10 tips for marital bliss (from ma'am kristine's bridal shower)

1. never wear a daster. (or is it duster? whatever, you get the point.)

2. little things matter. take note of even the minute details.

3. the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

4. make money matters clear. early on, decide who's going to budget, how expenses will be divided, & whether each one could have personal savings.

5. learn how to make the first move. (i'll let everyone speculate as to what this means... )

6. know how to please him. ;)

7. never criticize your husband when you're talking to his parents.

8. don't nag.

9. let your husband have the final say. in other words, submit to him. it's in the Bible, after all. (good Lord, what will domineering little me have to do?!?)

10. show your in-laws that you love your husband, & they will love you too.


i guess attending my very first bridal shower was quite productive. looking forward to going to more (& to having my own, in a few years' time of course). ;)

hp 4

i was never one to rush to the cinemas on the opening day of a movie. definitely NOT in the middle of a school or work week. but i did last night, for harry potter & the goblet of fire.

how can i resist? crystal offered to pay for half of the ticket's price & 6 of my co-MT's were going also (whenever we get together, there's usually only 3 or 4 of us, out of 15. 7 must be the most there was of us in a gimmick). so off we went to g4 - me, crystal, jamie, kris, cecille, jonah & sarah.

what happened when we were in line to buy tickets is something that jamie describes as "meant to be". we didn't make it in time for the 6:40 sched, as it was already 6:45. the 7:15 sched was supposedly sold-out, and the next sched was 7:40, which was already too late for many of us. nevertheless, crystal and cecille fell in line and asked the ticket seller to recheck the availability of seats for the 7:15 sched. believe it or not, some people did not claim their reserved tickets, and 7 seats were available! even more amazing was that all 7 seats were in one row, with only one seat cutting through the 7 seats. :)

needless to say, we were able to watch the film. "it was nice" is all that i can say, as i have read the book already & actually enjoyed the story more in print. (don't take my word for it though, as i really love to read.) but to be fair, the execution of the book was pretty good. last but not the least, it was great that we MT's were finally able to get together, even if it was only because of a movie.

hmmm, i wonder when hp 5 will be shown? ;)

still awake

and cramming into the wee hours of monday morning what i should have done during the weekend. well, relaxed last saturday, and went to star city with bene yesterday. happy times. :)

pseudo-weekend

it's the weekend, but i'm not really looking forward to it. why? one word: REVALIDA.

i think of it as the hell on earth that we trainees have to go through. as if info overload is not enough - at the end of our almost 4 months OJT in credit, we have an oral exam before a panel composed of AVP's & VP's (maybe with some SVP's too). needless to say, i'm not looking forward to it.

last august, we had our revalida on branch operations. it didn't turn out well for most of us. the questions were not really hard, but the panel must have expected a different sort of anwers from us.

our revalida on credit will be on december 5 & 6. even though that's 3 weeks away, we're all getting tense bit by bit. we've been through so many departments & units, so it's hard to remember everything that we've learned so far. the weeks left are hardly enough for us to study, but three weeks is really all we have left.

so this weekend, it's the start of reviewing for most of us, me included. *sigh* i wonder why the week had to end...

praying for a better day tomorrow :)

na-late ako today by five minutes. hassle! worst case scenario, 6th late ko na to in five months. not really that bad, but it's horrible for li'l OC me. oh well, it's not my fault that the shuttles to lawton were nowhere to be found.

because i was late, i had to run to the loan management center (LMC) where i'm assigned this week, sans makeup, & with a bladder that was threatening to burst. thank God, adjacent to the dept was a comfort room. thank God, indeed.

come lunch time, i went out to withdraw money, but wasn't able to do so at the branch where our payroll account is maintained so i had to go to harrison plaza. considering how my day started, i probably shouldn't have been surprised that the ATM terminal i chose refused to dispense cash, & actually debited from my account the amount that i wasn't able to receive. but i was surprised, & irritated. however, even that doesn't make me forget to be thankful that the branch personnel who assisted me were very patient in instructing me what to do, & explaining how my complaint will be addressed by the banks involved.

oh, by the way, i missed lunch. i arrived in the office at exactly one, with barely enough time to wash my oily, perspiring face. earlier, my officemates texted me that the lunch i ordered was delivered without utensils. another thing to be thankful for - they washed a pair of their utensils for me, so that i would have something to use.

to say that this day was not so good is probably an understatement. but as risk management people would probably say, there were "mitigating factors" anyway. thank you Lord, for the small things that make bad days a bit more bearable. :)

yum!

You Are Mexican Food

Spicy yet dependable. You pull punches, but people still love you.

What Kind of Food Are You?

from the outside...

Slow & Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

goes with the "OC" description people have often used for me. in fact, i'm the "OC Girl" in chi's links section. :)

"working" on a saturday

yup, i have to go to the office tomorrow because of a training session that we have to attend. as much as i hate waking up early on a weekend, tomorrow's an exception. the session we'll be having is counterfeit detection to conducted by someone from BSP, so it's bound to be really interesting. :)

we have free ride passes to star city, but i might just opt not to come with my co-trainees. gel, joyce and i might have dinner tomorrow. can't wait. :)

random thoughts

random thought # 1:
may pasok na ulit bukas ang mga katulad kong naghahanapbuhay na. hay...buti naman, nakapagbakasyon din ako ng apat na araw. i hope that i don't forget to prepare the clothes that i'm going to wear tomorrow. i'll be in credit implementation, and from what i've heard, it's really cold there. hello to my 3-piece suit.

random thought # 2:
nakakainggit si bene! he has the whole week off, for he scheduled leaves for nov. 2 & 3. he needs it anyway. he has been quite harrassed lately. it's good that he decided to take a breather before the busy season load gets the better of him. (he works in punongbayan & araullo, an auditing firm. busy season is from september all the way to april.)

random thought # 3:
hindi ko yata dapat binigyan ng "assignment" si bene para talagang makapagpahinga siya. hehe...

random thought # 4:
i wasn't really productive during the long weekend. the only thing i was able to accomplish so far is organizing all of my hand-outs from the different departments and units that i've been to. nevertheless, i don't think that i can underestimate the importance of having done this because of one thing - my bedsheet has become more visible! haha!

random thought # 5:
ang daya! nung estudyante pa ko, hindi ako nakatikim ng isang buwang sem break. ngayon, isang buwan ang sem break nila! nakakaasar!

random thought # 6:
correction: nung estudyante pa ko, hindi ako talaga nakatikim ng sem break dahil una, lagi akong nasa planning ng SF / execom / soa EB. pangalawa, registration assessor ako - isang araw ang inilalagi ko sa CTC para sa training, at apat hanggang limang araw naman para sa mismong reg. siguro, swerte nang naka-isang linggo akong sem break nun...

random thought # 7:
but i don't regret spending my "breaks" that way. at least, i was productive, & i was with my friends. not to mention that those planning sessions have made a significant difference in who i am now, and what i want for myself.

random thought # 8:
ka-YM ko si guiller ngayon. i miss him & all my other college friends! special mention sina gel, candy, badz, de-anne, trina, ivan, kfc & ginger.

random thought # 9:
nag-siesta ako kaya hindi pa ako inaantok.

random thought # 10:
pwede pa akong maging productive tonight! subukan kong basahin yung chapter 4 ng book namin on understanding financial statements. it's not exactly my kind of book, but i need to exert extra effort if i want to understand the audited financial statements of our clients.

random thought # 11:
hindi ko pa nababalot ang "something moving" ko for thursday. paano ba naman kasi, kakaiba ang shape! mahirap tuloy maghanap ng kahon...

random thought # 12:
may free lunch kami tomorrow courtesy of sir odie! yehey! - from the stingy part of me

random thought # 13:
kung estudyante pa ako, ano na kaya ang ginagawa ko? siguro pinag-aaralan ko na yung available class scheds at pumipili na ko ng teachers. o di kaya tumatambay na sa national bookstore sa katipunan para makapili ng magandang notebook.

random thought # 14:
i do not regret taking the classes of some of the "terror professors" like fr. adolfo dacanay & mr. eduardo calasanz (though my groupmates & i ended up neglecting a major cognitive psychology report because we were bent on finishing our reflection paper for dacanay, & my quality point index was pulled down significantly because of the grade i got from calasanz). i feel that i learned a lot of things from them that i would not have learned had i taken other professors. or maybe i would have learned those things anyway, but in a not-so-fun or insightful way.

random thought # 15:
enough of this randomness. understanding financial statements beckons...

iba talaga pag wala kang magawa...

o may kailangan kang gawin, pero ayaw mo pang gawin. kahit ano, papatulan mo. hehe... :)

You Are a Good Girl

You are 70% Good and 30% Bad Generally speaking, you're a very good girl. (But you don't have us totally fooled!)

Are You a Good Girl or a Bad Girl?

You Are a Good Student of Men

You're pretty good at knowing what men are thinking But you're not dead on 100% of the time Let your guy off the hook sometimes... because you may be reading him all wrong!

How Well Do You Understand Men?

You are a Great Girlfriend

When it comes to your guy, you're very thoughtful But you also haven't stopped thinking of yourself You're the perfect blend of independent and caring You're a total catch - make sure your guy knows it too!

Are You a Good Girlfriend?

Your Love Quote

Love is not a matter of counting the years --it's making the years count.

What Love Quote Suits You?

nice results! i could only wonder if bene would agree. hi dear. :)

tidbits of wisdom

We have no reason to harbor any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us. If it has terrors, they are our terrors; if it has abysses, these abysses belong to us; if there are dangers, we must try to love them. And only if we arrange our lives in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.

- Rainer Maria Rilke -

long weekend, etc.

thank God! i finally have time to organize my files, my bed, my bag, basically my whole life.

at the moment, one of the things i dislike about working is that it takes up so much time, to the point that you barely have time to chill and just "be". i haven't actually written anything worthwhile in a long time. i haven't watched a movie recently, nor have i read a good book until friday (og mandino's "the spellbinder's gift").

on the upside, i'm learning a lot of things, and i feel that even in little ways, i was able to help out in the departments that i've been to. more importantly, i love my co-trainees. most of the time, we all seem to be on the same wavelength. we get along well, and we have fun together. we are able to talk about our concerns, and help each other out.

we are almost 5 months into our training. we've spent 4 weeks at the branches, and one week each at the different account origination units. currently, we are having our OJT at the different credit and credit administration units. at this point, i feel that i would eventually want to be assigned to HR, corporate affairs, or project management. we have yet to be rotated to the support groups though, so these preferences are still open to change. i only hope that come february, there will be vacancies in the departments that i'm interested in.

tsk, tsk. a day has passed. 1 vacation day less. i haven't accomplished anything (didn't really intend to, after all). i sure hope this lazy streak doesn't extend to the next four days...

love-related quizzes from blogthings...

must be the effect of post-4th anniversary mood...

You Are A Realistic Romantic

It's easy for you to get swept away by romance...
But you've done a pretty good job keeping perspective.
You're still taken in by love poems and sunsets
You just don't fall for every dreamy pick up line!

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change. You would be forced to break up with someone who was insecure and in constant need of reassurance. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage. In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

How You Are In Love

You take a while to fall in love with someone. Trust takes time. You tend to give more than take in relationships. You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time. You're secretly hoping your partner will change for you. You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?

disclaimer! i am NOT attracted to those with split personalities. i am NOT afraid of marriage (my ideal age for marriage is 28, & i want two kids). & i am NOT secretly hoping that my partner will change for me. or maybe i am, but it's my secret so i won't tell. :)

...

wala akong magawa. hehe!

i was just helping deirdre out with her resume. i find it fun because i've been there, and i don't feel any pressure in that department anymore. moreover, i feel that i have gradually been settling in at work, despite the fact that we are being rotated from one department to another every week.

on a sentimental note, my dad, my brother kiko, and my sister angel were watching the dvd of my graduation. that was almost seven months ago, but i literally felt tears on my eyes when i saw my vertically-challenged self behind judith and in front of bok. memories filled my mind, and i was just so overwhelmed of everything that has happened. more so when i viewed our interactive cd a few hours later, and saw ateneo's buildings. ngayon ko lang ulit naisip na maganda pala talaga ang campus namin. =) as my mouse pointer hovered over the menu, the urge to look at our very first block pic got the better of me. click! there i was with our original block - Block C - chubby as always, but with much better hair. unfortunately, patay na ang buhok ko ngayon. *sigh*

seven months, yet the memories remain fresh. thankfully, they do. college was a roller coaster ride that found me closing my eyes and holding my breath at so many points, but it brought me to level ground tougher and braver. i know (and i pray) that the next chapters of my life will do the same, at the very least.

Me and my thesis mates Candy and Badz, in the Ateneo High grounds before the processional. Syempre, all smiles (smile na yan sa standards ni Badz) dahil tapos na ang thesis. Moreover, we managed to keep the pact we made in June, when we were still starting our thesis: to remain friends at least until April 2005. Salamat sa Diyos, at friends pa rin kaming lahat.

Prayer for Finals

I wish that I knew about this prayer when I was still a student.  It
might have helped me during my scheduled procrastination nights. =)

==================================

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not flunk
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break
He restores my faith in study guides
He leads me to better study habits
For my grades' sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades
I will not have a nervous breakdown
For thou art with me
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me
Thou givest me the answer in moments of blankness
Thou anointest my head with understanding
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize.

Surely passing grades and flying colours shall follow me
All the days of my examinations
And I shall not have to dwell in this exam hall forever.