I miss snow and I miss Portland

I miss Portland already, it seems like ages since I was there, but just to show you how nice it was (this was taken on the first day of snowfall over there), this was how it looked when God decided to send a nice white blanket on earth that day...

christmasy christmas

Once again, this is one of those random moments when the idea bulb just popped and said, "hey, why not blog again?" It takes a long time in coming, I know.  But you just never know when it hits you, don't it?  It is Christmas day in fair Carson City, as of this writing.  It is an unusual christmas day, however, as we are buffeted with strong winds and sprinkled with bursts of rain now and then.  On a christmas day, you would expect me to be somewhere else, not home, not here; but unfortunately, Auntie's not feeling well today and has decided not to go elsewhere.  Chris and Derrick are supposed to pass by to pick me up, but they may have decided to go against it and to just go directly to the party at George's place in Cerritos. It's just crazy.  I know I should have done a zillion things - like went to San Francisco to be with Karen and her family, or fly to New York to visit Nay Alice and Rodney, but, as fate would find me, I'm stuck.

Silly ramblings alright. But hey, don't make this ruin the rest of your christmas.  I'm fine, (at least, trying to be) and will enjoy the rest of my evening watching tv (which I seldom do on a weekday). Merry Christmas, y'all!

Spring Forward, Fall Backward

They say time flies when you're having fun, I beg to differ - here in America, whether or not you are having fun, time flies.  And flies real fast.  

I am now on my second autumn in America.  As I type this out, I had just confirmed that I am indeed getting a pay raise at work, and will be retaining the usual 9 hours that I have been following at work since November of last year.  Although I immensely enjoy the money I have been earning lately, I had my share of the stresses at work.  

You see, I work for an online printing company in West Los Angeles, a frontliner for customer service (a.k.a. receptionist), who handles day-to-day walk-in clients, who flock in a handful a day. When I started, there was a time when I would be praying very hard before starting work that no untoward incident happens (e.g., 1) client does not get the order on time, hence makes a scene and throws tantrums; or 2) client demands for a job that is really not supposed to be ready at that time and starts some nasty-name calling-with-door-banging episodes on the way out; or 3) the boss a.k.a CEO who, for some reason, just randomly finds fault with anybody he sees on his way to wherever and starts picking or finding fault with just about everybody.  But thank God, maybe I have been very careful, or he realized that I am doing my job to his satisfaction that example number 3 does not happen much often anymore.  And we have since added more people and distributed the responsibilities so all I need to do everytime an irate client complaints about late jobs and the like is to bring out this spiel: "I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience, but I will have my escalation manager look into the matter as I am not in the position to decide over this, but rest assured that I will recommend a [refund, in case of delay/store credit, in case the job was short, messed up, missing/or a reprint, if the other two are not feasible to the client in front of me].

After a little more than a year, I am actually starting to like what I do!  I have since been doing livechat, taking chat requests from clients inquiring on how to upload files to the website, accomodating payments, and tracking down orders.  Modesty aside, I have been complimented by a lot of clients on my brand of customer service (blushing).

What I like most about this job is that I get to interact with different types of people.  It is never a dull day at the Digital Room.  There is always somebody who walks in and brings in interesting jobs, who would, every now and then, give his/her ten cents' worth of ideas on politics and the economy, experiences on world travels, and potshots at the colorful people who live in nearby Hollywood.

Life in these United States has never been so colorful.  I am getting the hang of it.