Friday the 13th is a Lucky Day.

I have never felt so hyper like how I felt last Friday night. I ended work at Fuse with a very productive client meeting and rushed back to the office, just to tell everyone to mark that day in their calendars. Friday the 13th, January 2006. I said the same when I met up with my partners Jen and Homer for our Friday night-out.
It was a record-breaking day. We have just closed 2 deals that day alone, amounting close to our total sales for the entire year 2003! Yun lang naman. ;-) Earlier that day, Dennis did a great job finally getting the client to sign off on the project we started negotiating for since December. And then, the perfect closer to my day. 2 big projects coming up, lots of details esp. on the production side. I was so hyper project details kept coming to my head so fast it took me an extra sec. (or minute!) to sort things out. For once, all those details did not come as stress... considering I was already on the way to a surprise birthday party. To me it only meant one thing, it was a perfect time to celebrate.
I felt like I wanted to hug each and every girl friend I would talk to next. I thought of having a night of drinks to celebrate with friends. I was in nirvana.

Whoever started the Friday the 13th belief as a bad-luck day... we have just proven you wrong! Not only did it become a record day for us, it gave us partners the very good feeling that we are on track to continue growing, definitely feeling all our hard work paying off. On all days of the year to get that, on a Friday the 13th? How ironic.
Now should we celebrate every Friday the 13th as an anniversary of sorts? Maybe I should shoot an email out to the Fuse team, to mark Friday the 13th as Fuse Sales Rally Day.

A Different New Year

The year-end holidays usually lead people to look back, reminisce, evaluate and reflect on the year that was. And the approaching New Year would spark more reflections and resolutions.
For me, I don't usually look back nor do I reflect about what I should and should not do in the coming year. For me, those come in bits and pieces throughout the year.
But New Year '06 was different. I got the chance to realize and reflect. Something led me to that chance. And I can only be thankful for it.
After that, I realized again that no matter how good you try to be, there will sometimes come a stumble, even just one, that will seemingly destroy everything. All past efforts will seem to have instantly gone to waste. But in the end, as long as you believe in your sincere self, that one stumble will only serve as a test that, if passed, will re-affirm and strengthen your character and values.
Bad things can lead to good. It's just a mindset. And yes, as cliche as it may sound, everything happens for a GOOD reason.

Eat All You Can, No Leftover! A Pinoy Krismas.

After 5 years of spending Christmas and New Year in LA, I got back to having it the Pinoy way. And I must say, it was a blast! For a moment, I thought I almost forgot how things are here in Manila come Yuletide season. But now that I got to spend it here again, I realized na-miss ko rin pala.
Traffic was of course at its worst. Not only cars on the roads but also people in the malls. And we all know it wouldn't be complete without that. The rush. With it comes the gifts, the lights and decors all around, and most importantly, THE FOOD.
We started what a friend said as the "Oink-oink Season" with a bang in our Dec16 Fuse Christmas party. We all went to Saikono for an ultimately filling Japanese Teppanyaki order-all-you-can-no-leftover dinner and then went to Jen's house for a whole night of fun with Magic Mike and Poker... it was a night full of food, beer and Cuervo until 3am!
Nightly dinners followed leading to noche buena and Christmas Day dinner where we, again, ate til our stomachs are ready to burst with eat-all-you-can party food!
The following week was all drinking naman. I had a record-breaking 15-20 bottles of beer in just 2 nights! I realized I really had too much when rashes came out on my palms and feet. The last time I had rashes was after the first time I drank beer.
Other pig-out nights: New Year's Eve dinner and a few others days after. Talk about holiday hangover... eating hangover!
What a way to celebrate Pinoy Christmas again.. truly a Christmas like no other.

No Change in Spirit

For the past 5 years, the Los Angeles suburb of Walnut was what we called home every Yuletide season. I worked there June 2000 to December '01 while my sister took her MBA September '01, started working and got married June '05. Despite the distance, we maintained the tradition of spending Christmas and New Year together as a complete family.
2005 was to be different. This recent holiday season marked the first time we were not together as one whole family. My parents and I decided to stay in Manila while my sister spent her 1st Christmas with her husband Lloyd in LA. For the first time ever, we were miles apart at such a special time of the year.
It felt different... and sad. The thought of it made me feel sad at first, but that's life. Life goes on and nothing is constant except change. People's lives grow and change. My sister now has her own family. Although this doesn't mean we can't spend time together anymore, sometimes circumstances may prevent that from happening. And that was what happened. Our yearly family tradition was to be broken, and yet for us it really wasn't. For it was the spirit that maintained the tradition. We called to greet each other, chatted and shared stories of pigging out and celebrations. Yes, the spirit of Christmas and New Year within the family lived on. We were still able to share our happiness, sincerity and affection despite the distance and physical absence. Thanks to the cyber world and the ever-reliable telephone.
I guess in the future spending the Yuletide season together physically will be a great bonus... and a greater gift for each one of us.