities, a topic worthy of another blog entry. But I must say that I have mixed feelings. I am happy to finally be a morning person again and to be in the loop with everything that happens around me, instead of opening my emails at night and asking, "What the hell happened?" But I am also sad because I'm gonna miss my zen work environment and economical eating habits. Well, nothing's permanent but changes. And I should really be happy. No, wait. I am :D

Summer Lovin' Happened So Fast...

Summer is over. I'm sad. Sniff. Though, I would welcome some relief from this unbearable heat, I still love summer. I was born at the peak of this season. Thankfully, I was able to go to two summer getaways this year. The first one is to our company summer outing at Maribago, courtesy of our employer, and the other was to Malapascua Island with some of my co-workers.

Snorkeling and island tour at Malapascua Island. Perfect!

              

    At Maribago with the entire RC team, because all work and no play...

      
Thank you for all the good memories, Summer. 'Til we meet again...

One Day in the Life of A Celebrity

I had a blast last weekend. So many things to do, so little time. This is what happens when in the eyes of the people you love, you have acquired celebrity-status.

Let me see. After my shift at work which is 12mn-9am, I went directly to the supermarket to purchase that bane of Filipino hospitality, the pasalubong (gifts). After that I went back to the dorm to prepare my stuff and went straight to the airport. As soon as I landed at 2pm, my father picked me up signaling the start of the gabfest with my family until 6pm whereupon I had to get ready for a get-together with my highschool classmates. I had dinner with them at 6:30pm and afterwards, we had a videoke session in one of the nearby bars until 3am. In the morning, my mother woke me up at 7am because the whole family was going on an outing. You can just imagine the how little sleep I had in 36 hours. So for most of the day, we frolicked in the pool and scenery of this really beautiful botanical resort up in the mountains. Although I was still sleepy and my head was throbbing of the hangover from the previous night, I immensely enjoyed myself. We headed back home at about 4pm and after a couple of hours we went to the city proper to do groceries which lasted for another 3 hours. By the time we got back home, I was practically on my knees from exhaustion and lack of sleep. Oh, well. That's the price to pay for eminence.

Here are some of our pictures:

That's me wearing a yellow shirt and holding the mike. I could not carry a tune to save my life but I loved these guys and I was having too much fun to resist belting out a few numbers. More importantly, these guys love me back enough to forgive me for committing the crime of ruining their eardrums and their favorite songs.

The place was great! The view, the flora, the water, the cottages. The best part was it was so secluded not a lot of people knew about this place. We had the pools to ourselves the whole morning!

On The Other Side of The Fence

I understand that career prospects in the Philippines are bleak. I understand why some people have to go out of the country to look for a job. It's just that there never was a need for me to do so. I have a lot of friends working abroad and I had been invited many times to join them. I declined every single time. Not because I am earning well in the Philippines but because I never had the need to earn that much. I am perfectly happy here. I don't want to go. My roommate said that I am the only person she knows who doesn't want to go. I don't care. I want to stay. Or so I thought, until a month ago.

Dianne is in Dubai and she told Tetet and I that if we are interested to go work there, she could help us. Tetet said yes in a heartbeat. I told them that if Tetet manages to get out of the country, then I'll join them both. I didn't even think about it.  My mind did a 360-degree turn in a split second.

I don't know what my motives are and as soon as I'm done analyzing my feelings, I will get back to you. All I could come up right now is that maybe, subconsciously, I want to escape. Escape from what, I cannot say yet. Some part of me still don't want to go. I am a Taurus. I am a big fan of security and comfort zones. I am not the kind of person who has an if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them mentality. If I had lived in the time of Moses, I would not have joined the exodus. So why now? Why seek greener pastures in, as Janica put it, some dessert city? Oh, the irony.

Now I Have a Scapegoat

In case I screw up at work, please refer my bosses to this blog entry.

Below is a chart of the problems that might occur when a person has to work under hot temperature. I got it from this website.

Please take note of loss of concentration and loss of efficiency in mental tasks. And at worse, mental problems. Really. So don't be surprised if you catch me doing a Sisa rendition (Basilio! Cris-peeennn!!!) any time soon.

As we are living in the same country, I'm sure some of you may probably be suffering from the same thing. So go to the same website for more details of your possible alibis in case you mess up, as well as for a definition of heat edema, heat syncope and other sophisticated illnesses linked to too much exposure to high temperature. It may come in handy.

A Black Hole Made Out of Fabric

In the darkest corner of my side of the room lies the horror that I have, for two weeks, ignored.

My laundry.

However, last night, I was forced to face its existence lest the growing mountain of dirty clothing would grow even  more in mass and density and completely take over the entire room, leaving my roommate and I to sleep outside with the rats.

Now, if there is one thing I hate with a passion, it is doing chores. It had been the subject of two decades of argument between me and my mother, who is a domestic diva if there ever was one. She has this old-fashioned notion that women should be good at housework and, for the life of me, I could never do anything to her satisfaction. Fortunately for both of us, I grew old enough to move out and, thus, ended what I thought would be a lifelong dispute between my mother, the domestic diva from hell, and me, the lousy homemaker from hell herself. Nowadays, whenever I went back home, there were always more important things to catch up on other than household chores.

Of course, living an independent single-girl-in-the-city lifestyle has forced me to deal with housework more frequently than I'm comfortable with. But, at least, I do not have to accomplish it according to the high standards of my mother. I have been doing housework on my own for 4 years now but I'm sure that if any of my recent chores were to be scrutinized by her, they would fail miserably. Luckily, I am among comrades who share the same predicament. So over gigantic basins full of soap suds, we share stories, gossips, and, more importantly, laundry tips that would get us through our ordeal, albeit temporarily.

Because the truth is, we will never get through it. As long as we live, there will always be that pile of laundry to wash. It is what it is. A perennial item on everyone's to-do list.

Brotherhood of Men

I just witnessed a hilarious thing which happened to my officemates. These are two 30-something guys who works on the same field and, more importantly, they are brothers. They got into an argument about something which I didn't understand. Well, whatever it was, it was definitely a subject they both understood plenty because they were arguing so heatedly that not one of them was able to finish a single sentence throughout the entire debate because they kept interrupting each other. If there had been other people present, they would have made quite a spectacle.

So anyway, they were engage in this ferocious battle over who was right and as I was sitting there listening to them, I had no idea how they figured that the other was wrong because they weren't even listening to each other. They were literally talking at the same time. They went like this:

Them (at the same time): Listen to me! Blah, blah, blah...(both stops mid-sentence). You are not listening to me!!!

If they weren't so serious I would have died on the floor from laughing so hard. They would go silent for a few moments while devising another way to rebut the other's argument. When one of them uttered a single word, the whole argument started anew but taking up the same line as above. I am pretty sure that it wasn't resolve up to this point but an hour or so after the debate, they got into talking about another subject and they were laughing like they weren't on each other's throats a few seconds ago.

It's a typical male behavior. If it were girls, even after the issue had been resolved, there would follow a cold war that would last for generations. This also got me to thinking about what would happen if my brother and I got into an argument like the one that they just had. The only thing I could think of is it wouldn't be possible because number 1, my brother and I are not in the same field and number 2, if my brother will argue with me, I will employ the technique I have long practiced over my siblings which basically discourages any of them from arguing with me: I'm going to smack him.

There is no room for democracy when you are snipping sibling rivalry at the bud.

My Thank-You Directory

Just to show that I am not a bitch most of the time, I am going to post my gratitude list here. I make this every week not only because it is one of the features of my planner but also because it is actually pretty awesome to look at it and know that I am one lucky person.

First, I would like to thank my PARENTS, the two most awesome people in my world. Thank you for all your sacrifices and hard work. Pa, you are my hero, my idol. Thank you for all your stories, for setting a great example and for making me your favorite child. Ma, thank you for your strength. We do not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and we used to fight a lot but I want you to know that I am grateful and proud to have you as my mother. Thank you for not judging me and for all your advices. I want you both to know that I love you and I think that you really did a great job raising us.

Second, my younger SIBLINGS, all 4 of them: Gorick, Oning, Kakay and Dwight. You are a handful bunch. I want you to know that I miss you all everyday. Thank you for all the chaos you got me used to. I know that you  all look up to me as the eldest but I also want you to know that you can be better than I am. Give your best in whatever you do and always listen to Mama and Papa. They are not our best friends and we don't like them most of the time but they are always right. Trust me.

Next, I would like to thank my friends. DIANNE & TETET who are very much with me despite the physical distance. Our exploits together had been legendary. You are part of who I am. JANICE, my roommate, I thank you for putting up with me and my messy side of the room. Thank you for all the late night talks and DVD marathons. JANICA, we have so many things in common that we finish each other's sentences. You always know how to make me laugh. Thank you for being there for me. Let's get together soon. I owe you lunch. NILA, girl, thank your for being an example to me. We may not agree on a lot of things but I want you to know that I admire you. I would also like to mention some friends who I don't get to see as much as I'd like but are good friends nonetheless: ANN-ANN, APRIL, CHERRY, PRINCESS, EARLYN and others I have failed to mention, thank you for being the friends that you are to me.

I would also like to thank JOSEPH for being a constant fixture in my life. Thank you for your love and attention. I am here for you always.

I want to thank my JOB and CO-WORKERS for making me feel productive without being insanely stressed out and for showing me that it is possible to work and have a life at the same time.

Last and most important of all, I thank GOD for giving me all these things that I am grateful for and even for the things that I am not so grateful for. Thank you for giving me this life that I may enjoy all that you've given me. So many times in the past I had wished for a different life. Thank you for not granting me that wish. Thank you for all that is good in this world. I never appreciate them enough.