my, my, my .......I'm so tired now a days...this whole holiday thing is getting to me.
oh, don't get me wrong, I love Christmas! Though this year I've been working too much especially when school's out.
I even worked Christmas Eve! Yeah, I spent it at work. It was so slow too. I don't know how many times I looked at the clock, just to make sure that it's working. It felt like the clock's hand were stuck and not moving at all. hahahaha
Anywayz, I think this is one of the best Christmas..why? well, because it snowed! I just can't believe it! The last time that it snowed down here was like ten years ago! It was fun I tell you! We took pictures outside. The snow flakes were falling non stop and our cars were covered with snow! It was awesome! Definitely a white Christmas. So funny too, I always see it on tv and movies about snowing on Christmas Eve, as if its a miracle, then it happened here! It was great!
Well, I just want to share that...hahahahaha..I should hit the sack now. It's a big shopping day tomorrow!!!!! Don't you just love after Christmas sales? hahahaha

Sunday morning....I have my test tomorrow..its fast approaching..where did the time goes? This is bad....

Anywayz, I went to work this morning to take that MAR class. They said everyone NEEDS to go, so eventhough it's my holiday vacation, I still went there just to take it.
Everyone seems busy. The asst mgrs were decorating our Pod for the holidays. It's pretty nice. They actually told me that if they only knew that I'm coming in today they would have asked me to come in early to help them with decorations. I'm like...Yeah! sure...but too late now..hehehehehe....

After the 40 mins training class I went out to meet some of my friends at the Bubble Place. I was the first one to arrived, so I bought a drink and tried to read and study for my test tomorrow. One by one they showed up. The first one was "H" an old friend of mine who moved to CA and now back here in our good old city. We chatted and tried to catch up. He doesn't look happy moving back here..hehehe..but I'm happy though.
Then "J" finally arrived. He got stucked in traffic. He said that there was a train that kept a lot of cars pile back. Now, we were just waiting for "JJ" to arrive. He was taking forever and we almost left him, but then he walked in while we were about to leave. He complained about the construction and traffic. I can't blame him. I tried leaving early too specially going to that part of town. It's the Holiday Season, and people are shopping now. Speaking of Shopping, I need to start my list on who I'm going to give gift and cards. ^_^

We just took one truck. "J" drove at the main meeting place. We met up with 8 more people at the hotel. The lady who works there gave us a tour of their facilites. This was the second time I went with them, so I know where are the rooms that we will be using now.

After the tour we had our meeting. It was pretty good one. I met new people. Very interesting......

After that we went out to eat. I really want to eat some sushi, but most of them doesn't want to, so we ended up eating somewhere else. It wasn't bad. Actually I love that place. I used to go there a lot when I was taking some courses at the college near there.

After we ate, all 12 of us left and half of us went back to the bubble tea store. We sat there for a bit and chatted. I was so tired, so I told them I'll be heading out first. I don't want to get stuck on traffic, specially I live on the other side of the city. I was so tired that I ended up sleeping when I got home. Now, it's past 1 am and trying to finish my paper that's due on monday. hehehehehe....

Oh well...a very interesting day.

~My Observation

We have a new Asst Mgr who came from TCH. She looks alright. Then I started hearing some stuff about her around the pod. Someone said that she was a "B^_^t^_^h at her previous job. She's lazy and that she keeps passing her job to someone else. The main reason she applied at our Unit was because there was an opening for Asst Mgr. Well, I guess my NM was impressed with her and hired her.
One by one the other RN starting to hate her too. I do see what she does when I work at the same shift she does, or when she comes in on the next shift. I remember one time, the CN got her 1 pt while she's charging. Next thing you know she's erasing the board and taking her name off and putting someone else's name on it. It just doesn't make sense. After the NS RNs fixed the sched, then she'll just rearraged it whatever she likes it to be. I guess it got to our NM and she talked to her. From then on, I haven't seen or heard anything about her changing the report and stuff.
Sometimes when she's charging for the day, she'll just disappear. Everyone will be looking for her and no one can get hold of her unless someone paged her. It's worst when she got some PTs. She'll just disappear while her PTs are beeping or looking for her. Is that a good role model? I don't think so.
Sometimes I feel like she's just all show. Oh, don't get me wrong, I think she's a good RN, but the thing is she's lazy! She doens't do her job, if she does, it's all sloppy and messy. She even got my scheduled messed up!
So many crap going on our unit that it's not even funny. Oh well...We'll see what else happens....you never know..she might change! Hah! won't that be a shocker! hahahaha

It is sad that one of my co-worker will be tranfered to another department. Everyone on the night shift brought some food for a mini going away party for her. I only wish that I know about this, so I could have brought something. One of the RN told me they didn't know that I'll be working last night, so I guess it was alright for me then.
Tita E is one of the three RN at night who will be transfered to the Ambulatory Building. It's sad to see them go. I guess they just can't take anymore what our NM been doing to them.
I still don't understand why no one higher up noticed what's been going on our unit. To think that a lot of RN left and transfered to different unit will cause someone's attention, but I guess they're just looking at the opposite way.
Another one will leave in 15 days. I'll make sure that I bring something for them.

Someone told me before, "music will sooth your soul," and I do agree. Just listening to music does calm one person's mind and soul. When you're afraid, just sing and your fear will fade away. It's true, I've done it a bunch of times. When I think I'm going crazy and don't know what to do, I'll just sing, and later on I'll be feeling better.

So, if you ever feel down, scared, or happy, try it. Sing your voice out!

hah! its been a year since I last post here. "sigh" Time goes fast when you're not really paying attention.
Too many stuff happened, too many things changed, and here I am feeling I'm not moving at all. I don't know, does that make any sense at all?
I love my life and I enjoy it, but I still can't help thinking, is there more for me out there?.........

Venue: Cincinnati, Ohio

Date: November 20-23

Weather: high of 60 and low of 30

Reason: Work

Experience:

This is the most confusing trade show I ever been to. Our Hotel was called Cincinnati something while the convention center it is connected to is called Kentucky Convention Center. So weird. I keep asking the people there and I guess they're confuse too or maybe they're just the same as us (tourist).

Anyway, it was fun. I've been at this state before. This time the convention was much closer to down town than the last time. There were nice restaurants near there too.

HOTEL: ~ Cincinnati Marriott RiverCenter Hotel~

I love the hotel. This is the first time I've seen a hotel that the main lobby is at the fourth floor. Ground floor was the shuttle dropped off and valet thingy which is also called the C floor. The B floor I believe is the parking. The A floor is the fitness center and the P floor is the Park Hotel Lobby. That's where the business center and the front desk are located at. From there you take another different elevator to go to your hotel room. =)

They have this kind of open terrace kind of look inside. You can actually look down from you floor and see what's going on at the lobby. They even have this nice elevator there too. It's a glass elevator that you can actually look while the elevator is going up or down.

RESTAURANTS:

First night we ate at FRIDAYS. It was alright, but our server was crappy. They got my sister's order all wrong. They took forever to give us our food and they didn't even refill our water and sodas. They do have a good Mudslide drink. =)

Second night we ate at APPLEBEES. The waiter was very attentive to us. The artichoke dip was so good. I highly recommend that. I was satisfied with my food that's why I gave him a good tip. =) Oh, they have the best Mudslide drink I ever tasted.

Third night we ate at the Bamboo Asian Pacific Restaurant at Newport. The fried rice was good, the steak we ordered was delicious, the fish we got was bad and the soup we ordered was not acceptable. Don't go there at all!

They took forever to give us the menus and to serve us too. It was cold too outside. The price was outrageous. I'm not going there again.

SHUTTLE:

To those people who are going there make sure that you know that the hotels there doesn't have a shuttle of their own specially the one in the rivercenter. We paid 15.00 per person. So expensive. oh well...

NOTE TO MYSELF:

Bring more cash next time and don't go there for work. Only for fun okay?

P.S.

I enjoyed my time inside the convention center. I saw the people I like there. It's nice to see familiar faces again.

Toodles!

Venue: San Francisco, California

Date: October 16-20, 2003

Weather: high of 80 and low of 50

Reason: Work and Pleasure

Experience:

San Francisco.....What a beautiful city. This is my second time at this glorious city. I was there almost the same time last year. This year we went to some places that we didn't get a chance to go last time. I'll break it down by days ^_^

Thursday:

Landed at SFO around 10 am. After checking in our hotel (very nice hotel too) we just dropped our bags and went straight back out to go to China Town. From what I heard, San Fran have the biggest China town here in the US. It is big, but not as big as the one in my old home town.

We walked around for an hour before looking for a place to eat. We just went inside the first restaurant we saw. Through that door lies a very long and steep stairs (too dramatic ^_^). Anywayz, there's this red carpet going up the stairs. I feel like I was in a temple or palace. The atmosphere is very tranquil. It feels like you're in a different world specially when you just stepped in from the outside. They have this ladies walking around with desserts and other appetizer. You can choose whatever was on the tray and they just add it to your check.

The food is awesome. I have no complains. I'm very picky of what I eat and if I say it's good..then it's good..hehehe ^_*

After me and my colleagues left the restaurant we just walked for a bit. We were bored and I think I already spent over a hundred there. So, we decided to go to Japan Town. I hailed a cab and went straight to J-town.

J-town! Did I mentioned before how I love J-town? That's one of the must see places when I go to San Fran. I can never get enough of that place. There's a lot of little shops there and restaurants. I went in this shop where I got my Badtz Maru car sticker last year. They don't have much of badtz stuff anymore. I'm a little disappointed there. I did bought some snoopy car phone holder and a snoopy car decal. ^_^

After that we went to the second store where I bought my phone case and phone straps last year. They don't have snoopy phone cases anymore. I was so disappointed too. My old one that I bought last year was already beaten up. I guess it's time to change my phone now.

We also went to Kinukuniya. The Japanese Bookstore. I tell you now, I can drop more than hundred there per visit. ^_^
I know it's sad. I can't even read Japanese. I will take Japanese classes next year though. He he he. Oh, the good thing is that I finally got the missing volumes of Harlem Beat (Japanese Basketball Manga) that I've been following. Tokyopop licensed and translated vol. 1-9 (Harlem Beat) and then skipped vol. 10-11, then translated the rest of the volume which is up to vol. 4 right now (vol. 15 actually) under a different name which is Rebound. I got the untranslated volume of the Chinese one. ^_^ I'm happy!

After that we ate dinner at Mifune. I love their Katsu Don! ...it was so good. After we ate we just walked around a little bit then we left and went back to our hotel.

Friday:

We woke up early. I want to have an early start. We wanted to go to a lot of places. We went to Fisherman's Wharf. It's a very beautiful place. It's by the bay. I highly recommend to go to Pier 39. All the shopping stuff and food are there. We took a lot of pictures too! The scenery is so beautiful there. Well, there's a lot of mountains too, unlike here which is just plane flat. ^_^

We just walked around until we get to Ghirardelli. There's a free chocolate tour there. We actually ordered some drinks and food and sat down for a while before heading to J-town again. I know...J-town. Well, I love the J town there. I didn't get tired going back and forth there.

We just went back to Kinukuniya and ate dinner at Mifune. After that we went back to our Hotel and started to do some work. ^_^

Saturday:

Well, didn't do much on this day. Today starts our work day. We set up our booths and after that we went around greeting the people we know. It was fun. It's been a while since I saw these people too.

After the exhibitor's room closed we went up to our room drop our stuff and went straight back down to get a taxi to go to j-town.

I bought more stuff there. sigh...I spent a lot of money at this con.

Sunday:

Finally! Last day. No more money man! All my cash are gone. After the con finished, we packed up our stuff and brought it at the front desk and went back to our room to relax for a while. After a few mins we went to grab some food. No...We didn't go to J town this time. We just went to a Diner around the corner which is pretty good and highly recommended by the Hotel Staff.

Monday:

Woke up early to pack our stuff to catch our early flight back home.
I will miss this place, but hey! I'll be here again next year! he he he ^_^

Toodles!

NOTE FOR MYSELF:
Bring lots of cash next time and go to Alcatraz!

PLANNING...^_T

Hmmm..I was just browsing the internet for the price of a round trip ticket to country and back here. It's pretty expensive, that's what I can say.
I've been planning for a long long long time to go back and visit, but it never happened. Why? well, there's too much things happening in my life here that there's no time for me to pack up and leave for a couple of weeks or so. I don't want to go there just for a few days, its just a waste of time and money. If I go there I want to enjoy it with my family and friends.
I even stopped telling my friends that I'm going because I know I'll just disappoint them again. One of this days for sure I'll surprise them by knocking on their doors. I think I still know a couple of them where they live. Some of them moved already too.
I really want to go to Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Great Britain, Spain and Paris! I'll go there one of this days.