I know that the most-hated people in the Philippines right now are our corrupt government officials, but to an ordinary citizen like me, nothing pushes my buttons harder than the annoying cab drivers here in Metro Manila! Here are the reasons why I HATE hailing a cab:

• The cab drivers raise the fare just after I’ve stepped inside: “Dagdagan nyo na lang ng trenta ang metro ha.” Whatda?!
• They refuse to let me in because my destination wasn’t their preferred destination. Waitaminute, who’s the passenger and who’s the driver again?
• Upon hearing the place where I wanted to be driven to, they change their minds and tell me they have to take their lunch first. Then why did you stop when I hailed for a ride in the first place?!
• They only want to take passengers whose destinations are not beyond Makati City. Dapat nag jeepney drayber na lang kayo!
• When they suspect that traffic is heavy ahead, they ask me to get off so they won’t get stuck in traffic. And it doesn’t matter to them if I’d get wet from standing in the rain. Their comfort comes first. Ayos!
• They pretend they don’t notice me waiting for the change for the P100 bill I gave.
• When I remind them about it, they insist they don’t have any change.
• When I show them how pissed I am at them, they snap right back at me and call me names! Whatever happened to the saying, “The customer is always right”?
• When I tell them I’m going to report them to the LTFRB or LTO, they just laugh at my face and tell me to go ahead, that doesn’t scare them.
• Lastly, they ruined my anniversary night with Deej. :(

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To tell you the truth, I still feel really down right now. It’s one of those days again, I reckon. Or maybe this is due to PMS or something (Ewww, I know! Scratch that.) Deej and my dad had heard their share of my I-don’t-want-to-work-anymore rants, and the readers of my last post also had a preview. Couple my “episode” with a nasty flu and you’ll find yourself practically in bed the whole day, too — which I was, yesterday. But today I’m back on my toes. Ranting yet again, but don’t worry I won’t let this post end with a tone that will bum you out as well… I mean, I’ll try not to bum you out. Heh.

My good friend, Tint, tagged me to list 10 things that recently made me happy. Then I’m supposed to tag 10 people and force (force??! No way! Lol) them to post this meme on their blogs. In random order, here’s mine:

1. Long weekends.
2. Listening to feel-good songs (like the one embedded here).
3. Those 2 hours sitting in church with loved ones.
4. E-mails and messages from old friends; and kind, encouraging e-mails from strangers.
5. Deciding on a nice anniversary gift for my parents.
6. A weekend with relatives on my mother’s side of the family.
7. Completed projects. Can’t forget that one.
8. Texting with my best friend, Ann.
9. Non-stop laughing moments with Deej.
10. Although we don’t really celebrate this kind of occasion, I’m (at least) happy that today is our 2nd year anniversary.

There. Writing this post was a good idea after all. Now that I’ve thought of the simple yet happy things that happened recently in my life, my spirit is somehow uplifted. Thank God for lunchbreaks. :)

I’m tagging (but not forcing!) Michelle, Yoru, Mae, Tina, Aurus, Riz, Sasha, Marianne, Romzkee, and Teacher Julie to respond to this meme.

OK, back to work. Have a nice day!

From the time I wake up in the morning at 7:00 am until I leave the house at 8:00 am, I always have this intense reflective moment in between wherein I think about how different things would be if I’m just working at home. Think of the money I’ll be saving on gas, food, laundry and the things I buy or do on the side on my way home in the afternoons (e.g.: stop by the mall). Think of the additional time I can spend bonding with my parents and my hamsters (hah), and the time I can use to work on my freelance projects. Think of the full control I’m gonna have over my schedule. Best of all, think of the quality of sleep I’m gonna get everyday!

I’ve only been working for roughly four years but I’m already sort of feeling burned out from exerting too much effort in waking up every morning. If you’re a sleepyhead like me, you’d understand how I look at early mornings as a challenge. How I admire those employees who have been working in the same company and doing just about the same job for 20 years or more! I highly doubt I’m gonna last that long.

I guess the difference between me and those people is, I can stay at home and just fish out my monthly income from the Internet. So why won’t I just go ahead and do it? If I were in a different situation, if I didn’t have the rent and the bills, and if my parents weren’t totally dependent on me, I would have grabbed this opportunity in a heartbeat. It’s easier to go for it if I didn’t have to be a sigurista over everything. Or if the company I work for didn’t offer much room for growth. Or if the online stints I do actually provide financial stability just as much as my full-time job.

There’s also the matter of choosing between doing something that I actually have the enthusiasm to do or doing something that I just happened to have been trained to do but don’t really enjoy. And the comparison between working inside my comfortable bedroom (or some coffee place if I feel like going out) or spending 8 hours in a small office where there’s scarcity of social interactions anyway that I might as well be working alone at home. Ok, that last one’s actually my fault. Sigh. I miss the ePac gurls and how fun office work used to be..

After all this ranting, in the end, it all boils down to the choice that’s obviously the wiser one. I do think I’m making the right move, simply because I don’t want to reach the point where I would be at my wit’s end worrying about the rent or the unpaid bills. I’ll settle for this, for now. But it’s always good to have a backup plan. :)

That’s too much contemplating in a span of just one hour, don’t you think? Heh.

If you were me, what would you do?