The Week that was & The Week that will be

I haven't been able to blog for more than a week now, since there's nothing really "significant" to blog about the past week... Perhaps except for the fact that it's been raining really hard here, and due to the oh-so unpredictable weather, I now have a pretty bad cough that led to my alto-like, un-pitchy bedroom voice.

Other "boring" stories from last week:

• My lunch buddies and I (the Mcdonald's Junkies) realized that for the week that was (last,last week), we ate fastfood almost everyday (thanks to Jollibee, Mcdo, & Greenwich). Because of this, we vowed to eat fastfood only on weekends, since it's quite heavy not only for our stomachs but also for our pockets to have this kind of lifestyle everyday. Imagine, just for our Chickenjoy craving, we had to walk under the drizzle (they say this is more dangerous than the cat-and-dogs type of rain) and spend 110 bucks just for a piece of Chickenjoy, spaghetti, and choco-mallow pie (... will die without dessert! hehe!). Now imagine having to spend 110 bucks for lunch everyday! haha! We also need to save up for our weekends ;) I guess this fastfood frenzy also led to my cough and colds... Damn, if Chickenjoy didn't taste so good!!!
  
• Found out that one of my closest friends is now employed! (Read her story @ http://lola-mo.livejournal.com) I'm so happy for my Pumpkin! She truly deserves this big break, and I know she'll do great! Hoping that all goes well for my soul sister! I hope we push through with our PCD adventure!! waahh!! can't wait for that!!! :)
  
• I finally got my first "real" salary (through my atm, the last one I had to encash at the bank) and it felt really good and bad! Of course, having earned for that made me proud about myself. I can actually earn money for ME! But letting go of it is a different issue. When torn between saving up and buying a pair of pants I've been eyeing on since forever, I ended up not buying them, convincing myself that I won't be using it much anyway. And besides, I guess it won't be bad setting aside that money first... Who knows, I might need it for something more important than a pair of pants. Things I learned from this... PRIORITIZE!!!
  
• Last Saturday was DENTIST DAY (aka DOOMSDAY), and I was scared as hell. Everytime I hear that drilling sound from their "drillers", I get goosebumps. Yet for that Saturday, there was no turning back anymore. I was scheduled for 2 fillings (2 of my molars have cavities.. eeww! But hey, we use our teeth everyday of our lives! hehe), and surprisingly, I didn't feel much pain! (although I get ready for the pain by shouting even if the pain still isn't there. hehe) :) The one at the upper portion was more "nilo" and just thinking about it makes me shiver. I guess my dentist just did a job well done for a scaredycat like me. Now I shall take really good care of my teeth from now on! hehe! :) ... And did I tell you how great it felt that I (yes, out of my hard-earned salary) paid for my dentist bill? haha. How independent of me. But unfortunately, I have an impacted tooth, which will result to a dental surgery next,next week. *goosebumps, shivers, and everything else related to this!* I hope it wouldn't be too painful!!
  

For my upcoming week though, I expect it to be more challenging. I'm now assigned under the logistics department (having done my short stint making documents and going gaga over the difference of a's and a's), and after the briefing, I couldn't believe that there would be MORE work and detail involved with this job. Heck, I never even imagined myself doing something like this! It was really crazy. I just hope I will get through it and survive my crash course of logistics (which apparently, they also refer to as marketing.)

Oh, and another whapack! for today: My officemate and I have this habit of betting, and I end up winning most of the time. For some reason, he blurted out that when it comes to those things, I'm very lucky, but when it comes to love, luck isn't on my side anymore. And it made me think.... Diyos ko, SANA NAMAN HINDI! He definitely did not make my day. If because of that I'd end up unlucky in love, I will haunt him down and plan a "sweet" revenge. Mark my word. HAHA :) (Ouch lang talaga, in short. hehe)

Overprotected

My recent conversation with my officemate has led me wondering about my life. Am I really overprotected? Do I need to get out of my "comfort zone" and explore? What are the better things in life that I have to learn?

Silly, but I just realized how much I've missed on my life. I thought I was happy with the rate my life is going right now, but seeing what's beyond it in the eyes of other people just makes me want to come out of my shell too. I found the urge to conquer my fears and do more courageous and daring things. I want to experience a different way of life, nothing similar to the one I've been used to.... Some things I wish I could do and try to do too:

1.) Join Gawad Kalinga, Children's Hour, or any org that addresses such things,
2.) Try a new sport- maybe Wall Climbing (although I've tried this) or Tennis,
3.) Commute more often (Well, I just walk going to office, but I want to experience riding the bus and jeep and just go to a far, far place and get lost hehe) which leads me to my next point:
4.) Go to Manila (old Manila.. Intramuros, City Hall, Post Office... Malacañang, Pier) and explore
5.) Dance in the rain (although that would take a lot from me, since I'm ombrophobic)
6.) Color my hair (I want it in brown!)
7.) Spend a Sunday on the beach with friends (My Sundays are exclusively for my family.. I'll explain why)
8.) Enroll in a gym or go bellydancing (which I will be most likely doing a week from now)
9.) Go on a date! haha.
10.) Read on current events (well, this is purely due to laziness that I don't read up hehe)

But with parents like mine who resemble the media (who are often referred to as watchdogs of the society), I don't think I shall be seein myself doing these things in the near future. For one, I can't even decide on which celphone I want to get because dad says I get yada-yada! I can't actually blame my parents for being overprotective. But with an excessively overprotected kid (or shall I say lady) like me, going out of my comfort zone is definitely something worth thinking about.

That's why I want to meet someone (no love implied in this case okay? Just anyone!) who's daring enough to make me come out of my shell.

Just My Luck

Don't get me wrong. I am not going to write a review on a movie with the same title, but shall I say, I haven't been feeling any luckier lately as well. For some reason, God has removed me from the list of the "lucky ones" and cut-pasted my name into an entirely different table, that table under the heading, "the UNlucky ones".

My third week at work hasn't been all glam and glitter. I've had my own share of booboo's which have been quite depressing when pondered upon. For one, I realized my "ignorance" on Microsoft Excel and my Powerpoint skills won't bring me anywhere with this kind of work. Having only a cent's worth of knowledge on Excel made work much worse. I only found out about "insert", "delete cells", "drag", "=!B13", and, "book1..." last week. It felt like I was in school all over again, learning more acronyms and shortcuts more than ever!

And as the cherry on top of my "melting" ice cream (melting due to misfortune), I screwed up on my first task under documentations. I was making a draft on this crucial document which, when found with at least one error (misspelled word or even just a difference in the punctuation marks), we will be fined $40.00. I ended up revising it four times because of my stupidity. For one, I never dared to ask questions to my co-workers that might've avoided me from committing this mistake. Also, since all the encoding had to be done on excel, it made matters worse. The never-ending mistakes caused me to have a one-on-one tutorial sessions with a more experienced "docs specialist" (as I would like to call it), and a little bit of sermon from her as well. Although the $40.00 fee was waived (despite having it revised thrice!), it still felt so uneasy to commit a mistake such as this one. Lesson learned: be super detailed and DOUBLE-CHECK!!!!

On the brighter side, I found a new place where I could feast on salads and pastas near work. There's an ala-Oliver's Sandwiches cafe in Orient Square named Plaid, and having lunch there made the day a bit better. I ordered the Lechon Kawali-silog, which was the bomb (only for 95 bucks, which was actually a good buy)! Definitely, I will be back to try their Caesar's Salad. Oh, how I miss eating nothing but salads and bread! But that's another story. =)

I need to get my good luck charms back!!!!

IMC: I Miss Comm!

Last Friday was a blast. I had dinner with my SDL friends at Greenbelt. It was so nice seeing old faces once again. Although it has only been months since we've last seen each other, it felt like I haven't seen them for years. Perhaps everything just seemed so sudden that after getting too used with the faces you see everyday, in a snap of a finger, chances of seeing the whole block together again are rare.

That's why we thought of having a reunion. Only 7 of us were there- Arthur, Ris, Midge, Angela, Nina, Nadine, and I-- nothing felt like being in the company of your SDL buddies. :)

(That's Midge, Artz, yours truly, Nina, Ris, Angela, & Nades)

.. Nadine was right. Everybody basically talked about their current jobs. Arthur, Ris, and Midge, having gotten into 5th year, are currently residents at Unilever, Loewe, and ARC, respectively. Nina's with Club Media, while Nadine is still searching for THAT job. Angela also happened to bring along her oh-so-cute baby boy, Yuan (or Johann), who looked a lot like his dad. She's continuing her studies in UA&P, but not with SDL. She could've had more fun with us! hee hee.

I found out how much fun they're having with their jobs, and how much IMC is applicable in the field that they're into (duh, it's advertising! hehe). It thrilled me to see how enthusiastic they were everytime they'd tell their office stories. I, on the other hand, had a different story.

Being in another field, I kinda felt out-of-place not being able to share anything IMC-related. I admit that sometimes, it feels a bit depressing that I'm not able to apply anything I've learned in the job I have now. It makes me miss all those market research and concept development we're used to back in college. Now, I have to deal with capitals, currencies, accounting, and Microsoft Excel when all I knew back then was limited to psychographics, share of voice, sweet spot, and Microsoft Powerpoint.

Having this kind of dillemma sometimes makes me wonder how work would be like if I got in an IMC-related job. Could've I been happier applying everything I've learned and limiting myself to these alone? Would sticking to what I know make me happy? Or will I regret not learning more about other fields instead?

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I enjoy learning a lot about export and tuna. It made me realize how much knowledge is available out there for me to learn. Heck, if not for my current work, I wouldn't even bother knowing what the oceans of the world are! ... which, by the way, are the ff: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern (I all along thought it was Antartic, now they call it Southern!)

I guess getting into this job gives me an opportunity to widen my horizons. Looking at it strategically (long-term!hehe), learning about the world market actually gives me a glimpse of how every market is different (and similar!) from one another. It's not enough for me to stay inside my shell and depend on what I know. Getting into export allows me to expand my knowledge not only within my own bubble, but bursting this bubble and going beyond it. :) As my mom would always remind me, "It doesn't mean that if you're an Advertising graduate, you stick to that field. Explore. Try to learn more. Who knows, you'll end up doing something totally different but still loving it."

Now I feel better. :)

I've been tagged!

Thanks to Nadine and Midge, now it's my turn to tell you some things about me;)
Here's how it works:

"Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write 8 facts/things/habits about yourself, saying who tagged you. In the end you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs."

• I'm SUPER scared of anything related to RAIN. Call me a coward, but I've had ombrophobia since high school, thanks to an unforgettable experience. I was once flirting around school (yes i was. haha.) when suddenly, it rained like cats and dogs. My friends were able to find shelter, while I was left drenched in the rain. I was already crying by the time I found a roof. A few days after that, I had the worst cough ever (which actually resulted to my allergies/asthma which required me to take an dose of inhaler twice a day). From that day on, I swore I'd never put myself under a situation where I'll be soaked with rain.
• I'm a sweets addict. Anyone can bribe me with chocolates and candies. One trip to Candy Corner will definitely make my day. A meal wouldn't be complete without dessert. :) I just love how sweets can make you go all hyper and happy and.... sweet. :)
• I have a mole in my earhole... Many people actually think it's an earring. Some even thought it was cancerous (hell, I've had it since I was a kid! hehe) But I'm proud to say that having a mole in that special spot makes me one of a kind :) FYI, it's on my right earhole.
• And speaking of ears... I have attached ears! If most people have "hanging" ears, then I have alien-like ears. For some reason the lower part of my ears are directly attached to the sides, so you wont see "excess" fats hanging. It's like the shape of a half-heart. Weird, but unique ;)
• I was once cast under the spell of three brothers who had a band named Hanson. Damn, you should've seen how my room looked like 8 years ago! I even had remnants of my Hanson days on my study table... I couldn't remove the official Hanson stickers anymore! haha. (gosh, I even remember buying them for 2 dollars!) I even have a complete set of Hanson trivia books, Mmmbop to the Top (the first unofficial biography of Hanson), copies of all the singles (in cd) and the albums Middle of Nowhere (both in cd and tape), Snowed In (tape), and this other album they released (in tape). I also collected pin-ups of Taylor and Zac, memorized every song in Middle of Nowhere, and predicted which single was to be released the next... See, I've had my "teenybopper" moments too ;)
• Happy thought for the day: Being the ombrophobic that I am, I got stuck in Ministop after it started to rain like cats and dogs. I was in Ministop for around 20 minutes, and I was already a bit hopeless that I would be able to make it home for the next 30 minutes when suddenly Kuya Tap from Ministop approached me and lent me his umbrella. That was such a nice thing to do! It inspired me to spread the lovin' and do a good deed towards others too :)
• I have never had a boyfriend since birth. For some reason, no guy has ever admitted to me straight to the face that he had feelings for me, or that he ever liked me in one way or another. Heck, I've never even been out on a REAL date! Where art thou my dear soulmate?
• And last but not the least.... I've studied in 8 schools... and counting! I've lived all over the country and studied in 8 schools, namely: Learning Child Paranaque, Corpus Cristi School Cagayan de Oro, Lourdes College Cagayan de Oro, Ateneo de Davao University, St. Paul College- Pasig, St. Benedict Childhood Education Centre -Cebu, St. Theresa's College- Cebu, and UA&P. OA diba? I intend to add one more school in that roster... For an MBA perhaps? ;)

Wow, I enjoyed answering that :) And so, for the following people, now it's YOUR turn to spread the taggin'!! ---> Merky, Jackie G., Diane Flaviano, Yeni, Monique, and Darah! Well, I hope you read this ;)