Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?

Someone asked me this and I was left thinking… am I an introvert or an extrovert? Because the truth is I am not a shy person. I can face a crowd without getting so damn nervous. But I am also not very outgoing as I choose the people I go out with. I am comfortable with the people I am close to and have been with for the longest time.

So I think I am in between. Or possibly 60% extrovert and 40% introvert.

What about you?

What I realized today is that there is always something to be thankful for. It may be a small thing, even a silly thought that crossed your mind while you are about to blow up from anger, can be a thing to be thankful for, you know. That something probably saved your day and you just didn’t know it.

Be thankful you are still breathing. Be thankful that you are still alive when so many have passed on reluctantly.

Be thankful for today.

Traffic jams. Shortage of parking slots. Overcrowded malls. Long queues in check out stations and commuter lines.

These are just some indications that Christmas is around the corner. Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I go!

I keep telling myself that I will commence my holiday shopping October of every year. But you know what? I still keep finding myself on first week of December, still completing my Christmas list and planning several trips to the mall. This weekend, I am planning to go and start my shopping. Let’s see if I can finish on one go. I doubt very much if it will work but let’s see.

Are you done or even half-way through your Christmas shopping? If not, when do you plan to do it?

I think I will start with my immediate family. And then for friends. My godchildren already have their gifts from me so that’s not a problem anymore.

Argh! Holiday rush!

There are those of us who is ‘paralyzed’ by problems we are facing. I am one of those persons. When faced with a big problem, I couldn’t get on with life until it gets resolved. But then I realized that if I keep on being that way, how can I make the most out of my life?

These days I’d like to think that I am stronger and more capable of seeing the benefits from every adversity I face. There is a benefit in a problem. Be it making you stronger and more resilient or a blessing in disguise you still haven’t been given a clue on.

Think about it.

Happy Monday everyone!

These rules are by Steve Jobs…

1. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

2. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

3. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition – they somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Happy Tuesday!

Here’s hoping we all have a good weekend. Mine will surely be a busy one but I don’t mind. I love being swamped with work because that would mean more than enough income at the end of the month

Have fun!

You know if we have a couple of sets of friends we go through seasons with them. Admit it, there are weeks when all you want is to talk to a set of friends who are as passionate about something as you are as of the moment. And then weeks will pass when you don’t feel like talking to them anymore. It’s either you got tired of the same stuff or you feel like being with another set of friends. I know because I’ve gone through the same phase. I go through the same phase.

But even if I don’t feel like talking to certain friends, I still make an effort to update myself with what’s happening with them. I still make an effort for them to feel that I am a friend and that I may not be as active in their lives now, I am still here.

I just can’t understand why some people would point blank become rude to good friends and ignore them when those very same friends will surely be there during the toughest of times in their lives.

I swear I thrive on these early mornings when I get up to think and write. I just love the peace and quiet!

I can hear myself think clearly when the house is still asleep. I can write and write and not have someone interrupt my train of thought. I can murmur all I want to make sense of what I am thinking and writing about and no one will ask me what is it that I am murmuring about. It is just pure bliss to be awake while every one else is in deep slumber!

I just love life!

I miss college life. I miss the friends I made in college with whom I had a falling out a couple of years back. I miss my alma mater and the historic feel of the university. I miss walking down Lover’s Lane and thinking of what life had in store for me (which now I know already!).

I miss everything!

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you find me

Sometimes it is better to listen than to talk. Being an introvert! I prefer listening than talking that’s why I avail the audio of the new Harry Potter. On being introvert I always remember this short story. Let me share it to you. “A meeting was going on in the forest. The Creature-beings were trying to sort out the problems caused by the latest migrations of their northern neighbors that were affecting their food supply. The Great Ice Mountains made it necessary for the northern Relations to flee the cold of encroaching glaciers, forcing them into the territories of these concerned forest dwellers.

Magpie was chattering away while the other creatures listened to her recent experiences. Rabbit then added his point of view, complaining about having to ask the newcomers to respect the needs of creatures who had always lived in this forest. Chipmunk piped up and reminded the others to focus on solutions that would allow everyone to be fed. Fox and Wolf agreed, each adding a solution, while Squirrel gathered all the information. Bluejay noticed that Bear had not said a thing.

Finally, Bluejay asked Bear why she was so silent, and Bear replied, “I’m listening and learning. I don’t need to talk; I already know what I know.”

How are your friends?

There are a lot of stories how do their friendship last for that long. Heres another one.A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.” They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.”

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other friend replied: “When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.” The moral of the story learn to write your hurts in the sand, and to crave your benfits in the stone.

I’m in this stage in my life that I am thinking of changes again. Whenever I hit a roadblock or something similar to that, or when I get obsessed over something and get frustrated over it, a change is a must in my life. It’s like I want a new start to everything in me.

Like right now…

I am in the middle of getting frustrated over a lot of things and being swamped by regrets left and right. So many what-might-have-beens in my head… I do wish there’s a button that we can all just push when we want change to happen in an instant!

I have decided to…

Yep! Learn something new. A new place where I can go to next. A new restaurant my sisters and I can try out next. A great place to hangout for me and my friends when we meet up again.

Happy day for everyone!

*photo credit: http://icanread.tumblr.com/post/320030514/by-supergirl

I don’t know why there are people who prevent someone from starting a new life. They want to drag a person down, not giving the person a chance to redeem him/herself.

I know some people with crab mentality. It’s not good being around those people. You feel like they want you down on luck more than the positive words they tell you.

Don’t be a crab! Push people up instead of pulling them down. Believe me, those people you helped push up will be the people who will pull you up when you are down and out.

I saw my high school History teacher last holiday break. It was a blast seeing him again! We had so much fun talking about high school, the other teachers, my schoolmates and about other people we both know. It was gossip-fest to the max! I enjoyed it a lot.

An hour or so before we went our separate ways, he asked me why I am not yet married. I told him I haven’t found the right man yet. He said that I might be choosy and that I have a very high standard…

In all honesty, I do have a high standard when it comes to the man I’ll marry. Not in the looks department. But I need someone with a brain. I need a man who can literally take care of everything for me. I need someone who’s a take-charge kind of person. Someone who reads books (and not only those Playboy mags!). Someone with whom I can talk to about anything and everything under the sun. Someone who’s funny and can understand my quirks. Someone with whom I can share everything with and still accept me for who I am.

I have waited this far why would I settle for someone below my standards? Unless the man swept me off my feet, I’d rather stay single than settle for less than that. I have been taking care of every one around me for far too long that when I marry, I want my man to take care of me. That’s not a crime, right?

I have beliefs, ones that will make the next person shake his/her head for thinking why I have that belief in the first place. I acquired some of the beliefs I have from elders. I don’t follow all the ones I know or hear about or been told. But I do follow some that I have experience of.

For example, mind over matter. I believe that when you think of negative thoughts, it will follow that negative energy will surround you and bad luck will follow you around. It’s bad for business. It’s bad for the income. That’s why I espoused this way of life wherein I think only of positive thoughts as much as I can. Of course, there are days when I find myself down and feeling so unlucky. But when I catch myself thinking that way, I make sure to divert my attention, go back to thinking positive thoughts and get my mind rid of the negative ones trying to be on top.

I don’t go out on Mondays as much as I can because I feel like when I do, the rest of the week’s schedule would be chaotic. I also don’t spend as much on Mondays since I have this belief that when you start your week spending, you’ll end up spending way too much for the rest of the week.

You might think it stupid. You might think I’m stupid for believing such things. But think about. Go back to a time you thought of something negative. I am sure you will remember an unlucky situation that followed suit. Or something like that.

I do think there’s nothing wrong in believing such things. As long as we are not being hindered by the beliefs we have, then go ahead and follow it! That’s what I have in mind when I follow one.

What do you have to have with you when you travel?

Aside from the essentials, I need to have my smartphone with me. It has a library of really good books so if and when I get stuck somewhere, as long as there’s electricity to charge my phone, I won’t get bored. I also need to have my handy flashlight cum lamp. Just in case power’s out and I am in an unfamiliar place. I need to have my ointments. Whenever I get headaches, I don’t drink meds but rather I use my ointments to get rid of it. And last but not the least… my rosary.

What about you?

Describe a time when a failure turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I am not really sure that this is a failure now that I look back and have tried to see it from another point of view. But there was a time when I had to resign from a job because I was not able to ‘handle’ the downward spiral of the finances of the company I was working for then. I did everything to get additional funding for the company but the owner’s reputation in the banking industry, not to mention a BP22 case filed against him twice, just stopped my efforts from a positive result. It was a failure to secure funding but it wasn’t actually one that could be blamed on me.

I resigned from the company. Not because they asked me to but I figured it was time to go. I was already lending the company money from my own paycheck and it wasn’t even supposed to be that way! Whenever a raw material needed to be bought and a supplier wouldn’t extend credit anymore, I was ‘forced’ to shell out money and I drew the line at that. Enough already!

I found a good job where I learned a lot and grew professionally in. It turned out that the ‘failure’ to secure funding for the company was actually a blessing in disguise. I would have shelled out more for that company had I stayed and I couldn’t imagine where that would lead me.

So far, so good.

Last January, our family was finally able to go to Cebu. It was one of the things my dad was praying for. The whole family attending mass in the Basilica de Sto. Nino. And it happened. Although we were minus two now. My mom and my brother gone. It would have been a happier moment had they been alive.

This February, I finally paid off the vault in the columbary where we will put the urns of the ashes of my mom, my brother and my grandma. We will just have to schedule the inurnment and pay off the fees for it.

This March, I am looking forward to paying off my brother’s tuition fees. And then come April, I am hoping our Ilocos trip will push through.

I can’t wait for 2011 to get better!