Category Archives: Greetings

Birthdays, honorings and whatnot.

Greetings

Merry Christmas!

So…I meant to write a story again this year, but alas, real life is always, always on the way. Have you noticed how quiet it has been here in this blog lately? I know, right. Even I am surprised. Maybe changes are coming along the way, who knows?
Oh who am I kidding — yes, there are changes, and I hope to have them up by January 2011. Please life, give me time to do that.

On another note, in lieu of a story, here’s a picture greeting instead:

Merry Christmas! :)

Yep, Merry Christmas everyone! :) I used to have a Santa hat, but it’s gone missing, so the sunflower hat should do, right? :)

So, flowering trees and snow aside, I hope this Christmas finds you well and blessed and happy with your family, loved ones and friends. And I hope this Christmas, forgive me for using the cliche, but I hope we remember the reason for the season. A little birthday greeting, perhaps? :)

Happy birthday, Jesus! :) Enjoy your party!

So peace, love, blessings, good food and books to one and all. :) Leaving you with a song from the one and only, Dave Barnes. :D

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God bless everyone. :)

Greetings

Siblings and Birthdays

Last year, I remember that I was doing a 30-day blog challenge at this month, which I ultimately failed because of the flood. But as I was browsing through old entries, I saw my birthday greeting to my brother last year, and how I “complained” that we don’t have any decent pictures together.

Well, a year later, and I’m happy we have pictures together now! It’s not always decent, but hey, pictures are pictures!

So let me take a break from working (so much work left to do!) to take the time and greet my favorite and only brother. :)

Happy birthday!

It’s not my best picture (look at that oiliness!), but I thought it was a really nice picture of us. The jacket is my birthday gift to him (nay on the best weight loss supplements for him, haha), and it’s been a while since I last gave him something I knew he’d really like. :)

He’s getting married in less than a month, too! But that’s for another post, I think.

Happy birthday, Kuya! Alabyu! ♥

Greetings

Papa

I wrote this reflection for Didache for March 11, 2009. I don’t think I shared it here yet, but I think today is the best time to share it. :)

SERVICE

“And if you want to be first, make yourself servant of all.” – Matthew 20:27

He started out in the lowest rank of the company, just like everyone else who just got accepted. I don’t how much he was paid but I was sure it wasn’t that much compared to the salaries people get right now. He did his job diligently, never complaining since he needed the job. Pretty soon, he got promoted and he made his way up the corporate ladder, earning a managerial position.

After a few decades in his job, he encountered some problems with some of his higher-ups but he still did not complain. Instead, he continued to do his job well. After some time, another company offered him a higher position. He accepted it, said goodbye to his old company, without any hard feelings at all.

My dad is now the general manager of an insurance company abroad. Even if he is already in a high position, he still continues to serve his company, his employees, his family, and most importantly, God.

Happy Father’s Day to the most awesome dad in the world. :) This is an old picture of us (like, six years old already, wow!), and this just made me realize that we don’t have too many pictures together lately. We must remedy that the next time you’re here. :)

I love you, Papa. ♥

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads (whether you are in awesome riding boots or not) out there, too. :)

Greetings

Five People Moment

Lazy Saturday, sort of. Went out to work out (must not forget that ab workout!), then waited for my mom to do some groceries. Now planning to do some writing, and I’ve been procrastinating for almost two hours already. What gives.

But first, a post. I’m having a moment. In Mitch Albom’s book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the first person Eddie meets in heaven is the Blue Man, who Eddie barely remembers. The Blue Man almost hit him with his car when Eddie was playing when he was still a kid. The Blue Man ended up crashing into another car, and dying of a heart failure because of his anxiety. I remember being awed at the connection The Blue Man had with Eddie, and it taught me that everyone and everything is connected. Things don’t happen just randomly, and you don’t meet people randomly as well.

This has taught me to appreciate all those random moments and people I meet, no matter how brief, because you never know what kind of effect they’ll have in your life and him in yours.

So let me take this time to honor someone that everyone who’s studied in Taft has known for the past few years.

Rest in Peace, Jenny.

I can’t remember who told me about him first, but Jenny’s been a fixture in Taft when I was in college. He’s known to be the richest and most popular beggar in Taft. Now, I admit to be kind of wary with beggars in Taft, so I never had much time to chat with Jenny. It wasn’t until he sat with us in McDo one afternoon to talk to us. He told us about how we should be careful in commuting because he heard a girl got raped somewhere. He told us about where he lived, and how hot it was so he slept without his shirt. He was cheerful, and he wasn’t scary at all.

Jenny is an icon, an institution. Was. When news of his passing spread in Twitter and Facebook last week, I didn’t want to believe it. It was too sad, even if I only had a handful of minutes in college talking to him. Jenny’s presence in Taft is a constant, a fact, just like how the LRT and University Mall and McDo is there. You just know he’s there.

And now he isn’t.

It’s hard to imagine that he’s not there anymore. That freshmen will no longer see him, or have the chance to give him coins. It’s hard to imagine that he won’t be there anymore to lend an umbrella so you could cross the street, or to join a table in McDo and tell you stories. Taft Avenue will never be the same. :(

Rest in peace, Jenny. You’ve made a lot of students in Taft smile. Your kindness and honesty is truly something, so thank you for that. I’m sure you won’t have to beg for coins in heaven anymore. :)

Related links/sources:

On another note: I miss school all of a sudden. :|

Greetings

Girl Friend Love

Moving on from all the election news (because frankly, I’m getting tired of it, but I still have something to say, but that’s for another entry)…let me take this moment to honor a friend.

So we met almost two years ago, but I didn’t really get to talk to her until we realized you sat near my workstation. Our first real project together was Valentine’s 2008, where we both lost sleep over collecting money, and time to work because we had to organize a lot of other things for that event. That was the start of our friendship, which extended from club to work to everything else in between. We were together almost everyday even if our shifts were different, and you were always there to reply and comfort and give me back rubs whenever I was having a breakdown (which, I realized, was actually often).

We traveled to places together, planned trips, went shopping for swimsuits and urban clothing, confessed, heard mass, prayed, read books and had a lot more in our lists. We dreamed of families, of ideal guys and being great friends regardless of relationship status. We lived far away from each other, and even if you resigned,we never let that let that stop our friendship from growing.

You know I’m going to miss you, right?

Here’s to your trip, to your job hunt, and your dreams. It’s not going to be the same without you being one text, one call away (well, you have roaming, but you get what I mean), but our friendship doesn’t have to change even if we’re not in the same country. I’m going to be here to support you in whatever makes you happy or successful (preferably, both), and like what Gel said, who said we can’t visit you there? :)

Here’s to you, girl friend. Have a safe trip, Cors! I’ll see you in Facebook, Twitter and the occasional text. :)

Dear Diary, Greetings

I am a woman, hear me roar!

day seven.

Last Saturday was spent with gym and pampering myself, followed by good time spent with a good girl friend, followed by a movie with other great friends. So yes, Saturday was fun and relaxing. :) Sunday was composed of good times with family, and good food (Charlie’s — the best burger place in town, I swear).

Yeah, I just feel like recapping my weekend. Too bad it was short, but like I said, I’m having an extended weekend. :P

But there are more important things to talk about, and more important people to honor today. Yes, people. I’m not going to list them one by one, because there’s just so many of them in this world, and I’m one of them. At least, the last time I checked. ;)

Happy International Women’s Day, everyone!


ADD Moment: I meant to post something with a ribbon, but I realize it may point to breast cancer awareness. So…there’s my pink mouse, and my (fading) Tigger key chain, to represent the “roaring”. Sort of. :P

And it’s just awesome to know that one of us won a very prestigious award in today’s Oscars. Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker, who bagged major awards in this year’s Academy Awards. I haven’t watched The Hurt Locker yet, but I know it’s a war movie and I would often associate to a guy director, so it was surprising that a woman directed it. I haven’t watched any other movie she directed, but I think her winning the Best Director award among all the other males was awesome, and just look at this:

Once again: awesome. :)

So to all the women out there, this is our day! Let the world know how much we women rock. :) Like what the commercials in Lifestyle Channel says: I’m passionate about being a woman.Roar!

This makes me even more excited for tomorrow’s concert: nothing like a female vocalist in a rock band to make me feel even more empowered. ;) Haha.

One last thing!

Again, Happy International Women’s Day! At the risk of sounding…I don’t know, corny, I guess? Anyway, let me say: rock on, girl friends! ♥

Greetings

Hello, 2010

Goodbye, 2009! You’ve been difficult, and honestly, you wouldn’t be missed.

Hello, 2010! I feel like posting this, because I totally agree with what this says:

Yes, it will be awesome
Yes, it will be awesome :)

I’m terribly sleepy from the sugar rush earlier, but I’m still awake because I have to do some work! Eeep. :P It’s okay, but I hope it’s not a sign of a lot of work to come!

More posts on the new year (namely my goals for 2010 and a review of my 2009 goals) when I wake up later. For now I’ve got to finish this last pieces of work, and then go to bed since we still have to go to mass tomorrow.  Plus I might be organizing what’s left of my bedroom/storage room when I get home (what I can organize in it, since there’s pretty much..nothing there save for my books), but that’s got to more interesting than reading about life insurance rates.

…AAAAND I’m rambling again.

Anyway. 2010 will be awesome. :) Let the awesomeness begin!

Dear Diary, Greetings

Joseph’s Lullaby

I am truly amazed at how Christmas is this year. 2009 is not my favorite year, and I think a lot of you know that. And it seems like 2009 is still not done with all its surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. This is one of those years when you wonder if Christmas would still be a happy one, you know?

But if there was anything I learned from the flood, it’s that no matter what happens, there’s only one thing that I am sure of: it’s God. Whatever flood, storm, calamity, temptation, crime and bad things that come, there’s still Someone who is bigger and stronger who is there, and it cannot stop Christmas from coming. It is CHRISTmas after all. :)

This Christmas, I present to you a little story. I’m not really sure if it’s accurate with what’s in the Bible, so please treat this thing as a work of fiction, an interpretation of one of my favorite Christmas songs by MercyMe, Joseph’s Lullaby. This tells the story of the first Christmas night, after Mary has received visits form the shepherds and the wise men (not the usual gifts for new moms, right?). This is also hardly edited, so please excuse grammatical errors. I hope that somehow, this story would help us remember that Christmas is not about gifts or what we want, or even how we would have spent Christmas if so and so didn’t happen. Christmas is, ultimately, about the One born on this day. :)

Blessed Christmas to you and your family! :)

Continue reading Joseph’s Lullaby →

Big, Fun and Scary Things, Greetings

Big Brother

Day 22I cannot believe it.

I’ve been searching through all my photo archives and I just realized that I don’t have any recent pictures with my brother.

How did that happen?

Oh yeah, I hardly take pictures and if we take pictures, he’s always the one who takes the photos. Heh.

I meant to create a new greeting today in honor of my brother who turns 26 today. He’s out having dinner/drinking with his friends right now, and we’ll be having our time with him tomorrow (with my future sister-in-law). I don’t know if he’ll be able to read this, but still…

Because there’s no recent photo of us anywhere (huhuhuhu :( ), I’ll just repost the same greeting I created for him three years ago, with some edits. The words ring true to this day, anyway. :)

Happy birthday, Kuya!

We need to have more pictures together. :P

Thanks for everything, Kuya. Love you! ♥

22/30.

Greetings

Ako ay Pilipino

Proudly Pinoy! Today is June 12. Other than today being a non-working holiday for me, today is Philippine Independence Day. 111 years — wow.

People often ask me why I would rather stay here in the Philippines when there are opportunities all over the world for someone in my job/industry. My answer? I like it here. As weird as it may sound, I really do. It’s not that I don’t see the opportunities and career growth out there, it’s just that I still see the same opportunities and career growth here for me. I know and respect other people’s decisions to go and work outside of the country, but for me? I’d really rather stay here (but doing travel for work is of course, welcome).

Every time I go out of the country to travel, I often find myself comparing where I am visiting to the Philippines. As much as I loved Singapore, and as much as I enjoyed HK, I always find myself  excited to go home. I can’t imagine living anywhere else but here.

It may not show in my posts, and sometimes I admit to be slightly apathetic over a lot of things in the country (this is for another post again), but I truly love being a Filipino. Despite all the surplus of troubles, the jokes, scandals and inefficiencies, I love this country and all it’s 7,107 islands and quirks. I am proud to be a Filipino.

Maligayang araw ng kasarinlan, Pilipinas! ((Happy Independence Day, Philippines))

P.S. Oh, and don’t you just love Google.com.ph‘s logo today? :D

Thanks, Google!