----happy t day!

---My Sister's Wedding

For me marriage is a stage of life no one can ever be prepared of. Emotional maturity, financial stability, physical and mental capacity are just a few tangible considerations. Marriage is a journey into developing two individuals who were initially infatuated and learned to live each day depedently with each other. The journey in itself is a preparation of both individuals to live in a world of uncertainties and upheavals. I have seen marriages collapse easily when the other is unable to withstand going along with unlikely things, or because of unfaithfulness while I've witnessed others hold the marital feud in abeyance in the hope that after eons of martyrdom, an awakening shall come to pass. But today I realized that friendship is one of the strongest foundation there is to keep a relationship, like I've witnessed to my younger sister marrying today, to her boyfriend for eleven years.

This was planned only in a matter of two months. My parents, being on the conservative side, wanted my sister to have a simple church wedding.They have adamantly stated that it always brings good fortune to the newly weds if they are blessed by God through a wedding and not a power of a judge. We helped her even financially to come up at least with something decent and simple.

I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to start the ceremony because my hubby and I had to run an errand. We purchased a new sofa and we kinda lost track of time. The church was perfect. It was one of the oldest church in the Philippines, comfortable and fully air conditioned. My relatives and sister's closest friends were in attendance that made the ceremony more solemn because they are surrounded by people really close to them. At the reception, I hosted the program along with my high school teacher who happened to be my new brother in-laws' aunt. We had fun. My siblings, parents of both families had a few minutes of best wishes speeches , and there were point we become emotional.. but it's just natural. We are able to express our heartfelt congratulations while reminiscing the old days we spent with them while they were still single. I was so happy to see her finally settle down to the person she really loves and grateful of us being beside her all the way.

Here are some of the pictures:




Me and Hubby, Xy and Xeon






fr left: marj,guiamela,wacks,cess,venus,{me},&the newly weds apple and jeemer






Guiamela, nieces Sam,Alex,Xy and Xeon






at Santo Thomas Church

--Old Friends, Real Friends.

Friends are treasure they say and most of the real ones stay regardless of distance and time. At work, I have gained many acquaintances,or from random places and events, but none could ever replace the way you are treated by you old friends, especially those hailed from where you grow up, such as high school and elementary classmates. They have become considerably friends already to me. When FB came to surface and helped mitigate the cost on communication or at least connect back to people you never know where they are, my classmates decided to set up a mini-reunion for those who are based in Manila. While the rest of the '93 tertiary population have dominantly stayed at the province, it was more difficult to keep in touch and meet more often. I have not gone home since 2005 and whenever they meet there, I am not able to attend. At first I was really excited; in fact I plotted my vacation leave to give way to this event, and was dismayed that some couldn't come.



SO we met. Some of those who positively agreed that they were coming didn’t show up. I was sort of disgusted to their level of maturity in terms of keeping up to schedules, although this doesn't make them a bad person. They maybe a little tied up probably, or at least. We were eight all in all. The dinner at Gerry's Grill was sumptuous and we ate while we were reminiscing the high school fun. Ley was the most notorious amongst us, but not the whole batch. He was fun and not harmful. Just plain silly. I was able to catch up with a lot of things going on at the province. From the deceased classmates and one of our good English teacher who passed away too, .down to those who are still living (of course) and how they are able to survive the life at home. Simple and laid back. Some of them have started families already with five or so kids, which is unimaginable to have at this kind of economical status. It's their choice though. It's just that I feel having 6 kids may not be ideal now. I was thinking, how could I ever give them equal attention, good education and decent living without having to work my ass hard. After the dinner, we stopped by at Starbucks, to continue catching up. We had pictures taken to be posted on FB sometime after. Mano, our high school valedictorian is now married to her long time boy friend, who happened to be my college schoolmate, is working in Singapore. They are still trying to work out having a baby. Same thing with Lala and Roden, who has been married for one year now. They are not high school sweethearts but their relationship developed also in one of our reunion back in '05. Roden is a seaman, who works out of the country every 7 months, while Lala, is working at one of the biggest chain of restaurants. Jasmine is in an advertising company, Maximille, a CPA, who now manages 5 big companies in Makati. Lolita, a homemaker of two kids, with same ages as mine, and is married to a seaman too.

As a personal choice, I don't like the idea of having a husband who works overseas who comes home and spend time only with me and my kids for less than two months and leave again. It isn't ideal for me. Marriage is supposed to be a journey of two people who are initially bonded with love and build a family by guiding their little kids at home. Although this is a matter of choice, I'm just thinking how they go through their lives growing and fighting survival alone. Aren't they supposed to be together through thick and thin? Anyway, the night recessed past midnight after sipping latte's and frappucino,with banoffi pie on the sides. I skipped counting calories for a while. We've gone through a lot of things, many became succesful on their own field but nothing changed the fun and laughter’s we both shared in the past.Whatever we have reached is beyond the discussion regardless if some have settled their own lives the simplest way possible. What matters is that we haven't changed the ideals and the way we were mold as an individual while in adolescent stage. And so we're planning another meeting in a distant future, Im excited.

Below are the faces.=)



{Me}, Mano, Maximille, Jasmin, Lolit, Lala, Roden and Ley (taking picture)



From left: Mano,{me}. Lolit



Laugh like there's no tomorrow.



when the night is through..

---The art of letting go

If there's one thing that keeps me from saving my teary eyes, is when I need to give up on something. I admit that it's not such good quality to harbor, especially when what I'm giving up will mean a change. People come and go, and so as friends which is a lot easier to handle rather than what is intangible. Just because memories and pain is all that's left, the letting go part becomes tough. The timing is sporadic, but mostly the confrontation is emotional.

At work I have found friends. They have become my constant companion during idle time within my 8 hours shift. I got used to being around them during lunch breaks, coffee time, business reviews, calibrations, conference calls, etc. The other day, we were doomed by shocking news that we're shedding off 34 fte's including and a few managers, ranked according to their year-to-date performance. I don't really blame the authorities for making such decisions especially if it will benefit the many. Anyway, it was sort of old "news" already because we were warned months ago and we never really thought of its forthcoming. The now, is just surprising. The "choosing” came definitely with strict scrutiny and strategic reason as to how we need to rank them. Modesty aside, I have faith that my spot is at least not anywhere on the 4th quartile nor the third but it doesn’t give me reason to be complacent anyway. I got this confirmed when the list wast shown to me in my recent business review, 9th spot out of 30 teams.Not bad, I mused.One amongst the team member sadly came from my team. I don't have any other choice but to give him another opportunity elsewhere rather than wait for his consequence month over month until he is permanently dismissed. He may not constantly pass in scorecard, but as a team member, he has been very pleasant to his peers and obliging at all times. Part of me felt that I could have defended him and choose others instead, but that is being selfish. I know that he has always wanted to be transferred in one of our sites close to where live so that the proximity is not going to be an issue. The other person on my vertical is also leaving to venture her luck on other programs. Like me, I know my manager has made that tough decision to let her go, rather than be penalized month over month. The team she's handling may not be able to redeem her metrics monthly, so she needs to make that tough choice. When she found it, her tears were rushing down her cheeks as she returned to her station. She felt bad, which is understandable.

Like always, the early part is the toughest of all. We tend to justify the pain with the things we felt we did, the unfairness of the world starts to cloud our comprehension of the fact, but the truth of all is that, our ego is the first one to get hurt. The second part is thinking that you are leaving friends who have become your best buddies every day. But in a matter of days and week, it flips a switch to normal mode.

No matter how much we try, things just happen randomly. Unfortunately, the sad part is, we can never prepare ourselves of the unforeseen series of events. It's the only process we go through wherein preparations come along the way.

This is life. It’s random.

--Privacy is Cheap

Working has never been easy. Unless we are born with silver spoon and authentic china sets, getting a job is only an option. But for those belonging in the 80% of the population, on blue collar jobs, there’s just a single choice. Working is something we do in default. Regardless if it's sedentary or mobile in nature, it's still blue collar..Some are just being paid higher than the rest. What makes it odd is the fact that it's not just even enough no matter how much you try to financially balance the equation. One way or another, we have to make ends meet.

Ten years ago when one can of sardines was around $.15 or roughly PhP7, I didn’t know how to complain too much about a lot of things. Now than I can take myself a cab for work or got to eat on dim light fine dine restaurant, nothing is simple anymore. Every item in the whole universe is pricy, even if the way of life has a cheaper access to other contacts of the world. I have always been openly expressing my propensity to cling on to primitive traditions, no matter how much I am am exposed to various regional festive. These days, it's slowly slipping through instantly. Social Networking site mushroomed almost everyday to the point where that someone in the street is already a part of your Facebook or Friendster or whatever you're into. It becomes a portal to knowing your day to day activities, pictures and the likes.
Our privacy is just one click away, and the word is "CONFIRM".

---Good Karma Bad Karma

They say that when you do something good, it's going to come back ten folds, but I think that theory is a fallacy. People have their natural tendencies to do good or bad, usually what comes first is the most dominant of all. According to the Vedas belief, if one sows goodness, one will reap goodness; if one sows evil, one will reap evil. How can this be true? How is unconditional love not gaining love in return?

While we were at the cafeteria the other day, one of the agent was narrating her hold-up experiences the third time around. Her bag was taken including her cell phone, money, and some personal belongings. I told her be extra cautious next time, and avoid bringing important items, especially money. When I was taking the company's shuttle, or back in the days where I still couldn't afford a daily taxi ride, I would take public buses and jeepneys at the wee hours of the night. Most of the time, I keep my paper bills on my pants smallest side pocket, my cell phone is tucked in my jackets pocket on a silent mode or sometimes turn it off, and carry the jacket by my hands. My bag is just a decoy. I would look around; pray to good God and walk the fastest that I can. I lost my cell phone thrice already, the ever first phone we bought, the famous Nokia 3310, was stolen at a flea market at down town Manila, the second fell off my pocket and the last one was stolen at the company premise by a friendly bastard. My sister lost her phone right on the day of her birthday, ironically. Of many times she found cell phone and return it was sort of tantamount to the times she also lost her phone. SO where does the theory fall?

Earlier, GK and I had a luncheon date. While he was smoking, I was on queue at an ATM stand. As I entered, the machine said “Would like another transaction?" , I pressed NO, and the card of the previous banker ejected from the machine. We left the card at the security guard and walked away. While walking, he was whispering why I hadn’t pressed the "YES" button at the ATM machine for a possibility of checking if there was still money in it coz they wouldn't know anyway. Part of me felt that excitement of having to take something I just found. It’s not categorized on the stealing part since I found it in the first place. So I mused probably something good may come back.

While the thought of it was still lingering of the missed "opportunity”, got off the train, I hailed a cab, since the rain was starting to pour. When I told the taxi driver to turn to street where I live and found out that it's a dead end, he suddenly refused and gave the flimsiest excuse I ever heard. “That the cable of the taxi meter would break if the car would move backwards?" I think that was the most "stupidest" thing I've heard. Just as soon as I didn’t do something bad earlier...this is what I got? Good karma is equals to bad karma. I said, I should just have taken a look on that ATM card and bought a shoe at least to give justice.

Myth : busted.

--Headline: You're fired!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news or at least no one ever wanted to do that. But today I have no choice.

Over the course of my career, I have terminated people because of a company violation such as attendance, call avoidance. Truthfully, it doesn't give you a sense of addiction knowing another person is going to lose their job. Probably, the feeling of consolation because I have made them realize what they did was out of normal and hopefully teaches them a lesson. They just get it the hard way. I hardly ever stop a person's chance to land a job, so long as they really show genuine intention to acknowledge coaching and reinforce it without hesitation. Believe me. I have seen managers who penalize agents over peccadilloes and are power trippers. Witnessing those, I became cognizant of how to use my authority rightfully.

She is one amongst the oldest in the team, although she just joined two months ago. Unlike others who just came to my team, she is restrained and silent most of the time, but when the second day passed, she already started borrowing money, from me and some of her peers. She would pop through email or SMS messages narrating her unfavorable plight being penniless and all. Whenever I would coach her, I feel like talking to a big wall in front of me. She would stare at me listlessly as if I never existed. As time goes, her attendance deteriorated as well as her performance. And before I can discuss her non-regularization in time, she had conjunctivitis. After her 5-days of unlikely absence, I discussed her discontinuance to the company solely due to her substandard performance and poor attendance. I have a hunch she already knew the reason of why I need to talk to her suddenly, before she even could log in.
I was extra wary of how I need to positively position her areas of opportunities without sounding harsh. But she has only a single choice but learn to accept this is not a job tailored for her. With her skills, she's better off as Librarian or Cashier at a registrar office. I think so.

I dont feel good saying the bad news, however I don’t regret what I did because I know it's a good business decision to screen agents with careful judgment and right reasons. It's a long term profit.