pay raise - does that affect you?

two months late, finally we are given a raise. but from what seemed like a happy friday morning, the people turned sour-looking just before lunch time. sad to say, i wasn't one of them. no, i didn't get a high raise. i didn't get promoted. i was just not too affected. just because. 

well, okay, i got my reasons. first, because i'm too happy of the idea that i'll be one-loan free (from my several loans) starting march - gosh, i'm so excited that i can start saving! second, i didn't expect a good raise, because if you expect something and you get something else (particularly, less desirable), you'll just end up frustrated and mad - a situation i like to avoid. bad vibes. i don't need them. they eat you alive. and so...yeah, and perhaps, the third reason why i'm cool about this very low  percentage salary increase is because i got a beyond expectation grade - finally - the truth prevailed! and if you wonder why i got a low raise based on a beyond expectation grade? hehe well, i don't care, really. it's up for the company to explain the logic (or the lack of it) in it. ahhaa it's so mind-boggling they deserved to analyze it and explain it to someone critical. the sense of accomplishment alone will make my entire year. call me pathetic for all i care. i'm the biggest loser any employer could ever hire because even for a small amount of money as long as i'm happy with what i'm doing, i'm totally fine. haha! 

well, i got a little secret to stay that way, though. it's not completely contentment, like you probably thought it is. it's by diversifying what i do -  and that means things i do in and outside of work. you see, my day may be consumed mostly by work and the travel hours to get there and home, but... yeah - i'm one of those employees who sneak into the company's T1 line. when i don't have a rush project, i read lots of stuff on wikipedia, and just about everything my little mind flirts at the moment. i also do mini-businesses, where i sell stuff to my colleagues haha i'm such a b**** -  some HR reader might say. But really, it works. I'm not the high-paying kind a worker in this company, and of course, they don't give me high-paying work, so that probably leaves me some time for other things to do - to balance things out eh? what do you think. and yeah, as you can see, i do lots of stuff -  i sew, i draw, i paint faces, on top of being a mom, a wife, a friend, a youtube addict (really? hmmm) ... 

it's a little sad to see my friends vent out their disappointments, frustrations, annoyance in Facebook about how little they got as raise, or as some put it 'tax raise'. but, as i said, bad vibes are not welcome so...

a year's hair routine

wow, it's been a year since i started using natural products on my hair. and i must say, i will stick to this routine for as long as i can. basically, it's just a regular shampoo and conditioner tandem. i seldom use hair masks as i'm a very busy gal. i purchase my stuff from humanheartnature.com, a Filipino company that uses natural ingredients from plants grown in the Philippines. what the moisturizing shampoo and conditioner did to my hair was make it soft, and grow oh so fast. a year ago, my hair was shoulder-length, now they're hanging below the lower chest area. ever since i was a kid, it seemed to take forever to grow my hair. i had dry hair for as long as i could remember. perhaps, i was using the wrong products. now, my split-ends have almost vanished, and i can forget about pony tails (that gave me headache) as i'm proud to wear my hair down. the blackness did come back, too. and the price of these products? amazing! value for money that it sells at more or less the same price with the chemical-laden ones you get at the supermarket. this company's products are all over my house since i think it's now the right time to start acting for the environment. that was my main goal at first - to help not contribute to the waste we are putting on mother earth. but now, it's more than that. :)

grade school diaries

the results of enzo's entrance exam was announced yesterday. and he passed! he was one of the 19 who passed, and i was crying so much of happiness when i heard it from hubby. hubby was the one to check the results at the school since i was manning my one-day bazaar with friend shayne the whole day. i cried like a baby because i've been so wanting enzo to get into that school. reasons? lots. firstly, i was never frustrated every time i visited the school -- the staff members are so professional, the school is so clean and everything looked so in order. second, it advocates multiple intelligence -  something i want my son to be -- a well-balanced person. i don't want him to focus only in the academe - i also want him to be an artist (like mom and dad), and a sporty kid who understands his body more than anybody else. all these, and probably more, i expect from the school, which seems really promising. based on my research, it's a good feeder for the best universities in the country. it is also one of the schools that my ex-colleague recommended; she once was an adviser of a freshman class in one of the well-known all-girl schools in the country. she also mentioned a few schools, but their graduates (grade school) were not as balanced as the ones coming from my son's future school (we're enrolling him in april). she said that most products have very good communicating skills, and are quick in mathematics and well-oriented in sports and arts. the other schools' products were undeniably good communicators, and it's just that. that ex-colleague was one hell of a really good teammate of mine back in the days and i know when she's impressed and when she's just making things up.
despite a ho-hum bazaar (in terms of sales) yesterday, i am happy the entire day. i took a selling space beside a friend i can spend an entire day with. i got the greatest news about my son. i think this is gonna be happy sunday (not to mention that i cleared up my sewing workstation mess, and about to make the dress i designed yesterday at the bazaar)...

some reason why a 25-yr old school never made it big

my son, who is now 5, is currently enrolled in a learning center near our community. he's been going to that school since he was 3, and currently, we are already looking for a bigger school for him come June, when he's in grade 1. i never realized this until i talked with my son about his conversations with one of his teachers. he once told his teacher about our intention to transfer to another school, and oh, how i wanted to write a letter to them to express my disappointment. we were about to take an entrance exam at one candidate school, and it seems my son is upset and he looks like he's been brainwashed.


my son: mommy, my teacher says it's not allowed for kids to transfer to another school.
me (calling from work, a little stressed): of course we need to transfer to a bigger school since you're a big boy now. that school has a soccer field (i need to find some reason to interest him).
my son: no. teacher said it's not allowed. i'm not taking the test.
me: honey, we are not transferring right away. That's in June.

my son: i'm not taking the test. (really upset now, and hang up the phone) 

geez. what in the world are those teachers thinking? are they trying to keep the student count by bullying kids? i bet they do. just tonight, as me and my son are having dinner, he told me he needs to use again that bag the school INSISTS they use. that bag (the third one he had), was just as horrible as the first and second one. the school had some supplier make bags for them at probably a dirt cheap price that the bags don't seem to last two month. i always sort to buying my son a more durable one after two or three months from start of school year. at first, i thought my son is just not careful enough in handling his things, but no. i've talked with several parents, and they experience the same thing - horrible-quality bags --- forced by the school for kids to use --- maybe so that parents keep on buying and buying (at least once every two months, ugh!). and believe me, they're unreasonably priced.

now i know why this school had never become bigger or better after 25 years in the industry. yes, they've been here that long. and most probably, the attitude the staff are showing is dragging them down. TSK.