All by myself

“All by myself, I don’t wanna be all by mysely e..ni… moooorrreee!!”

I am singing this with gusto because I’m pounding on my PC alone. This is not my ideal friday night. Back home, I’d usually go to Glorietta or invite some friends over my place so we can talk our hearts out. I miss those, I miss my barkada *sigh*, I miss our coffee sessions at GB, watching or more specifically ranting “why all the goodlooking men are gay or why the world is so unfair (rich sila poor kami)”. More than anything right now, I am wishing for some female company, someone I can have coffee with while talking about nonsense stuff (si kuan ba kuanon na nya nag kuan daw sila, you know stuff like that).

 Mr. Pesky right now is having a boys night out, they are going to some strip club (gusto daw nya makakita nang ibang pek2/bilat, pisti! gusto ko ring makakita ng ibang talong no! yung pink naman at hindi parang sunog bwahahaa! atotz). I’ve actually been to  a gay bar before but I didn’t see a thing, not even one single head, so I went home dissapointed. One of these days, I will surely go to a “guy” bar here, samahan mo ako Ria ha, tingin tayo ng ibang oten. Syet! ang bastos naman ng post na ito pero sa totoo lang miss ko na ito, wala na akong kausap na ganito *paging william mag storya na ta ug binastos beh LOLZ!*

Post nga way pulos

gisapot ko. Birthday daria ron diba? walay work kay president’s day daw. Great way work unya kay ako ra man isa diri sa balay. kinsa man malingaw ana? I’ve been trapped in this house for 2 f**king months + 1 month sa lain nga balay, I can’t walk because its freezing outside, I can’t drive because I don’t have my license yet, kay ngano kay dimalas ko anang lisensyaha na..3 times nako nag cge balik sa center ang isa kay kinhanlan naa si daria, ika duha kulang diay ko ug points ika tulo nag holiday sila nga wa ko kabalo ang ika upat ugma, ambot balahaw makuha ba nako. Wa pakoy lunch 1:30 na wa pa koy lunch!!!! Nagtimpla na lang ko ug kape.

Si Daria tua didto sa ambot asa magkuha daw siya sa gihatag nga furniture, gaina pa tong 9:30 “sila” ning lakaw, suppose to be 28 minutes ra ang patubang didto nawala man daw sila na abot ug 3 hours, hantud karon wa gihapon sila naabot!!! Ang among lunch date goodbye, kung kabalo pa lang ko dugay ning uban na lang ko!! Wa pa gani to ligo ang isa nag lakaw lakaw nag jogging pants. Gisapot ko kay boring cge tutuk sa PC 24 hrs na lang ko magtutuk ani, wa ko sa mood mo himo ug miski unsa, gigutom ko, wa diri akong bana wa koy tiki maihap! Grrr!!!

 P.S.

Feb 19 ni gi post sayop akong timestamp wa pa diay nako na change nga -5 GMT nako. Naa koy talong diri ako na lang kaha ni paakon no.

Happy 82nd Birthday

.. to my dear husbandry. We will just be having a mini celebration kasi foor kami

First Day High

I’m not talking about the movie but while we are at it, let me talk about the movie(ano ba talaga claire???). Yiek borrowed First Day High from his officemate only because we’ve run out of movies/series to watch. Wala kaming cable, kailangan pa namin makinood sa kabilang bahay, we are soo poor Ok, so first scene pa lang nang movie corny na, sino ba naman matutuwa na first scene pa lang may a la maricel soriano “shake body body dancer” na scene. Hello?? After 15 minutes, di ko natake ang kacornihan ng movie. Super baduy! Di ko type.Ok, I’m VERY off topic but anyways, today is my first day back in the corporate world. I have to get used to getting up early again, 8-5 work ..eer 10-7 pala kasi flex and malamang 10 ako papasok Generally, people here are very fun-loving para akong nasa pinas i.e. pagala-gala lang, maingay, palaging nag jo-joke, pag 5pm wala na sa mood mag-work atbp.

The one thing that got me really excited working here, is the coffee machine, high-tech and its all free for my taking. *evil laugh*. It has this small cup thingie (kfc gravy size) that I insert in some machine and viola! I have coffee. I can choose not one, not two but 8 flavors! I died and went to coffee heaven, o.a. Trust me to get more excited about coffee than work.

~~ Day 2 ~~

Half day at work because of the snow storm. I hope this happens often LOLZ! I’m having difficulty waking up early and maintaining the house clean..ooopps work or not I always have difficulty cleaning the house. I’m also thinking of cooking baon early morning… hmmm. Savings vs. sleep hmmm….

Happy 28th Anniversary

I’m missing all of the events back home

I’m somewhat bald, did some kind of drug test today and they cut 120 strands of my hair, from the root to the tip! What the ?????????? Couldn’t they just extract blood from me? Its better and healthier for me! Must donate blood again, so I can clean my blood flow or something of the sort.

~~

Blogging to prevent myself from ordering online at Victoria’s Secret (Bakit may clearance sale pa? bakit? bakit? bakit kailangan nya ko i torture!) Cute yung pants, cute yung blouses, cute yung swimsuit.. grrr!!

Tips and Advices for those coming here in the U.S.

You know what the trend is today, aside from getting married and having babies *wink*, is going here in the U.S., Canada, Singapore and other international countries. A lot of my friends/ex-officemates and I mean a LOT (no not that pc. of land silly!corny ) are being offered H1b visas/working visas and others are already here or on the way to the U.S. Some are offered a hefty bond and some processing fees and others are luckier (only their fat ass is required and nothing else).

All they want is to get out of the country, Philippines must be that bad nowadays or maybe the people are just tired of experiencing the same piece of shit. I do agree though that there is a very high demand of skilled I.T. or health care workers here in U.S.

Since a lot of you are comming here and some are asking me for advices, let me give you a summary of living expense here, how much you will save monthly and if its even worth considering. Of course this would depend on how smart you are about your money, remember although you are earning in dollars, you are also spending in dollars, so if you cannot curve your spending habits in the Philippines, I guarantee you, you cannot magically save a humongous amount here or in any other country for that matter. Its all about self control.

First is the rent, if you are to be assigned in NJ/NY/California, rent is bloated here. You will spend around 750-1000k(1500++ NY) per month. Don’t think that you can save if you sardined yourselves in one house, there is a rule here in NJ (I’m not sure of other states) that there should only be two persons per room. There was a report months ago that an Indian staff house was closed because the inspector found out that there were 4-6 persons/room. Better be safe than sorry, right? I’d recommend that you look for a house were electricity and water is included. You can save a whole lot! Apartments here usually asks for security deposit of 1.5-2 months + current month’s rent, so better be prepared to shell out a big amount.

Second is transportation, if car is a luxury in the Philippines, cars here are needs not wants. Unless you are in NY, it would be hard to ride the public transportation. So, the first thing that you need to do, is buy/loan a car. Helpful Advice: Get an international license in the Philippines if you don’t want to take the dreadful practical exam (applicable only to NJ/NY, not sure in other states). Gas is around $1.99-2.50 per gallon.

Third is Food, the least that you can spend on fast-food is $1(1 jollibee-size burger), but you can’t keep on eating burgers everyday right? So have a budget between 3-10 per meal. Our weekly groceries usually goes from 20-40. There are a lot of choices here and if you were a woman (girl) like me, chances are you can go overboard grocery shopping (nyehehe!). “wow lots of cheese let me get one”, “i want some turkey breast, I need to upsize my breast anyway LOLZ!”, “why don’t I buy these luscious grapes, its $99 cents o” Darn! How can I stop myself from doing that?

Fourth is clothing, on your first trip here especially in a winter-state, you need to buy lots of winter clothes and its not that cheap! Trust me, I thought that the things I bought from Surplus and ukay-ukay were enough, went I got here, the things I bought seemed tacky, so I bought another set of winter clothes. Shirts would be around 5(clearance items)-20 bucks(business attire is even more expensive) and girls, there are lots of cheap branded stuffs here so self control is needed. LOTS of self control. Darn it!!!!

Sending money to the Philippines is not that cheap either, for $500, you need to spend $14-20 as payment for their service. The first few months will always be the hardest because you need to buy lots of stuff, it would help if can cook your meals and bring baon so you can save more. Go to garage sales, you can check garage sales in your area here. You can even just stroll along your neighborhood, some of them would throw their stuff out in the garbage. We got 2 bar stools, all looked almost-brand new from the neighbor’s trash (Swallow your pride, pride will not put anything in your mouth). Filipinos are also very generous here, they will gladly give you some stuffs (I later realize that they do this to clear their garage). Free tv from me! I’m not kidding. My tito gave me a small tv but we already have another 32″ tv (also given) so I am giving it for free!!! First come first serve.

I think I’ve talked enough for the day, buzz me or email me if you have any questions.

P.S.

I think $3-5k pocket money here should be enough to bump you up for a start. Both of us survived with Yiek as the sole breadwinner (his salary is more or less the same with what all of you were offered), so I think you will also survive here. Sure the first few months will be difficult but soon you will enjoy the fruits of your labor like we are enjoying today *wink*. If you will come here, 6 months before January the next year, they say that there is a BIG (95%) chance of getting a tax refund. If it weren’t for this big possibility, then I wouldn’t allow Mr. Pesky to soon buy a 24″ imac. Tsk! No more gadgets for this year Mr. Pesky, you’ve exhausted all your rights.

P.P.S.

you can also use this budgetting excel sheet/web application to track your expenses (psstt Georgia, Ria and Mau gamitin nyo to! helpful sya pramis!)

It’s wedding season

It’s wedding season this year. Yiek’s sister, my cousin and a friend of mine are all getting married this year. What’s with 2007? I digress that it must be because we are just getting older( hey! going 28 is not that bad) and we are at the “marrying stage” of our so-called lives.

As I went through the wedding planning stage, I became their source for wedding ideas. I told them that if I were to turn back the time, I wouldn’t do the invitations all by myself. Heck! I spent months just doing our invitations (grr!). I also told them to not forget the thank you cards, its SOP to thank your guest for being there on your momentous events.

After the wedding they will be doing another kind of invitation, babies are afterall the next big step after the wedding (a step I haven’t yet taken haha!).

Little White Lies

So, I’m doing interviews here and there. Most of them are recruiters (think sysgen). I had a vey memorable interview last wednesday.

I was going to a recruiter interview in downtown New York. I really hate going to New York during this time, because it can be VERY chilly and I have no sense of direction so I can easily  lose my way.

On the way there I realize that I don’t have a copy of my resume, and it specifically stated that I need to bring one. Pakshet, how do I give a valid reason, I thought of reasons like “you know I printed one but the dog ate it(…err wala pala akong dog)” or “I had indigestion and I used my resume as tissue”. LOLZ!

It was my first time to ride the subway ALONE, let me tell you that the subway in NY can be pretty confusing and the chance of boarding the wrong train is 90%, well for me at least. Luckily, I boarded the right train.

All the things that could be wrong happened in this interview, I forgot my ssn so I thought of fabricating another story again but Yiek told me to stop fibbing and tell the truth, that I simply forgot my ssn.

SO, I went there albeit a little late and told the receptionist that I forgot my ss number and that I don’t have a copy of my resume because “my printer ran out of ink”.

The interview went well, see here I do good on these kind of interviews because I know that they won’t ask too many questions and no matter how bad I answered, they will find me clients fit with my technical skills.

I got lost on the way home though, I must have walked 40 minutes just walking around time street because I couldn’t find the bus station.

~~~

I had an interview today with a credit union and the recruiter told me to call him right away when I’m done. Guess what I called him 1 1/2 hours later and he ask me why I didn’t call right away and I said I ran some errands.

“Don’t you have a cellphone?”

Shit… uhmm, I left it at home. (sana di nya marealize na tumawag siya sa akin kanina using my cellphone tapos sinabi ko pa na “I’m about to be interviewed”)

I must stop doing white lies, I must stop fibbing. Na addict na ata ako dito!!!