MOVING ON

  I copy-pasted these 2 letters from Brain Pickings , which prompted me again to post a new blog here after many days of being absent. I am grateful for the inspiration. The letters hit me deep personally mainly because I'm a writer myself, and am working to ensure that I get paid for what I really like doing. Of course, I'm not saying that you run away from your current responsibilities (especially if you have a child or someone who depends on you to live).  What I am saying is that I've realized a long time ago after so many years of denial mainly because I had a very good paying job and an imaginary status that gives me a ranking far higher than most in the social spectrum. The most valuable lesson connected to this, to-date: that I can't possibly help others well unless I get to help myself well first. There goes the conundrum of finding, recognizing my purpose in life.  Oh, well, I've come into terms with that, gratefully. And, hence, I'm building and g...

On my way to my part time weekend job this early morning, I was caught in traffic while in my bus on the way to the ferry terminal. The bus driver won't back up to take another route after finding his bus stuck in place and right in front of another bus that was parked in a manner that gave not much space for big vehicles like our bus to get through. We, the passengers, soon found out we had to get out quick and run for the next bus available, which we found at leat a block away. Cursing, I was just so angry about having to run at that early part of the day. I was soon chatting with one of the passengers who would turn out to be the wife of Bill, one of the numerous acquaintances I've met here in NYC the past few years. He's a drunk, and I would soon get confirmation from his wife, who is also from the Philippines like myself, that Bill died at least 7 months ago as of this writing and from complications brought about by his fondness for drinking. Bill's wife, Elena...

I was doing my tasks as Personal Assistant, (a part-time gig) when Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the US. The weather was in the higher 20s in NYC, but I noticed that it could have been colder in DC that day. I could have opted to join and be among the crowds in DC. A friend lives and works in DC, and she has her apartment but she was flying early morning the next day after the inauguration. It would have been far from convenient, so I chose to stay home and do my gigs as a freelancer. That day, I was asked to search for a website at the start of work, so that we could watch the proceedings in Washington,DC, which I found easily through the sites of ABC and CNN. However, when everyone in the house went downstairs to gather for the event towards noontime, the streaming down from internet was failing. We soon were in near panic, as we wanted to be there, be in the very moment while all these proceedings were taking place. But we could not view much from the small...

Watching John Walter's "Theater of War" see parts of it on YouTube! at this year's Tribeca Film Festival brought me a different level of appreciation and understanding on how to better handle the requirements of one of my patients. more about them here! I do part-time caregiving assignments, among other part time jobs as a Freelancer. As such, I'd be doing this mostly on weekends for one of the children of the playwright, Bertolt Brecht, about him here! the monumental theatre figure who was the topic of Walter's documentary mentioned earlier. The movie also brought out much needed perspective on the 2007 staging of Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children" in Central Park, NYT's review here! where people lined up to watch Meryll Streep playing the lead role. I accompanied my patient, with his loving wife (herself, an accomplished clothes designer and retailer), son and his family (including 3 small children) to a well attended screen...

Thanks God, I'm able to look and apply for jobs, mainly through Craigslist in its NY site. I have been out of full time work for over a week now. Yesterday, I got to talk with another friend who's based in LA, California. He's been out of full time work along the banking industry for over a month now. He's got reasons why he's decided to give up his work, and get to doing some other things he'd preferred to work on. I figured I can learn from what he's undergone so far. He himself had notable managerial experience in banking, and recruiters are in disbelief why he'd give up the perks of being in a managerial position, and get to start again at the bottom in some other jobs which he thought he could do better. I've figured out that I'd like to have parttime jobs now. This has been the route that I've thought I can pursue even before I got full time jobs here in NYC. Thankfully, I got a response from an employer, and I'm working later today...

I'm writing this to share my thoughts and feelings over what happened early this morning. I finally gave up this new job in a new flower and gift shop in Chelsea, Manhattan. [Mind you, I like the job, but I've learned to hate the ones working with me, particularly in this case, the Boss / Business Owner]. My boss and I have been working on the weekly arrangement for a corporate account that happens to be a restaurant blocks away from the Flower Market District and the Empire State Building. Earlier, the parttime Designer had to leave work right away for an emergency. Then, as usual started a miserable hour with my boss who's also the other half of a couple of owners of this new shop. She was already behaving like she was really pissed off of something really unclear to me (as much as I'd like to figure out, I just prayed & hoped things will turn out well according to God's plan). She asked about what we've done so far. I told her I was just waiting for the p...

One of the freelance part time jobs I do from time to time is helping in the design, preparation, installation and dismantling of floral designs. These days, I'd do this mostly for religious events for church activities thru my network of friends in the place where I'm located. I've never done floral designs ever before back in the Philippines. It's one of those opportunities that presented itself to me to be able to get into hardline creative works. Boy, I tell you, it's one tough job, to the say least. It starts with doing cleaning tasks. This is to make sure the flowers, the branches and fillers are all cleaned up. They have to made sure all the necessary parts of the flowers are kept in place, and those unwanted parts are removed and thrown away. It's time consuming, actually. You will have to bring in buckets of water, you will also have to throw them away when not needed. It does not make it even easier to use artificial flowers, branches and leaves,...

Work has got to define how productive each one us can get. As they say, it's what you get from the day that matters most. After a usual day's work (which may happen to define most of us), I have got completely exhausted, and longed to forget it all, at least in the meantime. My eyes show what lies ahead & what keeps my mind from resting, as I go about the works in prepare myself for bedtime. These hours may vary, largely on what schedule we like and decide to follow each day. Dreams that take place during my rest time will then define my quality of rest. Have a restful time at the end of each productive day, everyone!