Happy Day

Yesterday was a happy day. I was in the office when our Systems Manager announced that old laptops are on their way to recycle centers. If anyone is interested though, there are 8 that are working. No catch. So after a moment of crazy, I went home and presented Gabriel with his first laptop. He was really excited. Jojo immediately configured the wireless and installed Glubble to manage and monitor the websites that Gabriel can access. It's perfect. Gabriel said, "I triple love you, Mommy!" Doesn't get any better than that.

Also contributing to it being a happy day, I got the West Wing complete season dvds that I ordered in Amazon. And even the Guitar Hero Aerosmith Wii game arrived. Amazon is awesome. Times like these when I know that life is a dream I'm living.

I cooked crabs and shanghai rolls for dinner and although the crabs didn't turn out as I would like them to, it's alright. Didn't even dent my happiness. I just need to improve on the recipe and it should work next time.

Christian in the office

I'm in the office today, second time this week since I have been keeping strange hours the past few days because of this crazy work schedule that has fallen into my lap.

Anyway, Christian, Diana's 4-year-old came to the office with her. So we were having fun, and I guess we got pretty loud because Michael had to shut us up. Haha.

And I suddenly felt this urge to blog and only then realized that I haven't in such a long time. So you've been missing a lot of what has been going on in my life lately, I guess. I hope to be able to get the time to get you caught up.

Let's see. Last Friday, Gabriel spent the night at Joel's and I heard it was a blast. Jojo and I, in the meantime, had a great time at Diana's party and I get to try some new stuff that I've never before tried in my life. Well, there's always room for a first-time, right? Like I already said, it was a great party and we met a few cool people over there too. No time wasted.

Saturday, Joel and Paolo decided to come with us to see Gabriel play soccer. Their team lost but the important here is the kids had fun. So, we tried to tell Gabriel that. The kids played some at home before going home.

On Sunday after church, we bought some fish and crawfish and liempo, so we had a feast over at Anne's. We truly enjoyed it. It was my first time to like eating crawfish. One batch we cooked using the boil we bought which was a Louisiana favorite. The other batch we cooked in gata. Yummy!

And then the next update is, I will be going over to Canada on Sunday for a 2-week client workshop. It will be a long one and I will truly miss my boys. But I'm thinking there will probably be more time to blog over there than here. So see you again soon.

A whole new different schedule

The past few days were like completely different from the regular days I used to have. I would consider myself conscientious, but just yesterday, I missed a call that has been sitting on my calendar for the longest time. The Pub meeting. It just totally slipped my mind.

And today, after one of the participants dropped from a conference call, I asked out loud who dropped out, knowing full well that it's highly unlikely that person will be able to answer. I had to laugh at myself. I knew others were laughing at my stupidity too. But I don't mind, I'm not myself.

In the meantime, there's work to be done. More work than I bargained for really but there's no getting out of it. I can only do my best and pray for success. I need to be working with a bunch of people I've never worked with before so I am being very cautious about it. And the right-hand-not-talking-to-the-left-hand is totally not working for my benefit. But it does seem that this is the way they're doing it and I just have to make sure I know both sides of the story. No, I don't want to be caught in the middle, but I do want to keep my eyes open.

I wish we can get away for a few days and get some sun. I feel exhausted. I'm thinking the whole emotional rollercoaster ride is getting to me after 5 days. I'm thinking about my son who must be tired to be going to the hospital all the time.

But here's a diversion. Tomorrow is Elastic Day once again and for the first time, I'm bringing something I'm making. That should give me some sense of relaxation after all that we've been through these past few days.

I know, even my writing is affected. You're bored. You want to see some action and perhaps a little bit of fun.

I want that too.

Change of pace

I must admit, I have been slacking at work a little bit. And I do not mean that intentionally, however, I missed going to the office today and totally forgot about an internal call that I should have been in on at noon. I had early calls this morning which I managed to join, and then prepared to go to work, deciding to drop by the hospital to visit with Jan. I brought my laptop, thinking I can work there, but the news that he has finally left the Intensive Care Unit was just so big. I decided I'm going to stay for awhile and visit, and then get on home to work a little more. So that's what I did.

As soon as I came online, there were hundreds of instant messages at once. Everyone wants to know how Jan is doing, and I am just so happy to bring them all the good news.

It's funny how something like this changes your perspective in life. You see and value your friendship more, and yet realize that these friendships are in fact built from your career or work-network. So I just want to say to all my colleagues out there, I value you!

Monday updates and visits to the hospital

Ever since Saturday, my whole family's lifestyle has changed. From either work or school, we go to visit with Jan and Vangie in the hospital. Today, I visited twice because I accompanied Michael and Diana to the hospital, and then later on during the day with family.

My time at the office was mostly giving updates to everyone who wanted to know how Jan was doing. I managed to squeeze in some work time, and even managed to cancel my flight for Philly (which should have been tomorrow). Good thing too because its value would have been lost had I not done that. Phew.

On another note, I was able to call mom to greet her a Happy Easter. I think she wasn't too pleased with me, as I have not been able to call her for quite sometime. Still, we talked and I hope she has forgiven me for not calling. I told her she, too, can pick up the phone and call me, if she misses me enough. Haha. Excuses, excuses.

I guess without me realizing it, my body was tired. I did not mean to sleep early but I did.

Patrick's last day

And so we got on Diana's car for lunch and headed to Angry Dog. To be expected though, the Dog was full and we decided we couldn't wait and ambled on to St Pete's Dancin' Marlin. I had fish and chips which was forgettable. Diana said the tuna steak sandwich was very good, so I sure know which one to try out next time.

I need a visa for Canada so I will take care of that first thing next week. Looks like the rest of the month (March) and April will be full. Such is life, eh? See, I can do the Canada accent already!

I managed to get a lot of things done today, and I'm glad. I'm still singing the song from watching the Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon video clip, so that certainly puts a smile on your face. It's just so hilarious. I couldn't still make up my mind which one is funnier - that or the response by Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck. Find it in YouTube if you're interested. It will make your day.

Knock, knock. Who's there? I'm Fu. I'm Fu who?

Time for Tiff's Treats now. So I'll see you again later.

It's quiet in here

I'm in the office and it seems pretty quiet. Maybe it's the weather (it's chilly today with a foreboding promise of snow by 6pm). Which means I'll be out of here earlier than usual to avoid the rush hour. 5pm and rain just don't mix well in a city full of highways.

Can't believe the weekend's over, it's just too soon! And what's this I hear that it's March already? That was quick.

My friend and colleague, Patrick, just tendered his resignation effective 2 weeks from today. I wish him good luck and it does seem like he's going to be getting some. He got an awesome deal from a previous employer, so it won't be so much like he's going to be moving on to completely new things.

Blueberry cheesecake

I tried out a new recipe for blueberry cheesecake and it was good. I had some of it last night, and I'll be having some more tonight (unless Jojo finished it all). I actually asked my sister for her recipe but it turns out I may not have to use it. If you want to make your own, I will add the recipe for your reference later on. Come visit again.

Well, I'm really just waiting for the fire alarm to go off, and seeing that I didn't want to be engrossed in my work when that happens (we got the email alert about 5 minutes ago), I decided to relax a bit and blog.

Anyway, on to other things. I'm going to need to change my schedule for March as the trip to South Dakota will not be happening until March 11th. But taking care of this is easy enough as I will just need to call the travel agent and he will handle this from his end.

I've been watching American Idol Season 7 for the past several weeks and voting. Sweet huh?

Booked on United

I don't remember the last time I was on United Airlines. I always fly American, or if going to Manila, it's always been Northwest for me. But AA doesn't fly to Sioux Falls. Anyway, most of my time after lunch was spent looking for a good flight in Orbitz, no non-stop flights sadly. And I didn't realize it was going to be harder than I thought. So I had to resort to going to our trusted travel agent to help me out. Five minutes on the call with Motty, and voila! all's done. He even took care of the hotel reservations.

Nice! So now, I'll be able to go back to work.

Photobooks

I've been waiting for the photobooks to arrive the whole day, the suspense is killing me. However, it's the end of the day and still the UPS guy is a no-show. So I should take this as a sign and accept that I will get the books tomorrow, not today. And I was so looking forward.

Today is a happy day, I was able to catch up with 3 of my colleagues early in the morning, and in the afternoon, I was able to chat with Madie. It's always a pleasure and I hope we'll get the chance again sometime soon. Thank you for your time, Madie!

I also got an offline message from my sister in New Zealand who I haven't spoken to for quite sometime. The message, although very brief and made no mention of how she was doing, was so welcome since it reminded me so much of the way she is. Which reminds me, I still have not responded to my other sister who also left me a message on my phone. I should be doing that now.

(Postscript: Btw, the photobooks arrived past 6pm.)

Working from home

Nowadays, the concept of working from home is very common. And it's not the same as bringing work to your home (which begins after you've done your hours in the office), but actually starting and ending your workday from home.

And I like it. It gives me the liberty to work in my jammies (or ok, shorts even) and my tank top, and not mind taking calls as early as 7am. After all, I won't be driving to work so I can postpone the bath for later in the day.

Even better than that, I can also cook breakfast while thinking about an email, mentally taking down notes on how to compose my response before electronically sending them out. In fact, I can even watch a little bit of tv while I edit documents, focusing on the documentation of course and not the horrible remarks being given out by Simon Cowell as the dvr-recorded American Idol is on.

My only complaint would be the lack of interaction between colleagues, sharing a story here and there as you take your lunch, looking at e-photos of their family displayed as wallpaper on their desktops on your way back to your cube. Yes, I have a corner cube and although it lacks the privacy of closed doors, I don't mind. I'm inspired to work even harder to get the much wanted corner office with a view someday. I'm still young.

Besides, I travel a lot. So I'm not even there most of the time.

Life has been good to me. And to my family. I'm very grateful. Thank you, God.

Monday in the office

It's not your typical Monday in the office - I have been away for 2 weeks! So there's so much going on that I haven't had time to catch my breath. Except maybe now, and so I'm blogging from my desk.

The Giants won last night, it was a really good game. Not the best that I've seen (says the true-blue Cowboys fan that I am) but surely the best Superbowl game I've seen. I've only seen 3 in my lifetime, and that obviously started when I got here in the US. My first game I watched from an overhead projector at a hotel in New Jersey, I was there for a customer centric selling course. The second was at Patrick's place in Dallas, 42 inches but no HD-reception plasma screen. And the last one at Jan's place. 42 inches plasma, high definition, yeah baby!

And so, the undefeated Patriots get their first taste of defeat for the season. What a sour taste after 18 straight wins. I can only imagine how Tom "Baby" Brady must feel.

On a separate note, had a good lunch at Miguel's Cantina with the guys here at work. I ordered a small fajita which wasn't so small, but good fajita, so no complaints there. The walk back to the office was pleasant, and it's always good getting caught up with colleagues after being away for 2 weeks.

Foreseeable future - a trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota in March. Too bad Mount Rushmore is 369 miles away (about 5 and a half hours drive from where I'll be going).

I'll get going.

Elastic day

Once a month, our office celebrates Elastic day. All of us bring in food (home-cooked, or else store-bought) for sharing. Potluck lunch. Today was the first for the year, and once again, we had more than we could chew. Everyone brought good food, and over good conversation, there's really nothing more you could ask for.

I was chatting with Michael about university fees in the US and although I've heard that it costs so much, I wasn't prepared to hear just how much. He, for example, owed $35,000 after 4 years, considered as student loan. Now that's a lot, compared to when I was in college in Manila, I believe one semester costs about $150. Multiply that with 8 semesters, only brings the total to $1200. Unbelievable. Our age gap is not that far off, so I'd say you can compare it to being in college at about the same time. Unbelievable (oh, I already said that!).

Lone saxophone man

During the holidays, a man started playing the saxophone across the corner of our building in downtown Dallas. Well, it was the holidays so he was playing Let It Snow and I guess spreading Christmas cheer. The only problem was - that was all he was playing. Let it snow. All day long. So thank God for iPod and Windows Media Player. (Did I tell you that our offices are on the third floor and yet we can still hear him?)

Well it's past the holidays now and the sax guy? He's still outside playing us uninterrupted music. He finally dropped the holiday spirit and plays something else that I don't recognize. I'm sure I'll remember him for a long time, if only for his passion and determination to be heard. Impressive really. I should go and pat his back or something, one of these days.

A good first day at work

I was real busy in the morning, getting caught up with emails and calls. I'm glad I checked my inbox frequently during my 2-week vacation, and so I am not left reading a lot of new stuff today. I only had to re-read those that I needed to deal with.

I planned to go out to lunch today with a colleague but as Michael was leaving for lunch, I was on the phone and I wasn't exactly keen on excusing myself so he went on ahead. As I was about to head out to join him, I got an important message to go into a call with my boss so before doing that, I gave Michael a call telling him not to expect me. He volunteered to get me something and that turned out to be very welcome as I did not have time to go out and grab lunch. An hour later, I was enjoying my free sausage sandwich with fries on the side at my desk. What a good life!

Also, I caught up with a friend over the phone. It's always good to hear and talk after a long time of not being able to see each other. We exchanged stories and also talked a little about home equity and taxes. hehe. Not that we're both an expert but she's currently based in New York and there's always a good amount of difference when it comes to properties and cost in NY compared elsewhere.