Honestly Grateful

Despite all the fuss, mush and hullabaloo, 2011 has been a pretty good year.

Hiked Batad. Revisited Cebu and discovered the Golden Oreo there (among many other things). Roughed it out in some island in Quezon with the best girlfriends in the world. Flew out to Bacolod for the first time, and ate and ate and ate. And traveled out of the country (KOTA!).

Reconnected with old friends and made new ones. Realized some things really aren't meant for me while others just feel like  home. Celebrated my 1st year of running with a half-mary. Started yoga on a (semi) regular basis, and loving every session of it. Still somehow writing given the near lifeless situation of the workload. Quit that one vice I was unable to give up for how long, though granted I slip up sometimes...  (ahihi!) Found love in a Dot. A sour dot. A box of sour dots. Five boxes per purchase actually, but who's counting! (Gourdo's broke my heart when they decided to stop selling food stuffs in their stores, ergo obliterating their distribution of Dots Sour Slices. I swear to love the man who give these back to me eternally.)

Family's still in one piece. Friends from abroad came home and some lost in translation have been found. A cousin got married and she was a beautiful bride. A good friend also announced her engagement and I'm gonna be a bridesmaid! My Ninang from Australia also came home this year and spent her Manila days with her hubby in our house. The dogs had the time of their lives running after their toys every morning in their playtime with Uncle Mike.

I saw a sting ray this year in the shallow reefs of Pulau Mamutik, was attacked by wild fishies in Pulau Gaya and discovered THE BEST green mango concoction on the base of Mt. Kinabalu. My book collection just keeps of growing (The Hunger Games being the latest addition), likewise the bikinis and shoes. I discovered PAYLESS IN MANILA this year, and thought I was in heaven because I nearly died with happiness. Also bought myself  proper snorkeling gear, in PINK!

Looking back, 2011 wasn't just a good year. It was great. And I think 2012 might just be greater. So here's the the future and looking forward to the grand year ahead. If it really will be the last one, let's run through it like wildfire!

Life of the FILO

In Accounting 101, one of the very first things we are taught is the concept of Inventory Management. "What comes in, must go out," in the barest of descriptions. I always thought that FIFO was the most reasonable way of doing business. Naturalmente, ang unang dumating sa warehouse abay sana yun lang din ang unang lumabas papuntang tindahan, so goods won't go bad, right? Right...

But there are other ways of managing inventory, lest the term LIFO and LILO would never have been created. But no idiotic accountant or inventory manager or warehouse personnel would ever in their life ever do a FILO. Having a First in, Last Out plan is crazy!

Apparently, such is not the same for the workplace. Or for me. I don't know why I do this, what moves me to get to work early and stay here until the wee hours. We had our department Christmas Party last night, people had an excuse to come in late but noooo, I had to be in by 9! And now, because of a stupid mistake that I had no control over, I'm the last person on the frikkin' floor!

FILO!!!! FILO!!!! Stupid FILO!

I think its time to rethink this whole thing.

Whatta Mom!

I had another extremely long day/night at work. Got home at around 3:30 AM because of this project I've been working on since October (I had to wait for off-air hours to do a test run. Don't ask. It's complicated.) and finally last night was a successful session!

I get home and fall immediately into bed, dead tired and sleepy as hell! Then after what seemed like 5 minutes of my eyes closed, the alarm rang. Haring Araw was shining happily in his 7 AM spot; a sure sign that I had to grudgingly get up and start prepping for work (again).

(If it were any other day, I would've snoozed the damn phone about 5 times before actually picking myself off the bed but my dad had an early meeting to attend to so I couldn't dillydally.)

So up I was and off to the breakfast table, where my mother sat eating her oatmeal. She looks at me calmly and says, "Alam ko na yung chicken dance. (I know how to do the chicken dance already.)" and proceeds to do a step by step of the dance for me... in the middle of breakfast.

STEP 1 - talking hands (teret teret teret tum)
STEP 2 - flapping elbows (teret teret teret tum)
STEP 3 - twisting knees (teret teret teret tum!)
Clap clap clap clap.

Of course it made me smile. Who wouldn't find a chicken-dancing mommy in the morning funny?!

Mama, I love you.

Good morning, world!

I have a Yaya

I've known Mau since... elementary! (OMG! You're so old!... To which you say: NAGSALITA!)

I think I used to swap pocketbooks with her then. We were part of the Sweet Valley Twins craze; when the girls in class strove to be an Elizabeth but deep down dreamt of being a Jessica. There would be new books coming out every month and the entire 7th grade was a race to complete the series.

(Speaking of book swaps, you still have my "Chasing Harry Winston" and I still have your "Catcher In The Rye." I think I win in that swap.)

Then it was High School and the pocket books played second fiddle to the boy bands. They came one after the other back then, didn't they? Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Code Red, 911... Watching MTV was our daily afternoon habit, Mau's and I. We would tune in soon as we got home from school, ring each other up on the telly and scream to our heart's content whenever Shane Lynch's pretty face froze on air. It was insane! I think she was the only friend who got as fantardic as me. When everyone was into Limp Bizkit and Prodigy, we were belting it out to the tune of "Isn't it a wonder."

(Pause for a moment... Imagine Ronan Keating in his sleeveless white shirt... *sigh* ... and go.)

College came and went, then we started our careers. She ended up being part of Trend, as an anti-virus engineer no less. While I hopped in and out of jobs. One of my job hops led me to working in Eastwood, just a building away from Trend's office and suddenly we had an excuse to spend nearly every lunch break together. It was high school all over again! And that was when our term of endearment, "Yaya" was coined. Put to fame by Michael V. and Oggie Alcasid's "Yaya and Angelina" skits in Bubble Gang, we adopted the term to insult one another as we vied for the heart of  Danny O'Donoghue. (Who incidentally was part of an Irish boyband back in the 90's! I swear! Yaya found a video of him dancing away on youtube. Yaya, get me that link!)

Then I resigned. Eastwood must've been so bleak without our daily lunchies.

Now, Yaya and I lead completely different lives. I basically have none other than my job in the "surely-#3" network of the country. While she has moved to Ireland to get the wheels of "The Script Entrapment" masterplan going.

We don't get to "petiks" on YM as often as we used to (She discovered taboo on the web and we would play like crazy during office hours. Haha!) but there are days when it seems like she's still just a building away. Apparently, distance means nothing to us.

She's one of my bestest, dearest friends in the world and I would do anything for her.  Except give up money because she has more of it than I do. Haha!

And today's her birthday!!!!! (Woot woot! Parteih!)

So, to my yaya, I dedicate this song. Yaya, I love you. You are a rock in my world and I've never been more grateful to have you in my life. *HUGS* Hope my hugs warm you all the way from Manila!

When you're tired...

... all you can think about is being tired.

What is chaos?

It's likely why I haven't been posting anything here in a while. Because when I do write, the content will be something exactly like this: how I'm so stressed out, how I miss getting to do the things I used to do on a near daily basis, how I wish I could exert more effort into my extracurriculars but for some reason I can't...

:(

I hate this feeling of being stuck between a rock and a hard place but at the same time... it's become a very sad comfort zone.

What makes the situation even sadder is I seem to be looking for thrills in all the wrong places. Hay ija, que horror the insanities you get yourself into. And you've got no one to blame but yourself.

Dear Lord, please don't make me work on New Year's Eve. That would just push me even closer to the path of the suicidal.

I want to write, "Tonight I run" but seems like every time I declare it, I jinx it. So what I write is "Tonight I won't run." Hopefully the reverse psychology will work miracles and Lula will be 'neath my feet later.

Wish I could sleep.

Actually, wish our boss would finally have time to look at my preso so I can move on and implement the event I've been planning. (Trabaho pa rin!!!!)

Chop chop, brain! Gotta keep up with the program, lest you get too far left behind. I need sleep.