SFO in five hours

We're spending two days and a night in San Francisco and I found it extremely difficult to choose which neighborhoods to explore there. But amazingly, this guy did it in five hours!

I think I'm going to break the rule of not wearing athletic shoes in the city. I have to wear the comfiest shoes I have because we're breezing through Golden Gate Bridge, Haight-Ashbury, Mission, Alamo Square, Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf on day 1. Then on day 2, we'll be going to Alcatraz, North Beach, Telegraph Hill and Chinatown. Just looking at our itinerary makes me tired already! But I'm super excited to lose my heart (and our way too! but not too much, hehe) in San Francisco!

Off in five days! Yahoooo!

practicing non-attachment

Today's events reminded me of the importance of detachment.  

Detachment doesn't mean not caring or having walang pakialam. Instead, it's recognizing that whatever we have or are going through at the present moment WILL. PASS. TOO.

Being non-attached to persons, things and situations (whether it's something small like a two and a half year old phone or something important like a one year old job) helps me appreciate what I have  because I know that sooner or later, they'll be gone. And when I'm going through something difficult, knowing that whatever I'm experiencing right now will pass too allows me to keep my perspective and remain focused on what I have to do instead of worrying about things I don't have control over.

I wasn't always like this. There was a time in my life when I wanted to have control over everything. I didn't like being away from my mom and dad because I was scared that something might happen to them while we were apart. Then, when I started having relationships, I began worrying about being cheated on and all those sh*t you see happen in movies. Fortunately, I realized that there are things bigger than me and that there are just some things I can't control (including people), that whatever it was I was concerned about at that time I just have to pray for and lift to God.

It was during high school, I think, that this shift in me happened, but I'm sure it was brought about by this:

The Serenity Prayer
by Reinhold Niebuhr

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

I hope this brings a shift in you, too. Well, if you need it.

ito ang send off

Sabi ng boss ko kanina, given the company's situation, hindi daw siya sure kung anong plano ng new manager namin sa akin (contractual kasi ako). Ibig sabihin, may possibility na pag balik ko galing sa aking one-month vacation ay wala na akong trabaho. Sabi ko okay lang, basta sabihin na lang niya para hindi na ako bumalik sa office.

Hindi na ako nasorpresa sa balita kasi anim na buwan na eh hindi pa din nila ako iniisyuhan ng kontrata. Yung pag-extend sa kontrata ko sinabi lang sa akin. Nagfollow-up naman ako regarding the contract pero wala silang binigay. At yung manager namin sa London, hindi rin nagrereply tuwing nageemail ako. Bastos ano? Pero nagtrabaho pa din ako dahil sineswelduhan naman ako.

May times na nalungkot at nafrustrate ako dahil pakiramdam ko ay dinadaya ako ng company. Natuto na nga akong maging manhid sa sitwasyon. Wala na akong pakialam sa kontrata basta sumasahod ako, tuloy ang trabaho. Tapos ngayon, ito nga ang balita.

Hindi ako nalungkot. Hindi din ako natakot. I guess ineexpect ko na ang araw na to. At the back of my mind, alam ko this day will come. Ready naman ako. So kung may matanggap akong email habang nagbabakasyon next month, matatanggap ko ng buong-buo. Whatever happens, it will be for a good reason.

Basta mag-eenjoy ako sa bakasyon namin. Mageenjoy ako ng todo.

--

B and I had an interesting conversation today. We were talking about lucky charms then I said maybe charms act as a placebo. If you believe you'll be lucky because of those charms, then you will be lucky. Sabi nga sa The Secret, if you genuinely believe in something, then sooner or later it will manifest in your life. Something to do with being in the same frequency as the Universe. (Read the book if you haven't yet.)

The conversation evolved and we ended up talking about us and where we are now. We realized that at this point in our marriage and in our lives, we're not ready to get serious yet. By "serious" we mean, big, adult, long-term things, like buying a house or raising a child. Sure, we want to do and have those eventually but right now we're just having a great, fun time just going with the flow, taking it easy, travelling and just being ourselves. After all, we only get to do this for a while.

Tapos napagusapan namin ang conventions and how society expects a man and a woman in a relationship to get married, buy a house, have a kid and have another kid and another and another - in that order. Ang effect sa amin (at siguro sa ibang couples din) ng expectation na ito can be summarized in one word: pressure. 

We feel like we have to follow society's timeline even if we're not ready yet. Kaya we get anxious when someone asks us if we have a baby or if we're pregnant yet. We try to take the questions lightly and answer them with a polite, "no, not yet" but we can't help feeling like there's something wrong with us. If it's time, it's time. God will make it happen.

today's gratitude

Today I'm grateful that I was able to finish writing descriptions for all my Rome hotels. Finally! I think I wrote descriptions for about 250 hotels.

*****

I admire people who do their jobs really well. I wonder whether they've found their passion or are just passionate about doing a kick-ass job. Maybe we just have to stop thinking and just do what we have to do. 

i'm obese and don't have protection against hepa A and B

But everything else is normal, according to the health screening report I got from Raffles Medical. I am happy with the results. I was initially quite worried that I may have high blood pressure or high cholesterol or cancerous cells in my cervix or that my heart is beating abnormally, but praise God, it turned out I didn't have to worry about a single thing!

My blood pressure was 110/70, my heart beat's rhythm is regular and its sound, normal. Both my breasts are normal (thank God!), and my thyroid normal. EENT+pharynx are normal, as with all the organs in my abdomen. Even my rectum is normal! Hahaha!

My BMI is 28.6, which is high risk for cardiovascular disease according to Asian BMI cut-off points and moderate risk for WHO BMIs. My 10-year risk for developing coronary heart disease is less than 1 percent. Cool. 

When my doctor said "Your'e normal," I gave her a huge smile and said "Great!" Now I know that I only have to focus on my weight so I may be classified as perfectly healthy. But I'm really happy that I'm generally okay.

I updated my RealAge test and the result says I'm 2.7 years older than my chronological age. Not bad. I think losing 2.7 years is manageable.

I love and am really grateful for my body!  

MJ

I was never a Michael Jackson fan. Sure I liked some of his songs but no, I wasn't a fan. I found him too weird and his cosmetically altered appearance too freaky. But since I heard news about his "untimely" death, I found myself interested in Michael Jackson. I watched his music videos, read the obituaries, stayed tuned to the news. It's funny how death makes us stop and take notice. When he was alive, we ridiculed and judged him, wrote him off as crazy. Now, we remember all the good and beautiful about him, how he cared and made people happy. 

I watched the memorial service rerun and couldn't help but wonder: where were all these people when Michael Jackson was in his lowest of lows? We'll never know but I do hope they were there for him. 

This poem was written by Maya Angelou and was read by Queen Latifah at the memorial service. I think it's beautiful.

We Had Him

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing, now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer wind.

Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace. 

Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon.

In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing. 

No clocks can tell time. 

No oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure.

Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone.

Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him.

He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.

Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that.

He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.

We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.

His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.

And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.

We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing. 

He gave us all he had been given.

Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square.

In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Birmingham, England

We are missing Michael.

But we do know we had him, and we are the world.

asparagus wrapped in bacon

We had this for dinner tonight.  

Yum!

saturday mornings are made for these

Last Saturday, both of us were too lazy to cook breakfast so we headed to our neighbourhood Coffee Club. 

It was a beautiful Saturday morning - perfect for a special breakfast.

At Coffee Club, thinking of what to eat.

But first, some coffee. I had pure Ethiopian Yirgacheffe 

(a best seller, according to our server, and it had every right to be!) 

while B had Hazelnut Cappuccino. 

B's cappuccino came with a cinnamon stick! 

He used it to stir the coffee first before letting it soak. 

Now, for the main event! I had Spanish Chorizo Omelette - 

it had chorizos and grilled capsicum inside. Yum!

B had classic American breakfast, which consisted of 

bacon, sausages, eggs, grilled tomatoes and toast.

The aftermath.

These are three things I can't give up, ever: 

lazy Saturday mornings, delicious breakfasts and B. 

something bigger than myself

I had a dream last night. In my dream, I was a new hire on President Obama's staff and he asked me to create a presentation on this guy who he was about to have a meeting with. Mr. President told me he needed it early morning the next day and even if it was a rush job, I felt okay because (and I remember myself saying this in my dream) "it's a job bigger than myself." I was serving the world's most powerful man after all.

Mrs. O also tasked me to wake her up at 10AM the following day because she had a wedding to attend. It was her sister's and it was going to be held at the White House.

The next day, while I was doing research and President Obama was having a meeting with his team early in the morning, a commotion suddenly erupted in the household. Turned out, the bride-to-be burned her dress and half of her body because something exploded in the bathroom! Haha. Everything became blurry to me after that and next thing I knew, it was time to wake up.

Funny dream. I wonder what it means. Naghalo na yata ang napanood ko sa Nat Geo, yung Inside Guantanamo at ang excitement ko sa pagpunta namin sa States.

Sa Inside, one of the lady soldiers who was assigned to be a guard said na kaya daw siya sumali sa USAF was because it was a job bigger than herself. Sadly, it hasn't felt that way since she joined the armed forces.

*****

Sa subject ng TV shows, sa episode ni Oprah about young mogul millionaires, sabi ni Tony Hsieh, isang batang millionaire at CEO ng Zappos.com at that time, "Follow your passion and the money will follow." After that episode I was thinking of what my passion was and how can I get paid doing it.

Ang sabi ni Tony, your passion is the one thing you'd be willing to do for 10 years whether you earn a single dime for it or not. Don't get into something for the money daw because if you do that, you'll end up making the wrong decisions.

It's important for me to find my passion because I feel that when we're doing what we love and love what we do, that's when we are one with God. I am yearning to feel that - to be one with God, to feel like I'm doing what I was created to do.

I think I know what it is. I just don't know how to make it happen.

Yet.

abala

Pardon my absence. I've been busy playing Restaurant City at the other social networking site. 

I recently added the application on my profile to give it a try and I got hooked. Now I log in first thing in the morning, then again when I get to work. I check on my workers' energy levels every three hours to let them rest for a while. Then I log back in to make them work again. This goes on until it's time to go home at 6PM. Once we're home, I log in and do the drill until it's bedtime.

Ah, the life of online gaming addicts. I didn't know it was like this to be hooked. I know, this is child's play compared with, I dunno, Counterstrike? Ano bang bago ngayon? Haha. Obviously, I'm not aware of the recent trends in online gaming.

I'm ashamed to admit my newfound addiction to RC because I used to nag my poor husband about his Neopets-Mafia Wars-Restaurant City habits. I didn't see the point of it all. What's so exciting about it? Bakit ako magtitiyagang mag-earn ng points for that? What will I gain? Wala namang cash or medals dito. But now, oh now I know. 

There's something satisfying about earning points for the sake of. And to see your restaurant thriving! Wah, if it was only that easy in real life. The game is fun too, and kinda tickles my brain. Hey, you need strategy for this. Haha.

That's all for now dear friends. I hope you have a fantastic weekend!