Toxicity In The Work Place

Whenever you're working on a particular task for quite sometime, you tend to get used to it and everytime you do the work, it becomes second nature to you. This is what I realized in my job recently. I've been doing this job for almost 6 to 7 years now and I became comfortable with it. I became so efficient in doing the work involved that I can't imagine myself doing something else. It became one of my life's daily routines.

Recently, the company acquired a new system to replace the system that I was working on for some time. I know that any implementation of a new system is for the betterment towards the company's goals and objectives. It should improve the way we do things at work. But, I guess it is human nature to resist any changes specially if the old system is working fine. There is always that lingering quote "Why fix it when it ain't broken." You really have to undergo a paradigm shift and come to terms with the changes given the fact that these changes will bring about improvement and efficiency of the current job you are working.

During the actual implementation, I had difficulty in adjusting my time with the work load. It seemed we are always busy and non-stop work throughout the whole shift. On my first week, I even skipped my breaktime just to finish everything. It is not only me, the other shift have to adjust with the new process also therefore it affects everyone in our department. After two weeks of this new process, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. The survival instinct in me kicked in and I'm finding my own way of getting through my work more efficiently and on time.

Feeling the Pain: I’m Human After All

"At least you have experienced pain, you're indeed human." I can't forget this line since it was the first time that it was addressed to me. I got it from my friend who made a comment on my Facebook page.

Even if I don't have the whitest and picture-perfect set of teeth, I can pride myself to declare that I didn't have or experienced the pain of having a toothache. Aside from the disappearance of all my temporary teeth in childhood, I never had any problems related to any of my teeth. I can still remember what the dentists said in my few times of visiting the clinic when I was still in the Philippines, that I have a good set of teeth and I have to take care of them.

About two months ago, I had one of my tooth chipped off. It was kind of annoying since my tongue could feel something sharp on that tooth. I decided to pay my dentist a visit. Since I arrived here in America, this will be my first time to see a dentist and use my dental insurance, a benefit from my job. On my first visit, x-rays were taken on my teeth, the dentist focused on my chipped tooth and was concerned that the chip actually exposed a part of the nerve so he frequently asked me if I feel any pain or pressure on the tooth every time he pressed on it. I did not feel anything so we agreed on the things to be done with my teeth although he made a note that there is a possibility of a root canal if that chipped tooth will hurt. On my second visit again he asked me if that chipped tooth is hurting and proceeded to set me up for a temporary crown. After that second visit, everything was fine and I was looking forward for my next appointment so that the permanent crown will be put on. It felt I had a new tooth already just with the temporary crown. Four days after that visit, I felt a little pressure on the tooth with the temporary crown. It suddenly became sensitive to hot and cold food or drinks. I just ignored it at first until the following day, the pain became so intense. The throbbing pain would radiate up to my temple and to my head. Unfortunately it was a Saturday and the dental clinic was closed so I decided to hang in there and try to live through the pain for the next two days. I was cautious to take any analgesic or pain reliever medications because of my kidney condition so I just took 200mg Ibuprofen only when the pain became unbearable.

This is my first time to suffer a toothache in 50 years so out of nowhere or maybe just feeling celebrity-ish, I actually posted my condition in my Twitter and Facebook account. Of course, my countless "fans" (LOL) were concerned and made comments on my post. One gave me a tip to just melt an ice cube in my mouth to numb the affected area. I followed the tip and it helped a lot, but one comment stroke a chord to me, "at least naexperience mo na kuya hehe.., tao kana haha.., joke.. ;)ingats" Wow! What were they thinking of me? Superman? Unbreakable? Maybe the feeling of pain is God's reminder to us that we are human after all, and I like that realization.

I already went to my dentist for an emergency appointment. He decided to have the tooth uprooted by January next year and replace or transplant it with a new one. To make me feel comfortable up to that time, he literally "killed" the nerve of that affected tooth and replaced back the temporary crown. He gave me a pain medication to manage whenever pain occurs and some antibiotic since he expected the affected tooth to swell so as to prevent infection.

As of this writing, I'm feeling quite well already, no pain although I still feel a little pressure on the affected tooth whenever I close together my teeth. A little pain is sometimes felt but it is more manageable since it no longer radiate up to my head. I just hope and pray that I will not experience this kind of pain again.

Departure

It's been a month since my brother arrived here in Las Vegas for a vacation and visit. Although my brother's own family were not able to come with him because of his son's school commitments, it was still a memorable time for the family. The whole time that he stayed with us was so enriching with lots of stories and experiences being shared.
The highlight of his visit was attending the Maasin Fiesta celebrations in Northern California. We spent a total of 10 days for that trip. He was also able to spend time with my mom to celebrate her 80Th birthday. Going to the state of Arizona for two days added more adventure to his vacation here.
I was the one planning the road trips even before he arrived. I wanted his time here in the USA to be a memorable one, a huge contrast to the last time when he was here two years ago. We were able to visit a lot of beautiful places that one can only imagine upon reading travel books and magazines. I hope I successfully attained my goal of making his whole stay with us as memorable and enjoyable as can be.
As of this writing, my brother is already in-transit to the Philippines on board Philippine Airlines. Bon voyage my brother, we all miss you. Your room in our house suddenly becomes empty. I know my mom & dad were sad upon seeing him go but there were no tears because they can see that my brother have been enjoying his stay and that he was in his best condition health wise.

Revisiting Grand Canyon & Sedona

Earlier this week during my days off my family embarked on another road trip. This time, we went to the state of Arizona specifically the south rim of the Grand Canyon and Sedona. I've been to these places before but my parents and my brother wanted to see these places. Initially I planned to go to the west rim of the Grand Canyon just to experience the Skywalk, a fiberglass bridge overlooking the canyon but I have heard from some friends that they did not recommend this site; instead they suggested me to visit either the north rim or the south rim. We decided then to return to the south rim and I booked the same hotel where I stayed before.

Armed with a GPS, driving to the Grand Canyon was without problems. It took us about 5 hours to arrive to our hotel and it was still about 1pm. We had our late lunch and then we had our guided tour around the village and within the south rim of the canyon. The highlight of the tour was watching the sunset. It was a spectacular to see since the canyon walls changes colors with the setting sun. There was not much cloud cover that afternoon so it was clear to watch the sun hiding into the horizon.

The following day, we had our breakfast and then we embarked into our next destination, Sedona. As we were near the valley, we passed through a lot of winding roads with cliffs on the side but beyond this was the spectacular view of the red rock canyon with different colossal formations. We had our lunch and took pictures of the surrounding canyon valley. We ended up in the Holy Cross Chapel on top of a canyon rock, overlooking much of the city. Both my parents and my brother agreed that they liked Sedona more than the Grand Canyon mainly because of their personal perspective. In Grand Canyon, you will be impressed with how massive the whole area is and how deep the canyon below because we were actually on top of the canyon walls. In Sedona, aside from the different kind of rock formation, one can appreciate how high the canyon were and how huge the rock formations because we're actually at the bottom of the canyon walls.

Driving about 4 hours back to Las Vegas completed our road trip. I'm glad that my family particularly my brother enjoyed the trip. Next thing to do is to work with the pictures, post them online and have them printed for safekeeping. I'm planning to make a picture book to cover the whole time of my brother's visit here in America.

Last Leg - Going Home

The last leg of our road trip was our drive back to Las Vegas from Lake Tahoe. It took us a total of 10hrs straight drive with some stops to eat, rest or toilet break. I only relied on my mobile phone's GPS application since my old GPS bugged down on our way to San Francisco. To make sure and for added directions support, I printed out the driving directions from Google maps and my dad had with him his California - Nevada official map handy.
As we drove along, we noticed that the GPS guided us to a quite longer route, so we tried to divert to another route based on my dad's map but we missed one turn to bring us to the eastern direction towards the state of Nevada. Fortunately there were other alternate routes to link us to the US 95 South freeway. Once we hit this freeway, I tend to relax since this was just a matter of following this highway all through Las Vegas. One thing bad though, part of the highway after the town of Tonopah was being worked on and all motorists on both directions were using only one lane. So we took turns to pass that part of the highway which took us an additional half hour delay. We enjoyed the scenery along the way and we noticed the difference between the landscapes of California and Nevada. It was already dark when we reached Las Vegas and I think it was about 8pm when we reached home.
I am thankful to God for keeping us safe on all the drives we took for this road trip, my car for not bugging down on me and doing a very good job. Although my GPS failed on me, I guess we were still lucky since there were no major hitches along the way and it just added more thrill factor to the adventure.

Falling In Love with Lake Tahoe

While I was still planning this week-long California road trip, I didnt include Lake Tahoe in our itinerary. It was my mom who wanted to see this famous lake. She fell in love with it when we tried the Soaring ride at the California Adventure few years ago. She was dreaming to visit this place. While searching to book a hotel in Lake Tahoe, I became interested to visit this place as well mainly because of the pictures that I saw online. We decided therefore to stay for 2 nights in South Lake Tahoe after our 3-day sojourn in Folsom, California.
It took us about 2 hours drive from Folsom to our hotel in South Lake Tahoe. I fell in love immediately with its weather. The sun was shinning brightly but the wind breeze was chilly....very different from Las Vegas. We arrived around noon and after checking into our hotel, we went to Emerald Bay on the south-west part of the lake. Emerald Bay was recognized as a National Natural Landmark in 1969. It contains the only island in Lake Tahoe, the Fannette Island. The view of the bay is the most photographed view in Lake Tahoe. When we went back to our hotel by the end of the day, we went to the backside of our hotel for some view of the lake from the beach. Our hotel was located next to a marina so we had a short walk on the marina's wharf.
On our second day we went up to the top of the world. We took a cable car ride up to Heavenly Mountain overlooking the lake. The view was spectacular on the observation deck on top of the mountain. The Heavenly Mountain Resort offered summer activities during this time but it is a well-known ski resort during winter.
After two days in Lake Tahoe, I fell in love with it. This is now my official retreat place where I could stay and relax close to nature and away from the rigors of life's daily routine.

Roadtrip - Third Leg

Our next destination after San Francisco was Folsom, California to attend the Maasin Fiesta hosted by the Maasinhons in Northern California. It was their first major celebration but actually it was their fourth time to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Assumption, the Patroness of Maasin City together as a group.
It took us about 4 hours from San Francisco to Folsom. Halfway to Folsom, we stopped by at a friend's house, also a fellow Maasinhon and had lunch with his family. At Folsom, we were able to attend the last Novena prayers for our Patroness.
The following day was the fiesta celebration itself. There was a Holy Mass before the actual party. We have met a lot of old friends and acquaintances. Most of them actually knew my family specially my parents and my brother since they were colleagues at one point in the hospital where they worked. There were lots of reminicsing of old times, laughter, food and of course a Filipino party will not be complete without the dancing.
A continuation of the celebrations which we commonly called "binuwagan" was held the following day in a park in Folsom. It was actually a family day for everyone. We had plenty of food and drinks and everyone participated in some parlor games. Badminton and volleyball games were played by the kids and the final activity of the day was the First Tennis Tournament of Maasinhons.
I was glad that we were able to attend the fiesta celebrations in Folsom. My brother was able to get in touch once again with his former colleagues and my mom and dad were able to meet once again their old friends when they were still in the Philippines. What I love about these group is that they were within the same age group and all of them worked hard with each other to be able to come up with a very successful fiesta celebrations.
I would like to thank the Maasinhons in this part of the California State for the warm reception they have given to us. They made us feel that we were also part of their group even if we were just visiting from the Las Vegas' Kaba-Maasin group. More power to you guys and more success in your future fiesta celebrations.