I Cheated on my Wife: My Year-end Confession

When my wife and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary recently, I received a lot of kind words and greetings from our family, relatives, friends, colleagues and even from people we just met and interacted online. It really made us realized that seven years of maintaining a strong relationship was quite a milestone.

Some, especially those who have been part of our relationship for years now, asked us how we were able to keep our marriage this long without a "major major" misunderstanding. Well, I have to give much of the credit to my wife who has been very understanding and trusting. These two things have been keys to our hassle-free day to day family life. 

But today, a few days before the year ends, I have a confession to make: I have cheated on my wife, not once, but many times. 

Why am I doing this? I just felt guilty that while my wife has been the ideal spouse a man can ever wish for, I have been been untruthful to her in many ways. I admit of cheating my wife...

a. Every time we play Rock, Paper and Scissors to determine who will clean the dishes (especially now that our kasambahay is on vacation).

b. When she asked if her favorite show is already being aired on TV, I'd say no without checking the channel because my favorite basketball team has an ongoing game.

c. During study time with our son, I will pick the easy stuff and leave to her the home works that would require more time and patience to finish. That way, I can spend more time for online stuff. 

d. When I go home late at night or go out on weekends to attend events and other personal things. I could have spent those times with her instead to make up of lost time since we both work 8 hours and sleep 8 hours every day and only have a few hours for us to sit down for a decent talk.

e. Every time I forgot to say "I love you" to her and hold her hands before we part ways every morning. I just feel that she deserves all the love that I can give, either in big or small ways, because marrying her is the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

To my wife Leah... thank you for coming to my life! Sorry for the petty cheating. Will do the laundry next time to make up with you.

To my readers who felt "cheated" with this post... Happy Niños Inocentes! 

New Year's Headaches, Anyone?

I thought that I’ll have a headache going to the office in the first working day of 2012 but commuting went smoothly and I was only late for a few minutes.

Talking about headaches, the most recent “attacks” happened last December 31 and boy, it was a series of hits!

1. I was forced to wake up at around 6 am so I can accompany my wife in the market. I only got 4 hours of sleep brought about by a lot of reasons--- iPad games, blogging, watch movies, etc. I knew headache was coming so I can’t blame anyone but me.

2. We were surprised to find out that a fastfood chain near the Pasig Public Market was open very early that morning.  Well, it’s the last day of year so maybe they just want to cash in the bulk of people passing by.  We ordered two bowls of Arroz Caldo worth Php 39 each. They looked delicious in the tarpaulin outside the store.  Then came the shock of the year and a pair of headaches--- we were served two scoops of “hot wet rice” with tidbits of garlic, ginger and tinga-size chicken bits that they call Arroz Caldo. In the picture, the bowl is as big as a plate of sizzling plate, but in real-life it will be served in a taza as big as the ones used in serving FREE soup.  This is not OA, go try Mang Inasal’s 39ers.

3.  Inside the market, I thought the whole population of our barangay is there for a roll call. I never saw our market in my 30+ years of going there as crowded as that time.  So who said, ubos na ang pera ng tao last Christmas?  Everyone is there gearing up to complete their own 12 round-shape fruit sets.  We got ours after one and a half hours and a headache.

4.  After lunch time, I grabbed my iPad to continue my adventures in Iron Man 2. I tapped on the app icon and viola! Headache! Somebody overwrote my accomplishments and thus I need to start all over again. Tell me, how do I explain to a toddler to stick with Angry Birds or Smurfs?

5.  My son Charles watches Walt Disney’s Dinosaur DVD everyday.  I was taking a nap that afternoon when he approached me with the said DVD still in the box.  He was asking if I could play it so he can watch.  That’s my first siesta in months so I felt a little nudge on my head.  And also, I was with Lindsay Lohan before I was awaken.  Then I noticed that the disk has cracked on it, probably due to little hands trying to take it off from the plastic box. Headache? Yes, it’s worth Php 275 in Astrovision.

6. Cooking for the Medya Noche feast.  Just the thought of it is already a headache.

7.  Just when I thought that I already have enough headaches for the day, we have a very “cooperative” neighbor who lives to the house in front of us.  We were impressed on how loud his pla-plas (firecracker as big as a palm) but when you hear it more than a dozen times until 2 am of January 1, I think this guy perfectly fits the title of being the first headache of the year.

I don’t intend to have a Guiness record for this.  I just hope that I’ll have less headaches and stress-free moments in 2012.  But just in case headaches do come, all I can say is just remember BAYER or Battle Aches Year-round w/ Exercise and Right medicine.

So what’s your headache story?

What are your New Year's Resolutions to be a Better Employee?

A former officemate visited me at my office three days before 2010 ends. We did talk about a few things and what had happened to our lives within almost a year that we have not seen each other. From silly stuff like his new pair of Supra to more serious topics like career plans and new year’s resolutions.

Hmmm… new year’s reolution…

I don’t remember if I did give him a serious answer when asked about it but he sounded sincere with his words when he promised himself not to be tempted on spending like crazy every time payday comes.

Being one curious soul, I wanted to know what my other colleagues and friends want to change in their ways for the coming year 2011 by asking them personally and posting this question on the Facebook wall:

What’s your New Year’s resolution to be a better employee?

I even instructed my friends to note if they want to have their name withheld if I intend to include their responses in this article but they all agreed to have their name published so here are some of the notable answers I got from them:

“I have resolved that in 2011, I'll make sure my desk is clutter-free at the end of the working day. “ - Geoffrey Galias, High School Teacher

“To be more organized, follow my set time table, be more friendly and to strictly work on my budget allotted for the day.” - Rhea Mee Paragsa, Admin Staff

“I want to go back to weightlifting and have an active lifestyle. After all, a healthy worker means better productivity in the workplace.” - Renato Del Rosario, Accounting Specialist

“Hopefully I won’t get plenty of absences next year.” – Toni Cunanan, Project Coordinator

“More patience for my patients.” – Trish Sunga, Nurse

“I just hope I can still perform the best that I can if I will get more work load next year” – Noel De Ocampo, Utility Personnel

“I will add more alertness on my work when I am on duty.” – Christopher Barbosa, Security Guard

After getting those inputs from other employees, I am beginning to recognize some improvements I need to apply in my work habits in order to be more effective in my job

All of a sudden, I feel like calling a friend and demand to ask me again what my new year’s resolution for 2011 is. I think it’s not too late to make a sort of “to-do” list for the year.

It would be helpful to keep such list so we can check next year if ever we have achieved the personal goals that we set or our resolution just end up as broken promises.

Hopefully, all of us will stick with whatever resolutions we will come up with whole year round because it will definitely not only benefit our respective companies but would also be personal accomplishment we can be proud of.

(This article was published on the January 9, 2011 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Oh, my it's already 2011?

I must have been so in love with 2010 that I still use it in the past 20 days from my poster lay-out to my office reports.

It's kinda amusing since I found out that there is another guy in our office who also does.  I got the info from my boss during a small talk-cun-calling-my-attention-that-it-is-already-2011.

Oh, well... it also a wake up call in way to update this blog since I haven't written anything since I got my 13th month pay last month.  Well, don't blame me if I find shopping easier to do than blogging during those days.  And now that my ATM is back to it's normal level (zero balance), I'm doing my post for the year.

To all who would happen to read this.  Belated happy new year... errr advance happy new year if you're a Chine :-)

PS: If you're Bugs Bunny or the Energizer Bunny or Roger Rabbit... Happy Hoppin' New Year to you since this is your year!