Getting Near The Threshold

Yesterday, I attended an orientation on the new feature of the WU system. There was an e-mail informing us that the training will be held from 8 am to 10 am. And then a colleague heard from another colleague that the activity time slot had been changed to 9 am to 12 pm. So, I needed to know the correct time of the orientation and I called up our HR to confirm it. I was told that it would be 8:30 am to 12 pm. With that in mind, I left my house at 7:30 am to allow an hour for my commute and the traffic. I arrived at 8:20 am. There's still 10 minutes to spare, huh?

Not! I was considered late! I was given a Value of Time lesson for that. I guess making a confirmation was useless. I wonder what went wrong with the scenario...

Well, if some units of my workplace are incompetent (I cannot begin to tell you that they are frustrating to work with), I'm glad I will soon depart from them. I already informed my boss yesterday of my resignation a few months from now. He was cool with it, even understanding. After all, no one is indispensable (at work). I think he needs to know early so they'd have time to look for my replacement.

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Three of my cousins from my mother's side came back to the country for the holidays. These cousins are closer to me than the ones from my father's side. We always gathered at our Grandpa's house to visit him, to play and share meals when we were younger. There were present in my childhood memories. We all were like siblings and friends. I've always looked forward to meeting with them on weekends and summer vacations. We even traveled to the U.S. with our parents before I started high school.

We don't see each other that much in college. But we were still meeting up on weekends to visit Grandpa, to have snacks, to get updates on each other's goings-on. When work started for us, our gatherings became rare. It would be long since I get updated on their lives. My parents would even know more about them than I do (because our parents see each other often). Two of them would sometimes go out, and I was not available. In short, we were not complete save for major family gatherings like 1st birthdays or weddings.

Of the three who came home, I only had a chance to see two. I realize I miss those times of closeness, the friendship I found in my extended family. Sometimes, distance does matter. I long for a big gathering for us, where we would sit together for a dinner of Chinese Lumpia that we ourselves made, and talk animatedly, just like before.