october — we love it for the beerbash, but dread it for the annual performance review. over at our end, our ratings (& more importantly, our increase) depend on this laborious document called PPR that we have to draft, detailing every itty-bitty achievement you’ve got that screams you deserve a ‘K’ (a.k.a. masokistang-istariray) rating.

i was thinking, if one were to take the work-life balance adage literally, then shouldn’t we make a PPR for life as well? for instance, instead of the ‘Employee’ section, you’ll have one for ‘Peer’ or ‘Person’. or instead of ‘Operational Excellence’, you’ll have one for ‘Existential Feats’, and so on. yeah, yeah, i know i’m being so geeky about it, but i can’t help it — my head’s now spinning with the million analogies dying to make it to this post.

i mean, why not? if you were going to make a PPR for life, how would it look like?

* Sleep right.
* Eat real food, not food out of the box nor food from over the fastfood counter.
* Not eat at my desk.
* Clean my room.
* Be punctual. Always.

the problem about dancing is not having to deal with sore muscles and bruises every time. it’s that afterwards, you begin to question why you bother doing anything else.

teacher: back, flip, back, stand, back. got it?
kami: (…) sureeee.

back then, i never really approved of my mom’s job. especially when real estate was in the slumps, i’ve always thought that her job cost her more than it gave — between the cost of gas to tour prospective buyers who only bought like 1% of the time, and her constant urge to feed every broker under her. thank God that the real estate industry is picking up now, and at a good time too, since my mom really gets to earn for herself since my sisters and i have already graduated.

today, my mom and i went condo-window shopping. i finally thought it was time that i curb my laboy-like-hell lifestyle and think of putting that hard-earned money into something more beneficial. we cruised around and scrutinized model units, floor plans, and cost projections. looking for your future home can really put your priorities into perspective — you’ll realize what you’re looking for, what you want and what you can’t live without. a lot of what i saw were really nice, but i’ve narrowed down my choices to a high-rise condo or a mid-rise unit, both in taguig. i must say, the DMCI projects are really spacious and homey, considering that they’re in the middle-class price range. condo-window shopping can be an icebreaker for today’s yuppie; i’d recommend giving it a try. =)

afterwards, my mom and i even put our heads together to think of my game plan on how to pay for all of it. yes, this kaladkarin will have to trade in her flip-flops for some good old office shoes and face real world words like interests, monthly balance payments, mortgages and fees. eeek. oh well, even if when the time comes, i have to bear with blank walls, blank floors, and a whole lot of stress, i know it’ll all be worth it. =)

i got to take part in a Trainor’s training last week (for which I’m very grateful for); however, as expected of the typical Ish, i found myself totally unprepared for it. i had no training module, i had no slides, all the “training plans” i’ve had had no semblance of, well, a plan. good thing a co-trainee was able to give me some in-house training slides for Goal Setting 101 to work with.

and in the end, it worked out well. i even got sold on my own training — i suddenly had this urge to set some measurable & time-bounded goals for 2008 (sheesh, could i sound yuppie-er?). for someone who never got around to setting goals — whether it was for the new year or for the PPR — this is big. they say that if you broadcast your goals, then you’re more likely to stick to actually doing them, so here goes:

1. Drink milk everyday.
2. Learn how to dive and get certified. (Anyone up for the same thing? =))
3. Run for 10k without stopping.
4. Go to 12 awesome sites in the Philippines I’ve never been before. (I’ve already got 3 down.)

i actually had some important tasks & meetings to attend, but the centennial celeb only came once a century, right? so naturally, whisking off our butts to UP came first. 🙂

and it was worth the hurrying, waiting, and eventually missing my meeting. it’s just something about UP — there were no fancy floats, over-the-top decor, or other gimmicks. it was just one huge melee of iskos and iskas, gathering to celebrate, watch and cheer as we experience what can only come once in your lifetime. it was fun to bump into familiar faces in the vast ocean of people. classic Republic of UP – so big and so small at the same time. damn, i miss UP.

and the fireworks were definitely the icing on the cake. i was already expecting something exceptional by UP standards, but this was definitely the best fireworks display i’ve ever seen, surpassing what i’ve seen from fireworks competitions. well, i guess even UP deserves a little extravagance once in a while. once in every 100 years, in fact. 🙂

in my head, i’m always dancing. whether i’m typing, commuting, sitting, standing, zoning out — when the beat picks up, i dance. i don’t know if others see it too, but i just do.

one night last week, while waiting for the UP-Katipunan jeep to get filled, the guy to my right starts drumming, using his hand, his leg, and the seats. the guy to my left does the same. i wonder if we all hear each other when we’re wrapped into our own little worlds.