Birthday Weekend

Last weekend for me was a long one. As of this writing, I'm still off from work...whew! at least I still can regain back the loss of sleep and keep up with my gym schedules.
I have already requested some days off prior to my actual birthday so that I can have enough time to prepare for my planned birthday bash with my family and close friends. Actually it was not only successful but also one of the stressful weekend I ever had. Let me tell you first why the past days were stressful for me and then for the ending part, why the "celebration" came out successful after all.
Few days earlier I had a bad time with a special someone. A relationship ended but did not end in the right way. It was a bitter one before it became better. After everything's been said and done, I was glad that we met in the middle ground and decided to move on. This led to my one of the happier if not the happiest birthday celebration ever. I thought I got myself a mortal enemy but it turned out that I may have a good friend in the making. What kept me going also was some support from my good friend in the Philippines. I was continuously urged and encouraged to move forward and simply kept me company. Ever wonder how we did that? Through the power of text messaging! Thank you guys, you know who you are.
In my previous entry in this blog, I mentioned that I made a promise to myself to attend again that less known big event in Las Vegas, the First Friday Arts Festival. I did went back to the said event last Feb 6th with my best friend. He was the one who introduced me to this festival and I fell in love with it last month when I first attended.
On the following day, the 7th Feb, my birthday party at home was attended by mostly friends from my home city in the Philippines, Maasin City. My so called "barkada" were there in full force braving the cold (it was raining for the whole day) that evening. We were taking some booze to heat us up against the cold. To sourgrape everything, I should be entitled to take a little more than I can handle since aside from being the celebrant, I was in my own turf so I should have the advantage than the rest of my friends. Dont get me wrong, I did drink a little but I was not drunk, I kept my cool all throughout the evening. Someone kept bugging me to control myself...hehehehe. Hey, I have few reasons to celebrate as you all know.
Happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me....happy birthday, happy birthday...happy birthday to me.....here's to another year, hik!

The T-Mobile Dance

Last January 15, 2009 at around 11:00am at the Liverpool Street Station in London, a new T-Mobile commercial was filmed entitled "Life's For Sharing".
Check out the embeded video or if not go to YouTube .com and search for T-Mobile Dance.
By the way, T-Mobile is my mobile phone carrier here in the USA.
If you want to know the dance songs being played, here is the track list:
1)Lulu - Shout
2)Yazz - The only way is up
3)Pussycat Dolls - Don't cha
4)Viennese Waltz
5)Kool & the Gang
6)Rainbow - Since you've been gone
7)Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop
8)Contours - Do you love me
You can go directly to the links for the said video:
http://video.tagged.com/?v=VQ3d3KigPQM
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUZrrbgCdYc

Enjoy.....

Immersing Myself In Arts

Every first friday of the month, a little known event is happening right at the corner of Charleston Blvd and Main Street in downtown Las Vegas. This event is the Downtown Las Vegas Arts & Music Festival commonly and aptly known as First Friday. This event is being sponsored by the Downtown Las Vegas Arts District. This section of the city actually is the Las Vegas Arts District and you will easily notice that there are so many art galleries in such a small area. This January, the festival was January 2nd from 6pm to 10pm.

Visitors to Las Vegas have little knowledge about the arts scene in this city. Little did they know that arts in Las Vegas is alive and supported by the community and local government. I was able to witness this event first hand last friday. A friend of mine, who is a regular attendee to First Friday, invited me to see this festival. Even if it was my working day, I still went to the venue but left early for work.

All the arts galleries in the area were opened and there were also outdoor galleries being set-up for selected artists for free in order to provide them with a venue to showcase their work to a diverse crowd. Aside from art galleries, there were live performances of local bands. Food and beverage stands were also available all throughout the venue. Break dancers provide additional fun to visitors young and old. There was also a live demonstration of Tiki wood carving. There were also specialty stores selling fancy jewelries, artfully printed t-shirts, greeting cards and note pads and other small gift items. Most of the works of art in the galleries were for sale and you have the opportunity to meet the artists themselves. In order to be able to pass through the gates, a minimal fee of $2 per person was required.

My time in the festival was not enough as there were still a lot to see but I had to leave because my work starts at 9pm. Heartbroken, I promised my friend that I'd be back this coming February 6th.

Ushering In 2009

Just like spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I welcomed the New Year at work and with my colleague.

It was quite a busy night, exactly what I prayed, and therefore we did not notice the stroke of midnight. To usher in the year 2009, we toast sparkling apple cider over some food. The hospital management were thoughtful enough to send us free bottles of apple cider with champagne glasses to match and free meal. They actually feed us to death considering that there are other foods sent by medical sales representatives to the pharmacy and some of my coworkers also brought some food from home.

This is my way of welcoming the new year 2009 and here's wishing all of you my readers and guests, all the best for this new year will bring into our lives.

Still On Holiday Cheers

Since I was working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I'd like to think that most of the people were in the same scenario as mine.

Last Sunday, Dec 28th was the official Christmas Party for Kaba-Maasin Las Vegas. This is a group of people from my hometown, Maasin City, Philippines. It was a delayed but not too late a celebration of comraderie, of families and friendships. Spirit of Christmas was still strong as people exchanged gifts, shared food and drinks together with the usual Pinoy style of celebrating, the dancing.

This coming New Year, most of us again will be working but we will still celebrate and welcome 2009 this coming Jan 4, 2009.

Just follow this link for the Christmas Party pictures: http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/20904040

Smiles For Everyone

It is hard to imagine Christmas season with no images of people smiling. This is the season of joy and happiness. There is something special about a smile specially on Christmas. It starts on the face and ends in the heart. We may not have enough material things to share with others on this season of giving but the cheapest and most meaningful thing to give is a smile.

So many things happened to us this past year. They all varied from one person to another and from one's experiences. Some were bad while others are stories of successes. Some have fulfilled their dreams while some were not or were still working on it. Currently many of us are frustrated by economic events but we still manage to go over it and a step in the right direction rarely comes without a smile.

When you are out and about this Christmas, a smile is a welcome gesture that you can share to people around you. It can change the mood of the day, and it could become more brighter.

So this year, I will be giving out smiles for everyone on Christmas and I bet I could get some of them in return.

An Extraordinary Day At Work

For several years that I've been working in this hospital, last night was extraordinary for me. I worked in the evenings from 9pm to 7am the following morning.
The pharmacy department where I belonged to is undergoing a transition. Our Pharmacy Director resigned and his position is now temporarily covered by our sister hospital's pharmacy director. With a new boss comes with new policies and procedures. For the past weeks, we've been reviewing our procedures and processes in our own workplace. I myself have submitted the detailed steps in handling the Robot-Rx and other steps related to it. I've been working with our robot ever since it was first installed in our pharmacy and therefore I have the most experience as compared to the rest of the pharmacy technicians. The pharmacy is currently implementing new steps and procedures and for the past 3 weeks, I have my own share of surprises everytime I go to work. The new procedures were already implemented and I didnt realize that it would take more time to accomplish them than I thought at first. Last night was the first time that I didnt have my lunch break because I was catching up with the procedures most of the time.
It is a normal human behaviour to react negatively with change but obviously all the changes that were being implemented were for the betterment of the pharmacy services which in turn would result to patient's safety. All changes were geared to illiminate errors in medication dispensing. People just have to deal with these new changes and learn to live with it. Eventually all these changes would become a normal part of our daily routine in the pharmacy.
Stress at work?..its just a normal thing. One just have learn how to manage work related stress so as not to affect our individual lives. As for me, I'm looking forward to my days off so that I could spend them with friends and family or better yet spend it chatting online with a very special friend.