1st Week...

Today officially marks 1 week since Aldrich left for the U.S.

So far I'm doing fine...especially during weekdays where I'm kept busy at work.

My first dilemma arose last Sunday when I was at the mall.. no one to stroll around the mall with while seeing other couples happily walking by.

My next dilemma was just this Friday. I had a meeting at school till 9pm then I didn't know where to go afterwards.

I'm still adjusting... I hope I can live through the next 3 months or so :(

one step at a time

So many thoughts.. so little time
So many things to do... so little time

~have to read mktmgt article for our presentation
~have to choose pictures for the scrapbook
~have to complete my budget template and plan

waaah and i still want to enjoy, watch tv, sleep and all that

hay i have to take things one step at a time.

poor rihanna.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Tired...

Dear Blog,

I'm quite stressed these days from having to meet some deadlines and quotas at work. It's odd coz it's not really that challenging but I just come home with aching shoulder blades and feeling really tired!

This year, working out at the gym is not that much of a chore or a requirement anymore since I've used up (read: expired) my 1:1 PT session at Fitness First. Now, I just go to Greenhills branch during Saturdays and sometimes Tuesdays, where its more spacious and there's hot yoga and pilates classes.

Schoolwork on the other hand will probably pile up as the weeks go by. I have Marketing Management classes on Monday and Financial Management on Thursdays. Both my teachers in these 2 classes are experts in their fields so what they bring to class are insights which could not be learned or read in any textbook. This is also the reason why we, the students are expected to read on our own. Good luck to me!!

I hope I can still spare some to go to our Wednesday church meeetings...sigh. If not, then maybe next semester again for me where I'll only have 1 class a week for the Refresher.

Thoughtful Night

Fully Booked rocks! I never thought any other bookstore would even have The Ten Day MBA by Silbiger but amazingly Fully Booked has 1 copy of the book displayed on the shelf when Powerbooks told me that it was out of stock for 25 years already and would have to be requested by special order! What the..?!



Anyway, I'm really happy! Figaro Cafe Mocha Lite to celebrate :) yummmm



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Don't you feel that sometimes you wish you were doing something else besides your current work?

I try to avoid having that feeling because I know where I am in now isn't really my dream job. It isn't really what I'd like to do...

Oh well...all for the money.. all for the future.. I hope I can get out of the rat race and really do what I want in my life.

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I wonder when I can wear this? I hope in 3-4 months! haha :p

2009 New Year Resolutions

Food/Health Related

1) I commit to not succumb to impulsive, mood-related and peer pressure eating (e.g. sweets, chocolates, pakain, pansit, starbucks coffee)

2) I commit to stay on a phase 1/2 Soutbeach diet (good carbs, protein, veggies, dairy)

3) I commit to exercise regularly - which means going to the gym at least 2x a week. In cases when going to the gym is not possible, I commit to do Winsor Pilates in my room at home

4) I commit to lose at least 5lbs every month (ideally 8lbs)


Expense / Money Related

5) I commit not to purchase things that I cannot afford to pay immediately using my credit card.

6) I commit to substitute expensive coffee (e.g. Starbucks/ Coffee Bean) with cheaper alternatives

7) I commit to stick with the monthly budget that I have planned for expenses

8) I commit to save money on a staggered basis for future expenses


Behavior/Habit Related

9) I commit to be more conscious of my thoughts, actions and reactions

10) I commit to be more patient and not lose sight of the goal in exchange for temporary 'here and now' comforts

11) I commit to listen attentively during class time

12) I commit to sleep early and not get addicted surfing the internet / watching television series

Goodbye, David Cook

I suddenly don't like David Cook.

Well, his music at least.

It has been whispering to me even before when he announced that he'll have rock album. I'm not really a rock person.

I liked his Analog Heart album but I did cringe at some ear splitting tracks.

I bought his self-titled debut album but have only listened to it once - after buying it.

The craziness, obsession and infatuation as worn off.

I'm sorry David. I'm not a fan anymore, but I'll always support you. hehehe. I loved and will always love your version of Always Be My Baby.

I'm a pop girl at heart :p

P.S This also means that I'm not going to the concert. A bit sad, after announcing to the friendster world that "I'm gonna be be in front row on January 27th, 2009" Right now, I don't even know if the concert's pushing through or not. Oh well, so much for that.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak



Poignant book. It takes you back to the early 1940s during Hitler's reign in Nazi Germany. The author gives you a magnifying glass to look inside what's happening at Munich, at Molching, in Himmel Street and find the humanity amidst pre-judgment brandished over Hitler followers at that time. People were brainwashed by Hitler..but not all of them were.

The book thief is a beautifully raw and sad story of the life of a little girl - her angst, her sorrow, what makes her happy, what motivates her, her friendships and what shaped her to become the woman that she is. (was).

I wished this for our office Kris Kringle and I liked it very much! Reading this over the holidays was a great wake-upper for my long lost book reading soul. It has been awakened and I just bought another book - The Time Traveler's Wife :) Ah, the joy of reading. I feel like I've retrieved a lost part of me by reading again and I didn't have to use an SQL query. hyuk hyuk hyuk.

P.S. The book thief is told from Death's point of view --but not a turn off at all.

Home Sweet Home

It's Christmas! Lots of presents to unwrap, lots of food to eat but the best thing is spending all those moments with the family :)

Ah, i miss my house! HOme sweet Home!

Come January, it's back to being a 'bedspace' again hehehe

Ah, November!

It's been a hectic month! I had a hard time juggling work, gym, school and church activities. What was i thinking packing all those things together??

Original Schedule
Work M - F, 830 - 530
PT 1:1 @ Gym M W F, 530 - 7PM
MgtAcc Class @ Taft - Th 6pm - 915pm
Opman class - online homework every week, study everyday!!
Church - Wed meetings @ rockwell 730 -10pm

Saturday is go out with Aldrich Day
Sunday is Family day

Even weekends are booked! sheesh!

Modified Schedule
- I've dropped Wednesdays off the gym chart to have a more sane day. It's the sacrifice I have to do even if it means not completing the thirty Php700 a session Personal Training package. I'm projecting completing about 25 sessions by Dec 9 (expiration date)

Sometimes, I just want to go off to the province - no computer, no tv, no cellphone.. maybe my MP3 player and a nice book and just stare at the grass. Nice green grass to soothe my senses and give me back my sanity.

Opman! This online class was a mistake! There are no classroom meet-ups so there's homework to pass EVERY SINGLE WEEK! It beats just attending class and listening! I have to read 90 pages of powerpoints along with handouts and participate in discussions.. oh man! It's really, really challenging and calls for a high level of discipline!

I couldn't cope up fast enough so I missed joining in discussions for about 3 -4 sessions. Finally, I've caught up and have started posting my thoughts and commenting on others' posts. This was only made possible my studying almost everyday....

Now you know why i want to go to the province..

I can't wait for DEC 20!!! The start of my 2-week leave! Lots of assignments, take home finals and a 3-topic mgtacc term paper away from freedom!

So help me God...

MEET THE ALPHA FEMALE

By Margie David Collins
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:34:00 08/31/2008

MANILA, Philippines - I’m sorry,” he told New Hampshire voters, “I can’t make her younger, taller, male!”

Bill was campaigning early this year for his wife Hillary, who had just lost Iowa. The United States presidential hopeful was the same Hillary who, campaigning for Bill in 1992, bristled at criticism of her alpha-female profile. She said: “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies, but I decided to fulfill my profession [law].” And then: “I’m not some Tammy Wynette standing by my man!”

Oh, the delicious irony of it all.

Can you blame her for believing it was her manifest destiny to be the 44th Occupant of the White House? A clever political maven in pursuit of a holy grail, she wasn’t entering pioneering territory—Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, Margaret Thatcher, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Angela Merkel trod the path before her, smashing the glass ceiling to smithereens.

But while it’s an illustrious place to be, it’s a lonely, sparsely populated land.

If biology no longer dictates destiny, who are these alpha females? Do they exist? Do we even like them?

Empowered

Thanks to our mothers, Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir and Gloria Steinem, who inspired timid women slaving away in menial jobs and desperate housewives chained to the kitchen sink, empowered women are today in positions of influence and in high-flying careers that pay the kind of money that was once the preserve of men.

“So, which office do you prefer,” asked the male boss of his female employee. “The one with the sticky floor or the glass ceiling?” An old joke which, if uttered today with malice, could land you in a great heap of trouble.

Girls are outperforming boys academically and entering the workforce in greater numbers than ever before. Women are surging ahead, racing to the top and doing everything men can do, twice as well.

Luckily, this is not difficult, as Charlotte Whitton said. In a defining race, some women park their femininity and nurturing side to clamber over everyone else, leaving others behind. Their sense of self is so bound up with their ambition that they realize, to gain what’s worth having—well-paid job, smart house, fancy vacations—it may be necessary to sacrifice everything else.

Sacrifices

These are the alpha women, at the feet of the bitch-goddess success who, said Aldous Huxley, demands strange sacrifices from those who worship her. They’d been taught they could do anything a man could do, to want everything a man could have—power, money, status. They had become that curious thing—the men we wanted to marry ourselves.

The alpha female has to be so clever, polished and capable from the crack of dawn to the small hours, ticking all her roles with superior efficiency—workaholic manager; supermom baking brownies; sexy wife with amorous intentions.
In her downtime, she goes to art films, reads The Economist, plays the market, does her Pilates, plans parties with military precision.

“Alpha female, like alpha male, depends on a sense of innate superiority she’s probably not aware of. While she would be effortlessly capable, she would need a reduced capacity for empathy, because otherwise, it would derail her. If she has children, they only come out between 7 and 8 p.m., washed, dressed and brought up by someone else,” said the author Sarah Dunant.

Not for her gamma man; if she has a husband, he would have to be carved from the same timber, or he would feel indubitably emasculated in no time. Testosterone kicks in, starts to resent her, loses his desire, walks out the door.

She would need a small army of people trailing after her; poor poppet, she would be so tired she might just, well, give up. Not like Jerry Hall, prepared to improvise: “Mom said that to be a great wife, you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen, a whore in the bedroom. I told her I’ll hire the first 2 and I’ll take care of the third.”

Unachievable

A recent poll by New Woman magazine found that superwomen are seen as unattractive, unachievable; seven out of 10 women say they want to take it easier; one in four would give up work to raise a family. Seventy-seven percent said women were expected to fulfill too many roles; 67 percent said the man should be the main provider for his family.

“There’s a fundamental shift in young women’s attitudes. They’ve seen their mothers trying and failing to have it all; they’ve decided they don’t want it all. They don’t want to work crazy hours while their children are in nurseries and their relationships disintegrate. They’re increasingly putting their personal happiness before a big salary or a high-powered career,” said editor Margi Conklin.

We might not like her, but we don’t object to a woman being a great scientist or a captain of industry if, at the same time, she’s also a good wife, friend and mother. Except this alpha juggler is now an endangered species. She can have it all, but as Tina Brown said, just not all at the same time.

Recent studies show that just as high-achieving women are about to hit the fabled ceiling, they turn back. With babies, they rediscover their softer side, don’t want to return to work, turn down a promotion so they can have flexibility or a redeeming purpose in their lives.

Susan Pinker, author of The Sexual Paradox, said: “The majority of women have more balanced goals. Not that long ago, being at the top of the managerial chain was the highest rung on the ladder for them. Now, one generation after second-wave feminism, they’re moving beyond that view; they want rewarding family and work lives.”

So, women are no longer killing themselves in a race to the top because, suddenly afflicted with cold feet, the landscape littered with stupefying emptiness, feral kids, broken families, they no longer want to be there. Something has to give, compromises made. They’re prepared to enjoy the spoils of war, but not to fight so damn hard for them anymore.

Alpha woman is quite possibly the maverick result of our wishful thinking. Too good to be true, too tired to last and nursing Vatican-sized guilt, she has measured what she stood to gain by what she had to lose, and found it all wanting.

No matter how high a price she paid, she’s alone in that awful way that no man—alpha or not—ever has to be.

[Grace - I actually think that I have alpha female tendencies coz I like to multitask, I like to excel and I like to be the best in everything I do (at least in my category). But lately... I've gotten to know 'contentment' and it got me worried. I was never contented. I 'm not sure if feeling contentment in terms of work status is good or not since logically speaking, there's still room to go up (no glass ceiling). I have to ponder this through and get a grip on what my priorities are in life and where i am headed in my life. ]