The Plastic MagSafe Adapter Cap

So yesterday, my brother borrowed my laptop while he was at home and it was a normal thing for me whenever I’m out and he’s at home, a rare thing since he’s been staying at the condo more than he’s staying at home. That night, I got home and while my brother was fixing his stuff to bring back to th condo, I started to set up my laptop to do some work. Then I found out something.

The plastic cap of my MagSafe Adapter is missing.

Now everyone more or less knows how much of an OC person I am with regards to my gadgets — especially with my gadgets. In my opinion, the only person who has the right to drop/lose/break/do something really bad with my gadgets is me. Especially with the stuff I have now, which I have/am paying for.

So when I realized that that little thing was missing, I went on full search mode. It had to be near where my brother used the computer somewhere, where else could it be? But I didn’t find it, and since my brother was in a hurry, he wasn’t much help. I looked twice at the area, even around my brother’s room — but I couldn’t find it.

At that point I was getting really pissed off and was grumbling, Nakikigamit na nga lang ng laptop, di pa aayusin. Kapag ako naman gumagamit ng camera niya inaayos ko lagi.¹ I was so pissed off, I wanted to text him, “You lost it, you replace it!”

Some friends told me I can tell him that, since it was my stuff he lost, but I couldn’t bear to be a brat/bitch to him. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m the youngest and I’m not used to fighting back, or maybe I’m just really a softy. Or maybe I just don’t want major conflict, especially since I’ll be sleeping over at the condo on Friday.

Anyway, I ended up texting him what happened and what I really feel: The cap is lost, and I don’t think I’ll find it anymore. I’m just annoyed because I really try to take care of this thing, and I just really wish you paid attention to it earlier. That’s all.

A little while later, he texts back: Sorry…I’ll find a way to replace it. Sorry talaga.

That reply just about teared me up.

And it made me feel tons better. After that I realized, it’s okay that the cap is lost — it’s not that my laptop won’t work without it.

I realized last night how important my relationship with my family is last night, especially with my brother. Maybe it’s because we only have each other as siblings, and although we’re not best-friend like siblings, we’re pretty close and I know I can count on him. I mean, how many times has he stayed up late and drove to places just to fetch me or drop me off? And how many times did he take care of me when I was sick, or went home early from a gimmick with his friends because I was alone at home? It’s at this time that I can’t understand how some people can stand not talking to a brother or sister  (or any family member, for that matter) for years — I can’t even bear the thought of me intentionally avoiding my brother for a day. Is any argument ever worth those years of silent treatments?

Anyway, so today I went to work and I was all better. When I got to work I saw that my mom called me so I called her back. Her first words to me were: I found it.²

And so the little plastic MagSafe Adapter is back (that photo up there was just taken earlier) and all is okay with Aslan. :) But if ever this one gets lost again next time…I won’t have the same extreme reaction. :) It’ll be okay. After all, there’s always AppleCare³. ;)

1. Rough translation: I can’t believe he’d use my laptop and not fix everything after. When I use his camera, I make sure everything’s there, and he does this. [«]
2. She found it while sweeping the living room. [«]
3. So when my adapter gives in, I know I’ll get a new one with another cap haha [«]

Hello, SeptemBER

I’ll be all cliche and say this: wake me up when September ends? Please? Seriously. This month’s bound to be busier than the previous one, and everytime I look at my calendar, it feels like it’s begging to be filled. Yet I don’t want to! Talk about conflict. Here’s a tentative line up for my month:

• Bowling game/s
• WordCamp Philippines on September 6
• A friend’s despedida party on the night of September 6
• Our boss from the US is visiting from September 8-17
• Cebu trip on September 12-14
• Manila International Book Fair on September 12-16 (will be there on the 15th)
• New work coming in that I have to learn because I’m part of the team that will handle it
• Small weekly activities in the club — I’m not necessarily a part of all activities, but I’m involved as majority of the announcements are made by yours truly. I won’t need air tools for this, just Photoshop and creativity…now if only the second thing I need is so eay to keep going. O_O
• Company Tree Planting
• Sportsfest closing
• Update of process documents for the team

That, and possibly more things to do since it’s quarter end, and it’s always the busiest during the end of the quarter. GAAAAH. The only thing I’m really looking forward to this month is the Cebu trip with Happy, which I’m really, really glad would push through. It was kind of hard trying to file a leave though, since that’s also the week that we would have a visitor. But I need to take this trip. Plus I need to make this trip a positive one, not one that will make me wish I am not back at work after. :P

I still have some deliverables to send by tomorrow, and I’m not in the mood to make them right now. I just want to sleep. Plus this thing I’m doing seems to be getting uglier and uglier, and I am at a loss on what to do with this. Seriously, whoever said I was creative? Is that even true?

Kidding, kidding. I’m being too down on myself again, this is stress that’s talking. Must focus and find ways to destress! Like get enough sleep, yes?

This month can’t be as busy as February or as bad as June…yes? And there are a lot of things to look forward to this month too, like (some items repeated from the previous list):

• WordCamp Philippines
• Cebu trip with Happy :D
• Manila International Book Fair
• My brother’s birthday
• New work coming in because it would give me something new to learn
• Tree planting activity at work
• Taking lots and lots of photos thanks to Ashley
• The fact that it’s already a -ber month, which means, Christmas is just around 100+ days away!

Yes, this will be a good month. Don’t mind my previous ramblings, that’s just me stressed and worried. But by God’s grace, this will be a good month. :)

Wishing everyone a good September ahead!

Quality Time (and Splurging)

Today was sort of an extremes day. I was extremely stressed at work (well, okay, not that stressed, but stress levels were high), and what was really annoying was I was stressed at the end of the day, the worst time to be stressed ever. Bah. I’d rather not elaborate on that, but I swear, I am looking forward to my leave on September, and I will not let anyone stop me (hello, flight’s booked and will be paid tomorrow, plus we found an awesome place to stay among all the hotel deals). De-stress! I need it!

On the upside, I had dinner with my family tonight (by family, it now includes my soon to be sister-in-law. Which reminds me, I haven’t blogged about my brother’s engagement heh), and because I was the one who asked for the dinner, I paid for it. After picking up Ashley (more to her in another post!), I treated my family to Pasto and we ate and talked (about ghosts, of all things!), then went to Dairy Queen to eat dessert and finally home. It’s my dad’s last week for his leave and he will be back to Saipan soon, so there’s some kind of separation anxiety going on (at least for me, and probably my mom).

Even if I splurged today (and believe me, I really splurged), and I’m still somehow stunned with all my expenses today (and in the coming weeks),  I’m actually happy. :D Maybe it’s retail therapy talking and I’ll regret it soon, but I realized, after missing Sydney and all the other stress I’ve had for the past weeks, I deserve this. And because my Sydney trip was postponed, I also believe I deserve my upcoming trip, yes?

Please just help me not to lose focus on the other important things I need to focus on, not just my personal life. I must strike a balance.

Whew.

Tomorrow’s a looong day at work so I better call it a night (and did you notice how many parenthetical comments I have in this post? Major writing no-no, I know). Good night!

Long Weekend # 2

After a series of two long weekends, it makes me wonder if those two long weekends were worth it. Interestingly, right after last week’s four-day weekend (which I enjoyed very much), I got back to work and saw…there’s more work. :| And I really wouldn’t be surprised that I would be faced with even more work when I get back on Tuesday.

I wouldn’t sound this sarcastic and stressed if I was only dealing with normal work. But for some reason, life started wooshing in after this (sort of kind of) big choice I made last week, life suddenly started wooshing in. Hay life, so ironic. On top of work, there’s a presentation I need to work on and deliver next week, meetings to attend to, extracurricular things, and personal stuff I need to plan and go to — dinners, trips, etc. And I know that a few weeks ago, I’d sacrifice all the personal stuff, such as Vegas vacations and going home early, so I can finish work. But ever since I told myself I’d give time for myself after the weeks of busy-ness, I’m so ready to put my personal stuff first before anything else, yes, including work.

Talk about change. :P

But I must strike balance. Yes, balance. Work-life balance, oh yeah.

But just take a look at this calendar:

Crazy huh? And there’s still more coming, I can feel it.

But I will not think about it too much, especially since I have one more day of weekend left for tomorrow. :) I’ll get through this last week of August with flying colors. By God’s grace. :) And come September, I’ll be able to start sort of a new. :D Happy Sunday, everyone!

Long Weekend

In our line of work, not everyone follows whatever holiday the government declare. Since most of the people at work follow different clients/timezones/countries, they’d have to follow what their client/timezone/country calls especially with holidays. But, since we’re servicing global clients, our team follows Philippine holidays, and because our country has so many holidays, you know what that means. :P

Yes, I love Philippine holidays. I don’t really agree about moving the holidays to Mondays and all, but I admit that I love having long weekends. :)

Let’s take this four-day weekend for example. Friday night was movie night at work, and my friends and I watched Wall-E, which was a really cute movie. :D It was followed by dinner with some friends and then preparations for the next day’s outing, a first for my team. There weren’t too many of us that we’d need to buy a bus to transport us all there, but there were a lot of people who came, which made it a fun event still. :D

Saturday and Sunday was a trip to Laguna with my teammates and other friends from the account and friend of friends. Fun times playing cards, videoke, billiards, swimming and of course, drinking. :P It’s been a while since I did this; and last summer outing doesn’t count because I was the organizer and this time I was just a participant. :D Got home Sunday with a major headache (haha),  and slept it off until mass time.

Yesterday, I spent the day at Shang, roaming around looking for clothes and books while waiting for my best friend who I was supposed to meet. It was fun meeting up with her again since the last time we saw each other was last…May, and we hardly talk lately because of our busy schedules. Yummy (but expensive) dinner at Green Tomato, but good company, so it makes up for it.

Today, the last day of my long weekend, is the day I am supposed to do some extra curricular stuff at work so I can get a headstart on them. Of course, lazy me hasn’t started yet, but I will…in a while. :) I’ll be doing some baking tonight too, just for kicks and for a friend’s birthday this week. If this goes well, I’ll probably be baking this for the holidays too.

So that’s my long weekend. :D How was yours? :)