Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Spending Normal Days Together

Back from my October SanFo layover. No fancy restaurants, no tourist spots, no big dates, nothing. We spent my layover like I'm from there. Errands, watched DVDs, a bit of mall time, preparing your own breakfast and stuff.

28th (Arrival Day) Surprise! No girl hates surprises. aL picked me up with a grande Starbucks drink on one hand and my white Keds (that we bought last month) on the other--got speechless after finding a jewelry box inside the shoe. --Skipped the details!-- A white gold name necklace! I love it! :) (Still too lazy to upload photos though, hehe)

The story behind this necklace made me say, "A for effort, Hun!"

Then we went to have late lunch with Mama at Red Ribbon, then off to church to hear mass. He prolly was hella bored, haha. Went home to drop off my things and freshen up then headed for aL's boss' going away party. Met his coworkers at Kragen--lotsa names! *sheepish smile* On the way home we detoured to a grocery to get a loaf of bread and cream cheese then called it a day with another Starbucks fix. Oh, we tried watching Shutter before we slept...but we fell asleep halfway through it, I was dang so sleepy.

29th. Woke up late, 10-ish or 11? He had to peel me off the bed just to get me to have breakfast(I had no plans of getting up, my eyes were shut tight!) of coffee--which is his job to prepare--and toast wheat bread with cream cheese and ham. Re-watched Shutter but I'm on my senses now so I remembered I hate scary movies, so I just laid on the couch while he watched the movie. Left the house by 4pm to run some of his work-related errands and ended up at Serramonte coz I was craving for McNuggets; malling. Paid our T-Mo bill and bought a few stuff at PacSun and Bath and Body Works. Marco and Oyo came by to get Marco's tripod; then Mama came and we left to grab dinner at a Filipino resto. Brought some food to aL's dad in downtown SF and then headed back home to Daly City, after detouring to Walgreens to get some stuff, another Starbucks Cafe Mocha, and rented a couple of DVDs. Was halfway watching Knocked Up when Mark called and aL and him talked til I got sleepy. Decided not to finish the movie and just go sleep; he fell asleep and I was there, so sleepy but jetlagged, still awake by 6am.

30th (Departure Day) Having slept at 6am with an alarm clock set to 7:30, we got up by 8:30. Quick breakfast and bath and off we head back to my hotel just in time for the wakeup call (which is an hour before work showup time).

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Ranting for Home

Gusto ko na magresign.

I have repeated this sentence for more than ten times by now. The unbelievable seniority and unruly Korean culture is already a given factor, but now living out of a suitcase is taking its toll on me... I mean, yes I expected to live out of suitcases when I go on layovers, but hey I never knew I'd always be. For those who don't know, we check in/out everytime we come/go from/for a flight. Had to drag our big suitcases to and from our hotel room.

Home. I don't even know where that is; I don't even have a place to call home! Manila feels like an extended layover now; I even bring clothes from Seoul to Manila to have something to wear while on days off! I am such a homebody; I'm still struggling on living away from my family, but can't I at least have a permanent room?

Permanent things on permanent locations contribute on the homey feeling. But no! I get a different room every time. A twin, a single, a king, a queen. Whatever! I can't even stock my fridge with food nor arrive from a flight to find an ice-cold soda inside it. I spend probably an hour after arrival and before I go just to fix my things, rearrange my toiletries by the sink, or make sure all my things fit in my suitcases, etc.

I miss things from home, too. How on earth could I improvise my own Christmas tree? My dad gave me a cute night light but I can't put it somewhere for fear I might forget it and have the room attendants yell, "Finders keepers!"

Therefore, gusto ko na magresign.

...But yea, Hun, I know I can't. Yet.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Self-Studying

I'm fond of learning things on my own.

So far I have self-studied:
+ basic HTML
+ Adobe Premiere 6.0
+ going about Adobe PhotoShop
+ basic Mandarin Chinese (not the characters though!)
+ proper typing--the right fingers on the right keys, and not lookin' at the keyboard
+ and prolly a lot more

Right now, guess what I'm trying to learn? Drinking black coffee :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Better Agents

Booked and confirmed! Tickets to Dumaguete for my parents on November. Hehe. Mom was able to book themselves with the CebPac promo of less than three hundred pesos one way per person (plus tax). Now they just have to find a good hotel/inn/resort to stay at in Dumaguete...

+ + +

Monday I was with cousins at lola's house to [kiddie] celebrate ate Chelsea's 25th birthday. We had tapsilog, barbecue, cake with the sugar flowers, balloons, Hello Kitty placemats and paper plates that say "Happy Birthday" in the most colorful way. Haha. Too bad I had to run off around 10 that I didn't see my cousins Ella and dete Jan.

That's because I met up with Cha in Makati and hanged. We also waited for Mica (with whom I'm indebted and paid that night); we were supposed to be at Greenbelt but then she was at PeopleSupport already so I suggested we stay there since the Starbucks branch there closes latest, for sure.

With Cha being an ex-call center agent herself, we figured we'd be better agents now in terms of small talks with clients. I mean, hey you actually know some places in the States and been to some too. And you wouldn't have the blunder of saying, "So, it's warm out there right now coz it's summer," to someone wearing a jacket in San Francisco... :)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The search for the Travel Partner

My parents have redecided and they're not going international next month. They reckoned that the once-every-contract-year free-of-charge roundtrip tickets should just be used when they go to the States next July. And today I've been to a hundred sites for places here in the Philippines. Two of the most thought of? Dumaguete and Roxas City. I don't know. I just heard of Dumaguete coz aL's maternal relatives are there.

+ + +

Lolo worsened this week. He could hardly walk and is incontinent. I visited him yesterday and he hardly had facial expressions. He's blank. I was so saddened that I went home. I can't do this.

+ + +

I've decided to go on domestic trips every now and then, starting next year. Because of all the hunt for the perfect silver wedding anniversary honeymoon destination, I got all excited with the idea. I mean, there's almost always those promos on CebPac so airfare is cheap. Weeee. I just need a travel partner and I'm set. I can't do it every month so probably I'll do it every other month. Goodie. Or maybe I can have a different travel partner every time?

+ + +

I am: depressed; bored; impatient; and I miss aL. I'm trying to stop thinking too much and resorted to a Gilmore Girls DVD marathon. I've just finished season five with Lorelai saying, "Luke, will you marry me?"

Saturday, October 13, 2007

USELESS

Have you ever felt useless? You get pissed off at someone that you'd actually want to tell him/her upfront, "So what on earth am I here for?"

Monday, October 08, 2007

Missing Out

There's just something about fall that makes me sentimental.


I miss my friends.

My bestest friend on earth lost her grandpa last week, and I was in Seattle. My college ichiban tomodachi is getting married (or "got married") this month, and I'm not there. I hardly see my highschool friends when I go home coz they got work. My guy friends, I hardly hear from them too.

And tell me again how I'm gonna be able to convince myself to move to the States?

Standout Dugyot in the Office

At 6:47 a.m., I'm here at the office. Nothing unusual, right? Well, I'm NOT actually going to a flight, rather, I just came from a flight. I just came back from Hong Kong and since it's the only working day that I have before I go home tomorrow I decided to go straight here and just go back to the hotel a little later. So there, most people here are fresh and just made up while I'm so dugyot and oily. Haha. My reasons for being here:

1. I checked on passenger bookings of London, Sydney and Manila-Seoul flights for the possible destinations of my parents on November. The verdict? Cancel Sydney, way overbooked. Peak season, summer.

2. I've been convinced, with aL's effort, to have a flu shot. Winter is neaaaaaar...

3. Also, I've been meaning to drop by the medical center to have proper treatment to a 1in x 0.5in oven burn that I got from my Seattle flight. It blistered and now it's an open wound and it gets me jumping up and down when in contact with anything--even water.

4. Gotta get new shoes and scarf for the quarterly appearance check.

5. I've been with this company for a year but still hasn't used my ID for my meal (swipe system) coz the effin' ID person is always not around.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

I'm starting to hate...

...living out of suitcases! Especially when it's winter, you know how much space winter clothes occupy. Hate it!

Friday, October 05, 2007

Nurses for FAs

I photographed a letter on display at the Museum of Flight regarding the preference of having graduate nurses as flight attendants--dated February 24, 1930. The letter was addressed to a certain W.A. Patterson, Assistant to President, Boeing Air Transport, Seattle, Washington. Interesting! Read on:

As a suggestion--I was just wondering if you had ever given any serious thought to the subject of young women as couriers. It strikes me that there would be a great psychological punch to having young women stewardesses or couriers, or whatever you want to call them, and I am certain that therea re some mighty good ones available. I have in mind a couple of graduate nurses who would make exceptional stewardesses. Of course it would be distinctly understood that there would be no reference made to their hospital training or nursing experience, but it would be a mighty fine thing to have this available, sub rosa, if necessary for air sickness.

Imagine the psychology of having young women as regular members of the crew: imagine the national publicity we could get from it, and the tremendous effect it would have on the traveling public. Also imagine the value that they would be to us in the neater and nicer method of serving food and looking out for the passengers' welfare.

I am not suggesting at all the flapper type of girl. You know nurses as well as I do, and you know that they are not give to flightiness. The average graduate nurse is a girl with some horse sense and is very practical and has seen enough of men to not be inclined to chase them around the block at every opportunity. Further, as a general rule nurses are not of the "pretty" type which lends to their usefulness in this case.

The young women whom we would select would naturally be intelligent and could handle what traffic work abroad was necessary, such as the keeping of records, filling out reports, issuing tickets, etc. etc. They would probably do this as well or better than the average young fellow. Further, while we admit to ourselves that we are going to train couriers for ultimate jobs ashore in various traffic capacities, we know between ourselves that there is anything but a dearth of opportunities in sight.

As to the qualifications of the proposed young women couriers, their first paramoung qualification would be that of a graduate nurse (although this would never be brought into foreground in advertising or anything as it sort of sounds as thought they are necessary); and, secondly, young women who have been around and are familiar with general travel--rail, steamer and air. Such young women are available here.

This is just a passing thought.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

LDR


Got this for aL at the Museum of Flight here in Seattle, WA.