Extended Unwanted Vacation

Currently feeling: Overslept
Listening to: 97.1 LSFM
Browsing: hereinmycorner.blogspot.com

Yesterday was my first time to eat a Double Cheeseburger from McDonald's, and it was great. (Or maybe I was just really starving?) So when I got home from work at around 9am, I just had a few spoonfuls of the meal served to me and then slept. Again, I slept and slept. I got up by 2pm since our room is so warm, I went downstairs and slept on the sofa. They were trying to wake me up by 5pm to get me ready to hear mass but I won't budge so they left me behind. Next thing I remember was they woke me up for me to go back to my room instead of spending the night on the sofa. It was 11pm.

Almost sleep-walking towards my bedroom, I one-eyed-ly checked on my phone which said, 12 messages received. Most were coup safety reminders and the rest were about no classes as declared by Bunye. So it indeed was true! Classes are suspended. Again. Argh! My hopes of wrapping up the stress factors by this week might be impossible. I don't even know if the final exams would still start tomorrow as it was scheduled before all these happened. Anyway, I slept again.

I woke up to a crying Yana with Anna (our househelp) trying to calm her down. I peered through my Tigger blanket and saw that it was 7am. I got up and got the baby and we went downstairs. While Anna was preparing my breakfast, I was feeding the baby (I wasn't breastfeeding of course!!). After I had placed Yana safely on her crib, I ate like nine chicken wings for breakfast--it was supposedly my yesterday's lunch, which became my supposed dinner and now it's breakfast--sans the rice since I decided to go on the low carb diet again. I heard that the pills I'm taking would make me fat so I'd better start a good diet before it's too late.

Logged in online with YM and my newly downloaded MSN messenger version 7.5, and proceeded to checking my mail--all three accounts. Huge thanks to my Yahoo birthday reminders, I almost forgot that it's my good friend Jhen's birthday today! Happy 21st, Jhen! And on my Hotmail account, I got cute email attachments from Shelley, who apparently got them from Nong and sent it to Suttilux (the last two people mentioned are part of Thailand's table tennis team). Here's one of them, parang bagay sakin?

I firmly believe on this! Haha. *mushy mode* I had been chatting with somebody about this very topic a few nights ago! Anyway, here's another of the cute attachments with Thai inscriptions.

*Ahem Niko!* Haha.. Joke. Okay I gotta bounce, Yana's crying on the top of her lungs again. And her puyat mom is still up there, asleep.

From Thesis to Coup

Currently feeling: Bloated
Listening to: When You Believe
Browsing: myglobe.com.ph

I was on a jeep on my way to school when the text exchanges began:

Thesis mate: dfens muvd wdnsday
Me: bkt dw?
TM: wlng psok db?
me: wla b?
TM: putek, wla. nsn k b?
me: nsa jip. kw?
TM: skul. suspendd kya.
me: d ko nmn alm. kla ko bkas p wlng psok.
TM: mlay. ge intay k nmen d2.
me: tengnes, dla ko p nmn lht.
TM: gnyn tlg. ge blis.

So I thought about it over and over again. At home, it's unusual for people to be switching the television on (we can live without it), much more switch it on early in the morning. Which is why I was clueless that there's suspension of classes and stuff. I was frustrated since I wanted everything to be done by this week, not the next. I wanted to have a peaceful weekend. Also, I hated it that I brought all the things I needed for our defense: the laptop, papers, plates (where the panel of judges' food would be placed), and my I'm-pretending-to-be-at-Galera clothes. What's more, I don't have plans of going home before I go to work so that means I'd bring all those crap with me to the office nang hindi man lang nagamit.

I arrived at school on the expected time and it was confirmed that thesis defense would resume Wednesday. My friends and I waited for our other thesis mates since they wanted to have a "discussion" regarding thesis. Twas nine o'clock and still no signs of them when one of them sent an SMS message: "Pauwi n kme, uwi ndn kyo ;]" *sheesh* So we decided to leave all the props at Darylle's boarding house; with Chai driving her dad's car and her boyfriend on the passenger seat, we went to Darylle's place and left our stuff. Chai then dropped us off at SM Manila (she wouldn't come with us coz her bf's kinda sleepy already) where me, Lyka and Darylle waited until the mall's opening. We went window shopping for a celphone since I really want a Nokia 6170, then went on to purchase movie tickets for Memoirs of a Geisha.

Halfway through the movie--just when Zhang Ziyi (Oh, she's Ziyi Zhang now, westernized.) started her geisha classes--Lyka goes bugging and wants to go home since it's already a state of emergency, someone sent her a message. So I said we'll just finish the movie and we'll go home. By the way, I saw the movie trailer of The Da Vinci Code and I'm still not convinced that Tom Hanks is the best bet for the Robert Langdon role!

After the movie, we went separate ways; I to the office (I am more than 6hours early) and them to their respective homes. With 6hours to spare, I leisurely had a late 2:00pm lunch at Tokyo Tokyo by myself and took an Advil--migraine, again--plus a pill. (I'm taking this pill that's sort of like The Pill, but I ain't taking it for contraceptive purposes! Ugh.) Then proceeded to the office with the guard greeting me, "Hi Ma'am, galing kang iskul?" So I'm like, "Yah kaso walang pasok." I really wanted to have some rest due to my migraine I proceeded directly to the sleeping room, taking only my mobile phone and my iRiver. Good thing I did bring my mp3 player since the guy sleeping on the mattress next to me was kinda snoring.

I plugged in the earphones to my ears and checked on my phone: 15 messages received. Hayy. Unlimitext. Then I saw that one was from my mom: "FYI bka lng d m alm. state of emrgncy s edsa. wg k daan dun." I sleepily replied: "nye lam ko nmn un no. d2 n ko opis. aga nga e. dfens wdnesday p. kainis." And then I slept. And slept. And slept. I didn't notice that I had messages again wherein one was again from my mom saying, "jan pla start ng rally, rcbc to edsa shrine. wg k nlng muna lbas ng bldg."

Well there was no need to tell me that since I was not able to even see what it's like. Naalimpungatan ako and reached for my iRiver and checked the time: 9:15. I was in doubt so I checked my wristwatch: 8:50. What?! Just ten minutes 'til my shift?! I got on my feet at once and hurried outside and searched for my batchmates on the operations floor and Philippe greeted me, "Good morning! Maleleyt ka na, login na!" I dashed to the lockers and got my headset, cheatsheets, coffee mug and my purse. I can't believe I slept so soundly for 6 hours straight...

I was starving during my 9-12mn shift since my last meal was 2pm. I patiently waited til it's midnight and hurriedly went to the pantry and ate a cheese melt burger (or whatever it was called). Just when my day--or, night for that matter--was starting to be brighter, the feeling-close-but-so-yabang-to-the-max Gersh guy from Batch 3--who once called me Trisha instead of Trina--once again made the feeling close attitude. Darn. The good thing about my shift was that the supervisors thought of having a 'promo'. Somebody who has a sale for a given timeframe will get fifty pesos. I had one so I treated myself to a McDonald's breakfast after shift. I went home afterwards, taking LRT again so as not to pass by EDSA.

My dad was up when I got home so he relayed some of the incidents yesterday concerning that state of emergency thing, after a few minutes my mom is also up so on with the stories. I was blank about what it was like so I surfed the net for news, but I had a better idea on where to read about it: Niko's blog. Haha. Known for being descriptive (plus side comments), I was able to imagine what it was like :]

I slept afterwards and got up at around 2pm and had a late lunch again, plus the pill. I was complaining to my mom why I was given that pill which is actually a contraceptive when I thought I'd be given something else. My parents laughed it off saying it's what I actually had to take according to the gynecologist. Argh. I'm ashamed when somebody sees me taking those pills; I mean they'd start thinking, "OMG she's having contraceptives. Wonder why?" Waaaaaa... Anyway, as nonchalant as I've always been, yaan na nga. This is for the betterment of my [repro] health anyways.

This is a narrative. *sheesh* I'm never good in writing something significant.

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Forgiveness is not instantaneous. It's a many-layered process,
as we gradually let go of hurt, pride and bitterness.

Marketing Exhibit

Currently feeling: Accomplished
Listening to: Crazy for You
Browsing: wowphilippines.com

As mentioned on the previous post, we had this marketing exhibit for our Marketing subject, held last Tuesday. We were to be assigned with a sector of tourism (there are nine: transportation, tourism services, accommodation, events, attractions, adventure, food,--and unbelievably I forgot the other two) through drawing of lots. My group got Accommodation sector. With that, we had to look for on-going but not very popular existing promotions concerning our sector or create our own promotion, then create a marketing plan. Also, we were assigned--again through drawing of lots--of what marketing tool we would be using (examples are posters, billboards, radio ads, commercials, VCD, website, etc.). My group then got posters.

My groupmates [Cindy, Erna and Lyka] and I are really very lazy people so instead of looking for existing promos we created our own. Yes, that's a lazy thing to do. So we came up with Silid. Again, it's a Filipino room concept which aims to give our customers a feel of what it was like to reside in a traditional Pinoy room. Since we're supposed to be a marketing or maybe an advertising company, we can't claim the concept to be ours (even if it was! hmp!) because it should look like we're promoting another company's products and services. So, Silid became Artos Designs' concept. Artos is actually Lyka's boyfriend Chris' name for his 'company' (maybe in the future after he graduates with a degree in Architecture).

Marketing planning concludes with a one-day exhibit inside our college building wherein every sector for every section would have their own booth to decorate upon and try to heighten the marketing strategy. There are two sections competing so there are a total of eighteen booths.

Anyway, marketing plan began. We all did our own versions of the poster and my professor liked my proposed design and so we used it. And still being lazy, we settled for a simple booth design but nonetheless was able to capture the idea and feel of what we're promoting about. We take pride in being the group to spend the least amount for the entire marketing exhibit--from marketing tool to marketing explanation, booth design and all--we just spent a total of four hundred something pesos while some went thousands. We did not even have our poster printed by pros; I just printed them out from an Inkjet printer here at home and then put and taped them together so it'd create a 21x27 poster. And here's our booth!

The tripod with the big Silid is, of course, the poster. And except for the styro we used to make the 'capiz' windows (ako nag-line ng boxes niyan! ;P), there's pretty much nothing else that we bought. Everything else was brought from home, including our Filipiniana costumes.

Ahem, ahem. Yours truly is so proud to announce that Silid won first runner up in the Best Booth award, and AHEM AHEM we won champion in the Best Marketing Concept award! Hahaha! Astig!

Silid

Currently feeling: Sleepy
Listening to: Leron Leron Sinta
Browsing: upperblog.blogspot.com

I just got home from school. Overtime from setting up our booth for tomorrow's marketing exhibit. (Silid is my group's booth's name, after the concept that we're promoting.) As expected our booth is the simplest of all, without too much unnecessary decors to make it look drab. This is always the case. Add me and Lyka to anything and surely it's a minimalist effect that we're after. Wondering why I got Leron Leron Sinta here? I bought a CD to serve as background music for tomorrow's exhibit (our booth is about promoting a Filipino room concept and design) and my dad insisted on playing it right now for Yana (my sis' baby). Haha.

My kuya, recently robbed of his mobile phone, came home all smiles. He recently bought a new phone (not that expensive) because today he went to Park Square 1 (I had been telling him to go there, not someplace else) and found a store having iRiver products. And finally he got his own and he'd no longer be getting mine. And he'd stop complaining about my Nyoy Volante songs and all. Hahaha... I succeeded in making him buy an iRiver instead of an iPod!

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Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take
but by the moments that take your breath away.

Latest Promos

Currently feeling: Super sleepy
Listening to: Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson
Browsing: jobstreet.com

Spend the weekend at school [and office]!
Experience up to more than 40 hours of absolutely no sleep.
Don't you think it's a great offer?
Come and join the craze of the graduating Tourism class of UST.
One week offer starting today. No fees required.
For more info, contact the blog's owner.

Note: Don't forget your sunglasses to avoid having a migraine. (Lack of sleep and stress + blinding rays of the sun = migraine)

Brain Cells Please
Currently feeling: [back to] Sleepy
Listening to: Stars by Switchfoot
Browsing: www.expedia.com

Walang sweldo. So walang masaya sa mundo. Dami pa naman gastos sa iskul dahil last week na namen next week then it's final exams na. *Sheesh.

+ + +

Tried using the new chat-inside-GMail feature of, well, Gmail. Thanks to somebody so bitter I got inspired to write a quick review. *woi peace*

Thumbs up:
:: No need to download software (there's GTalk for that matter)
:: Pop-in or pop-out option
:: Must see smileys! Not emoticons, just plain ones--see for yourself.

Uh-oh:
:: Wala! I shouldn't be comparing this with YM or MSN messenger since this isn't the IM software. Naks I'm fair and square! YM and MSN messenger is to GTalk, and the chat feature inside Gmail is to--none yet.
:: But of course there's room for improvement.

+ + +

I'm running out of brain cells. Donations please?

Qing Ren Jie
Currently feeling: Happy
Listening to: Happy
Browsing: 123greetings.com


Happy Valentine's Day everyone. My greeting is a bit late since I went to school straight from work (I was wearing red! Silly.) and then had lots of group meetings again. I was so wasted really, good thing my parents went to SM San Lazaro so I just went there and slept in the car on the way home. (Add-on: My dad bought a peach rose for each of the girls in the family plus our fave chocolates! And I bought myself a pair of sunglasses, VDay gift for myself.)

Immediately falling into a deep slumber, I had to remind myself to wake up at around 6.30 so that I'd be able to have my dinner and then it's boyfriend time at 7pm. Yep it's what I call the hours that I spend online chatting with my boyfriend from the other side of the continent ha-ha. I appreciate that he 'celebrates' with me eventhough there really are no such things in China. For example, Christmas. He called Christmas eve, 12mn, to greet me. Then the non-Chinese New Year. And now, Valentine's day. As mentioned in a previous post, they've got another day for celebrating love. (I know the exact date now!) It's on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. For 2006, it falls on the 30th of July.

Call me mababaw but him 'celebrating' with me online is enough to make me happy and perked up eventhough I'm supposed to be crawling on the floor due to stress and lack of sleep. Ahem! Mushy mode? ;] Well a smile is priceless compared to a bouquet or a box of chocolates, aite? NO, I did not say that I don't like receiving flowers and sweets. HAHA.

Anyway I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day, with or without a specific special someone. It's about love. And as we always say in the classroom, love "...is everywhere!" Mwah!