pet peeve

HATE filipinos who now live in the US who claim they could hardly speak tagalog when they left the philippines old already. they can't even speak straight english with ease! 

overheard: 'oh i speak better pilipino now dan bepore. im not use to speaking it anymore since i went to di united isteyts!'

leche.

my great morning

today started good. it's barely lunch time yet and ive gotten lots of good vibes already.

my whole team was on-time for our scheduled activity. even the hard-headed ones. great!

so i skip breakfast to make it to work on time. then at work, one of my agents gives me one of her 2-piece chickens because she ordered too much. nice:)

yes, we will be having an outing. next week!! wow, i haven't been to the beach in more than a year! this would be a grrreat way to start the 2nd quarter of the year! aaand, im prepared! my boardshorts are waiting to be taken out for a spin! up, up, here we go!

consulted my director for something when the VP butts in and asks when my US visa will expire. he just gave me a heads-up that there might be a roadshow happening last week of july till august. my director just smiles at me and tells him that i'll be in europe about that time. i just said that i wouldn't have a problem flying into the US from europe if need be. haha, i miss being a jetsetter!:) anyway, details are still vague so there isn't anything solid yet as far as that's concerned. i'll deal with it when it's there :)

im excited to attend the spinning class today, at lunch time! had an awful experience yesterday. i ate so much and was scheduled to attend the 845pm class of bodycombat. i had special blessings from my boss because we had to work late. she WANTED me to go because she's seen a great improvement in my mood since i started gymming. so okay, i went. and what do i find: FREE FOOD and CANCELLED CLASSES. apparently, it was fitness first's anniversary. ugh! i ended up running on the treadmill, which i hate doing. 10 minutes on it and i was tired as hell! i opted to sweat it out at the sauna before washing up and going home. but TODAY, i get to attend spinning classes. so yay!:)

okay, im late. better split!

life's little details

i've been busy the past days and i wouldn't exactly say that they've been pleasant because they weren't (hello, im in sales, and it's the end of the month. these are the times when the words 'targets' and 'quota' are thrown around like they were the only important words there are). but despite everything that had been transpiring, there've been fits of blessings here and there and it's surprising when you start counting. it really makes a whole lot of difference.

anyway, some random stuff i wanna remember from a couple of days ago until this afternoon. just wanna post because i don't wanna forget:

- been finding time to go to the gym regularly. im obsessed with BodyCombat! makes me sweat profusely! as in i go cranky when i don't get to workout!

- people at the office have been noticing and insisting that i lost weight, even if i've been disagreeing. today especially. i've been stressing that i have been eating so much especially since i started working out. and they still insist. well, okay okay. i guess that's better than everyone telling you how much you've gained:)

- my boss told me to have my car washed cos it's been so dirty since yesterday. fine. while waiting for the wash to finish, i waited at Kuya's, one of our most favorite restaurants ever (first time i tried it was in San Bruno just out of San Francisco when i was still working in the US. Was pleasantly surprised that they have it here!). their twice cooked adobo was divine, as always. but we tried something new: crispy binagoongan as recommended by twinkle. oh my, sarap! good thing ezah had her camera with her. the moment was captured:

 - then i randomly get this box from manila pen and inside was this small notebook with kids in peninsula hats. haha, so cool! i bet it's one of 'em notebooks that i won't be touching again. i just like that it's there, ya know?:)

cant wait to fix my room to get organized again. i wanna group my little notebooks together so i always know where to find them. i have a big bayong (literally a bayong-- i got it in salcedo market!) of trinkets and whatnots that i've been dying to segregate. one day soon (hopefully).

-  finally found the time to pick up these special business cards i had made. so happy to finally have them!

- saw this watch i was fascinated with. it's a watch AND a camera! so inspector gadget/sherlock holmes! im gonna go back to take a look at it again one of these days. these things excite me. i really feel like im gonna be able to use it one way or another. i always wanted to be a spy, i dont exactly know why:)

- i get this random call from onyl for this favor that he's asking from me. small chitchats, etc, and eventually i get an invitation to watch KAOS! so excited! been wanting to talk to gary about this but i've been procrastinating. well, well, well..look do we have here!

- yesterday, i bought a pair of board shorts because i think we're having an outing by next week. better prepared than sorry:) i have so many planned trips this year and it's just march! and i mean small trips, the ones i never got to do before! and some of them are trips to parts of the PHILIPPINES! omg, so excited!!

anyhoo, cas is waiting in SnR, im gonna go see him there and get a cup of blue bunny, which i haven't done in a while :) easy day for such a stressful period in my professional life. i miss singing and just hanging out with ateneo peeps.

photo: rwmanila.com

social life

Im surprised i have so many upcoming trips plotted out already for the year. And i have a lot more invitations i haven't said yes to/plotted.

Wow, is this what one calls 'social life'?:)

student-mode

so i have exams on sunday for the real estate licensure by PRC.

i hate it that i'm back in student mode. i mean it's exciting and all, and i really enjoyed (most) of the classes, even if we had to discuss philippine law and republic acts and all that. i just hate it that im back in that space right before exams. that space where i panic so much that i have to study, i have to study, and i haven't studied enough, and i dont have time anymore, and there are a million other things to do and i have to study some more, etc.. and i end up doing virtually nothing!

ugh, i hate, hate it!

then i check twitter for updates to just fill in this pocket of time that i have and voila:

@GreatestQuotes Great Minds Quotes

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." - Napoleon Hill

 

hala. guilty as charged. ang bilis din ng answer ko. (insert nervous *ehehe..* here)

 

twitter's recently been like my magic 8 ball of sorts, except that you get answers other than yes-es or no-s. good enough for me. i love twitter more than facebook now. i just hate that you don't get to load everything. (only the last hour or so).

 

anyway, back to reviewing.

baguio (part 2)

 my 'alibi' for going, even if it was originally a day trip, was neil and trineth's wedding, my friend tria's baby sister. it was an intimate celebration. and because it was a villasis event, it was beautiful. i dont think pretty will make the cut cut in tria's books. it had to be gorgeous. and gorgeous it was!

after mine and onyl's brief stint as tourists, we freshened up and walked to the villasis's 'secret garden' in green valley (south china sea). our place was right across so it was easy for us to hop from our house to theirs. since there was kind of a wardrobe malfunction on onyl's end (read: everything he packed was bitin), we took so long and tria had to pick us up! talk about VIP treatment:) haha!

so here they were walking to the enchanted garden.
candles in brown paperbags lit our path. this reminds me so much of ferngully, i dont know why.

won't be posting a lot of food photos anymore because i noticed that almost all of my posts have a food element in them. okay maybe one. here's the dessert spread. note: NO chocolate! just healthy fruits;)

there was so much food but not everyone was up at baguio yet that time so we ended up (trying to) finish it all!

these folks uninstructedly gravitated towards this position, i just had to take a photo. so funny. when i asked for a photo, all they had to do was look! haha! 

de buena familia photo.

if you know me well enough, you'd know im not big on using the flash unless 

1) it's necessary (really dark/in a hurry) or 

2) im too lazy to keep a steady stance for a shot or 

3) i have some form of diffuser attached to my flash.

this particular shot, i had to really keep still because i wanted to preserve how magical the place looked that night.

i think i got it. this is exactly how i remember it.

with the designer/manang/wedding coordinator tria.

this scarf is an institution in acs already! for a wedding harang before, tria used it as a dress!

bride photoshoot effect:

the rest of the kids arrived at 3am. goodness, i really felt like i was on tour! brea kids, connect! mags is soundtripping and pia's rolling around in bed. heehee.

i was so kilig to wake up to this!

and this!!

preparing for the wedding. thank goodness for friends with extra scarves, pins, and talent to style!

pia's 'rosette'

st. ignatius chapel in PMA.

the entourage getting ready for the entrance. everyone looked gorgeous! and the designer, Tria Villasis-Ramolete did a grrreat job putting all these together in record time! the theme was origami, so yes, those are fabric cranes on the little girls' dresses. so tedious to make, but hey they made it on schedule!

Tria, i will shamelessly plug you here in case anyone googles. Her number is 0917-5242369. :)

wacky shot with tita ming and the kids. i'm in love with this photo. and yes, gids WAS on wacky mode.

little camp john hay at the manor.

it seriously looked like japan on cherry blossom festival. the caterer saw the decors and thought the cherry blossom 'trees' that they used during easter would go so well with it. and boy did it make a difference! talk about going the extra mile for service!

There were paper lanterns and 1000 folded paper cranes hanging from the branches! everytime the wind blew, you'd think they were birds in flight. so wonderful.

and these hanging namecards were a fun way to let guests know where they were to be seated. it had kanji characters that spelled out your name and had a translation below it. mine was 'daughter sound flow'. how very loloi:)

we tried EVERTHING that they offered us for cocktails. had a glass too many of that punch, i was so thirsty!

the newlyweds h.h.w.w. in the manor gardens.

as i was getting my business card in gids' car, boy abunda asked me about the cherry blossoms and if i was the one getting married. i just KNEW i had to tell maggie, who was the only one who'd relate to me. apparently she did! and she looked for him to have a photo with him. 

the cherry on top:mags teaching tito boy how to do the heart sign with his hands. :)

i left for manila right after the reception. it was nice of tria to arrange a bus ride for me. victory liner deluxe. didn't know they had that. airplane style, with a pack of cookies and a bottle of water. it was nice and comfortable. before i knew it, i was back in manila ready to go to work again.

baguio (part 1)

went to baguio march 18-19 for neil and trineth's wedding. it was beautiful. the experience was beautiful. but the best part was just being away from manila!

a jar of peanut/cashew brittle to welcome the guests

food! the arroz valenciana, callos and caldereta were winners! and so were the 'pomeranian' oranges. go ask onyl:)

that im not here for work, this is all new to me. still taking it all in.

i was extra bibo that day. my cliffhanger moment got me a cut on the finger.

acting really stupid on the way to good shepherd convent. again, i was just really happy to be out there:)

pasalubong :)

was so lucky to have onyl with me that day. he remains to be one of my favorite tour buddies. same tastes, etc. i didnt have to drag him around and viseversa. we were just laughing all the way! and
he knows the shots that i want. (i got a lot of practice from his old slr that he brought with him to europe in '01!)

here he is in his libya scarf. akala yata nya sa desert ang punta namin. lol!

see, these things, i could not have done without onyl's suggestion. i was in total tourist mode that day, i really didnt mind hamming it up for the camera.

baguio by night. beautiful. this was shot from sm baguio.

so the driver finally arrives to bring us home and i call onyl and he starts screaming: 'si manny paquiao yang bababa!! si manny paquiao yang bababa!!'

so i stop and true enough, it was THE manny paquiao! had my camera slung around my neck so i just turned it on, switched it to auto and started shooting like the papparazzi!

but wait! there's more! paolo contis, too!

anyway.

i dont know what i love more: his gucci jacket or that solid gold watch that i could not id?

 haha, what a packed day! and it wasnt even over yet!

on being self-righteous (long post)

was feeling a bit under the weather at work recently that my boss noticed and took me out to lunch this afternoon. john and yoko in greenbelt 5 (i'll be detailed as always because i want to remember, okay?). i ordered two kinds of sushi (just for myself--under the weather nga, eh. gimme a break-- lol at slef-choreo). food wasn't great. 'puro kanin' as my boss put it. i've never been so disappointed with sushi in my life. strong words from me who eats anything, so you know it was that bad. to say that it was tasteless is an understatement. even rustan's soggiest sushi to-go was better. first time ko pa naman jan. maybe i'll give it another chance. but i digress.

anyway, we had a good chat and processed why i was feeling such, etc. i actually loved our little chitchat. we're both psych majors and our talks make complete sense to me. i havent had the chance to talk to anyone like this in so long, so this was nice.

i realized that my mood was affected by an office issue concerning mine and another team's production where my team was at the losing end. i ended up doing the other team a favor, as i always have been doing (i've actually been told sarcastically to quit my job and join the make a wish foundation because i love doing charity work-- this was when i gave out a big bulk of my commission to another person). my point is, it's just money. i'll earn it back naman, i know. but then this ingrate of an agent never thanked me and said something pa in his 'moment' during our monday sales meeting. that really ticked me off big time. unleash banshee jonelski. the kind where you couldn't stop me from talking. people tell me my eyes give me away when im really angry, and this was one of those moments. even my boss got scared of where my actions might lead.

but anyway, since i'm one of the go-go-go people in the office and a big source of positive energy, i decided to be the bigger person and had the presence of mind to quickly switch my position to cut the negativity i was radiating. so after bursting (and mind you in a controlled volume-- i couldn't shout but the intensity was there-- very much like the madz pianissississimo :P) i just dropped it and said i was okay. that it was nothing. and i dropped it like it was scalding and never talked about it again.

we both realized that that was what was eating me up all this time. i was able to suppress it, alright, but as my boss put it, i did not talk about it enough. that was something new that i learned about myself. so we talked about it and processed how i felt. 

i was just really disappointed that there was no gratitude given and that the work that i did wasn't acknowledged. that's it. i really saw the difference that a small 'thank you' made in a situation. i hated the agent and i hated his manager, who i was kinda close to na since he started. i caddy-ed him from his training, up to now. i give encouragements, helped with special computations, heck i even introduced him to my favorite tailor and he's addicted to having his clothes altered now! i really felt betrayed because i felt that he should have taken charge and said something in my defense at that very moment and not make me feel so low, even for a brief moment. (ah, revisiting the feeling-- stupid agent!). i just wanted to feel that someone's got my back like iv'e got theirs all this time. it was an emotional moment, i swear. told my boss naman that i forgave already, but i do not forget. when i told my boss this, she just wanted us daw to be friends again. i told her we're friends naman. it's just that in my book, he's tainted na.

then she told me: so you are self-righteous.

wow. i've never been told that to my face, ever.

and she continues with a story of how she was 'branded' na by her friend once and she really thought it was so self-righteous of her friend to do that. and she went on about how God was so forgiving that who were we not to forgive? she injected faith talks in a surprisingly comfortable manner that i was never queasy about it. i actually got her point and decided that my concept of forgiving and not forgetting is somehow destructive to me.

the rest of our talk focused on that and one way or another, i figured out how to deal with my current position. she suggested that i needed time off from work just to be able to inhale fresh air. perfect. i told her i was going to baguio the saturday after, just a day trip, to attend a wedding and just for the change of scenery. and guess what? she insisted that i take the WHOLE weekend off. i don't remember if my jaw dropped at that point. i was just happy to hear that and we arranged something that would fit my schedule, what with the review classes going on (which i think also contributes to my stress).

so anyhow, we met up with the rest of our workmates and shared a mango and nutella crepe over coffee at cafe breton in gb3. it was a good afternoon. we walked around to window shop a bit before heading back to the office and my boss noticed that my mood was lighter. i did feel lighter in the chest. the release was much called for. i felt so light and the dose of chocolate punctuated my day perfectly.