Beach bummed

Are Abet and I the only two persons on earth who did not go/are not going to the beach this summer? My Facebook and Twitter feed lead me to believe that EVERYONE a) has gone to the beach; b) is AT the beach right now; or c) is planning on going on a beach trip. People everywhere are sporting tan lines and sun-kissed glows, while Abet and I are so pale that I’m tempted to get some tanning spray.

*envious sigh*

We just don’t have the time or the money to go on a vacation right now. Soonest we can go is June, and by then, the rainy season will probably already be upon us. I don’t care, though. I just want to go to the beach the soonest that we can. Until then, I’ll probably just work on getting into swimsuit-worthy shape.

Can I just rant for a bit?

My neck is stiff as hell from a bad sleeping position, my cat just shredded a P100-peso bill (I can still tape it up and deposit it at the bank, but, mehn, hassle), there are great big mounds of dog poop downstairs waiting to be cleaned up and the dog needs to be bathed today, I haven’t reviewed yet for the refresher exam at work that I have to take within the day, I don’t have money to buy lunch (thanks to my cat) and there’s no food in the house so I have to go out to withdraw, and I have to write about an IT Infrastructure Library which I know nothing about.

*Aaaaaaaaaaarghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Okay, I’m feeling better now.

The Chic-Boy caterpillar issue is NOT FAKE

Chic-Boy Scandal

I’m sure you’ve read about the girl who found a caterpillar in her kang-kong dish at Chic-Boy Timog. It’s already gone viral on Facebook, prompting Chic-Boy to issue a statement that this is the handiwork of their desperate competitors, and that they are going to file a libel case against the author. You can read about the brouhaha here.

I know the girl involved. Sigrid is a friend and is someone I respect as an artist and as a person. The caterpillar issue is not fake, nor is it a smear campaign, sabotage, or demolition job by its competitors as what Chic-Boy is saying. This is a real customer experience.

Chic-Boy underestimated the power of a sincere apology. They could just have apologized and acknowledged their mistake. They could have taken this as an opportunity to review and improve their food handling procedures. Their reaction was just plain defensive.

I used to be a big fan of Chic-Boy, especially the Jupiter branch, my friends and family can attest to this. But until all this turns out well for Sigrid, no more Chic-Boy for me.

 

Stress Drilon

I’m really not the type who likes to complain about work, I’m one who believes in not biting the hand who feeds you (unlike my cat, but I digress). But lately, that’s what I’m doing much of: complaining. Things are different at my office now. We’re all drained. Drained, exhausted, pooped.

I’m reminded of a line in a poem by Elbert Hubbard which we memorized during our COCC days in high school entitled ‘Loyalty.’ It goes like this: If you must growl, condemn and eternally find fault, why, resign your position.

Maybe it’s time for me to move on?

Now, excuse me while I go look up ProFlowers radio promotional codes, I need to do something totally not work-related. (Anu daw???)

Ugh, stress-eating again.

Things have not been too well at the office lately, I am usually so stressed by the time I finish my shift that I end up reaching for comfort food. It’s so hard to diet if this keeps up. :(

I was supposed to go on a fast this week, I planned on just taking meal-replacement shakes and supplementing that with only fruits and vegetables, but all this stress is making it impossible. I’m craving for carbs more than ever. If I don’t give in to my cravings, I get cranky leaving me even more stressed.

I hope our workload lightens up soon, for the sake of my figure. I really don’t want to resort to having to take adapexin-p just to lose all this weight, I want to do this the healthy and natural way.

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WhattaMonday.

Sigh.

It’s just the first day of the week and I’m already pooped. Today wasn’t a very good day for me at the office. Too much work, too little time. I already did overtime, but I didn’t finish what I had to do, which means I’ll have to come in at least an hour earlier tomorrow.

I sure could use  some Backwoods cigars and a nice ice-cold bottle of San Mig Light right now (but I’ll settle for what I have: Marlboro menthols and cranberry juice).

I hope the next three days will just fly by. I’m on leave on Friday for my little brother’s birthday, I’ll just look forward to that.

Cab fare is now sky-high!

Regular cab riders like me already have enough to worry about: drivers who refuse to take you to your destination (I’ve had my fare share of these since I live in Las Piñas), those who are too chatty for comfort, those who drive too fast (there should be whistler radar detectors along Macapagal Ave, demmit), those who drive stinky cabs, etc. Now, with the new flagdown rate of P40 plus P3.50 per kilometer, the fare would have to be at the top of that list.

My taxi fare home from Makati to Las Piñas went up from P180 to P240. Ouch. It hurts. That still doesn’t include the toll fee (P22), tip (P30), and tricycle fare (P16).

Fortunately for me, our company provides taxi reimbursement for our transportation home, I can get everything back (including the tip). I’ll still be feeling the sting of the additional P60 per day because I file for reimbursement every two months, but I’m not too bothered about my daily ride home. I’m worried about my personal cab rides that are not reimbursable. =(

If there’s one good thing out of this, it’s that the cab drivers are now required to issue receipts:

I guess I’ll just have to avoid riding taxis as much as possible.

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Today’s not a good day for working.

It’s not that my work is difficult or demanding or stressful. I guess I’m just a bit burned out that at this very point the last thing I want to do is work.

I think everyone has moments like these, no matter how much one loves his or her job. Even Abet, who’s doing what he has always wanted to do, loves what he’s doing, and is very good at what he does, has his rare moments when he has to drag himself to face his next student to teach classical guitar.

I just spent more number of minutes than allowed staring blankly at my computer screen, letting all thoughts of fuel cards and gasoline stations and diesel fly out of my mind. I’m “proud to be kabibe” on most days; this is not one of those days. I just want to surf the net to read about kwashiorkor, or magnetospheres, or term life insurance, or reviews of MAC’s A Tartan Tale makeup collection. . . anything but work.

I guess it also didn’t help at all that my dad didn’t go to work today. I ride with him to work on Wednesdays, but today he stayed home while I had to drag my big fat lonely ass to Makati.

I’m doing yoga tomorrow morning, I hope my body produces enough endorphins to get me revved up to work, I don’t think I’ll be very productive today.

What a Wacky Wednesday!

Can you believe the traffic earlier today? It was c-r-a-z-y! I rode with my dad to work and he said that it was one of the worst traffic jams he has ever experienced. I wanted to sleep through it but I felt guilty with my dad stuck behind the wheel. Needless to say, I was late for work — three hours late to be exact! (My dad, on the other hand, missed his class. Way to go, Professor.) Fortunately, our boss reprieved all tardiness for the day (I think half of our workforce came in late), but I did have to stay an extra hour afterwards to make up.

Moving on, I’m so broke. I had to borrow some money from my little sister this morning, which is just pathetic. I do have my Paypal balance, a check that’s begging to be deposited, and a bunch of leftover HK dollars and Macau patacas — but I’m not liquid. Payday, please come sooner!

And you know what Uma did earlier? She nipped my upper lip! Oh, this is just the thing my mother and my boyfriend warned me about. We got too gigil with each other, I guess.

Finally, we had our very first wedding-related pickle today! Tenen! Our prospective wedding coordinator, Chi of Once a Bride, confirmed that she will no longer be available on our wedding date for personal reasons I understand. *sob* I really, really like her! We haven’t booked their services yet, we were supposed to book this month after finalizing our reception venue. I guess it was a good thing that we haven’t paid yet, because she still would have backed out anyway. *sob again* I already contacted another wedding coordinator, and I have a good feeling about her so far. Chi also recommended her. We’ll be meeting this month, and I’m crossing my fingers that this will turn out well.

What a hump day, huh? I’m actually hoping that tomorrow and Friday will be uneventful. I need a bit of a break because I’m foreseeing a wacky weekend ahead.

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Arrrrghhhh!!!

I have four pimples on my face right now. Four! They’re barely noticeable, but I know they’re there. And I’m supposed to be Dea the Zit-Free. It’s so annoying. What’s even more annoying is that my siblings finished up the bottle of Mario Badescu Drying Lotion and I can’t afford to buy one right now (it costs around P1k).

I’m not vain (honest!), but pimples are my waterloo. I can’t stand them on my face, and I get all worked up whenever I get one. Now that I have four, I’m practically freaking out. Self-esteem issues, tsk.

I’m reminding myself that it’s not too bad, that right now I don’t have a need for any acne cream yet (thank goodness). But my brother’s wedding is 2 weeks away, and my face needs to look okay by then. Skin, please clear up soonest!

Spam, begone!

The number of spam comments I get on this blog is just ridiculous.

According to my blog statistics, since I started this blog in March, I have marked 1284 out of the 2044 comments I have received as spam. Some of the messages I get have direct links on the body, such as those for rv insurance quotes or penis enlargement methods or laundromat equipment, but the annoying ones are those canned, generic replies such as this:

“This article was recommended to me by a friend. I have to say, glancing at this was of value. I will tell more friends about it as well.”

Or this:

“Once I started reading this post I couldn’t stop until I was finished, though it wasn’t precisely what I have been looking for, was a nice read though.”

It annoys me because I can’t tell right away if it’s a legit comment or not unless I’ve read the entire message, and by then I’ve wasted a few seconds of my time. And I get a teeny bit disappointed when I realize that it’s not a real comment, hehe.

I really need to figure out how to put in a Captcha field in my comments section, I want to keep the spammers at bay.

E-Cigarette, anyone?

Have you heard of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes?

According to Wikipedia:

An electronic cigarette, e-cigarette or personal vaporizer, is a battery-powered device that provides inhaled doses of nicotine by way of a vaporized solution. It is an alternative to smoked tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. In addition to purported nicotine delivery, this vapor also provides a flavor and physical sensation similar to that of inhaled tobacco smoke, while no smoke or combustion is actually involved in its operation.

It’s supposed to be better a safer alternative to real cigarettes since it doesn’t have most of the harmful ingredients of real cigarettes. Abet picked up smoking again just before our Bangkok trip, he says he needs it while practicing, and now he got one of these e-cigarettes to wean himself off smoking. I don’t know about this. I haven’t heard of this before, although I did see a stall in Megamall selling this earlier, and it does tout these little sticks as a replacement for ciggies.

Abet once asked me when he stopped smoking if I’ll allow him to smoke cohiba cigars every once in a while. I think I’d prefer that to these e-cig things. At least cigars are natural, I’m not too comfortable with the thought of smoking something battery-operated.

How’s your hump day?

The week isn’t going too well for me, to put it mildly. My computer has been down for the last two days rendering me practically useless at the office, and now the work has piled up. I don’t know if the next two days are enough for me to finish what I need to accomplish for the week. Despite my systems not working right now, I am so stressed and haggard, probably from thinking about all the work that I should be doing right now that I’m not able to do. I’m afraid I might have to look into pronexin reviews by the weekend because all these will probably take a toll on my skin, but one thing’s for sure: there will be hot, gooey cheese pizza for me come Friday!

I’m going to stop whining now and take a cue from Abet. He juggles three teaching jobs, graduate school, guitar practice, a big yellow Lab, and a whiny girlfriend, but he doesn’t ever complain.

I’ll just think about that cheese pizza instead.

Drowning in Paperwork

Our office is a sea of paperwork to be filed right now, it’s crazy!

The scene here is of foot-high stacks of paper everywhere, punchers exchanging hands, folders overflowing with files, yellow Post-Its fluttering about, black binder clips scattered on desks… and haggard people, yours truly included.

We have a backlog that we need to file going back several months, and let me tell ya, filing paperwork ranks low on my list of favorite things to do, just before getting a root canal. Actually, right now I’m not doing much of the the dirty work yet, but next week it will be my turn, and I’m not looking forward to it.

I wish there was an easier way to do this, like using something like a magic Symbol LS2208 scanner that we can point to a file and it will tell us what folder it needs to go to.  Yep, that would be great.

This is one of those  moments when I have to keep repeating to myself, I love my job… I love my job… I love my job… I do, honest. I just love it more when there aren’t any paperwork haunting me.

Nakakainis naman.

I’m heartbroken.

If not for that darned A(H1N1) virus, right now I should just have arrived in Singapore from Kuala Lumpur via bus. Tonight I would have been eating Hainanese chicken rice and Hokkien mee and satay and kaya straight from the jar. But because I don’t want to put my (paranoid) mom’s health at risk, we decided to cancel. Disappointed as I am, I just got more excited about my trip to Malaysia this October and to Singapore this December for the annual guitar festival.

Unfortunately, I just read at the guitar festival’s website that there won’t be a guitar festival this year:

There will be no International Guitar Festival nor
International Guitar Competition this year, 2009 in
view of the global economic downturn and H1N1 flu in
different parts of the world. We regret any
inconvenience caused.

Pfffffft.
There won’t be a reason for us to go to Singapore this year. Naiiyak ako. We’re supposed to buy our rings there (even if it’s eons before we get to use them).
Abet said we’ll travel somewhere we haven’t been to before next year instead. We’ve been to Singapore anyway. There’s an annual guitar festival in Bangkok he can participate in.
I guess I’ll just look forward to that. Still, I’d kill for some authentic chicken rice right now.

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