Remembering 2005

I decided to write about 2005 now and reserve my post by the end of the year to things i should look forward to in 2006. In retrospect, 2005 has been a particularly great year professionally and personally. There has been good progress professionally and i have thoroughly enjoyed my activities outside of work. I don't really have a detailed recollection about everything that has happened in 2005 but i do remember a lot of the good ones.

MBA. Yes, i'm not done yet with my schooling but i am getting there. I look back and I actually can't believe i can already count my remaining subjects in one hand + 1 finger - hahhaha! yeah, 6 more subjects and i think i am done. What is actually great about it is that right now, my GPA stands at 3.64 (from all my core subjects) so that means if i get to keep my GPA at 3.6 or higher then i will be getting a silver medal when i graduate. Its not really a requirement but since i'm at it then why not? Na-realize ko in my MBA, that experience really makes you richer in life & in knowledge and that when you put your mind to it, you can really do things.

February. I went to Penang, Malaysia to attend a Face-to-Face meeting. I think this was the first trip i had when i was with Lea and Raf at the same time. While we didn't really go on a mega-shopping spree (cause there's nothing to buy there that you can't buy in Manila), i did enjoy this trip a bit cause this was one of those few times wherein i traveled with companions.

April. Boracay trip. I finally got to go to boracay this year with trixy, jona, van, allan and jerk. While this trip was after the Holy Week (where its really packed), there were still quite a lot of people out there. It was 4 days & 3 nights of absolute bliss. Granted that the first 2 nights we didn't really sleep at all due to non-stop partying, there was no cause to complain. The sand was powdery white literally, there was a lot of beautiful & yummy people by the beach and having breakfast in front of the beach was divine. No laptop in tow, armed with a digital cam that could shoot 600 shots and my ipod, it was a trip to paradise. I will go back to Boracay soon.

June. How quickly time pass by? I turned 31 this year. I can't believe i'm that old now. Looking back at 31 years of my life, there were indeed a lot of ups & downs but those experiences helped shape me to be the person i am today.

July. I don't know if i got the month right but i think it was in July when we went back (after a long hiatus) to Hacienda Malasmas. It was also the first time when so many people decided to join the overnight - i think there were around 30+ of us who went to Quezon. The trip was fun though nobody got drunk but having everybody there - it was just nice to see both familiar and new faces and not think about work.

August. My nephew turned 2 this year and we had a Jollibee party for him. Until now, i can't believe how much our family and our house changed when Jacob was born. There's much more joy in the house today with the little tot running around and messing everything up. I love my nephew so much and that everytime he hugs me tightly and give me a big kiss, it just amazes me how much you can really love a person. My nephew is a Godsend.

October. I practically was in the US the entire October shuttling from Chandler to New Mexico to Folsom to Oregon and Chandler again. It was a lot of networking and face-to-face and department meetings. It was one of the trips that was laid back and the first time i wasn't so stressed with baskets of ARs. There were a lot of people (from Cavite) during that trip - we didn't arrive all at the same time and we had different trip objectives but it was the first time that there were so many of us out there all at the same time. I was able to go to Monument Valley and see awesome views of mountains of rock, cliffs and canyons. I was able to tour San Francisco for the first time and walk to parts of the Golden Gate Bridge. That trip opened up for me a lot of new possibilities.

November. We didn't really plan it and wasn't really looking forward so much about it but we went to Sagada out of Dennis' behest. Mel, Trixy, Jason, Dennis, Ali and myself took a bus and went back to Sagada (at least for Mel & I). We didn't expect the trip to be as fun as it turned out to be and the trip was something really worth remembering. We did the Big Falls pahirap-trek + the Cave Exploration, tried out some overly sweet yoghurt and then some really awesome cheese pancakes. We had i think around 600 photos all-in-all + 2 hours worth of videos which Trixy painstakingly rolled into a short video for us to remember the trip. I think we bonded well during that trip that everytime i look at the video, i get this warm feeling remembering how fun the trip was.

December. As usual, lots of social obligations during December. There were a lot of visitors from all over (see my previous posts) so we had lots of dinners and night outs and i even went to Greenhills. Mind you, i RARELY go to greenhills and its not because i don't like the bargains out there, its just that i kind get freaked out pag masyadong public and open yung place. OA di ba? But yeah, i do get freaked out kaya i usually prefer to shop sa mall kasi i feel safer. Ewan ko ba? I'm really not pretending to be sosy or something, i just feel weird e pero i can go there naman. The IE Xmas Party was a blast this year! Not only did everybody (well everybody that matters) go, but it was just pure madness hahaha we have A LOT of pictures and videos that inspired me to actually create a video. Si DJ pa din ang resident video artist namin but i had too much fun i actually got inspired to create a video. This year was also when JakNat (Jakob Nathan), my godson, turned 1. Imagine? he's 1 already --- told you bilis ng ikot ng panahon. Gizelle also got married to Larry at the San Agustin Church. I haven't received the pictures for that yet but seeing somebody close to us in a very special moment was heartwarming. We miss Gizie pero we all have learned to move on with our lives.

Others. This year i met a lot of great people. Dino, Jim & Ramil - people from MBA, Ramil & Jim are lawyers and Dino works in a bank. Jap, Annie, Eric, Louie & Marivee - wow, can you believe that in one class, we've managed to be really good friends. Stan & Rozmeh - sila ang ever-constant friendship ko sa MBA, both of them work at Shell. I met & became friends with other very interesting people : JM, Richard, Dada, Aimee, Imee, Bryan.

This year, i also finally learned to let go of somebody who meant so much to me. I've moved on. I realized that I don't need somebody to be happy cause happiness comes from within. I'd like to think we still are friends - i still don't know but maybe everything has a reason and it will work out for the best. I miss you sometimes and I wish things would have been different. I wish you happiness and love and all the good things that were meant for you.

Tonight, we're having a 10-lb roast turkey, some lengua, crispy pata and some valencia paella (i think that's what they call it). Dunno why we're having a turkey - yung brother ko ang may gusto nun actually. Its Jesus' birthday e so we should really celebrate it. I'm not sure yet what we're having for New Year - we usually have more during the New Year. Holidays, so much food ... so many calories ... but who's counting?