Two Weekends of June 2009
Story told at 17:16 // 0 person(s) left violent reaction(s). I feel sleepy. I believe I got enough sleep last night... Hmmm.

I was using my lappie when my mom told me to hang up my dad's clothes to let it dry before dad comes. As I was not wholeheartedly doing it, I saw two men selling universal remote controls under the sun. Then I realized how lucky I was to have this kind of life.

Today is Sunday. Supposed to be, it's my Eco-DMT Day today. Unfortunately, for the nth time, I wasn't able to wake up as early as 7AM. Yea, I forgot to set my alarm. Actually, I really didn't set my alarm. I was hoping I could wake up that early. (Which has never happened yet.)

I had a new haircut. But it didn't look like I had one. Tsss.

***
As I mentioned on my past blogs, I work for a call center in Shaw. Just last Monday (29JUN2009), we were sent to hell, I mean, to the floor, still training. But the day before that, we had our first ever post-summer GA in Antipolo City.

We knew about this through the email sent by the HR department to us. We were very excited because almost everyone of us didn't have enough vacation to go on summer outing. Plus, all expenses are paid by the company. :D

We met at 7:30AM at our McDonald's. (Yes, since eTelecare and McDonalds belong to the same building, we call it ours. Take ownership, guys. HAHA.) When I came, the buses were already there. Some of my classmates and Marcus were already there. Around 8:20AM, we left at Shaw. Angelbert and Connie were there. Our other friends, Jude, Angel and Anna didn't show up. Saaaad.

We reached Antipolo at around 9:30AM. We registered for the raffle. Prizes? Brand new betamax player and cassette drive. Haha. Kiddin'. The prizes were DVD player, MP3 player, portable DVD player and... PSP 3000. Yes, PSP3000. Shocks, I really wanted to have that grand prize. But about 300 people joined the raffle. I only had 1 out of 300 chance to get that. C'mon. I had no choice but to forget about that.

We played Human Bingo that's why we were able to meet the team leaders, shift managers, operations managers, trainers and co-agents. Only 10 were given 100-peso worth Sodexho GCs. Luckily, I was one of them. :)

Swim. Swim. Swim. We conquered two pools. Now, I hate my skin color. MORE.

Videoke. Lunch. Raffle. Games. Merienda. At around 4:00PM, we packed up and waited for the bus.

In this photo (from top left to bottom): Connie Cruz, Yours truly, Marcus Ramirez, Nica Abitria, Cyndy Baloy, Angel Bataller, Bonn Boñol and EJ Camallere. "Matira matibay" team with Marcus who didn't even get wet. (From swimming.)
The whole team went to Cristina Villas to relieve stress and pressures we got from work. We swam, took a lot of pictures, played games, ate, met new friends, joined raffles, etc. Basically, we went there just to have fun. And it was successful, in less than 12 hours, we forgot about our work -- and all the stress and pressures it had caused us to pursue this GA. Haha. :D Looking forward to the GA on the next quarter. :P

After that, I attended the mass in Antipolo church. Then, I met PJ and had dinner in their house. (The dinner that I'm talking about is the sermon that I got from him. HAHAHA. Kiddin' by half. Dinner + Sermon. Hehe. Loveyou, Babe.) Dropped by McDo Marcos to eat sundae. Went home after. What a tiring but happy day!

***
After the successful stress-relieving GA, stress and pressure welcomed us back when we entered Ops floor. It was my first day of taking calls. We had some huddle ups before we officially took in calls. I can say that my first call was quite fine. I totally forgot what it was about. (I'll try to see my notes tomorrow in my workstation.) But the nervousness, the super palpitation, the stress, the pressure. IDK, they all went to the highest level. Before, I thought working in a call center was an easy job. Now, I can say that this is a very difficult and complicated one. Aside from the fact that your schedule will be much more different than the normal working people, we do our business by conversing with diverse kinds of people we can't see about their problems that we can't physically check. It's like, we should have a very broad imagination and useful common sense to be able to assist them. (Customers are calling from the 52 states of America.) What you need to build in this field of work is confidence, patience, understanding and helpfulness. Not having low self-esteem, being irritable, unapproachable and rude. Well, at last, I learned to use Avaya. :D

I was lucky I got 75% in the overall evaluation last week. We had two evaluations by the QAs. I had 75% in both evals. The passing grade was 61%. Unfortunately, the whole team only got below 61% last week. Two more evaluations are waiting for us next week. Anwyay, I know I don't have to worry. The consequences are not yet clear but I know our team can do this. Go Wave 50!!! ^^ I want to get a 100% grade in evals so TL Vince could give me his promise: any Starbucks Venti drink. Of course, I would want to have Mocha Frap. :) Looking forward to that. I hope the QA would be able to get my transfer call. I already mastered it. HAHAHA. :))

***
Yesterday, I spent my day with my family and PJ.♥ After work, we went to Cavite to visit my lolo and lola. Although my tito was willing to drive, I still chose to be the driver on our way there. It was one of my what-I-want-to-do's ever since I started working. I had no sleep but I still enjoyed it.

We just had our lunch, had some talks, bored ourselves, slept, played tong-its, sat, walked, ate pancit and pancit and pancit. We actually didn't do anything extraordinary. It's just that I was with my whole family besides Dad, and PJ.♥ Ah, yea. That made my Cavite escapade a lot different. :)

When we reached Marikina, we even stayed at Kapitan Moy to get some fresh but polluted air. Had some MiniStop's Hershey's ice cream. Went to Antipolo Overlooking. Stayed there 'til 11:30PM. Drove PJ home. Wala akong kiss. Huhu. :))

It was 12MN when we reached home. The day was sooo... Ugh. It was nice. :) I never had enough sleep, but I had a chance to bond with my family and PJ. Sooo happy here.♥

Too bad. Of all the days that I would forget my digital camera, why yesterday? No pics were taken. :((

Tomorrow, stress and pressure will be with me again. They'll be very faithful to me until Saturday morning. Huhu...

I don't know if I can still make it to the end. My contract finishes on November 24, 2009. It's only the start of July. Do you think I will still be at eTelecare until 24NOV2009 and take all the stress and pressures in life? Text YES or NO to 2366. Open for Globe Subscribers only. :D

Wish me luck.
Hope everyone gets a great week ahead.
Never give up.
God bless.
Move on with hope and courage. :)

PS: Guys, please text me so I can get your numbers. My 9500 is really not working. And I'm so lucky because all my contacts and important messages are there. Trabaho kong mag-troubleshoot at mag-process ng exchange ng telepono ng ibang tao pero bakit ung telepono ko hindi gumagana?!?!?!

Nothing in this life is easy. Everyone should know that. All these trials that God's giving us are just like diagnostic tests in school. They are made to know how much we have learned and how we're going to apply what we learned which we didn't apply before. We should continue to accept all the trials. Learn from all the mistakes that we had. Be strong enough to face everything. Like what one of the characters in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen said, "Don't stop. Don't hide. Run."

PPS: I miss Photoshop-ing and Dreamweaver-ing. :((

Be happy. :)