Thursday Thirteen #15 – 13 things I’d rather do than go to work

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And I’m not just talking about a simple reluctance to get up everything and go to work. No, this isn’t just because I am lazy (because I am lazy). And it isn’t because I hate my job, boss or co-workers either – because I don’t. I enjoy my job too, it’s just that, I’d really rather prefer to stay at home where there are a million and one ways I can be more productive.

Funny how I used to think that I wasn’t that kind of girl. For Twilight fans, you know how Bella thinks she’s not the kind of small town girl to get married right out of highschool? I had thoughts like that too – about not being the kind to stay home while the hubby went out to bring home the bacon. And it’s not just about earning money for the family – it was more of the idea of really doing something that I was passionate about. For a time I fantasized about being a communist rebel (not exactly a glamorous career); then I also dreamed of working in a top corporation and making it big. When my life revolved around working with children’s NGOs, I knew that was my place in the sun.

But as I grew older, things changed and my perceptions changed along with it. I know now that when it came time build my own family, when it was time to have babies, I would not be able to keep myself away from home on a regular basis. Not even for an eight hour shift.

Lately, this idea of just staying at home has been occupying my mind and it isn’t just for when I had babies anymore. Why should I have to wait? Why can’t I just start now?

Thus the theme for this week’s 13: things I’d rather do than go to work.

+ Blog about so many other things that matter to me and the world (sheesh I’m still not done with the Bohol posts) and bloghop like crazy.

+ Watch DVDs

+ Read (I’m down to 11 books from last week’s list, but really there are several more that didn’t go up there)

+ Workout. Swim. Learn Tennis again.

+ Finish my digital Scrapbook project for the girls. Start scrapping our Bohol vacation.

+ Find online freelance article writing opportunities.

+ Fulfill Truffles orders

+ Bake (for family, and also to sell) and/or go to baking school.

+ Spoil my dog (so he would look more to me as his owner/mommy, than to my mom and dad)

+ Spend time with my nephews (read them books, for one, but there are so many other things we’d be happy to get busy with after school)

+ Learn other things – design stuff, like digital signage or even cards or whatever. I’d love to learn the ins and outs of Photoshop (if only that course I wanted to sign up for wasn’t out of my budget range).

+ Get involved with Sunday School at Church.

+ Find part time involvement with the NGOs I worked with in the past – I’d love to setup a new website for Asia ACTs or write stuff for them. And I’d love to facilitate workshops for ECPAT and the young people.

This seems a merry mix of things and I’m aware it all sounds like stuff I already can do while still working a regular job. The thing is, these are all distractions for me at work and I don’t want to be like that. When I’m at work, I want to be focused. That’s the only way I can be really productive. When I’m at home doing any or all these things – you won’t believe how focused I could get. Hehe.

Or, I really am just lazy. Haha 😉

As always, checkout my previous TT’s here and here. Also don’t forget to sign Mr Linky, and leave a comment so I can go visit you too. 🙂

Giddy like a highschool girl :)

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That’s me – giddy as a highschool girl. And I don’t know why 🙂

I’ve just been hyper for several hours now. I think it’s got something to do with picking up New Moon to read but I’m not sure. I know it’s not the weather – it is raining cats and dogs, in fact, our place is flooded. Yep, you would think that learning that I couldn’t get home because the flood water is up to our gate would dampen my spirit – it didn’t!

When I logged in to my blog and saw the number of spam comments that Akismet has caught in the last 24 hours, I thought surely the giddiness would dissipate. Yeah – for about firve seconds!

Not even finding out that my blog has plummeted to PR0 from PR3 a month ago. I though that would upset me, but it didn’t. Really.

So why am I giddy? I don’t know. But I don’t mind. It’s good to be happy. 🙂

I have a small mirror right in front of me here at my desk and I can never count how many times in a day I look at my reflection. Today, giddy as I am, I’ve smiled at myself SO MANY times! I usually check to be sure there’s nothing in my eyes (because there’s always something) or that there are no blotches on my skin (as there tends to be when it’s cold – and it’s always cold in here). But today, my attention was caught by two zits, side by side on my cheek – nearer to the side of my face really.

No I’m not concerned, and I am not self-conscious about it – I’m at an age when I’m way past that, I guess. So no need for Proactiv or any treatments of the sort. It did remind me of the time when I’d regularly go for facial treatments. That was during my first year to work here – the first year my monthly salary was in the five-digits! Now, I don’t think it’s practical to do that anymore. There are so many other things I’d rather spend for, or save up the money for.

Still, once-in-a-while wouldn’t hurt right?

Alfred – my Shopping Buddy

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In my excitement about the Magic Sing (see 2 posts down), I forgot other things I had originally intended to blog about on Sunday night.

When neither one of us in a hurry, or tripping over ourselves from sleep deprivation – I truly enjoy going on a shopping spree with Alfred. Last Sunday, that’s what we did and it was fun!

I had secretly wished we’d go to Cubao again so I can buy yarn from Maning’s for a project but Alfred wanted to avoid the UAAP crowd. As it turns out, half of the population was at the Araneta that afternoon, but the other half was in Trinoma! Aside from the Pampers event at the Activity Center of the huge mall, we could see no other reason why the place was packed. Seriously, there was a LOT of people in there. 

Because this outing was specifically intended to be a jeans hunt for Alfred, he led the way. We still managed to land ourselves in the area where the Sports boutiques are – he was also secretly wishing something: that he’d find a pair of trainers that he loved on sale. Now I didn’t intend to buy anything that day, but I happened to see some thing(s) I like and that actually fit me, so I swiped away (not on credit, it was using my ATM as a debit card 😉 ).

So there was my first purchase at the Puma shop – a knitted sweater in some shade of gold.

They had it in black too, but when I tried the golden one on, it actually looked better than I anticipated (it isn’t the shining/shimmering gold type okay). I really like how it looks on me. It was Alfred’s vote to take the golden one. If I was on my own, I’d either have passed on it, or taken home the black one.

Next stop was the Landmark Department Store. Alfred was looking for a pair of blue pants for his mom – we were going to buy one for her as a birthday present. We searched and searched for the perfect pair but we ended up buying this cute, light blouse for me instead. At first, Alfred wasn’t keen on me getting that blouse, but when he saw it on me – he gave it a thumbs up. It’s not my usual style – but I think the light and airy feel of it reflects my personality better.

Why is Alfred’s opinion so important when I shop for my own clothes? It’s not because he has to approve what I wear and how I wear them. Not that at all. It’s just that when it comes to what looks good on me, I trust his taste. I don’t agree a hundred percent of the time, of course, but I do listen to him like 70%. Hehe. It’s a running joke between us that I think he’s gay!

We also needed to have some photos printed for Papa that day so dropping it off at Kodak Express was our first agenda. As with most other shops in Trinoma, Kodak Express was full too. We didn’t have to wait too long to be attended to though. They have staff there who Photoshop the photos before printing. In my mind, I was thinking, what’s the point? Why do they need to have their photos edited? This girl was laying over somebody else’s hair on top of this girl’s head in the photo. What was up with that? As Alfred and I were exchanging smiles and glances, I thought that’s what he was thinking too. No – he actually liked the idea of working part-time in such a place. Okay…

But why couldn’t the day just be perfect? We weren’t rushing even though Alfred had to go straight to work from the mall. We really were just enjoying ourselves there. More after the jump.


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Saving up

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I’ve been trying to save up or earn extra so I could buy a:

– Sturdy, and heavy duty Oven

– And a DSLR camera (Recently added to the list. Okay, I’ve got a perfectly good point and shoot but Alfred and I would so love a DSLR. This is not a priority, but something tells me we might get one sooner than the oven.)

I’ve got some money from making truffles. And I’ve earned almost ten thousand pesos from blogging. Frustratingly, the first two times I withdrew money from Paypal, I chose to transfer to my BDO account. Big mistake. Apparently I just gave away 400 pesos to BDO when UnionBank would not have charged me anything for the same service. Serves me right for not finding out beforehand if there were any charges for such transactions.

But the bigger problem is that, I didn’t really get to “save” the extra money I earned. Not in the sense that they are kept away specifically for the purpose for which they were originally intended. So now I’m thinking of opening a separate savings account that would really be for that purpose.

Hay, I haven’t even talked about wracking my brains for ways to afford a wedding next year.

And totally going against the “save up” theme of this post, I actually spent on digital scrapbooking supplies tonight. I got this:

Alfred dear, before you react, I haven’t bought anything online in at least two months. So this was just a treat. 🙂

Wow Magic Sing!

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We’ve been talking about it and we had even decided before that Mom was going to get one in exchange for her Credit Card rewards, but it was only today that the plan finally fell through – we are proud owners of a Wow Magic Sing Concerto Edition sing-a-long system! Wahaha 🙂

If you are Pinoy or if you know someone who has Pinoy in his blood, then you know what this Magic Sing is all about. It’s a “magic mic” that you can plug in to your TV or Home Entertainment System. It has it’s own library of songs (I think this one has 2000) and it also has a built-in scoring system – Karaoke style!

You don’t need to memorize the lyrics, or the tune/melody, because there’s a guide for you. Yes, remember the follow-the-whatever-object-flies-around-over-the-words/lyrics in the Looney Tunes shows of old? It’s a lot like that.

Videokes are now not just found in night clubs, or in gatherings/celebrations. You will find one in many street corners, in the mall, in gaming arcades. They are all over. And always, you will always find someone willing to belt it out.

My family is no exemption. Although we do prefer to do so in the confines of our small compound here. 😉

The Magic Mics (there’s two in the set) had to wait until just before midnight before I could take them out of their box. We had dinner downstairs for my niece Hanna’s ninth birthday and I lingered there to chitchat with my cousins some more. When I finally came home, my brother was about to leave for work, my Dad was already fast asleep, and my Mom was the only one left still up.

I didn’t wait to be told twice to checkout our latest toy. I opened it up, read enough of the manual to know how to set it up properly. And then there I was singing.

I scored 74 for the first song – WHAT?! Haha. But for the rest of the time, I got this:

Yup – I’m an excellent singer. Haha! 🙂 My Mom didn’t sing tonight but she sat through several songs before she turned in for the night. She must have told my Dad what I was doing because he actually came downstairs to check it out. Of course I let him have the mic for two Beatles songs. Yeah, just two. I gave myself an hour to enjoy singing (with the TV volume turned down to avoid waking the neighbors) but my concert actually ran for two hours! Fun 🙂

Now we wouldn’t have to spend additional money to rent Videoke systems for our Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve gatherings. We would need amplifiers and loud speakers to still be able to compete with neighbors on the other side of the creek though. Hehe.

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