watching a marathon of past season favorites of top design (season 2, with nathan as winner) and top chef (season 5, where stefan almost won the title). i swear padma lakshmi and asia hicks makes for tv porn.

i strive to be a good person, i really do. ever since i moved to manila in 1995 to study here, my aunt has graciously shared her house and all amenities here. to a point where my parents could no longer send me my allowance regularly, my aunt has provided with my daily needs, including funding my college tuition until i graduated. so it is only logical that one way i could thank her is by sharing in the bills at home. ive covered groceries, including dog food, and the utilities (electricity, water, internet) and occasionally the phone landline bill too. so imagine my horror on learning meralco practically doubled its rates this summer. i first read about it on chuvaness and feared the worse. crazy this happens now when everybody would use their a/c’s to battle the insane heat. im sure there are ways to manage energy but this is just so unfair to be hit like this. our bill during summers do run up 3K ($67). this month’s billing was almost 6K. crazy! sometimes, your need to kill just kicks in.  meralco, you suck!

had a shoot thursday and friday. friday’s shoot was a breeze, thursday’s was madness! at 10.30pm on the eve of the shoot i learned our mananahi had only managed to finish about 7 uniform jumper dresses for my girls out of 17 needed. that means in the last day and a half, they’ve only finished 7 dresses! and we got 6 hours left until our pullout at 4am the next day for them to finish those 17 more! i was livid and i was getting stressed up. i started to call my other tailors and the 1st one couldnt take additional jobs. i called up reliable kuya lito and even if this means i will get to his place by midnight before he could start, he said he’ll help me and can take 8 pairs of shorts to do by 4am.

things like this really test not only your pyschological and emotional state of being, ultimately it also tests your spiritiually. i couldnt sleep all 1.5 hours left in the night and every toss and turn, i was praying, “Lord i need a miracle!” and thankfully, He delivers.

although some of the costumes were still late, we were able to dress up 80% of the kid talents by 7am. and to me, that was already more than i could ever ask for. by the time we were to grind, we’ve dressed up everybody (except for 1 because she was too big for a grade1-3 schooler’s costume).

there are lessons learned here of course. i learned im still mabait compared to many. it also helps to be working with a group of patient people who are problem solvers rather than worrywarts. more importantly, and this is very crucial: always stick to your suking mananahi. and if possible, split the job to two head tailors if you got lots of costumes to have made. and majorly, thank God for every moment of your busied lives. and thank your staff for their sweat, blood and tears 🙂 work is much lighter at every smile and every sincere thank you. besides, you’re all in this together.