4 Months Later... (Part 2)

So, I woke up last June 7 with sun-burnt, flaky, nognog brown skin when an unexpected text came from a then-potential employer whom I haven't heard from over the weekend because I was away in a far-flung deserted island. I was scheduled for a job interview when I was away, but obviously, can't make it so I pleaded if I we can reschedule it to Monday instead. Yes, I was still employed but I figured it wouldn't hurt if I extended my "unofficial leave" for one more day, just to explore other opportunities. If it works out for me, then good. If not, then I still have a job to come back to.

So, I got ready and put my best foot forward. Never mind the aching back which hurts even more every time it comes contact with my corporate attire. I went in at 1... and after around 7 grueling hours of waiting, tests, 4 round of interviews and severe hunger pangs... I made it! I made it to my second job! :) I never expected that I would be presented an offer sheet, right then and there, with an empty stomach and malfunctioning brain, at roughly 9pm. It was a bad time to make a such a big decision, but it would be plain stupid to refuse such offer. Not much big bucks involved, but this is the industry where I really see myself working... and growing ~the beauty industry. So that night, I took the risk and signed, without anybody's consent, not even my parents'.

High risks = high returns. Holds true not only in financial decisions.

During my first week, I was already exposed to a lot of things. Press parties, celebrity sightings, location shoots and all. I am constantly mobile - constantly learning, developing. Little by little, my tasks started to grow. People I work with were betting how long I will last with the company. Apparently, only a little can stay for too long. But it has been 2 months since, and I am nothing but happy. (I think I'm one of the few in the office who actually enjoys my work. Well, not all the time, because there are downsides too) Yes, I still get to drag myself to work everyday - but not that kind of dragging I did before. (I am a sleeper so I find it hard not to drag myself to wake up!) And man, two months did fly by so swiftly - unlike that one month I spent with my previous employer. (It felt like ages!) So they say, time flies when you're having fun.

I love this job. I want to stay in this job. I hope nothing will keep me from doing so, not even screams from the big boss.

4 months and a lot has changed. One thing hasn't, I'm still confused with left and right.

4 Months Later...

It has been 4 months since I last posted something out here and a lot has changed since, and I mean A LOT.

For starters, just a quick round-up from my last post.

Well, April 16 went well for my friend, Lennie (let's just skip the part how she got it all together.) It was their final requirement in fashion school to have their collection on the catwalk. I am not biased, but I think she showcased one of the best creations. We might have different opinions, but I love her avant-garde style.

Lennie in the limelight

*gave her black roses that night! :P*

The next day went well for me and J, too. We celebrated our second year in Tagaytay. Kudos to him for researching all that there is to do in Tagaytay, but what we mainly did was EAT! :)

First stop was Breakfast at Antonio's (for lunch)

Ordered their sumptuous burger! Definitely tops my fave burgers list.

J ordered something with truffle (oil).

Best blueberry cheesecake evaaah at Bag of Beans!

Ziplined at Picnic Grove (no picture!) but kept laughing all the way!

Checked out Nurture Spa (for future references, haha!)

Not too long after lunch and dessert, we tried Chateau Hestia.

The owners are German and their language really fascinated me. :)

Sometime in May... didn't really work out. But instead...

I HAD MY FIRST JOB. As a regular-paying employee, and not just some freelance shiznit who thrives on one-time-big-time rackets. I worked for a wedding photographer as a graphic artist. I was excited to land the job at first because I thought it would entail a lot of traveling (prenups and all), but sadly, I found out that couples do not opt for a June wedding as most of us expect. And I, on the other hand, do not like to opt for a job requiring me to remain stationary, in a very... controlled working environment, doing monotonous work. I am kinesthetic in nature, and not being able to move freely kills me. Not in a literal sense, of course. To cut the long story short, I did not like my job and my working environment. I felt underemployed (and not to mention, underpaid!) and I do not feel like I can grow from it. I dragged myself to work everyday, from Day One. I always looked forward to lunch break and 6PM. That's how unhappy I was.

I never got to sign a contract as a "freelance-trainee" with the events company. But I did receive a project offer... during Day One of Job One. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to scream "WHYYY NOWWW?" out loud. *Michael Learns to Rocks' 25 Minutes playing on the background* This is probably the reason why I did not like Job One - it made me miss a lot of opportunities. But maybe, this was also a blessing in disguise. The freelance job was not so glamorous at all, I was told. It was one thing I just cant do.

June 4 to 6 was one hell of an adventure for me and my friends. I won't go into details anymore. Caramoan is paradise, but somehow, getting there requires you to go through hell first. :)) But one thing this trip taught me is to take risks - which I did the minute I woke up the next day after I arrived.

(To be continued...)

Enjoying It While It Lasts ;)

Ola! :) I know I haven't been posting. I'm not busy or anything, haha, I'm just too lazy to blog. Boo! Anyway, not much has happened the past weeks. I am still waiting for my contract as a "freelance-trainee" and while waiting for it... I'm pretty much still bummed out. But hey, I'm not complaining! Weird how I am still enjoying the bum life!!! :)) It's been 4 months but I'm still not complaining that I'm bored - to think that I do not have plans most weekdays! Haha. Probably because I know I'll miss this once I say hello to the real world. :) So yeah, I'll enjoy it while it lasts :D

Well, aside from "work", here are the few things I'm sooo looking forward to! :)

April 16, 2010

Our 2nd year ♥ and my friend Lennie's grad show! :) Yaaayyy! She's a fashion major in DLS-CSB and I swear to you, I've never seen her done something less than extraordinary! :) She always thinks out-of-the-box and although her previous works are, well, all black... they neither look Goth/Emo but rather, very classy and avant garde. I'm excited for her collection on Friday! :) I know she's under a lot of stress right now but I just know it's still gonna be FIERCE! :) Go go go! :D

Lennie (not in black) with her previous black collection! :)
Taken from her FB :)

April 17, 2010

Tagaytay with J to celebrate our 2nd year! Yaaaay! I hope it goes well :) It's also actually my dad's birthday, but since we're not the 'celebrating' type, and he's going to work anyway, I'll celebrate for him! Heehee.

Sometime in May

Hopefully, I get to launch HOL's summer collection :) Err, it's kind of late for summer, but hey, it's still summer! Haha. I'm pretty excited :) Here's the teaser I made:

June 4 to 6

Caramoan, babyyyy!!! :D The trip I've been waiting for so long!! Geez ;)) We have a friend coming back from the US and we decided to have this out of town trip with him. It's kind of hard to tag friends along but I don't careeee! Haha. I would really love to go to this place and I'll go with whoever!!! :)) I've done a lot of research and planned this whole trip! I even made an "everything you need to know about the trip" manual! Haha. Yes, I am that eager! :)) Now, it's just a matter of booking and reserving slots for the trip. EXCITEDDDD! :)

The cover of the manual I made!
See you soon, paradise! :)

Well, that's it for today. :)

Auf Wiedersehen,

MIA for a Week

Nooo! I didn't blog for almost a week now! :( I should be blogging everyday, boo! I guess I'll have to make a rundown of the past few days to make up for it ;)

Mar 24 (Wed)

Remember I told you I was supposed to go to a job fair today? Well, I did not.
Actually, I did go to Glorietta with my friend but after seeing from afar the banners and streamers of participating companies (and the long disorganized 'line' for the registration), we figured out there's no job in there for us who consider ourselves "creative." There's always almost no job for us in job fairs, not in this economy, at least. FAIL! :))

Anyhow, we just tried to help the economy by shopping, harhar. I mostly shopped for HOL, not for me :) And btw, I broke my no-soda diet again today (second time this Lent)! The sparkling green apple Sprite float from McDonalds is almost impossible to resist! Soda is the one thing I decided to give up for Lent. Not juices, not iced tea, only soda =)) I can't live without sweets!

I got my package #1 today! *Drama Cream*



Mar 25 (Th)

I think (plans for) yesterday didn't happen because today's gonna happen.

Remember the freelance job I mentioned in my first post? Today's the orientation. And when they said that I am qualified for their talent pool, it's really saying "We want you to be in our team, so we're going to train you. Are you game?" Hoho! I couldn't be any happier! :) I thought I lost it already but here it is again! I will be stupid to refuse Dream Job #2! I can't even believe that I thought twice about it. I'm so getting this. :) I won't care about the pay for the meantime but I will really work my ass off so I can stay in this job. I love it! Thank you, thank you, thank you, forces of the universe! ;)

I met a new friend today! She's a Lasallian, too :) Small world! I guess we'll be working together after Holy Week and the weeks after that! :) Rode the train with her on the way home because coincidentally, we live just 2 stations apart. Yay! :)

Got my Suesh brushes today! Package #2! :)



Mar 26 (F)

Woke up with a clogged nose! Of all the days, my body decided to bring down its defenses today - the day when I decided to treat myself a night-out, have some drinks and meet some friends. It must be from the Slurpee I drank yesterday :( Tsss, but wait, why am I complaining? It did not stop me anyway, haha.

My 3rd package arrived after lunch! Yay! :) Strip-it! I wanted to try it immediately, so I waxed my own legs! First time to do that, I was a Veet fan. ;) Shortly after, I got a visit from Mimmers (and Berbie)! :) Later that night, I went to A-venue with J to go to my friend's event entitled Royale. Someone got an epic fall! :O Went home before Cinderella's curfew to finish:

After the movie, I realized that I have this fetish for twisted stories that end not-so-happily-ever-after. I'm getting too tired of the usual happy ending that happen in most movies/stories, that when I see something that is the opposite, I get thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mentally deranged. I just find it refreshing to see something different, something... real, once in a while. This is probably the first Tarantino film I've ever seen and I give it two thumbs up! :)



Mar 27 (Sat)

J made me feel guilty for trading him for 'work'. But I truly did not, haha. ♥ I still put off work to have dinner and watch a movie with my baby! :) Ate at Kulinarya in Powerplant and watched When in Rome after. I don't know if it's just me, but this movie really tickled my funny bone! Super! Towards the end, I was laughing so hard until I was already crying! I was thinking about my lined waterline the whole time and how I might have emo tear stains after, haha.

I just love weekends with YOU! ♥

After J left, I was still working with Mimmers' assignment. Boo :( Stayed up til around 5AM :( But it was worth it, I just got news yesterday that they got a 90+ for that. Yay! :) Coming from Sir Aries, that's saying something! ;)

Woke up just hours after to bid J goodbye! :( He's gonna be away the whole week. :'(

That's it for now,

Happy Things Happen When You Wake Up Early

Today, I woke up at around 9am (an hour early than I usually do) because I was supposed to accompany my brother to Greenhills for a photoshoot. My brother slept over somewhere so I was waiting for him to come back home so we could go to GH together. Nobody told me that the shoot was postponed! I only learned about it over the phone when I was already good to go! Boo.

Happy Thing #1
Right after I found out that the plan for the day won't push through, I went to the nearest Robinson's Mall here in Otis. It's quite small but I scored a bargain with the following items:

• CDR King Premium Hi Glossy Photo Paper (3R, 20 pieces) for only 20 bucks! Wow! The cheapest I saw in National was P45 bucks. Jackpot! :)
• NBS Keepsakes Scrapbooking Set (Paper Packs + Stickers) - Individually priced at P44.50 & P32.50 respectively, set price is P49.50, I bought for P13.50!!! Can you believe that? :)) Super sale indeed :)

Happy Thing #2
I passed by BPI to pay for my online haul! :D Yay! Second time (I think) to shop online after browsing through threads in Girltalk. I ordered the following:

7 pc Personal Elegant Set from Suesh
Finally! I've been wanting to acquire a good set of makeup brushes :)
Thanks to my friend Crix for the BDJ Coupon :)

Strip It! Trial Kit (150ml) from Strip It!
Recently tried Veet's Cold Wax Strips and got addicted to it.
I'll try if this is equally effective and addicting ;)

and
Drama Cream xoxo from Nanay Earth
Whitening cream daw. Ma-try nga! :)

I can't wait to get my packages! They will probably arrive on Thursday! Yay! :)

Happy Thing #3
I fixed my printer and it's fully functional again! I printed out my resumes using it! :) Me and my friend are going to a job fair tomorrow. Just in case Happy Thing #5 . . . will not be so happy at all. But I hope not!!! :P

Happy Thing #4
My recently-launched mini online store, House of Lilliput, just received its first order today! Yay! :D So happy! I have plans for the store in May and I just can't wait! :)



Happy Thing#5
I've been receiving calls/letters/emails from companies who are recruiting fresh grads and I never had interest in any of them because I'm choosy like that! Kidding! :)) It's because all of them are either sales/management trainee/real-estate-related positions which doesn't interest me at all. :( But a while ago, I received a call from a company (It's an ad agency! I know I said I don't want to be in one, but now I'm thinking it's worth a try!) I submitted a resume to and they want to know if I'm free for an interview next week! Yay! :) If this goes well *fingers crossed*, promise, I'll stop being choosy already! :) Wish me luck! :D

Today is really something to be thankful for :)

♥ ♥ ♥

I wasn't able to blog yesterday, but nonetheless, let me greet my doggie a
HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY! :)

He wore denim overalls courtesy of the next-door neighbor :)) Cute ♥

Yummy Lasagna!

I cooked Lasagna to celebrate yesterday! :) It's a bit tedious to prepare this but I'm so proud of myself for cooking this without anybody's help! I did not have a recipe to follow either. So, yay me! :D Another addition to my repertoire of food-I-can-cook-without-any-guide! ;)

That's all for today! I've been missing my daily yoga sessions for 3 days straight now! I cannot not do it today! Nooo! Off to yoga now! :)