WHAT THE PACK

After all this time living a nomadic life, I never did develop a fondness for packing. I just don’t have the knack for packing light. If there was a book called “Packing Lite for Dummies”, I’ll be the 1^st to buy it J Seriously. At the end of my trip, I always end up having too many unused outfits, and kikay stuff that are not only inessential but instead add more weight to my already heavy luggage. And yes, there’s the luggage. I practically have all sorts for different types of trips. But I always end up using the wrong luggage.

Case #1 – Backpacker blues. Since I am just not tall enough, carrying a hiker’s backpack makes me lose coordination. There’s always a tendency for me to roll down the hill, because the weight of the bag pulls me down. Law of gravity working very well here.

Case #2 – Carry-on dilemma. Carry-on’s are my favorite. More ergonomic and practical. But try doing that when you’re going to Bora, and you’re like a sight to behold.

Case #3 – Duffle bag with rollers. This is the one I chose for the upcoming weekend trip. I thought it was a brilliant idea until I tried to carry it. My shoulders almost fell off. And the rollers don’t work in the mountains. Gaah!

Then there is the perennial question of WHAT TO BRING?! I spend days planning what to bring, then always end up panic packing. In one trip to the U.S. I almost missed my flight since I was packing well into the early hours in the morning. I barely made it to my 8AM flight.

The wardrobe fitting sessions are the most fun. If the trip is a gimik trip, I try to do a quick modeling session to check if my gears are picture-friendly. Fashion first before comfort. Hehe. And for this trip, I spend three quarters of the time trying on different outdoor outfits. Since this is not my usual trip, I had difficulty deciding between my comfort and safety over fashion. Do I wear shorts at the risk of experiencing hypothermia or do I wear the right gear and look yaya in my pix? Tough question to answer J

Since we are going to the mountains, I decided to pack some “winter stuff”. I went through my winter collection, and found my scarves, bonnets and trench coat. I immediately went into my modeling mode and tried everything on, smelling musky because of long storage. Made me miss my winter days in Oregon. Got even sidetracked because of the senti distraction.

I finally finished my rev0 packing by 1AM. Result – eye bags that so badly need pampering. Oh yeah, there’s a rev2 packing session. Even a rev3 sometimes. At the end, I managed to trim my clothes – by 1 pair of pajamas. Hehehe.

Time to go take a shower. Sagada, here we come J

HAPPY OR RIGHT?

Would you rather be happy? Or unhappy doing the right thing? I’ve been mulling over this question (once again) the last couple of days. Our EQ instructor said it’s neurotic to do the wrong thing, when we know very well what the right thing to do is.  Ewan. Why does life have to be effin’ complicated?!

Inside Your Heaven


I've been down
Now I'm blessed
I felt a revelation coming around
I guess its right, it's so amazing
Everytime I see you I'm alive
You're all I've got
You lift me up
The sun and the moonlight
All my dreams are in your eyes

I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows your way
I wanna be earth that holds you
Every bit of air you're breathin' in
A soothin' wind
I wanna be inside your heaven

When we touch, when we love
The stars light up
The wrong becomes undone
Naturally, my soul surrenders
The sun and the moonlight
All my dreams are in your eyes

And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows your way
And I wanna be the earth that holds you
Every bit of air you're breathing in
A soothing wind
I wanna be inside your heaven

When minutes turn to days and years
When mountains fall, I'll still be here
Holdin you until the day I die
And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows your way

I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows your way
I wanna be earth that holds you
Every bit of air you're breathin' in
A soothin' wind
I wanna be inside your heaven
Oh yes I do
I wanna be inside your heaven

LOW EQ MOMENT

Tangna!! Kaka low EQ ang mga classmates ko! They don’t know how to construct sentences or paragraphs. Parang bawal mag period! Puro sila semi-colon. Tangna talaga. Anong klaseng mga MBA students sila. And to think ako pa ang engineer sa group. And they say engineers don’t even know grammar and language. Tangna. 2 hrs na lang, final prez na namen, and I’m not done editing through the pile of crap they made. Tangna. They don’t know how to make charts or process flows. Lahat naka paragraph without periods. Nahihilo na ako ngayon. And I have a bad feeling in my stomach. I want to puke. Leche. I’m glad I’m taking a break next term. Sana they graduate na para di ko na sila maka groupmate forever.

Gawd, need an endorphin rush quick before I go rock bottom, go insane and start killing them by giving them paper cuts from the crappy paper that they did.

EQ HANGOVER

EQ training is over. As more seminars usually have this effect on me, I have a renewed passion for what I’m doing. I hope this game plans take me farther this time.

Meantime, Aussie boy and I are still doing the long distance thing. We have made mini daydream sessions for the day we will get together again. Minsan I’m tempted to cut all this BS. But, I decided there’s nothing to lose since he is gone anyways. There is only something to gain from this. Anyway, our EQ master told us that when we love someone we should not expect gratitude (or anything in return). Because when it does not come, that is the day that will hurt us forever.

We lost the badminton championships. Pero ok lang. I am a beginner but I made it this far (of course, thanks to my partner, hehe). I’m definitely going to keep taking this up. May bet kse kame ni Aussie boy. Masama ang parusa kapag natalo. Hehe. He is going to lose his beer belly, while I’m going to lose __ lbs. Whoever loses will pay dearly J

Entrep finals on Saturday. Sayang. My friends invited me pa naman to join them sa war games (Airsoft). Been wanting to try that. Told them to keep me in the loop na lang for next time. Then me mga biking activities also L So I decided to stop school muna next term. Super toxic na nga, I get to miss important fun activities pa.

"I Don't Like Mondays"

The silicon chip inside her head
gets switched to overload
and nobody's gonna go to school today
she's gonna make them stay at home
And Daddy doesn't understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reason
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown

[Chorus:]
Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
I want to shoot
The whole day down

The telex machine is kept so clean
and it types to waiting world.
And Mother feels so shocked
Father's world is rocked
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl
Sweet 16 ain't that peachy keen
No it ain't so neat to admit defeat,
They can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown

[Repeat Chorus]

All the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys awhile
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
That the lesson today is how to die
And then the bullhorn crackles
And the captain tackles
With the problems and the how's and why's
And he can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to die

[Repeat Chorus]

*** P.S. I was feeling rather cloudy last Monday. Tell me why I don’t like Mondays J

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (EQ)

I’m attending EQ class for the next two days. It’s interesting though there are times when I wanted to squeak “QUACK”, because some of the things the instructor is teaching sounds like something a quack doctor would tell you. But, if I put my eyebrows down a bit and just be open about his course, it actually can get quite interesting. Something I already know is that I’m really poor at figuring out puzzles or spatial intelligence exercises. Whenever I try to do those, I remember my 1^st long term bf back in college who could solve anything you throw @ him. He was one creative person. Galeng talaga. In our class of about 25, only my best work buddy was able to solve the matchstick exercises.

Anyways, one of the things our instructor said was that 50% of our illnesses are actually psychosomatic. I tend to agree with this. During the lowest point in my life, I was the most sickly I’ve ever been. And I’m not talking about made-up illnesses or playing hooky. I was literally getting viral infections every other week. In spite of the tragic moments that happened one after another, while leading a start-up at that, I’m quite amazed at myself for not going rock bottom. According to our instructor, that is what normally happens. People who experience tragedy just spiral downwards until you reach the point of madness. I guess I just bordered around the neurosis part. Thank goodness for my endorphins. Hahaha.

So they were not kidding when they said laughter is the best medicine. It really is. Laughter releases endorphins, and endorphins keep us healthy – physically, mentally, emotionally.

Here’s my happy thought for the day: Arriving in time for the class, in spite of the fact that I had once again slept through my alarm ;) Here’s one other happy thought – hearing the voice of the person I care so deeply for.

 HAPPY IS…

… receiving snail mail from an old friend or family.

It’s been a while since I received snail mail. The last time was just a crisp note from an ex saying please return documents immediately. Nice one, huh. The last nice one I received was when I was still in Oregon. My childhood sweetheart sent me a letter just to wish me well and all. It was nice because I haven’t seen him since college and also because it was totally unexpected. That really made my day. When you’re far away from home and your loved ones, simple things like snail mail could so much change your day from gloomy to bright. And anyone who’s been in Oregon surely understands the significance of that J

Which gave me an idea. In the next few weeks until I send my gift to Aussie boy (who is not exactly on the other side of the world as Jay pointed out, but rather below Asia, 6200++kms away), I will write him letters. Just random thoughts about the things happening back home, specially the good things. I will also enclose pix along with it. Pictures of the Christmas-decorated malls, the traffic that has so defined our Christmas rush, and so on J Any thing to remind him of home because he is really homesick lately and the thought of spending Christmas away from home is making him sad. The stationery I bought had this note on top: Happy is… the smell of grass after the rain.. etc.. Which led me to the 2^nd idea. Every time I write him letters, I will include one thing that made me happy for that day and hope it inspires the same countenance in him.

So for today, happy is – feeling the early morning cool breeze on my skin as I walked on the pathway. It does really feel like Christmas is just around the corner. 41 days to go. Yey.

What is your happy, today?

I’m just trying to test the mail option to blog. Blogger changed so much over the last year. It’s more user-friendly now. But I still couldn’t figure out how to use the Blogger comments. I used YACCS and it’s sooo long ago J Couldn’t even edit it kse I forgot the password na. Hehehe. Oh well, I will figure this out soon.