Idz has officially sent out the announcement that she has nominated our dear friend Ana Janina Pangilinan for beatification pending the blessing of another friend (aka Samot) for waking up at the first wake up call. I quote the SMS here: "I would like to nominate Janina Pangilinan to beatification. She performed a miracle of sleeping for 10 hours, made the sacrifice of missing a con call, and committed an act of generosity with a single call. What say you, Holy Papa John Eric I?" Hehe, peace Pangski! 
It's two minutes til 12 noon, and I am still here in the office. Talk about what we call kaadikan. My shift officially ended at 8am, but my deliverables did not disappear just because I wasn't getting paid to stay from 8:01am onwards. The life of a call center team leader is truly a juggling act - coach your agents, do all your admin work, attend meetings (some of which even my boss classifies as "time wasters", hehehe), and, of course, tackle all those ad hoc tasks that jump up from your overloaded email and bite you just when you thought you'd be able to go home early for once. Ah well, at least all of us are in the same boat. For instance, right now there are at least 6 other team leaders doing "OTY" with me. Misery loves company!
At times like these, I get my inspiration from the character Emily in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada". Being an assistant of a high-powered and extremely perfectionist fashion magazine editor, she had to deal with an impossible boss on top of all the other demands that her job entailed. And I realize that I'm really lucky not to be stuck with a boss from hell (in fact, he's quite nice ). Also, my job doesn't demand that I be impossibly thin in order to look fashionable - my figure suffers for it, but at least being thin in my industry is a choice and not a requirement (good thing, otherwise I'd really be in trouble).
So whenever I feel frustrated and dejected, I just remember Emily and think that if she could say "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job!", so can I. 
One of my agents, Pam (aka wickedangel11), has just commented on the fact that my last blog was posted back in 2006. Whoa! I didn't realize that it has been THAT long since I last wrote something for this site. As a result, I now have absolutely no idea where to start off again, and have simply decided to list down some personal milestones:
1. Got regularized here at my new company. YAY!
2. Was asked to be a wedding singer at my friend Marianne's wedding (was the worst wedding singer of the three, good thing it was just a friends-and-family affair and that Tito didn't go ).
3. Old team got reshuffled, got a new team, lost some agents from the new team, got some new agents (including one who used to be in my old team).
4. Got to know most of the members of Four, including Vany's flirting friend, Sexy Lloyd.
5. Received a merit increase even though I only worked three months in 2006. YAHOO!!! 
6. Got to hang out with Junnie and Kenji again after a loooooooooooooooong time of not getting to meet with them.
7. Moved house - from Apartment E to Apartment C. Hehehe.
Now that it's all listed down, it doesn't seem like much. I really should've kept this blog more updated. I've just realized that it feels good to read through some old blogs because they help you remember what you were up to during a certain point in your life. Will try to do better moving forward. Idz, we really need to get ourselves a DSL connection at home na!
This past weekend has brought home to me the fact that you can still have fun even though you feel that everything's so hectic in your life. To elaborate: my Saturday afternoon (morning having disappeared while I was cramming in the office) was set aside for some Christmas shopping and my evening was reserved for Vany and her "special project". My Sunday looked to be even worse - Mommy and our youngest sister were due to arrive from Iloilo late in the morning, and my Sunday night was crammed with three engagements - our company Christmas party, a friends and family dinner at my uncle's in Sta. Ana, and a benefit concert for one of my cousins at CRL in UP Diliman.
So there I was, Saturday morning in the office, lamenting to Fritzie the sexy girl that I didn't have any idea how I was possibly going to survive the weekend. For starters, we weren't able to leave the office as "early" as we wanted (early being 10am as opposed to 12 noon, considering our shifts officially ended at 7am). We rushed home then Gel and I went to the mall and went on hyper-shopping mode. Then it was time to prepare ourselves and transform into Vany's "chaperones".
We left the apartment a lot earlier than usual, because Gel and I were hankering after that oh-so-elusive bucket of San Mig Light that costs a lot less if you're lucky (or intelligent) enough to get into the venue before 9pm. I guess it just wasn't our night for overindulging in beer - when we got there at the abnormally early (for us, at least) time of 8:30pm, we found the place packed with the attendees of a company party and no tables at all to be had. We decided to beat a hasty (albeit temporary) retreat to Starbucks. It's a good thing that a little bird texted me around thirty minutes later to tell me that the place was now virtually unoccupied except for himself and a companion, and that we could now have our pick of tables.
We went back to the venue, tried to casually saunter in (which was hard to do considering the fact that there was only one long table that was occupied) and proceeded straight to our friends to do the usual "meet-and-greet". And then we proceeded to enjoy the rest of the night (except for the other band and the overabundance of screaming fans who tried to undress one of our friends on the dance floor). Vany was in her element - and why shouldn't she be, considering the fact that she was again the most beautiful girl in the room in the eyes of the one who mattered. Hehe, if she reads this she'll definitely kill me.
Another friend, whom we were trying to convince to dance with us (so we wouldn't look like we were part of the "screaming fans" crowd) suddenly got a bright idea and set out to follow through on it before telling us (his would-be victims) about it. He went to the controller's booth and before we knew it, Vany and I had the spotlight pointed straight at us while we were trying to dance unobtrusively. Agh! Vany and I split, and the unfortunate girl Vany was the one who got to be followed by the spotlight. Our friend hid himself in the dressing room indefinitely after that, but we were finally able to find him and literally (for Vany at least) choke the life out of him. Haaaaaay.
Went to Starbucks (again) afterwards, because we were all feeling a bit peckish, only to discover after we had appeased our hunger that there were no cabs to be had. In Metrowalk! On a Saturday night (rather, early morning)! We walked the entire length of Metrowalk and ended up running into our friends again, who also couldn't get a ride (except for one of them who bragged about living only 2 minutes away  ). After various inquiries about "Miss Invisible" and a heated debate on whether or not she really exists, we proceeded to try and find a ride home. One friend apologized for his car being out of commission on the exact same night that there was a cab shortage, and then when we were able to find an empty one, practically bulldozed the driver into taking us on as passengers. Those tattoos have some use after all! Hehehe.
Sunday morning, was supposed to wake up at 9am so we could fetch Mommy and Rose from the airport. Lani and Gel ended up being the lucky ones - I didn't even hear my alarm clock go off. Woke up to find Mommy and Rose already in the house - such a nice feeling. Then got left behind as they all headed to Sta. Ana for the family dinner and I had to attend our program's Christmas Party at Don Hen. Prior to that, however, was our team's so-called choir practice - we had been informed a scant two days before the event that all teams were required to participate in a caroling competition.
So there we were at one of the tambayans beside the Main Lib of UP Dil, most of us got there late, and we tried and tried to get the song right but something was just not there. Finally, we decided to proceed to the party venue for fear of running out of seats. Once there, when we had all semi-agreed that facing the penalty (whatever that would turn out to be) would be infinitely better than surefire public humiliation, one of my co-team leaders approached me and asked if his three agents could join my nine and we could do a tag-team presentation. It's a good thing that Ging, one of the three, is a longstanding member of the UP Concert Chorus. We finally had a soprano!
We had a last-minute impromptu rehearsal in the parking lot, then went in and did the best we could. We won! I personally think that the judges were fooled into thinking that we actually knew our voice assignments when we all started our synchronized page-turning of the music sheets that we were all holding on to (for most, they were only a source of lyrics). Three grand in the bag!
After the party was over, we proceeded to Quattro and I downed two macho mugs of Strong Ice (which I shall not be doing again for a very, very long time  ) while playing a drinking game with my agents. We ended up 5am Monday morning at Ababu's, trying to pacify our poor liquor-saturated stomachs with keema and pita bread.
What a weekend! I wouldn't survive if they happened every time, but once in a while it's such fun to cram it as full as your normal working days - but with doing things that are so much more interesting.
What is it about weddings that makes us go out, buy an expensive formal dress that you're not going to get to wear all that much, and obssess about having to have shoes and a handbag to match the expensive dress? But wait, that's just us! My friends and I went to a friend's wedding yesterday afternoon, and found out when we arrived that we had "overdressed" for the occasion.
The invitation (which was a very lovely one, by the way) did indicate that guests were supposed to come in a dress code of "Formal/Barong", so good girls that we were, we did exactly that. Imagine our surprise when we arrived and saw that we were the only ones (aside from the entourage) who followed the dress code. My friend Idz was so incensed when she saw the occupants of one table in the reception area in a pair of shorts. Talk about dressing down!
The minister who conducted the ceremony also seemed to have his own personal agenda, practically turning the wedding into a prayer meeting and having people hand out envelopes for "donations". He also went on and on about how the wife should be subservient AND submissive to her husband, sentiments which had me and my equally feminist friends silently wearing down the enamel on our teeth from too much gnashing. Agh! I can only commiserate with our poor, beleaguered friend the groom, who as the ceremony progressed resorted to making faces and telling jokes in order to inject a bit of humor and life into the proceedings. I can only sympathize with the guy.
The food (which was good) and Idz' rendition of Julia Fordham's "Love Moves In Mysterious Ways" and the jazz standard "Someone To Watch Over Me" were the high points of the evening. The low point came when we were forced to go join the rest of the single females for the boquet tossing (what with Lance calling us by name). Everyone was avoiding having to catch the boquet, because we all knew that whoever was unlucky enough to do so would have to have a garter slid up her leg. Thought of stranger touching my legs: not acceptable. Poor Othey (the bride) had to toss the boquet five times, the fifth time her sister finally took pity on her and caught the darn thing (whew!).
In spite of everything that happened, I am still resolved to do the following:
Dress formally if the invitation says formal wear, even though I run the risk of being overdressed.
Diplomatically avoid having to catch the boquet by developing an advanced sense of ESP regarding "boquet-tossing time".
Volunteer Idz as a wedding singer for all my friends' weddings, hehehe. Peace, Idz!
Take tons of pictures of myself and my friends while I'm there - after all, it'd be a shame to waste the dress and the makeup.
Wear something that will allow me to liberally partake of the food (and to hell with my diet - but only for that day). Otherwise, Gel will kill me, hehehe.
Not run to the buffet table as if I haven't eaten in a month (which the really underdressed guests did).
And, last but definitely not the least: ask Gel to do my hair and makeup each and every time - she's so much better at it than the parlor pros.
Vany is my neighbor and my "lola" from our college org. She was looking peaked and stressed out yesterday, so I thought I'd treat her out. This pseudo-shy girl hasn't gone on a night out in months, so I asked her if she was up to listening to some live music. She said yes, of course - Vany being a consummate music-lover. So we went to a bar where a friend of mine had a gig.
The place was small, the gathering intimate. My friend was in his element that night, singing his heart out (and he did "Angels Brought Me Here" when we requested it! Thanks Ross! Next time whole song na right? *hint, hint*). Vany was wearing red lipstick at Gel my artist sister's instigation, and she looked fabulous! Just how fabulous would be underscored when my friend's bandmate proceeded to flirt with Vany from onstage (and later on, he sat down right in front of her and sang to her). The whole room was having a collective kilig moment at her expense - and at one point poor Vany resorted to shielding her face with a paper napkin. Hehehe. I haven't seen her so embarrassed in ages! But she handled herself really well, bright red face notwithstanding.
So, Vany, when will we be going out again?
Huhuhu, my salary has been demolished.  I actually spent part of the day paying off bills, although to be completely honest, some of the money went to four pairs of slippers that I ended up buying when Gel and I went to SM Cubao after leaving Gateway. It's a good thing they weren't expensive, otherwise I'd now be doing a very premature countdown to next payday.
We're currently doing a 10 hour shift here in training so that we won't have to come to work on November 1st (not that I have anywhere to go) and on Saturday, November 4th. I actually prefer this kind of schedule - it will be good preparation for when we're already on the floor. I'm sure that I'll be going back to staying my formerly usual 11 hours (at the very least) in the office by that time. Haay, time flies!
Ran into Dan, one of my former officemates, on my way to the pantry earlier. We were both really surprised - I almost shouted. He's with another account in the company, surprisingly still an agent (he was a TL in training when he left our old company). I hope he gets promoted to a higher position soon - he's long overdue for a promotion.
We're currently on our second 15 minute break, and I opted not to leave the training room because there's really nowhere to go at this time. Haaaay, I'm sleepy, I'm rambling, so I'll end this before I stop making sense entirely.
I spent the last weekend in a manner quite unlike the one I've been spending my weekends lately. I got home from the office around lunchtime on Saturday, with Marianne in tow so she could catch some sleep before Mel would come to pick her up after his harang. I lazed around the house while she commandeered my bed, and later acted as amateur masseuse (later to be ousted by Lani, hehe). After Marianne left, I spent the rest of my Saturday alternating between sleeping like a sloth and half-wakefulness where I would trudge the few feet to the ref to get a drink of water.
Poor Idz was not as lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it). She was dragooned into being one of their account's dancers for their company Halloween party. We spent a few minutes of the afternoon scouring through our closets for black tops that she could borrow for her performance - well, Lani scoured and I acted as the dummy, trying them on to see which ones would be likely to fit her. She was able to get home around 4:30am Sunday (I know coz I was sleeping downstairs waiting for her to get home). The poor girl looked wasted but deliriously happy. She, of course, did not make me wait long before spilling the beans - she was able to take a video of one of their company's senior managers being given body shots onstage, in front of the entire party, by the two gay entertainers. I could hear Idz' very distinctive laugh in the background, which indicates how much she enjoyed herself.
Sunday morning (normal hours), Lani and I were feeling a bit restless and decided to go watch a movie. Rania, our friend who's currently taking medicine and as a result has practically no movie life, was at our neighbors' place, so we invited her to join us. She accepted with alarcity - after all, it was free! We went to Gateway intending to catch the so-called 1:30pm show for The Prestige, only to find out when we got there that the girl I spoke to on the phone was misinformed and that the first screening had already started, at 1:10pm. We decided to wait for the 4:00pm show instead, also to give Idz enough time to get enough sleep and catch up with us.
She ended up following us there with Gel, Jan and Marianne in tow. All in all, there were seven of us who watched the movie for free (I really  Tito Ed! We all do!) We pigged out at Burgoo afterwards, then went on home, with Rania continuing to make our sides split with laughter because of all her hospital horror stories.
My sisters, brother and I ended the night (or the dawn) by watching the extended edition of The Return of the King, which one of my co-trainees has so kindly let me borrow. We loved the extra scenes! We had a lot of fun trying to pinpoint which scenes were not in the original cut.
So, no live music and bars for me this weekend, but I still managed to have a lot of fun. My only regret was that my videoke outing with my good friend Marie and my cousin Melinda didn't push through because of their schedules' suddenly being changed at the last minute. Hope we can reschedule it sometine soon, as I miss both of them terribly. So, live music this coming weekend? Hmm, I'll have to think about it!
I
went to Ramon Orlina's exhibit opening at the Ayala Museum with my
sister last night. We were planning to leave a bit early because I
still had work at 11pm last night, but all those plans were blown out
the window thirty minutes or so after we got there.
There
were tons of people present - we could hardly breathe while the various
speeches were being delivered and before the opening program was over,
the crowd had already overflowed towards the staircase. It's a good
thing that we were still able to find our grandmother and brother,
although poor Gel was stuck on the stairs due to the lack of space in
the venue.
Then
came the opening proper, where all the guests would have a chance to
view (or in this case, slightly view) the sculptures. Due to the very
large number of attendees, we were not able to fully appreciate all the
sculptures that were on display. The few that we got to see, however,
were very beautiful, and a lot of them were already marked as having
been sold. My friends and I made a pact to return to the museum to
properly appreciate the sculptures some other time.
We
finally tried to escape the crowd by going down to the mezzanine, where
cocktails were being served. Unfortunately, the mezzanine was also
suffering from the same problem that the exhibit room was -
overcrowdedness. Tita Cheloy (aka Araceli Limcaco-Dans, another
renowned artist) finally said that we should eat somewhere else instead
of having to "fight for our food". We all vehemently agreed with her.
Since
she was craving for seafood, Lance and I ran ahead and scouted for a
place which would satisfy her craving. We finally decided on the
Seafood Club, which turned out to be affiliated with the Red Crab
restaurant. Tita Cheloy bade us order what we liked, since she had
just sold an extremely pricey painting and was in the mood to
celebrate.
Then
followed a meal that I hope will be repeated many times over - and not
only because of the delicious crab dishes. The company was what made
that evening really special, and we were all in high spirits by the end
of the meal. It is true - no matter how much you think you already
know, someone comes along and makes you realize that it isn't that much
at all. The good thing is that with that realization comes the
opportunity to correct the oversight and glean all that you can from
lovely people like Tita Cheloy, who are always willing to share what
they've learned from everything that they've gone through in life.
And, of course, all her anecdotes had us laughing the entire time.
Haaaaay, I wish we could meet her again soon.
 Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay... 
One of my officemates sent me a link to this really educational and eye-opening website: www.stevepavlina.com. One of the articles there is entitled 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job. I only wish I were as brave as the author...
 | Reasons | Sep 12, '06 11:54 AM
for everyone |
What inspires you? This question has been haunting my mind lately, particularly during the time when I was trying to decide whether or not resigning from the company where I've worked for almost three years would be a good idea. I remember when one of my colleagues asked me to rank the four P's: Pay, Position, Power and Passion. How would you rank them? My answer was: Passion first, because although you can force yourself to do something that you don't want to do for a time, it won't be good enough for the long haul; Pay second - let's be practical (and honest): we work in order to be able to earn enough money to keep body and soul together (and then some ); Power third - after all, what good is being the top executive when you don't have the power to back up your decisions?; and fourth, Position - because without the previous three P's, position is rendered superfluous.
I think that I used this way of looking at things when I was struggling to come up with a decision on that all-important question: Should I resign from my current company even without another job securely waiting in the wings? Using the four P's, the question was ridiculously easy to answer. I wasn't feeling any passion towards my work anymore. Lately I've been having to struggle to even get to work, and then struggle some more when I get to the office in order to accomplish something worthwhile. The pay, while good when compared to what I'd be getting were I working in another industry, could've been better (seeing that I am working in the call center industry). And while I do have power to affect certain changes, it's not enough to allow me to do as much as I would have wanted to. And lastly, position - I am definitely in a position where I affect a lot of people's lives. How can I, however, influence them to become better when I myself am already halfhearted about going to work? In the long run, I might prove to do more harm than good to those people whom I am responsible for leading.
In the end, my decision turned out to be not as hard as I thought it would be. Yes, there are a lot of people whom I will miss very much once I am no longer working for the company. And yes, I am definitely leaving my comfort zone. In the end, however, change will happen will we or nil we; in my case, I just helped it along a bit. A sudden severing will ultimately prove to be less painful than prolonged farewells.    
I've inadvertently prompted myself to think about what used to be so important in people's lives before: their word of honor. Honestly, during our "modern" times, the phrase does sound outdated and not at all applicable to our often fast-paced and technology-driven lives. Does the fact that most people would consider it outdated, however, actually mean that we've outgrown the need to stick to what we say? My opinion is that it does not. I'm actually one of those people who wishes that we could have retained some practices from our past, one of them being the importance that used to be placed on keeping one's word.
In Britain, gentlemen used to challenge each other to duels whenever they thought that their honor was in question. I must admit, it was an extreme way of proving that one was honorable, but the fact that it happened brings home to us the importance that they placed on keeping their word. People were very careful about what they said because they knew that once uttered, they would be held to it by everyone - and no one wanted to be branded dishonorable before all their peers. Lawfully, back then the breaking of a promise, be it verbal or written, could get one sued for breach of promise.
Yes, they were extreme in upholding their honor and this often caused much hurt among their society, not to mention some people who went to extremes and committed even far worse crimes (like murder!) in order to be able to cover up something that they did (sometimes a triviality!) which they felt would impugn their honor. So yes, the world in general has been right to relax these standards. But to the extent that we now tacitly allow ourselves and others to break our word with impunity? I think not.
August
Outgoing personality. Takes risks. Feeds on attention. No self-control. Kind hearted. Self-confident. Loud and boisterous (WAAAAAAH! Am I really? ). VERY revengeful (So true!). Easy to get along with and talk to. Has an "everything's peachy" attitude (Hhmmmm...). Likes talking and singing (Although I'm not too sure that singing likes me back ). Loves music (Definitely!). Daydreamer (Admittedly!). Easily distracted. Hates not being trusted. BIG imagination (Helped along by all the books I read). Loves to be loved (Who doesn't?). Hates studying (Again, who doesn't? ). In need of "that someone" (Hmmm, I'm not so sure about this one). Longs for freedom. Rebellious when withheld or restricted. Lives by "no pain no gain". Caring. Always a suspect. Playful. Mysterious. "Charming" or "beautiful" to everyone. Stubborn. Curious. Independent. Strong willed. A fighter. Repost in 5 mins and you will meet the love of your life sometime next month.
The beauteous Ida has allowed her Superman addiction to follow its own inclinations and has come up with a very enlightening blog on why the Man of Steel and Lois Lane couldn't possibly have produced that cute kid: Larry Niven   
Can You Read My Mind?
Maureen McGovern
Can you read my mind?
Do you know what it is that you do to me?
I don't know who you are
Just a friend from another star
Here I am like a kid out of school
Holding hands with a god
I'm a fool
Will you look at me
Quivering
Like a little girl
Shivering
You can see right through me
Can you read my mind?
Can you picture the things I'm thinking of?
Wondering why you are
All the wonderful things you are
You can fly!
You belong in the sky!
You and I
Could belong to each other
If you need a friend
I'm the one to fly to
If you need to be loved
Here I am
Read my mind
 
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