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Friday’s 10 Happy Things, v7

Published by Justine

It’s only almost been a month since my last F10HT entry and boy, so much has happened since then. Back at the hospital for a crazy 5 days, lots of anxiety all around, leaving my old job, finally going full-time at my current job but let’s elaborate that on this entry, shall we?

  1. We finally got our US visas and will travel to New York this Christmas! I’m looking forward to it, but not looking forward to the cold. Brrrr. I wish I had the energy to blog about the whole ordeal but I’ll leave the good news here and the stress I’ve had to deal with the past couple of months in the back-burner.
  2. New (old) job, new life! After 3 years and 8 months, I finally left my longest office job for good and took on a part-time remote work since January and turned it into a full-time gig. I’m still at a very anxious stage where everything feels so transitional. I’m just about trying to get used to not going to an office every day. After working in an office/workplace setting for a good 5 years, everything feels strange to me and I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I will prevail.
  3. My makeup wishlist being out-of-stock. Yes, this is a happy thing. A very happy thing. Last weekend I went to the mall and wanted to buy something from Stila that I’ve been eyeing for a while, and a couple of lipsticks from the NARS and MAC counter; and everything, I mean EVERYTHING that I wanted was out of stock. I saw that as a sign to totally halt any purchase plans because I need to save. For the new iPhone, for my upcoming trips, and in case my 4-year-old MacBook goes bust. God forbid. No more makeup! For now. I wish money grew on plants, then I’d water it every damn hour.
  4. Speaking of money, this totally made my day, thus deserves a spot on this list:

  5. The return of fall TV. Shows are coming back! Starting with You’re the Worst and Mindy (now on Hulu), I am glad I have shows to look forward to each week again.
  6. On the Wings of Love. Working from home and having normal working hours now allows me to catch up with primetime Filipino tv shows. As much as I am a third-world kid, I have always been exposed to Philippine entertainment and there’s a different joy in feeling kilig over a local soap that’s pretty well made, in my opinion.
  7. iOS 9’s San Francisco font. I love, love, love it! It always makes me want to look at my phone and randomly send messages to people.
  8. Blog redesign. Funny how I haven’t been posting lately but have had time to do a bit of a redesign. Tinkering with themes is always a therapeutic activity for me. It’s reminiscent of an old theme but still within my style of always having a lot of whitespace. Nothing that new, just a slight change.
  9. DNCE’s Cake by the Ocean. Aside from it’s super unique song title, it’s a jam I’ve been totally jamming to ever since it came out. I admit I am supporting it more because it’s a Joe Jonas venture, but in all fairness to my fangirling it really is a very catchy song. I hope it does well.
  10. Last, but certainly not the least.. a great staycation with my best friends. We stayed at The Henry Hotel last night and I actually just arrived home from a two day pool binge because after our stay at The Henry we went to Westown to do more swimming, but I digress. Henry was such a great time. It was a much needed rest, relax, and away from the perils of the real world for a good 24 hours, and with the people I am most comfortable with. The best part was, we got upgraded to the best and largest room. Cheers to better days?

Life’s Roadblocks

Published by Justine

I’m not really sure where to begin on writing about the current “happenings” in my life, for lack of a better word. The past 3 months have been quite trying for me, in more ways than one (or two, even three). Things are happening one after the other and I’m just trying my best to swim through it all. I probably mentioned in my previous entries that I wanted to make sure that I don’t get any more hospitalizations this year. Lo and behold, last Monday I got out of my longest hospital stay this year, a whopping 5 days. Longer than my tonsillectomy, longer than my peptic ulcer run. This time I’d rather not specify the reason but cancer was ruled out, thank goodness. When you’re in excruciating pain all you can think about is, “Why me?” leaving almost no room for positive thoughts to shine a light in the darkness. What’s worse, it’s actually carrying over after that hospital stint. I don’t want it to continue because it’s affecting a lot of aspects in my life right now.

I don’t want to dwell on the fact that life keeps shitting me bricks, but it’s hard you know? I have all the reasons to be happy but there are times when shit sidetracks me and before I know it, it’s trying to push me to rock bottom. As long as I’m alive, I won’t let it happen. I may not have been born with strong resilience but I am trying my best to not let it faze me to the point where I question everything in my life, and that has been the ultimate challenge.

It seems like this years’ theme is “powering through” and I’ve been saying it to friends who ask me how I’m doing so far. In contrast to last year where I spent every weekend from May to November partying my ass out and participating in intoxication therapy, I’ve been pretty much a social recluse for the most part this year. I’m thankful that my travels have made me go out into the world and be in touch with friends but other than that, all the hospitalizations and ailments have kept me home.

Gratitude is something I try to practice every day in my life. I am a part of the many lucky ones who get to live a comfortable life void of any major life or death situations but it’s a challenge to focus on the good when I am met with such unfortunate events that’s taking a toll on my personal growth. I just hope that whatever this is, this black cloud in my sky, will go away soon. Despite everything, I trust that these struggles will find its way in the back burner. I choose to be happy.

A special shout to Shari for her recent post on happiness that made me write about this.

Day 5 – #TBT A fave memory

Published by Justine

I’ll limit it to this year because I have so many “fave memories” hah. Definitely last April/May’s Singapore trip. Even though I go to Singapore a couple of times a year, last April was extra special because it was unplanned and totally spur of the moment that my best friends decided to book their tickets just a few weeks in advance so that we’d all be reunited. I actually wrote a bit about it here in one of my Friday’s 10 Happy Things entries.

We also like to have hashtags for our trips so here’s the one for Instagram: #JKTinvadesSG. Although it was super jampacked with only 3 full days, I tried my best to savor every moment of that trip. I’m so glad my friends and I now make it a point to see each other at least once a year. Distance, what distance?

Friday’s 10 Happy Things, v6

Published by Justine

    1. Manila business trip. From Monday to Wednesday I was in Manila to meet with my colleagues and bosses! It was such a great experience. I will start to work remote full-time soon but I love that my new job allows me to travel to either Singapore or Manila once in a while to be in an office with my colleages and the last few days were just that. The Singapore team also flew down to Manila so it was definitely a reunion of sorts.
    2. Staying and working in BGC. I have always avoided going to Manila my whole life (sorry, guys) because I know how hectic it can get. I lived in Jakarta long enough to know what crazy city life is like. I love how BGC is like an insight to how Manila could have been. As superficial as I can get, for me, Manila = BGC.
    3. Crazy Rich Asians delivery. Being a Fullybooked member they called me and asked if I wanted a signed copy of Kevin Kwan’s book while he did his signing in Manila and they would ship it to me in Cebu. Of course I said yes! I’ve been wanting to read his books for a while now and this was finally a good opportunity for me to buy the book and have it signed by the author himself.

    4. New friends. Entering a new job also means new acquaintances that turn into friends. So glad we had quite a few similar interests that made our “getting to know each other” phase totally natural.
    5. Pharrell x Todd James Supershell. I bought this when I was in Manila and couldn’t be happier! I didn’t manage to get the Supercolors last April in Singapore because no stores had my size (boo-hoo) but I’m glad Manila had them. Haaaaappy. Been wanting to cop these for ages now. It still surprises me sometimes that I still have the yearning for “kicks” even at this age.
    6. The Six Pack reunion. My Manila trip once again had me reunited with 2 of my best girlfriends from The Six Pack. Nothing beats a night (or two!) with your original homegirls.
    7. New lippies! I know, I have splurged in more lipsticks than I what I actually need the past few weeks. Namely: MAC Del Rio, MAC Captive, NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Bansar, Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Lolita, Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Berlin. I should probably stop and not buy any new lipstick until next year or something (who am I kidding?).
    8. Wildflour. I ate there twice, once for dinner and the next for breakfast because I heard they had different menus. Aaaahh so good. I think I liked their breakfast menu best because my boss ordered so much food and I got to try most of them. YUMMEH.
    9. Well wishes and genuine compliments. Because of what I went through the past month or two, especially due to my health and being in and out of the hospital, I received a lot of well wishes from friends and compliments that I didn’t look like I went through hell (hah!) and bounced back looking pretty good.
    10. High Society. This is a bit late because I finished this K-drama last week but I still can’t get over it until now. I usually watch a few K-dramas a year (it used to be 3-4 when I had all the time but now I probably can only do one a year, two at most). Anyway, I was so engrossed with High Society that I finished it within 36 hours. It had pretty much all the things I liked in a drama: beautiful leads, rich families, unrequited love, smart banters, strong female characters and overall an enjoyable story that made me stick to it.
Ditz Revolution

Day 4 – Your dream job

Published by Justine

I don’t have an exact dream job per se, but anything that involves strategy with a team, coming up with new ideas, and formulating something that has the ability to come to life and make an impact on people is something that I’m really inclined to do. Of course if this were a superficial question I would answer with being a cover band singer or part of an a capella girl group because that’s something that’s kind of a dream to me but I never really banked on for myself.

Many people ask me why I don’t turn singing into a career. I am not that confident to bank on it, honestly. It’s the same reason why I didn’t choose I.T. as a major in college. Things I enjoy doing and feel like I’ve got enough skills for it, but never enough to make a living out of. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a little less confident than how people perceive me when it comes to those fields.