This is it

the past two weeks have been something else. sometimes a crazy looping roller coaster, sometimes an easy coast, sometimes a slow trudge, sometimes a frenzied skitter, sometimes a happy and joyful dance.

yet i know tomorrow will be nothing like the past two weeks. it will be nothing like the past, period.

so what will tomorrow be?

a smooth glide, a light step, and a leap into a future that was totally not going to happen.

wish me luck.

Send to all

Subject: Goodbye and thanks :-)

Dear all,

Today is my last day at GMA. As many of you already know, I will be married next Saturday, December 29. Post-wedding, I will begin my new life as a married woman (eeek!) in Singapore, where my husband-to-be Marlon has been based for the past four years.

While I'm excited and raring to go, it's difficult for me to leave the network. There are really no words for everything that I've come to love and appreciate about working with all of you.

Thank you for the unique contribution each and every one of you has been to my life. I haven't found a job in Singapore yet, but I can only hope to find one that I can love as much as this. This will be my benchmark for a workplace to have fun and grow in, be passionate about and be inspired by.

Please keep in touch and look me up if you do plan to go to Singapore. Mahal ang accommodations doon ha, sa amin na lang kayo tumira para mas marami kayong pang-shopping ;-)

Deepa

The end and the beginning

last week, marlon and i ended our four-and-a-half year long-distance relationship. well, the long-distance part, at least. and there are no words to describe what it is to finally know that it's over, and that we made it.

when i welcomed home for the very last time one week ago, marlon said only two things. "i'm home for good," and "you waited."

me? i was unable to speak. a small voice in my head whispered, "we'll never be apart again." i know that the only time we'll ever have to be apart again for long is if one of us goes first. literally, from here on in, it's till death do us part.

i just held my husband-to-be in my arms, smiled and cried, as i considered the magnitude of experiences that made up my world for the past four years, and that would now be part of our past.

early-morning taxi rides to the airport. tearful evenings before somber farewells. joyfully frantic races for flights and visas. the familiar bone-deep longing that could only be expressed by white-knuckle grips on the phone receiver and low, intense voices. tight, crushing hugs spaced months apart, or just weeks apart if we were lucky or rash enough. friday nights spent home but not alone, sort of. and so much more.

oddly enough, i will miss all of this, in a way. simply because for a very long time, that was who we were.

yet nothing can eclipse the joy of the future we're living into -- one that waits to be filled with a thousand new ways for us to be.

All botched up

so after weeks of looking at/re-editing/sending/following up/choosing pantone chips for/double-checking invites that looked like this, in (reddish-purple) plum and (teal-ish) turquoise...

my printer sends me these horrid chocolate brown and grass-green invites. one hundred fricking twenty of them.

at first i am stunned. then i flashback to the meticulous process (see above) i went through just to idiot-proof the design. then i whine about it to all the art directors at work, who, while deploring the color job, say it's a kick-ass piece of work. this is why i love working in an office full of kick-ass creatives -- my seatmate cecil did the layout for me for free. "maganda naman siya eh," volunteers jl. "itapon mo na lang yung original file."

then i get online and, with almost eerie calm, proceed to inform the owner of the print shop of the matter. after checking the damn things, he promptly offers me a free reprint, which is just as well. dahil kung hindi, aba pucha, one email to the phalanx of bridezillas in my egroup can potentially derail his business for at least a few months. you have no idea how seriously brides take supplier reviews. really.

since he vows to personally take responsibility for the outcome of the reprints, i am placated. really, if not for the service given me by the owner, i would be bashing this place to kingdom come. which is a shame, actually, because i was pretty happy with them until all this happened.

the reprints are done in a week, which is still too long a delay for me but what can you do. the print shop's peace offering arrives -- the colors are still not true to the original file. at this point, i am still not happy, but not willing to put off delivering the invites for another week. so i simply choose not to feel bad about anything i'm going to give my nearest and dearest, and accept the prints. i tell the owner as much. he feels bad about the whole thing and offers me free thank-you cards -- a very gracious offer, which i am gracious (and penny-pinched) enough to consider.

now most of the invites are out, the guests are informed -- and on the whole, pleased and wowed by them (except for one major drama). and that is that.

Quote of the day

"It's really hard to idiot-proof wedding preps."

-- Jolly Picache
Marlon's high school friend
husband of Shar
and Weddings@Work egroup-mate

next up: the story of the wedding invitations that were delivered thirty minutes ago, were opened, and gave me a heart attack.

i'm still stunned, actually.