Because my memory has been less than spectacular, I need this blog to remember ……………….. things I did today. Or plan to do someday. Or want to remember one day.

Looking back… it was an environmental job posting I spotted in one of my egroups and I wanted the experience to back-up my grad school working knowledge so I decided to send in my resume…   

After having the project’s requirements explained to me during the interview though, I almost felt like a defeated contender when I sheepishly told the panel that i didn’t think i was quite ready for such a job …i begged them to keep my resume on file though, just in case there was another job opportunity that came along which was just right for my skills and (lack of) experience…

…but to my surprise, they called 2 weeks later… and now, here i am… 

…and so it begins tomorrow. 73 Shell stations to visit. On my own. Out of town. One month.

i can do this…i can do this… (<–tries to convince self)

=)! <– flashes big smile and tries to think happy thoughts amidst the anxiety and worry =/…

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Last Monday, I woke up as an angsty, viciously bored little girl who decided she’s had enough of being just a full-time grad school student and a struggling photographer. Impulsively, this angsty person decided to pass her resume to the nearest Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf branch hoping to get the 6am-1pm shift as a part-time barista just so she could have something better to do in the mornings and so her son would stop referring to her as “unemployed” whenever his teachers would ask what his mother did for a living. Whoever could have imagined that by the end of the week, the same girl who had earlier considered just serving coffee at the neighborhood café would be hired by a global leader in infrastructure and engineering as an environmental consultant for a big project commissioned by Shell?

Wheee! =) …the best part is, it’s not the usual 9-5 desk job and I won’t even have to report to the office everyday and it pays well =)…I’ll learn a lot from the job for sure and I can still go to school, take pictures, and perhaps, if i could pull it off, even do the coffee bean thingy as long as I’m done fulfilling my checklist of duties [which, I must admit, is a very tall order though]… the downside is… I’m kinda pressured with a timetable of specific deliverables (so being able to pull off all those things I mentioned above is a tad bit too ambitious of me) and once the big project is over, I’m off the payroll too…but in a way, that might be a good thing too in case I wanted to pursue other things…oh well…  I’ll worry about that another time because for now, I’m as happy as a clam =)

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(May nag-email sa kin na friend ko… sabi niya konyotic daw ako masyado mag-Ingles sa blog ko kaya nakakaintimidate daw basahin…naisipan ko tuloy mag-Tagalog para maiba naman, tutal malapit na naman ang Linggo ng Wika…[next month pa pala]…so here goes today’s entry…)

Wednesday na naman at umuwi na naman akong sawi mula sa Environmental Chemistry class….badtrip =( …nakakafrustrate =(…gustuhin ko man siya maintindihan, di ko talaga kaya =( …. so nagdrowing na lang ako sa notebook during classhours imbis na magbalance ng chemical equations o makinig sa mga bagay na mahalaga ngunit di naman kayang macomprehend ng powers ko…

Madalas ma-carried away si prof sa chemical formulations niya habang yung mga matatalino ko naman na kaklase sobrang hanging on to every word that he says…nainggit tuloy ako at naisip ko tuloy, ‘Buti pa sila, naiintindihan nila si prof…bakit ako hindi? Bobo na ba talaga ako?”…

(Flashback…Naalala ko tuloy nung highschool pa ako…buti na lang by partners ang labwork kasi pinapabayaan ko lang na siya ang gumawa ng labwork namin habang kumukopya ako ng lyrics sa songhits o mag- F.L.A.M.E.S… those were the days…wala talaga akong magawang matino dati pa…. yan tuloy…wala tuloy akong matinong basic knowledge sa chemistry ngayon…)

Maraming beses na gusto ko na lang sabihin kay prof… “Sir naman!  Puwede ba? Tigilan na natin toh! Di po ako naniniwala sa atoms eh! Imahinasyon lang yan ng mga taong masyadong malawak ang utak…Bakit natin pinag-aaksayahan ng oras ang mga invisible molecules, neutrons, stoichiometry at kung anu anung orbital valence shells at isomers chuva na yan? To see is to believe…nakakakita na ba kayo niyan at importante ba talaga na malaman natin ang radius ng x atom?…” (yez, halatang malalim talaga ako mag-isip diba? =)

(Note to myself: bukas na bukas, bibili ako ng Intro to Chemistry na libro sa National Bookstore tulad nung dinala ni Mei kanina sa klase at di ako magba-blog hanggang talagang maintindihan ko na yung topic namin…pramis)

This reminds me of that saying na…”It is better to keep your mouth shut and be presumed stupid, than to open your mouth and erase all doubts”! =) ehehe….

Anyways…just thought I’d post this forwarded thingy from my friend Sheyan:

“Mga bagay na gusto mong sabihin kay Boss pero hindi puwede”

1. Ano!? Yan lang di niyo pa kayang gawin at iuutos niyo pa sa akin?
2. Sir, makinig kaya kayo sa akin!? Pwede?
3. Puwede ba, busy ako… Mamaya na lang yan
4. Hoy! Ikaw, halika nga rito at tulungan mo ko!
5. Absent po ako today. Wala lang…tinatamad lang ako pumasok
6. Sir, bili niyo naman akong yosi. Sige na! Sa inyo na lang po yung sukli.
7. Uwi na po ako ha. Bahala na kayo dito sa opis..
8. Bakit po pag kami walang ginagawa pinapagalitan niyo kami? Pero
bakit pag kayo ok lang?
9. Akala niyo ba magaling kayo?
10. Kung totoong nag-client call kayo patingin ng service report niyo!
11. Sagutin niyo naman yung telepono, total ang lapit mo na eh
12. Kayo itong may pa-kotse tapos ako uutusan niyo pumunta sa meeting? Hello?!
13. Ano?!! Di niyo alam mag-print? Sayang ang laptop niyo.
14. If you really think it’s that important, eh di ikaw gumawa.
15. Sir, magkano suweldo niyo?
16. Ang sarap po siguro ng trabaho niyo no? Biro niyo utos lang kayo
ng utos samin tapos wala ka naman ginagawa
17. Ngayon na due ito? Eh di kayo gumawa!
18. If you need me, bukas na lang. May date po ako eh.
19. Huwag nga kayong makialam samin!
20. Huli kayo! Nanonood din pala kayo ng VCD ha!
21. Tsk tsk tsk, yan na nga ba sinasabi ko e. Ayaw niyo kasi makinig sakin.
22. Hindi po bottomless pit ang MS Outlook Inbox mo. Talagang titirik
ang PC niyo kung hindi kayo magde-delete ng email!
23. Kabit nyo po ba yung prinomote mo?
24. Bukas ko na lang po gagawin yung pinagagawa niyo ha? Nakikipag-chat pa ako eh
25. Aha!!! Sir bakit kayo naglalaro ng games!? Bawal yan ah!
26. Ang OA niyo naman. Kino-complicate niyo pa ang mga simpleng
problema para lang magmukha kayong may alam.
27. Ma’am huwag na po kayong mag-english. Lalo lang pong nagiging
obvious ang pagiging tanga niyo.
28. Sana po pwede ko rin kayong i-evaluate diba?!
29. Kung ano man po ang kasalanan ko ay kasalanan niyo rin. Boss ko kayo eh.
30. If challenges are more important than financial rewards,tignan nga natin kung anung say mo kung mag-trade tayo ng suweldo!
31. Sir, umabsent naman po kayo paminsan-minsan. Masaya po kasi ang
buong office pag wala kayo eh.
32. Hello? Di naman kasama sa job description ko to ha!

…mejo hanggang #74 siya pero I decided to modify and shorten the list instead….kung gusto mo yung whole list, let me know para ipadala ko sa iyo….pero mag-aaral muna ako ng chemistry bago ko yun mapagtuunan ng pansin =)

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I don’t really have much to say in this blog so I might as well just review the past week that went by…. despite the drama I went through after finding out that my pet died, and the fact that I had to gas up on the day that gas prices hiked up (good thing it got rolled back the next day though), I guess last week went by ok, though nothing tremendously exciting really happened anyway … was able to shoot a prenup with Jong, had an environment-related job interview in Makati (though I knew within 2 seconds into the intvw that I wasn’t the right person for the job =),  lunched with Karla, Tats and Champagne (fun, fab girls from PeopleAsia Mag =), witnessed yet another uneventful protest rally on Ayala Avenue (the biggest anti-GMA rally reports said, and I was tempted to take shots like I’ve always done in the past but decided …nah…what for? It’s the same sh!t but different day anyway =), managed to distract my former office buds from monitoring the news for a few minutes at the office (I miss them soooo much!), and had the most meaningful supergirl conversation I’ve had in weeks over a yosi break with my former office partner-in-crime, Claire. My whizkid joined the Math club in his school last Friday (geek! He got a 99 in Math in his report card last year) and we played Ultimate Frisbee with my classmates during the weekend (his catch is improving! He’s better than me and I’m so proud! =) .…

Anyhow…what else can I say?… I am hopelessly addicted to (obsessed with?) C2 Peach-flavored Iced Tea, I have been questioning why I’m taking up what I’m taking up in grad school when I’m really much happier doing creative things anyway, and I need more rakets to finance my whims (anyone need a photographer?)…sigh…I think I’m  running out of things to say in this blog and the blog craze that started when I jumped on the blog bandwagon last month is starting to wear off…so ….I guess… this is all for now =)

BTW, here’s some Food for Thought from last Saturday’s PDI Super! section "How difficult have you made your life? …We often fill our days rationalizing, brooding, or obsessing about things that may not really be beneficial to us in the long run anyway…"  Yez. Exactly. Anyways, you can read the rest of the article here =)

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