work thoughts and then some

It's only been two weeks but I feel like I've been there a long time. Two weeks is enough to get used to the environment, the living conditions, especially if you have almost the same routine six days a week, 13-14 hours a day. I'm still quite lucky to have Sundays off. But once I do the regular stuff my co-staffers do, I won't be as lucky. Hopefully with the lean season (which won't be anytime soon, since Valentine's is coming up), most Sundays would be rest days. Since we're getting ready for that season of profit ('course!), pink, red chocolate trials and actual finished products (e.g. chocolate blocks) will abound, plus heart-shaped ones. There really is something about love that makes everybody spend so much time thinking what to buy and what to do and a lot of money to commemorate the day.


The setting is quite different from Quezon City, and even back in the province where we reside (in the same old city of Dagupan). Here, as I walk to work, I see green fields stretching out. I've never stayed in such a place before where agricultural crops are being grown on a large scale near where I am. The sky is visible, since there aren't many tall buildings where I am, although I hardly see it during the day since I am mostly indoors. I like the greenness of the fields. Reminds me of UP during rainy days, where the moisture makes everything so vivid.


Of course, there are certain drawbacks to this kind of job. But I'm done accepting the whole deal as soon as the new year started. Which is why I wasn't able to do much thinking about this coming year since I was anticipating this new direction in my life: getting a permanent job in my field. There are so many things to learn. Even with the almost 144 hours  I've spent in the office, I'm still nowhere close to knowing those things which would enable me to work smoothly and efficiently. Right now, I'm still gathering a lot of information. Nothing beats hands-on experience, but first I gotta understand the different processes and mechanisms in place. If only getting the information was easier. I do understand - everything's part of the learning process. So here's to more learning. I just hope to keep in mind Neil Gaiman's benediction for the new year, and which I have written in my planner as soon as I found the whole thing again awhile ago.

May your year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful. And don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing, in which you'll dream both dangerously and outrageously. I hope you make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom int he world right now), I hope that you will, when you need to be, be wise and that you will always be kind. And I hope, that somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.