Archive for the ‘personal’ Category
Filed under current events, opinion, personal
I was up until 4 a.m. last Saturday, studying for my Legal History and Constitutional Law classes, while the rain pounded on our glass windows. It had started raining around the time I got off work at 7 p.m, and started beating hard around midnight. It didn’t cease until I fell asleep before daybreak. It was still raining when I woke up and left for school at around 9:30 a.m., but I didn’t think much of it. If anything, I was just a bit annoyed at the rain, because I didn’t have an umbrella.
By the time I reached Katipunan extension, though, the cab had stalled. We were not moving, and I was getting late for class. I found out that another classmate was also stalled. By the time the cab got to the Ateneo area, cars bound for the north were turning back, because the flood had risen to almost knee-level. There were a couple of cars that braved the south-bound lane, but they were swimming in the water. We turned around to look for alternate routes to UP, but then I received a message from my classmate that all roads to UP had been blocked, and that classes had been suspended for the day. We couldn’t go anywhere, so she and I agreed to meet up at McDonald’s Katipunan to pass the time and wait for the rain to stop and the floods to subside.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under law, personal
It’s Friday again. At this time last year, I would either be heading to a hole in the city to hang out with friends, or packing to leave early for another adventure trip the following day. Now I can’t do that anymore. There are hundreds of pages waiting to be read when I get home, and that’s just for one subject, just for one night.
I so miss traveling. I miss seeing the world outside. I miss taking photos and writing about my discoveries. I miss going home from work to just drop on the couch and watch TV, uncaring about what the time is already. I miss waking up after lunch hour on weekends. I miss the trips to the mall, the unlimited blogging, the lazy afternoons. I miss the unlimited idle time with friends. I miss not having to watch the time.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under career, people, personal
When I was 19, I attended a career and leadership training wherein the speaker introduced us to the Hedgehog Concept. At that time, like many students about to finish college, I didn’t know where I was going or what was ahead of me. I was very passionate about journalism, but I wasn’t sure where it would take me or if it could support the life that I wanted. The Hedgehog Concept changed that. I applied it to my life, and it hasn’t left me ever since. I still use it in making important decisions.
Today, I think I already know where I want to be for the long haul. I feel immensely blessed that I found my niche early, and that it gives me the challenges that I need and provides for the lifestyle that I want. I am very grateful to that man for sharing what he knew. I was prepared early. I saved precious time.
The Hedgehog Concept is simply a Venn diagram of (1) your passion, interests, and hobbies, (2) specialties and skills, and (3) the job market or the times. Somewhere in the middle, the three intersect, and that is your place under the sun.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under culture, personal, religion
Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi is a traditional evening mass in the Philippines, held at the crack of dawn from December 16 to December 24. It’s very much a part of the Christmas celebration of Filipinos that people make it a point to be there everyday for nine days. I’m not Catholic, though, so I never went to one growing up. I only read about it in books and heard about it from friends, and to me it sounded like a fun and colorful tradition.
So when my roommate announced that she was going to the Misa de Gallo this year, I volunteered to go with her. She had a laughing fit when I said that; she thought it was a big joke because I usually wake up at past nine, the earliest. The few times that she tried to wake me up earlier than that (sometimes I ask her to–I usually don’t hear my alarm clocks), she would fail, even if waking me up sometimes becomes a physical feat for her (wrist-grabbing, pinching–those stuff).
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under events, personal
I got converted to the Belle de Jour way when a friend in Manila sent me a Belle de Jour planner last year as a random gift. I loved it from the moment I lifted it from the package. It was not like the other planners or organizers that I’ve had. It had an expense tracker, a birthday tracker, a menstrual tracker, and a vacation tracker, to name few. There was a quote for the week every week, and every month there was a theme and tips for the season.
But the best part was that it came with 36 discount coupons to different boutiques and coffee shops!
So when I heard that Belle de Jour was soon releasing the 2009 power planner, I reserved mine right away. Here it is now!
It’s a lot better than the 2008 planner, although that one was already love. I especially likee the cover design. It has more discount coupons, too! It has 60!
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under art, corporate shit, personal
I went mural-painting with some people from the company some Saturdays ago, and these were the fruit of our labor.
You can find those murals at the Guizo Elementary School in Mandaue City. 
We didn’t get to work on the mural for the stage because there were few of us volunteers and we ran out of time. It was dark by the time we finished the second wall. We are going back there one of these days. I am just waiting for the call.
If there’s one admirable thing about my employer, it is how it cares for the community. We have outreach programs many times a year. We have two adopted public schools and one adopted Gawad Kalinga site. I’ve dug dirt for the foundation of the houses at the GK site, weighed kids to see if they are properly nourished, and made a clown of myself at children’s parties, among others. My employer pays for all of that though, we only do the work.
Filed under people, personal
It used to be that this big, old house had 12 merry girls living under its roof. Weekday nights were filled with conversation and laughter while we sit around the television and eat dinner in front of it. Oftentimes, in the middle of the night, someone would say she’s hungry, and we’d be happy to have an excuse to order burgers and fries and Coke and boxes of pizza.
Sometimes we would all just go out in our pambahay clothes to eat at the fastfood outlets that abound in this area of the city. Every time there is a birthday, or a promotion, or a regularization, or just about anything worth celebrating, we would hold a party, and because there were 12 of us, we would have at least one party a month. That excludes the big party at Christmas, the weekly official gatherings on Monday nights, and the random getaways.
Things have changed, though, in only a span of few months. There are only six of us now. The others have gotten married, eloped with the boyfriend, left to live with a sick father, or moved back to watch over the empty family home. Of the six of us still here, one is rarely here because her family lives just a town away, and two are always out with their boyfriends. (Should I just get a boyfriend, too? LOL). My roommate is also leaving in a week to prepare for the coming of her baby. It’s sad, but I’m also glad that she is keeping the baby.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under opinion, personal, rants
I find it weird whenever I am asked abroad if I have a degree, or if I ever went to school, or if we have this or that at home.
I just shrug it off, and answer the best way I can. I see no point in going into a long defense of who I am, where I went, or what I have seen of or done in this world. Sometimes they are surprised when I can converse well in English (Hello?).
No, I am not mad at all. And no, I don’t think the people I talked to were racists. It just makes me sad that the rest of the world still thinks of us as heathens, and this is probably our fault.
I was talking to someone (an American) awhile ago who told me a crazy story about a 20-year-old Filipina who was seriously considering a marriage proposal made on the phone by a 55-year-old American that she has never met.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under people, personal
One of the unlikely places to hear about the dreams and aspirations of random strangers is at the US embassy. There’s this lounge where you wait for the visa interview. On one side of the room is a line of booths where the consuls are. The consuls decide whether you can enter the United States. People try to look their best and arm themselves with the best English they have.
When your number is called, you go to a window, and then the consul grills you on the purpose of your visit, how long you would be staying there, when are you coming back. They also ask you details about your family, your properties, your finances, even your plans for the future.
Because the place is packed, and because sometimes the consuls probe that deep, visa applicants give details of their plans 40 years into the future. One woman the other day said she would manage a restaurant when she gets there, and hopes that that would be her financial investment. Another woman, who I understand is a social studies teacher, said she will share her knowledge when about different cultures, and said some things that an ambassador or a Miss Universe contestant would say.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under personal
I am half blind these days. After my left contact lens was torn last month while I was trying to remove it, a torn piece “got lost” in my eye, and the doctor told me to stop wearing contact lenses for awhile. She said it was to avoid possible infection, even though a test showed hours of poking didn’t scratch my cornea.
I’ve slept with my lenses on before, and I’ve “lost” lenses in my eye, but I had always solved that little problem on my own. I went to a doctor that one time because I couldn’t get the lost piece out after hours of trying, and I didn’t know where it was. I could only feel it whenever I blinked.
To make the long story short, I was able to remove the torn piece after the medical interns at the hospital had fun poking at my eye flipping my eyelids. They weren’t very useful. I had to pay an emergency room fee of P500 and a temperature check fee (what on earth is that?!) of P10 even though I was only there for 15 minutes.
Read the rest of this entry »
