Mary Jane's Niche

And what do you know I remembered my blog!

How are you my niche? It has been a while since the last time that I poured my heart out to you. Maybe I was just afraid that someone might be reading what I’m writing here. Someone who I don’t really want to know what I’m really feeling because I am not used to sharing my feelings with him or her. But I guess I don’t have to worry about that now right? You have come a long way my blog. You are a part of a community now. You don’t belong to only me anymore. This might be the last blog post that I’m going to share with you how I’m really feeling these days.

So many things has happened last year. I thought it was going to be the best year of my life. But it was not. Year 2009 started really great actually. I was having the best time of my life. I finally had the freedom that I have always dreamed of. I was having fun with Tim. I felt so loved by him, my family and my few close friends. I was traveling to places I have never been. I had (and still have) the best job and the best boss ever. I work on my own time. I had (and still have) the financial freedom that I have always wanted. Everything was going so well. But the year 2009 left a devastatingly huge black hole of emptiness in my life.

I have learned so many things last year. One of them is to value time. Especially the time that you have with your loved ones, your family. I don’t have to explain why right? Now I believe that life is definitely too short. To those who don’t know this yet, don’t wait for your very own wake up call.

I have always tried to live my life to the fullest without stepping on someone else’s life. And I will continue to do so. I just want to get something out of my system. I just want the whole world to know that even though I am laughing, smiling and acting like everything’s doing great right now, it’s because I have accepted the fact that my father is gone. I know and feel that he is in a better place right now watching over us. And I also know that if I will be a really good girl, I will be with him too when the time is right.

God I miss Papang.

This post is once again long overdue. Last weekend September 5th-7th, Tim, my brother Rino John and I once again went to Kabankalan and Bacolod. We attended Alex’s birthday. Alex is Tim’s nephew. We had so much fun! Alex now likes me. The first time that I went there he kinda didn’t. Lol. I got to meet Tim’s brother and brother in law for the first time too and they were really nice.

And I finally got to go to Calea and taste some of their infamous cakes, pastries and coffees! I brought home a three layed chocolate caramel cake which the Calea girl said is imported. Imported from where I didn’t ask. Lol. Calea didn’t dissapoint me at all. I am definitely going back there when I get another chance. I would like to thank my very patient tour guide – Tim for finding an open branch because the first Calea branch we went to is closed on Mondays so we went to their Robinson’s Mall brach which was thankfully open. And then when it was time for us to go home we decided to try out Supercat. They reopened their operations I think a couple of weeks ago. They have a much cleaner vessel and we were really comfortable. The fastcraft didn’t even feel the waves. I think it’s because the way the  fastcraft is built. I took some photos and you can find them below.

Enough talk.  Let the pictures say it all!

I know I haven’t blogged for 2 weeks now. It has been a couple of hectic weeks. What with my brothers getting sick and some urgent stuffs to finish at work. I’m going to postpone writing about our Boracay vacation for now to give way to my Kabankalan escapade.

Last Saturday, 23rd of May, I finally got the chance to go to Kabankalan. Tim’s hometown. I went there along with my little brother Rino John and Tim of course. I got to meet Tim’s parents for the 3rd time and his sisters the first time (except for Dainah because we met a couple of times in the past when she went here to Iloilo). We stayed there until the 26th so that’s about 4 days and 3 nights. I loved Kabankalan! Not only did Tim’s family and relatives welcome us in their homes but they also gave us a tour of the city. I didn’t know that they have a palace-like city hall. You have to see it to believe it. It looks more expensive than our Capitol actually., honest. And Kabankalan is a very clean city. They have clean streets. Yes I know Iloilo is also clean but Kabankalan’s cleaner. Maybe its because Kabankalan is still more a rural city than urbanized. Their cathedral is also a lovely structure. It won’t rival Jaro Cathedral but still it’s a beautiful place to worship the Lord. We heard Mass there last Sunday.

But seriously, I enjoyed my stay there. I got to meet Tim’s wonderful family and that’s all that matters. I think I got chubbier too, gained a few pounds. Because all we did there was eat and eat and I’m blaming Tita Warlit because of that. Haha! She went out of her way to make us feel comfortable at their home along with Tito Ledo and we really appreciate it. When we arrived on the 23rd it was Ken – Tim’s cousin’s birthday. And then on the 25th was Hans – Tim’s nephew’s birthday. So what with no exercise and just lounging around – who won’t gain weight? LOL.  Speaking of food, I miss Tita Jane’s spaghetti.

I wonder when I’ll be allowed to go back there again.

Here are a few of the photos we took during our stay there. Enjoy!

I just got home from the city after a day at the malls with Tim (who else?!) and I realized that I just had the best five days of my life so far. Let me tell you why. This blog post is just a summary of those 5 days because I will blog about them one by one in the next five days  (get it?). That way I’ll have more topics to write about. LOL.

First Best Day – April 29th, 2009

Boracay! Tim, Dianne, Sev and I went to Boracay. Which I think everyone already knows (including my boss..hehe) because I blogged about it here and FaceBooked, Plurked and Twittered about it too! Bear with me guys, I’m just one lucky, excited girl. Haha. Boracay doesn’t happen often even if I’m just an island away from there. And going there is not that cheap too. Will tell you more about the first best day tomorrow. In the meantime here’s two sneak peeks.

Of course we had to have our photos taken with the mandatory Boracay sand castle..haha!

We had a buffet dinner at a resto near the beach, delicious dinner!

Second Best Day – April 30th, 2009

It’s our second day at Boracay. We had fun fun fun under the sun and the moon plus a little drizzle but it wasn’t bad.  LOL. We went boating and snorkeling. Our boat’s captain – Manong Bebot Salvador (who is actually from Sta. Barbara, Iloilo too!) toured us around the island and pointed some interesting beaches and mansions – which I will tell you all on my upcoming blog post. Here again are two sneak peeks.

Boating and snorkeling!

Dinner at Nigi Nigi Nu Noos! The best seafood basket in Boracay!

Third Best Day – May 1st, 2009

Third and last day in Boracay! Bought pasalubongs for the family and friends. Rode the bus with an upset stomach because of all the gluttony. Hehehe. But riding the bus was fine because I was with Tim. Being with him makes all the pain go away and the boredom too. He really knows how to take care of me and how to deal with my tantrums too. Hehe. Love you beh. And of course, two more photos!

Dianne, me, Tim and Manong Bebot Salvador our boat captain in front of our resort – Queen’s!

Tim and MJ at the beach!

Fourth Best Day – May 2nd, 2009

It’s Mamang’s birthday! And again we went to the beach. Love of the beach runs in the family ayt? We celebrated her birthday at Riverside Beach Resort, a local beach here in Oton, our hometown. The whole family was present including Tim and Dianne of course. And the photos!

Happy Birthday Mang!

Sing-along time! As always..hehe

Fifth Best Day – May 3rd, 2009

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao vs. Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton! Need I say more? We watched the fight at SM City Cinema 5. I was with Papang, Mamang and Tim. It’s Tim’s birthday gift for Mamang. But actually Papang enjoyed it more. Hehehe. Pacquiao didn’t disappoint us. Even if the fight lasted until only the second round, it was all worth it. The undercard fights were longer than the main fight! Pacquiao defeated Hatton and that’s all that counts! Ilonggos brought the cinema down! We had so much fun and my throat was actually sore when we went out of the cinema. LOL. I love Manny Pacquiao.

And those are the best five days of my life and no one can take it away from me because it’s all mine. Hehehe. The blow by blow accounts will follow in the next few days! right now I have to finish my load of tasks before the week begins so I could get paid.

PS.

I’m not doing anything to optimize my blog yet and I think I should start doing so soon if I want to earn from Adsense too like every successful blogger out there. Right now I’m concentrating on my work, my daily tasks which are more important. Making money on blogging is just another experimental venture of mine because I’m inspired by my other online friends who have made a living by just blogging. They are actually the ones who told me – well actually persuaded me to try blogging for money too. And I agree because I’m already blogging aren’t I so I might as well make money out of blogging! Will start concentrating on this soon!

I’m writing this post just for the key word and see if how many people will stumble upon my blog if I rant about Boracay!

Anyway,we’re going to the beach! And not just the beach but the best beach in the Philippines! We’re actually going to Boracay! It’s the place to really hang out and chill, have fun with friends because it’s bursting with life! Just what I need! LOL

I will be going with Sev (my brother), Dianne (Sev’s girl and of course Tim (who else?!).

The best thing about my work is that you can do it anywhere as long as you have a laptop or computer with internet connection. So I’ll be working while vacationing. Not bad. I”m thinking of it as having a vacation while working not the other way around. Haha.

Although I’m not sure if I could write once I’m there. Go figure!

I’m so excited! Right now I’m just finishing all my tasks for the day so I won’t have to worry or think about anything later. Peace of mind is the key to a peaceful and satisfying vacation.

2 more hours to go and I’ll be gone!

Goodbye Grey’s Anatomy, I’ll be back!

We’re gonna have fun fun fun!

And this is completely off topic but I just don’t like people who doesn’t like Taylor Swift. Geesh I’m such a kid. LOL.

Well I’m out! Will blog about our vacation when I come back home and take some photos so I could make all you guys jealous and therefore make you all go on vacation too!

On Saturday will be Mamang’s birthday and we might go to Punta Villa too so we have to be back before that. And on Sunday Manny Pacquiao will make us proud again and we will be watching the fight at SM City Cinema for more fun fun fun!

I have a great life don’t I?

My mother graduated – AGAIN – today.  She has a Master’s Degree in Special Education now (I’m not sure with this, I have to ask her tomorrow. ) And my cousins -  JoyJoy, Bubbles, Arvee and Apple have all graduated from college this week too. My brother Sev will graduate next year as well. Which makes me rather envious. And makes me want to pursue my studies more. Which is why I visited CAP College’s site again and the reason why I’m writing this post.

Help me choose my course. I decided not to pursue BS IT anymore because I think I’m learning a lot more of IT  in my work. And I want to study something that is not related to my work. I want something interesting, so I won’t get tired of “studying” and with the course itself. In fact I feel like I don’t need to finish college anymore because I already have a nice job which pays the bills and all other stuffs. But one of my dreams is to finish college and get that diploma! It’s one of the things I want to do before I die. I feel like I owe it to myself , to my parents and to my bebeh. I want them all to be proud of me.

So back to the topic, what should I study? Should I continue and finish my Bachelor of Arts in English course or should I shift to Bachelor of Arts in Psychology instead? If I continue with AB English, it’s going to be a lot easier and I will have more credited subjects. But it’s going to be boring and not so very challenging. But with AB Psychology, I’ll be learning about human behavior in all kinds of aspects. It’s interesting and I think I can use it in my job. And I bet it won’t be boring too. But it will take more time though. So what do you think guys? Help me choose my course.  Give me more pros and cons. Thanks!

Today is my bebeh’s birthday. But he’s not here. We’re not together. We didn’t even see each other today. BECAUSE he had to go to work. Awful isn’t it? How bad can a guy’s birthday be? Let me tell you how…

1. He is not with his family.

2. Somebody forgot his birthday. In fact 3 important people in his life forgot his birthday. Or maybe they do know its his birthday but they just  forgot to greet him.

3. He suffered from food poisoning for 3 days. He’s feeling better now. But he can’t eat what he wants or likes on his birthday.

4. Just when he’s feeling better, some boss called him yesterday – not really telling him to get to work! – but hinting it. Damn! Give the guy some slack. Or a  reliever or something! Do you always have to rely everything on him? What if he got admitted to the hospital? What would you do? Just stop your operations? I really hate it whenever his cellphone rings, vibrates or beeps when we’re together. I know he’s on call but even on weekends? Even in church? His day off? Can’t you give the guy a break? For gosh’s sake you can’t even give him a much higher salary! The guy is so overworked! I mean – the salary he’s getting is like what I was getting when I was still working at a call center. Yeah sure he is traveling but how much traveling does he need? Do you really think he likes traveling  a lot? You can’t blame him for wanting to resign so bad. If not for someone he wouldn’t have cared. He doesn’t need the job anymore. He’s got other wonderful opportunities to pursue out there. But he’s just too caring and understanding and thoughtful to just resign – unlike what I did at that call center.

5. He wasn’t able to get the cake he wants today.

6. He had to go to Roxas and Kalibo to take care of 3 or 5 branches (whatever!).

6. and lastly…my bebeh’s not with me..He’s at some stupid hotel sleeping alone. He ate dinner alone.

I feel sorry for my bebeh. He’s a quiet guy. The silent type. He does his job, he does everything without complaining – even if it’s already so unfair. But right now just let me be. I’m voicing out my frustrations. Because he won’t. (I’m sorry beh I have to do this. I know I said I can’t write when I’m sad but this time it’s different.) With his job, if only the people up there will get another IT Coordinator for Negros then Tim won’t have to travel often and be so “in demand.” I mean he can’t even  get  proper days off every weekend. He always has to go to some place. He can’t spend time with me. He can’t spend time with his family. He can’t even spend some time with himself. No wonder he’s not gaining more weight.

So how bad can my bebeh’s birthday be? I just hope he’s feeling better now. I hope he won’t get sick anymore.

But don’t worry beh. We will celebrate your birthday when you get back. I love you beh. Sorry for being so stubborn. But I’m trying to change that. You know I love you. Happy Birthday Bebeh ko..

UPDATES:

March 9, 2009 – It’s been 3 days since Tim’s birthday. He was here last Saturday, we did stuff together. Then yesterday, Sunday, he ate a very delicious lunch cooked by Mamang here at home. Then around 2PM he went back to Roxas to finish his tasks. Thank God he’s feeling better now. And by the way, I made invisible some parts of this post because of Tim’s instructions. He thinks some of his co-workers are reading my blogs. And he doesn’t want me writing anything “bad” about “some” people. So okay, I could live with that hence the “invisible” sentences. There you go beh, hope you’re satisfied with this now. I just can’t delete this post you know.

I had the best birthday yesterday! Well I didn’t really have a big birthday party or something. Just a delicious lunch cooked by my parents and Toto, and Dianne  (Toto’s girl) brought me ice cream and Tim brought me a cake – a big chocolate cake. With candles and all. Hehe. Now why is everyone still  wondering why I’m getting chubbier?

Then later in the afternoon we went to our Singles for Christ meeting. I was ready for an afternoon of a simple meeting with my brothers and sisters in Christ but it wasn’t to be. They surprised me and my fellow February birthday celebrants with gifts, messages from our “loved ones” – mine are Sev (my brother, the one I call Toto) and my bebeh of course, and Toto sang my favorite song, Rick Price’s Heaven Knows and the Birthday Song! He reminded me afterwards that that was the reason why he asked me what my favorite song was days before. Which prompted me to post it here in my blog. I was really touched with my new brothers and sisters. They’re really very real. You’ll know that they’re not pretending. They really mean all the things they’re doing for everyone. With SFC, one won’t feel any awkwardness or be out of place. That’s why I’m going to try to make my friends join us. It’s great to live with Christ! It’s like having a purpose in life, a life with direction. Temptations are not so rampant anymore since I joined them because we – Tim and I – have a great community to be with every Sunday. So after the greetings we went on with the meeting. We made plans for the year, great plans. Tim and I actually volunteered to make a website/blog for the SFC Oton Chapter. I have a very loaded schedule but it’s okay, anything I can do for the community will be compensated anyway by the Lord. And besides it’s going to be a very useful way for all our brothers and sisters who are outside of the Philippines to connect with us. I’m going to do the blog after I finish this post.

Our SFC meeting ended at 6PM. Tim and I went home to eat again. Then he went back to his boarding house. It was raining hard last Sunday but I didn’t really care,  it’s my day and I really enjoyed it. Tito Manny, Tita Aileen, Wewel, Tita Cossette and Desiree went by the house after they attended the Mass here in our chapel. All in all I had the best birthday ever! Hope it’s going to be the same next year though. TTYL!

Here are the photos taken on my birthday, don’t mind the dates on them, Tim forgot to reset it. More photos on my Flickr account!

my cake..

EJ blowing the candles for me..

Papang slicing the cake..

bebeh and bebeh..

Tim playing with Rino John (langging)..

Dianne (Toto’s gf), EJ, Langging and Mamang..

Singles for Christ

the February birthday celebrants..

Toto singing Heaven Knows..

with Wewel, Desiree, the parents and the Titas and Tito Manny..

the pink roses Sis Baby and Sis Nenen gave me..

the gifts from my SFC brothers and sisters..