Leigh, my younger sister and bestest (rugrats term) friend in the world is now in her fourth year in Medicine. She’s come a long way. Among the four siblings, she is the only one who did not take up a commerce related course because she was determined to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. This year, she’s a senior clerk at that Doctor Jose P. Rizal School of Medicine and she spends most of her time doing her rotations at the Provincial Hospital and with this, her tales from the Crypt starts. She comes home talking about a recent vehicular accident wherein they had to perform an emergency operation (with graphic description, mind you), or would tell us about assisting in the OB Labor room…….all these tales are told…..while eating our dinner. Thanks a lot Leigh. She would sometimes call us at dawn, asking us to pick her up at the hospital or would call to ask us to deliver food to her as she once said “Te, I feel like I joined the ramadan ritual as well coz it’s already sundown and I have not eaten anything yet.” Ever since then, we made sure we send food to her …sometimes, three of us would deliver food to her at the same time (so that’s why she has not lost weight!). But it’s such a good feeling...

Cupid must be blind, either that or his arrows are too blunt because of the Financial crisis that he can’t even afford to have the arrows sharpened by the nipper sharpening guy walking on the streets shouting “baaaa-iiiid” (What’s the Tagalog term for “sharpen”?). Anyway, I don’t think there will ever be a Valentine’s day for me as for sure, I will be packing my bags for Eservices in Manila that day and for sure, I will be too busy to even notice the pile of long stemmed roses in my office that are being delivered every 30 minutes (yeah right, wishful thinking). I used to joke about Valentine’s day before as how every year, I don’t get a single rose or not even a card and just like the US Civil war reenactments, I can very well act out being on the field, all tied and you would hear someone shouting “Open fire!”. Until, I dunno, somebody must have heard me say that (or shall I say, got tired of me saying that) that, right in the middle of class, on Valentine’s day, a “Delivery guy” knocked on the door and informed the instructor he had a bunch of roses with him that was to be delivered to me. I was absolutely embarrassed ( I’m not too keen on every body looking at me and saying “ssssssssssss”). As...

More comments from my “increments of five years” blog. Whew … I thought I opened a new Pandora’s box, but actually, there is a good explanation to it. Read on….. Zoia told me that her increments of having to go through life’s major decisions happens not every five years, but it happens every time she wakes up in the morning! hahaha… and here’s a comment from Baba. Yes Ba, I will definitely tell you what my big bang is when I reach 30. Sorry that I gave you something to seriously think about, but it’s good right? Hehe…The last conversation we had about this was when we were discussing that we’ve been friends with Abba for a year now and we realized that time really flies so fast. Honestly, during that time, I had this feeling of “urgency” to think of my next step too! hahaha. So, when I turn 30, I’ll let you know or I might again be too busy to even realize that I am already 30! There is actually a term for this dear, it’s called “Quarter life crisis.” If people have mid-life crisis…we have this. For those interested, you can read about it in my favorite resource place, wikipedia. Just go to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-life_crisis Here are the indicators/characteristics in determining that you are undergoing quarter-life-crisis. All of you, use this as a check...

Okay…. so, remember my previous blog? The one titled “Life’s Critical Decisions Come in Increments of Five Years?” I got quite a few comments from it …some long emails (which I’d like to respond to soon, please be patient), some…how do I say this….some comments expressing that a new fear was created in them….hehehe… and I think I have more comments coming in as more people are texting, emailing me or talking to me about it…. so, I’m posting some here now….. COMMENT NUMBER 1 – From Laura, New York Hey There-very interesting, and sort of true. I feel like my life comes in 3-4 year increments; maybe I just have a shorter attention span! I think if you aren’t stressed about it, then you are either a. on the exact right path, happy and mostly satisfied with yourself and your life, b. totally not in tune with anything in life, floating by, still, though, unconcerned and probably happy or c. normal. I think I’m a, with the exception of the fact that socially I feel a little lonely. COMMENT NUMBER 2 – From Isolde, South Africa I enjoyed your blog – thanks for sharing! I think that your view probably matches many of my friends but I think that I’ve been in the fortunate / unfortunate position that I’ve had to make major decisions in smaller increments! My...

Noemi and I had a business meeting last night, building the concept for a client’s website. As always, business meetings with this lady would always divert to pleasant conversation. She said that according to personal experience and that of the people close to her, “life’s critical decisions happen in increments of five years.” Such as the time when she reached 25, she started evaluating her career path and made the decision of quitting her job and setting up her own business. This has occurred to several people she knows and I realized then, that indeed, it is a usual phenomenon among my colleagues as well. Five years can indeed be considered as a milestone in life, half a decade…hmmm…..not bad. She asked me to “review” where I was at 15, 20 and 25 years old. At 15, I had to make the decision if I was really to leave the country and spend one year away (perhaps, most of us, at the age of 15 would start thinking about what course to take up in college). That was a critical decision for me because a lot of things can happen in a year……and I mean, a LOT. So here’s my evaluation. At age 20, I never bothered to think about it, didn’t care actually. At 25, all the more I was too preoccupied with other things that it never...

I’m already 20ish (Point of denial), and still family and friends call me “Honey.” A lot of people ask me why I’m called as such. I would laugh and tell them “It’s because I’m sweet.” (and I do see some people spurt out the soda they’re drinking every time I give them that reason….and it is fun to wait for them to start drinking something before I say that). I did ask my mom why they gave me such a nickname and she told me, originally, my nick was supposed to be spelled as “Hanie” taken from my real name “StepHANIE.” But, people started writing and pronouncing my name as “Honey,” ergo, the current spelling and pronunciation. So, how does it feel to be called “Honey” all the time? Hmm…good question, I should also ask the women with nicknames such as Darling, Langga, Sugar, Sweet and Love, right? I don’t blame my parents for it, in fact, I’m still thankful that they did not give me a name having the combination of both their names such as “Salvalinda” (Salvador + Rosalinda) or “Doling” (Doring and Linda) …. Although it would sound awkward, but ..hehe… those two names will still be better than having parents with names Lorna and Bebot (Lobot) or that of Samuel and Angging (Saging)…. Or have a mixed-breed puppy of a Bulldog and a Shitzu …...

When I was a wee kid (wee … coz I only bloated at age 12 … probably from some kind of allergic reaction … yeah right…haha), I wanted to be a doctor. I really wanted to be like my pediatrician since I thought… “This is so cool, all you have to do is listen to heartbeats, poke kids with a needle and hey! I’m going to have a refrigerator full of lollipops!” Until I found out you would have to be dealing with “booboos” … “blood” blech .. the wretched idea of looking at it made me back out of that “ambition” I then I wanted to become a priest … haha! Yeah yeah… As a child, weren’t you intrigued by the idea that you would be handing out that thing that looked like domino (round) cookies? Oh man… I would get a pack of “dominoes” from our sari-sari store and I’d ask my sister and my younger cousin to take turns in forming a line and opening their mouths to receive the “host” until we consume the whole pack. Of course, later on I understood that primarily you had to be a guy to become a priest and that that there were so much meaning to the host rather than just a cookie (believe it or not, I only fully understood the meaning of the Holy Eucharist just...

Finally, we were able to move to our new office space. We went through all the stress and burden of finding a new office space, negotiating for space, looking for the right contractor, renovation to actual moving of furniture. Last November, we started the grueling task of looking for the best location for our new office as we had to vacate our office space in Limketkai Center. We started looking for spaces within the Divisoria Area (FYI, Divisoria here in Cagayan de Oro is our business district). A good friend recommended a building along Velez-Cruz Taal streets. Instantly, I loved the place, but I realized that it needed much renovation. As a sound businessperson of course, I had to check out the other options, which were many but location was crucial. Another option was the 6th floor of a building, also along Velez St. The space was okay, the size was just enough and the rent was also okay, the walls were already painted and all we had to do was apply for a meter with CEPALCO. But not everybody knew the building. What I did was inform a lot of people about my options and their first reaction about the second space was “where is that?” Taking note of such reaction, we decided on the first choice and signed the lease contract with the building owner around December....