Leila's Lucky Day

Today we had the usual bus ride to work. And lo and behold, the machine was broken which we use to put in our money. Leila had started worrying earlier that she didn't have enough money to pay for her second ride. She borrowed a dollar from me and that was the only thing that I had. The other bill I had was a 20 which I was going to use for pay for something school-related. She was thinking of asking the other person also in the bus stop for some change but changed her mind and then going to Safeway to buy something just so she would have change.

As we got in the bus, I was started to put in my dollar when the lady driver stopped me and said that it was broken and that we should just get it. She gave Leila a day pass as well before she could ask the driver if she had change, lol. Wow, talk about a freebie. A day pass costs $5 in pesos, if you multiply that by 45, that's a whopping 225 pesos....yikers! Anyways, we were so happy. Everyone who came in the bus looked dazed and confused from such a lucky break....hehehe...But I think that won't last long, I bet she will go back to the VTA garage or something to have it fixed.

But in the meantime, I will savor something so trivial and yet great for the day. There's payday and a free ride, whopee!!

Now, its back to work...yehey!!! At least I still have a job, and come to think of it, about 32 days? And then its summer break...whopee!!!

Second Week

It's the second week of walking / busing to school. And, geez, it is cold! I know I've been complaining of the heat, but now I suppose its back to"normal" and coming from an abrupt change from hot to cold, it takes getting used to. But I guess I can't complain. I just have to wear more clothes, lol.

On the other hand, there's the flu going around which started in Mexico and has spread. One more thing to worry about when I take the bus. What can I do, I have to take the bus, or else walk a long long long ways.

I don't mind the walk sometimes, especially when the sun is out and its still nice and cool. But when its cold and breezy, burrr....then I do mind the cold.

And now, back to work, er...review...its not officially my time yet so I can pretty much do what I need to do, personal stuff...read read read!!!

Lazy Saturday

Saturday has come and gone and what do I have to show for it? Absolutely nothing, lol.

I woke up around nine-ish with the sun on my face...grr...I did not pull down the blinds. So I got out of bed, and then pulled down the blinds and promptly went back to sleep. I got up an hour later to eat breakfast. I had the usual microwaveable food. I had the chicken spring rolls from TJ. They do not taste good. I think the leafy thing there, sort of like cabbage makes it kind of stringy. Plus the wrap was just way too thick. Anyways, beggars can't be choosers so I had no choice but to eat it. I have one left over for tomorrow. I had the turkey balls for dinner. Sort of better, lol. Like I said, I am too lazy too cook so that's better than going hungry.

With breakfast done, I went back to my room and fell asleep, lol. I can't help it. I think the week was just hard on me. I've been getting up really early to catch the bus and going home late just so it won't be very warm when I walk and wait for the bus in the stop. Although, when I go home, it's around 5, the sun is still out. Yeah, its because we have DST so now, in actualilty, its 4 and not really 5.

When I woke up, it was almost one so I had lunch, the turkey balls, and then took a shower. I was planning to read or surf the net or update my website but nope, I fell back asleep. Hehehe..I know, the cure for a lot of sleep? More sleep, lol. When I woke up, it was time for dinner. So I had more turkey balls, then watched Wish Ko Lang and TV Patrol Sabado.

As usual, it was the political bruhaha plus Daniel Smith's departure from the country. Oh well. The way I see it, that Nicole girl...hmm..I would probably say something unsavory so I might as well hold my piece. Lol. Not get on that soap box.

In short, I haven't done much during the day. No nothing, lol. So I'm trying to make up for it. I started reading another reviewer and then back to my other book. I might as well spread myself around here with books and more books and more reviewers. Especially the reviewer I'm reading since I can't renew it anymore. Apparently, its in demand, lol. Oh well. I have to return it by May 11 or else pay the fine. I think I won't renew it for awhile after that. The test will be May 16 so by then I can take a short breather before reviewing for the next tests. Or I can always order them online so I can take them with me during the summer break. Yikers...

So many things to do but so little time, but like everyone else, I need a break too...from everything.

There goes my lazy Saturday. I hope Sunday won't be the same thing. I know that I have to do something for Monday's IEP...gulp...oh yeah, get that CD....grrr...but on the other hand, its a good thing. I get to go to Target...hurray....

Anything and everything to blog about

Since I got back from Spring break, I haven't had the time or energy or maybe both to blog about anything at all. You can't say that I don't have anything to blog about, I could go on and on about the trip this and that. However, the heat and work has just been keeping me busy...oh look, time to get ready for class. I'll be back later to finish this, if I get back my train of thought...

34 Things About Me

Tomorrow will be, what else, my birthday! Minus my family. Oh well, there's always a balance between the good and the bad. Last year, I didn't blog on my birthday. Usually, I try to blog, or at least I think I try mainly because it is the time when I examine (naks) er contemplate how the year has been the last couple of years of my life here on earth. Lol. The only other time when I contemplate is when its December / January.

In 2008, there wasn't much to blog about. Mainly because back then, I wasn't working. So there was nothing to write about in the work department. Also, I was very much dependent on my savings to complete my savings and my mom's help as well, so that didn't really bode well for celebrations, lol, much less a birthday one. And at that time, I was busy writing my case study, hoping to defend it by June and yeah, I was working on my paperwork for my work application here in the US. So a lot of things in my plate so to speak.

Looking at the previous year, I did blog about 32 things about myself. And I thought I'd do the same thing this birthday, and obviously it would be more than 32, lol. It would be 34.

But age is just a number. Leila tells me that I don't look my age anyways, hehehe, thanks roomie! And I don't mind telling my real age, unlike other people. After all, I've earned all the gray hairs and I think that with age comes a certain freedom, that you don't care so much about what other people think. The only opinions that matter to me are my immediate family's and I am fairly certain that they do trust my judgement on certain matters, lol.

So, on this special day (actually tomorrow since I won't be blogging tomorrow, I'll be at Denver Airport running from one end to the other, lol), here are 34 things about me, and more, lol.

1 - I am still the middle child. Nothing I can do about that.

2 - We are all still girls. But interestingly enough, my sisters had boys. Hmm...

3 - Now, I eat vegetable salad. Nope, I don't prepare them from scratch although that is a fervent wish that one day I will learn to do that. But I eat vegetable salad here. I particularly like the Classic Greek Salad from Trader Joe's.

4 - I still love the color blue. But if I have no choice when it comes to clothes, I choose pink. Only because it makes choosing easier, lol. Sort of like a default thing.

5 - Cooking still hates me. That's why I love microwaveable food!

6 - Hmmm...I think its status quo when it comes to cleaning. I take out the trash when needed. My room doesn't stink so that's still pretty much liveable, lol.

7 - Yeah, I almost didn't go to college but I more than made up for it by going to grad school, twice. Lol. And it looks like I might need to go back again for teacher certification. Yikers.

8 - And yeah, more school eh?

9 - Now, like what I did before in my Dole days, I live away, much farther away from family. Sometimes, I think about going home like next year, but then again, I think, I'm here, I might as well use to my full advantage being here. Go see other states, other places. At the end of the day, or years, I'm going to have a home to come back to. Plus its a good excuse for my family to come see me here...hehehe...

10 - I'm still afraid of snakes. Eww...

11 - Yeah, I've been bitten twice by a dog. That hasn't scared me away from dogs though. I love dogs and cats.

12 - Yes, still a SciHi person lol. One of our batchmates made a compilation of our yearbook pictures and wow, I looked different, kind of funny different, lol.

13 - I still love reading romance pocketbooks. But I don't have as much time. Now I only have CSET in mind, lol.

14 - I still love Pretty Woman. Let me think, what was the last movie I saw on the big screen? Oh yeah, January of this year, the Day the Earth Stood Still with my bf. Lol. I did not dig the movie, just the company, lol.

15 - Sigh, Legolas now seems like a thing of the past. But he's still good looking.

16 - Yes, I still hate writing. But I seem to be destined to have to write. IEPs this time, lol.

17 - Yes, I'm still camera shy. But I love my Kodak camera!

18 - Still not a good conversationalist. I do look forward to calling and talking to my mom. Even though its expensive, its well worth it.

19 - I still get lost. The most recent time. I was on my way to school from the Library. I walked and I realized why am I taking like 30 minutes or so? Yeah, I got lost, big time. I was tired when I got back to school, I couldn't work so much, lol.

20 - There is still Order in Chaos. Take in fact my desk in the classroom and my room. There's chaos there and yet I can find the things that I want and need. But clean it up, yikers. It'll take me the whole night or afternoon to find one paper, lol.

21 - Still hate cleaning up and putting away stuff, but I know I have to.

22 - I still love rice. But sadly, not much of an appetite lately. So I'm down to one rice a day, only for dinner. I just have a sandwich for lunch. I miss mom's cooking!

23 - Love soda...still...

24 - I still eat and drink whatever I want, cause I only have one life to live, lol.

25 - Love my blog!

26 - Hmm...neopets? I think it was a phase, lol. Now, I love surfing the 'net. Watching the news from back home. That keeps me grounded.

27 - I miss the beach!

28 - Hurray for Cebu! Wala lang.

29 - Whoops, I did have alcoholic beverages New Year's hehehe...got tipsy and now I remember why I gave up drinking. Lol.

30 - I love cats and dogs.

31 - Hmm...let me think along the lines of a life long vocation. Yeah, vet, but that could never be. So I'm a teacher instead. A special teacher, lol. Cause I'm special!

32 - I'm still shy. Part of the reason why I hide out in my classroom during lunch. Well, mostly its to catch up on work. But it does feel awkward. I'll definitely make more effort next year!

33 - I have a PSP but I have to master Spiderman and Indiana Jones.

34 - Happy birthday to me, at the airport. I'll be traveling for the most part. Here comes SJ International Airport, then Denver then Rapid and then home? We'll see...

Have a great Easter!

And yeah, thanks Lei for the chocolate mousse. It was eternally sinful, lol but well worth it. I'm going to be working those off tomorrow at the airport as I run from one end to the other end. Yeah, from A24 to what 60 or 80 something? Lol.

One dollar bills

I remembered an email that I got that we were supposed to give $10 for the end of year Special ed party. I knew at the back of my mind that I probably don't have that much cash, lol. I have quarters, $20 worth of them, but not bills, lol. Why? For laundry of course...hehehe...

So, here I am with one dollar bills in the wallet and nothing worth more than that, lol. I remember when I was back home, I'd feel so poor of I had less than fifty pesos. Why? That's because that doesn't really amount to much. Back then, lunch at the cafeteria cost something like sixty pesos. Yeah, that much. It was an expensive place to eat but beggars can't be choosers because I was too lazy to eat, lol. Worse was that sometimes, if you didn't reserve on time (in Munich campus), they would run out of food then you would have to go all the way to the main campus...and it was chaotic during lunch with tons of kids around. So again, that was a problem too. A place to eat in. Also, parents would swarm the area as well. These parents were too overprotective with their kids. Some even still spoon fed their kids. Yikers, and they were in elementary! What the heck! Tsk tsk tsk. And we wonder why kids are like what they are nowadays? That's because they've never had a hard life. And what do they do when they grow up and their parents aren't there to take care of their big and small problems? They're going to end up a burden to society. Tsk tsk tsk. I can imagine all those kids when they're all grown up....what a sad life....

What was I writing about?

Yesterday, during lunch break, I was busily blogging when the principal and some important people from the district came into my room. Good thing I was working and typing and I wasn't lounging around playing music, lol. Although, technically it was lunch break so I could pretty much do what I needed to do while taking a break, unless I was breaking school rules, lol.

Anyways, I am trying to recall what I was typing because it had grown quite lengthy. But when they came in, I had no choice but to stop writing and talk to them a bit. This morning, as I was checking to see if my article was still in Scribefire, I saw that it was and probably, I clicked on the wrong x button and now it's all gone. Tsk tsk tsk. Now I have to start from scratch. I will probably remember bits and pieces of what I wrote but the thought is all gone, lol.

Hmm...oh yeah, I was reading this article on a couple and their house getting ransacked by thieves and as usual, they had expensive things stolen, one of which was a Macbook Air I think. Hmm...I totally can't afford that. So that must've really hurt, ouch! I know that the cheapest Macbook Air costs almost $2000. Yeah, starts out at almost $1800, but with additional stuff you put in and taxes, then it goes real high before you know it. I can't even afford the oldest Macbook model, lol. Which would cost almost a thousand. Ow!!! So, I had to settle with a Toshiba. Not as many features as the Mac that I use for school, but I'm totally happy with it for now. Last night, I actually didn't open my Mac at home. I settled in, opened my Toshiba and watched and did everything that I needed to do with my Toshiba. It wasn't a bad thing at all. What I especially love is the Harmon speakers. Much louder than the Mac. I do sympathize with people who have to work with Vista because it is just soooo slow. There's nothing basically in my laptop but it just takes a million years before it boots up compared to the MacBook. I sometimes dread just thinking about me putting more files in it, which I will at some point in time and then it takes what, twice the amount of time to boot in? Hehehe...tsk tsk tsk. This Microsoft thing is just over the limit sometimes, lol.

So, back to the stolen goods. Apparently, this person whose Mac got stolen posted the serial number of his computer online to warn other people that if they did buy something then it was something that was stolen and thus illegal. And true enough, people he knew told him that it was sold online. Being the person that he is, he just emailed the person and told him to return his stuff but sadly, this person (who was probably one of the thieves) didn't show up and he never got back his Mac again...sigh...what a sad story. I guess he should've entrapped them. At least give them a taste of Philippine prison and see how they like it there.

In between the studying, work, website, who has time? Lol.

This morning, a friend of mine called me. I had called her Friday afternoon to ask her about taxes, since she also does taxes here and I never got a reply. So today, she finally returned my call. I know, she's super busy what with going to school, working on taxes when she has the time or other stuff she needs to do. But I really appreciated her getting back to me even if it was days late. She had what, 9 missed calls, lol. Talk about most wanted...hehehe...But who can blame her? I feel the same way too.

During weekends, when I'm supposed to be relaxing, I read / study, work on the IEPs (I did that yesterday from 12:29pm to about 6pm) and then there's the housework with laundry, putting away stuff in the room, etc. Just doing the laundry took time...hehehe...The luxury that we had back in Glenbrook was that the laundry place was just across the apartment block we lived in so we could just go in and leave our laundry and then come back when we had to move it to the dryer. Where we live, where the laundry is more expensive decided to do it at a bigger place. The drawback then is that we have to stay there, wait, and then wait again. Just doing the folding takes a long time. I think it didn't help either that we did what, almost a month's worth of laundry. Hehehe...so that pretty much took us about 2 hours just for laundry. By the time you get home, you have to make dinner (in my case, pop it in the microwave) and then eat. Then do the dishes, then back to the room to do whatever I need to do. Earlier in the day, I had gone to the library to pick up some book and then headed home using the bus. And that pretty much took a long time. Unlike back home where a bus comes and goes anytime, anyplace, lol. Here, the buses run on a schedule and if you miss it, then you have to wait for the next one, which in my case was 30 minutes after. So you can imagine how long one has to wait. And wait, and wait. Then there's always the possibility that the bus comes late. So it could be in fact more than 30 minutes later. Oh shucks.

So, in between the studying, working on paperwork, housework and then the website that I'm starting, who has the time? Hehehe....well, I try to make time. Hopefully, the summer will give me more time to do the things that I want to do as well as work on my interests, lol. The breaks in between help too...I am soo looking forward to spring break!!!

Wohoo!!!

Umm...I'm not really celebrating anything, lol. Only that tomorrow is Monday and we get to work and then we have Spring break!!! Yebah! I am so ready to take a vacay!! Yes, I'm looking forward to not working, well, not all the time, lol and just lazing around (so I'm hoping) and catch up on my reading, not the leisure kind, but reviewing for CSET. Uh oh. I'm way behind my schedule.

Last night, I was so tired from doing superduper laundry, lol, that I just took the night off. What did I do? Hmm...watched Wish Ko Lang and then, umm...yeah, its official its a blank, lol.

Anyways, why super laundry? We hadn't done laundry in like 3 weeks so I had pretty much almost all my clothes in the laundry basket. I was hoping to start packing this weekend, but nope, nothing to pack except dirty clothes, lol. So, no packing happened. I'll do it Saturday morning instead and hopefully, will not forget anything, lol. That's why I like to pack early so I have the leisure time to pack what I need to pack and then think about what I think I'll need. Oh well. If I leave things behind, I can always buy, lol. Hmm...maybe not. I have to save for summer since I won't work.

So, what to pack? Well, winter clothes lol. Here we are enjoying the sun here in Cali while out there in the middle of nowhere, lol, (he won't read this anyways, lol), there's blizzard, snow, rain and yeah, what else more blizzard. He says it's blizzarding, lol. Yikers. So I'm back to my boots, puffer coat, sweaters, cardigans, and everything else I need to keep myself warm. But then again, with the snow, I probably won't get out, lol. Getting out of the car in freezing weather to go inside the house, just torture, lol. And I even almost slipped in the snow. Talk about the lack of dignity. So I can pretty much imagine myself, while at the airport, wearing boots and a puffer jacket while people are probably wearing shirt and shorts, lol. They'll probably think I'm crazy, hehehe...but who knows, I might not look so crazy when I get to Denver.

On the bright side, hmm...what is the bright side? Oh yeah, too many to mention. I mean, last year, who would've thought that I'd be hear. Last year, at this time, I was finishing my case study. Writing my paper and then scheduling my case study defense. And hmm, oh yeah, I did finally know already that I was going to come over here and work, but it just hadn't sunk in yet.

Leila and I are hoping that next year, during the summer break, we'd have enough money saved so we could go to Europe. Yebah!! It would be great to go to London, then Paris, then Italy, oh yeah, wishful thinking on our part. But it never hurts to dream and yeah, something to work hard for next year. Until then, I'll be happy just to get to SD in one piece, and hopefully, not get stuck at the airport because of a blizzard? Hehehe...yeah, now back to IEP writing....enough daydreaming and woolgathering...hehehe...where's the wool? There aint no sheep here...meahhhhh....