efozzie

Saturday morning

[11:30 am]
Phone rings. I let it ring and go to voicemail.

[12:30 am]
I wake up a little more, pick up the phone, dial voicemail and listen.

Little 11-year old cousin Roland in his cute 11-year old high pitched voice: "Kuya King... Can you come with us to Tahoe tomorrow please. Ok byeeeee."

Half asleep, I grin at the cuteness.

I feel like this is pretty indicative of how Filipinos work. No prior planning is necessary to have an outing, a party or an event. So I call back and agree to meet them in Tracy at 6:30 am the next day. I didn't really know what was in store for me, but I knew I needed a vacation.

Sunday
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Click on the picture above to check out the rest of the pictures from the snowboarding trip on my Flickr account. Thanks to Tita Cecille for taking all these cool pics!

At first, I was actually kind of scared to go snowboarding. The last time I went snowboarding was about 6 years ago and the snow was hard and icy and I fell A LOT. It was painful and I wasn't very good. This time, my little cousin Celine and I took some beginners lessons. I was actually pretty good, and it was the most fun I had in a long time. I definitely want to go snowboarding again before the season ends!

The Lenten season is coming up next week. Ash Wednesday is on March 1, and Mardi Gras is the night before. What are you going to sacrifice in the name of self-reflection, soul-searching and repentence?

I think this year I will give up three things that I apparently cannot get enough of:

1. Ice Cream










2. Chocolate

And in the spirit of self-reflection and soul-searching, it's time for me to focus on me--as my coworker Randy told me.

I'm done with all of the settling into the new city and new job. I've passed the six month honeymoon phase. It's time to get down and dirty and start exploring what this place and this life has to offer.

40 days isn't enough.

I'll start a week early.

The picture to the left is kind of crappy, but my Minolta batteries died, so I had to use the crappy camera on my Treo.

Went hiking at the Monte Bello Open Space Reserve today with some friends. This spot is located about 20 minutes west of where I work in East Palo Alto, and is actually a part of Palo Alto. It was gorgeous and the day was sunny off and on with no rain at all. It was still really chilly, but it was just nice to be out in nature, breathing some fresh, untainted air. And the fact that it's just around the corner from the East Palo Alto ghetto is crazy!

The Monte Bello Open Space Reserve is literally a bunch of open space with beautiful green sweeping vista views. Glad I went, and this fulfills my New Years goal to do something outdoorsy once a month (for February... I'm trying to keep this up all year long).

Karla and I carpool to work almost everyday, and since the commute is anywhere between 35 to 60 minutes one-way, we get a lot of talking--and singing--done.

This is her quotable quote of the week:

50%-off Valentine's Day is the holiday that makes you and me an "us".

Haha. If only it were that easy.

A couple Fridays ago, I went to the dentist to get 3 more cavities filled--in total i had 6 freakin cavities, but that's a whole 'nother story that I don't want to go into and all I have to say is that I don't sleep with sugar in my mouth, I promise. But I digress.

Anyway, at 6:00 pm after my dentist appointment in Mountain View, I decided to go back to work in East Palo Alto because 1) I was woozy from the anesthesia so I didn't want to drive all the way back to San Francisco just yet and 2) I had some more work to do. As I was sitting there, staring blankly at my computer monitor, Bret (also at work late on a Friday), our Lead Entrepreneurs 1 teacher, comes into my room, gives me a knowing look and asks, "What are you doing back here?"

Me: "I decided to come back to finish up some work."
Bret: "Does the work ever decrease?"
Me: "No."
Bret: "Will the work still be there on Monday?"
Me: "Yes."
Bret: "There will always be work. Go home."
Me: "You're right."

And he's right. There will always be work to do. The plate is never unfull.

And my CEO, Suzanne, the other day wisely told me that if all I'm doing is trying to catch up with all the work, then I'll just be playing catch-up the whole time. You have to schedule the priorities.

Time is important.

Prioritize.


A bonus picture of one of my students, Rochelle, pretending to be productive in my office.

My favorite part about Valentine's Day is that all the good dark chocolate that they don't sell before the day gets sold for 50% off or more.

And believe me when I say that I am definitely taking advantage of this because even if the chocolate is clad in red hearts and images of cupid, it still tastes like bittersweet cocoa goodness.

Silly consumers and their full-price paying selves. ;)

This is a test to see if I can post things up via email.

This line should be in a grey box.

I have not been posting on my beloved efozzie.com recently because:

A) I have been ridiculously busy (i.e. I barely go to sleep before 1 am, I never have time to sit and read or watch TV, work has been super awesome and consuming, there's just way too much to do in San Francisco).

B) Posting is a chore; my old site was powered by pmachine, which has been awesome because of how much I can customize it and control it, but at the same time cumbersome because of how hard it is to use.

C) I have been lazy.

D) I guess I haven't had time to reflect and write about it.

Thus, I have been thinking of creative ways to make life easier for myself and exploring easier ways to post. I first started out by testing out blogger, typepad and other solutions. And really it all boils down to simplicity vs. control. Would I rather have ease of use or the ability to have cool gizmos and other neato things on my site?

I'm going to try out simplicity to see if I like it more. And as you can see, this is quite stark in comparison to my old site, but hopefully I'll be able to update it more often because of how much easier it is to use.

Here are the pros:
+ It's easier for you to leave a comment because you don't have to sign in or be a member.
+ I can email posts up from my Treo.
+ There's an atom feed and I will set up an RSS feed soon.
+ I don't have to update all the blog software and relearn entire languages to make everything look current.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon. ;)

You can still check out the old posts by clicking here.