How the love of my life and I struggle to keep our love strong

Friday, September 30, 2011

Super happy

Hello, friends!

It's going to be a short post, but I'd like to share two things with you.

The first one is that today I got my first paycheck at my new job. It's only for half a month, so it's not a lot, but it's exactly what I was making at my previous job, haha. I have mentioned before that I'm making double and I wasn't kidding. Even though I won't be able to visit my girlfriend for a while longer, I'm happy I made the switch because then I'll have more money for us when I finally visit... or when she visits!

That's right! She might be visiting at the beginning of next year! That's the other thing I wanted to share. I'm very excited about it, even though it's not 100% certain yet. She might start taking some classes at college, but since she does want to visit she thinks she should enroll at an online college so it wouldn't matter where she is.

Well, that's it for now. I'd like to proudly point out that I actually updated this blog when I said I would. I'm going to get myself a shiny gold star, hehe.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Prepare for rant

Hello, friends!

I said I was thinking of updating Mon-Wed-Fri and that didn't happen. I decided that I will definitely update Mon-Wed-Fri... that will keep me from neglecting this blog.

The fact is that even though I wanted to post something, I still remain quite tired. The fact that I'm posting this exactly because I'm tired is ironic but it does make sense. You see, I'm writing this post to rant a bit.

An Earth day lasts 24 hours. Of those 24 hours I spend roughly 8 still (or should, it's usually less, because of the reason I'm going to explain in the next few lines). That leaves 16 hours. Of those 16 hours I spend 9 at work: the work shifts here are 8 hours long, but that doesn't include a mandatory unpaid lunch break that lasts 1 hour. Well, actually, it's not mandatory,  you can keep working for that hour if you want... you still have to stay 9 hours, though. So while in other countries the norm for work is 9 to 5, here it's 9 to 6. 

So 16 minus 9 is 7 hours. Now, since everybody works 9 to 6, when I take the bus to go to the office and when I take the bus to come back home the traffic is a mess. There are traffic jams everywhere. Commuting steals 2 hours more of my day. Yes, 2 hours... I wish I were exagerating, but I'm not. The same trip out of rush hour can take half the time.

All in all, work consumes 11 hours of my days. That's almost half a day, which sounds quite bleak. That means I have about 5 hours for myself, right? Wrong, because after I wake up in the morning I have breakfast and I take a shower; if I hurry that takes 30 to 40 minutes. 4 hours 20 for myself then?

Sure...                                

Of those 4 hours and 20 minutes I alot about 1 hour to have dinner with my family. I mean, I'm not at home for most of the day, I like knowing what my family is up to and share some time with them. It's not fair that I spend more time at work than with those I love... And talking about the ones I love, I barely get to chat for an hour with my beautiful girlfriend, and that's only if I steal some time from my sleep. You see, 3 hours and a half are not enough to catch up with my social life, chat with my girlfriend, and maybe read a chapter of a book or watch an episode of a series.                                                   

All things considered, I'm lucky I'm not the one that cooks and shops for groceries at home, because then I wouldn't have time for anything.

Am I complaining without reason or does it sound like a fair rant? I mean, those of you who have jobs, do you feel that you're married to your job? If that's the case... don't you feel like filing for a divorce right away?

ps: I really do plan to update Mon-Wed-Fri. I'll do my best effort to make that happen. Let's pretend this is Wednesday's post, okay?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Good news, everyone!


Hello, friends!

This will be a quick update. It's getting late, I'm sleepy and I need to wake up early tomorrow. I just wanted to mention that my girlfriend has internet at home now! We can't really chat a lot because by the time she can get online I need to go to bed already, but something's better than nothing.

We didn't get to chat tonight (she had something to do), but we chatted yesterday and we'll be able to chat every night at least for a bit. We'll probably take advantage of the weekends, since I won't have to wake up mad early for work then.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. I'm very happy now! (and sleepy, did I mention that already?). I hope you folks are having a good week. I'll try to update again on Friday (perhaps I should do a Mon-Wed-Fri update schedule from now on...)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I'm like a bicycle...

Hello, friends!

I'm sure everybody knows the punchline to the joke of the title of this post: I'm too/two tired. I've been waking up very early to get to work and I'm not used to it. To top it all, I haven't chatted with my girlfriend in about 8 days so I'm just cranky.

I can't say much about my new job; all I did last week was read legal procedures and security procedures in order to get clearance for the client stuff at some point next week. So the last few days was all about reading 30 or 35 PDFs of an average of 50 pages each, about how to handle the private information of the client and what to do in the event of something going bad. It's all common sense information, but I have to read it, understand it, and then sign a form acknowledging it all.

What keeps me going is that I'm making double the money that I was making at my previous job. My country's currency is worth 4 times less than the US dollar, so I need to work four times harder to make money for my girlfriend's and my future. Just the plane tickets to visit her are more expensive than a month-worth of my salary... I feel like I'm in that episode of The Simpsons where Homer has Maggie's pictures at work covering the sign that says "Don't forget, you're here forever" to say "Do it for her". I know it probably sounds very corny, but my love for her keeps me going and working hard now is going to be totally worth it once we're married and with our very own house.

I'm sorry if this post was kind of a downer; I'll try to update this blog again maybe on Wednesday, no matter how tired I may be, and hopefully I'll be more cheerful. In fact, I think I should start with the cheerful attitude right now: I wish you all a great beginning of week!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Wish me luck!

Hello, friends!

Tomorrow is my first day at work. I'm kind of anxious, since I have no experience in this line of work (it's a technology in particular in the IT field), but they said they'll train me, so I hope everything goes fine.
So... wish me luck, haha! I have to wake up quite early, so that's kind of sucky, but I guess that was to be expected from any job.

On a sad note, I haven't chatted with my girlfriend in quite a while and I miss her a lot. She hasn't been able to get online and now, even if she does get online, she won't find me awake. The time difference plus the waking up early for the new job is going to make quite difficult for us to find the time to chat. I guess we'll go back to a gazillion emails...

Friday, September 9, 2011

Job update

Hello, friends!

I talked to my girlfriend last night and she's a bit sad like I am, but she's proud of me. She says it was the right decision, even though the fact that I can't visit sucks.

Yes, I got the job! Even after arriving 30 minutes late to the interview!

So I don't have many free days left; I start next week and I'm quite anxious about it. I promise I won't neglect this blog too much!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Why don't you get a job?

Hello, friends!

I told you on my last post that I had quit my job. I also told you I was having an interview this week.

So... I went to the interview today. I wasn't confident at all about this job because it's about something I don't have any experience about, but they still wanted to interview me. I was so not confident and I cared so little about this interview that I arrived late. When I say late, I don't mean 5 minutes late... I mean half an hour late!

Once in the interview things went really well, though. It turns out that the team I'd be working for has contacts all over the world and they needed somebody with my previous experience that could also speak many languages (that's me!). They said that they can teach me anything I don't know, so training is not a problem.

Even though I arrived late, I'm quite confident I'm getting this job. I'll keep you updated regarding that!

The bad thing is that I won't be able to visit my beloved girlfriend for another year and a half. I hope she finds the time to visit me before that... The good thing is that if I actually get this job, I'd be making double what I was making at my previous job.

I really miss my girlfriend, but I hope I made the right decision; I need to make money so we can get a place of our own once we marry. I'd really like to go visit her, but I can't spend all the money on plane tickets, right? What do you think?