DISORIENTED.

It's only been two weeks since I returned but it feels like two months already. I have no right to return to my lazybone self because, as many said, I recently came from training. I got to learn many issues and grievances but I don't know what exactly I was trained for. Heehee. I remember going shopping for bags, and depleting flat my savings (and my relatives') though.

But I'm coping. See...my latest date of pending correspondence is February 9...that's barely a fortnight compared to a month (until forgotten) before last year ended. I don't know if my eyeglasses made me really work. There were days when I worked for an hour and surfed the net for the next eight hours (including lunch break, you know). Or sometimes my hour's worth of work comes in between...say, surf for four hours, work for one, then surf for the next four. At least, I mastered the art of minimizing browsers. It's actually just a right blend of sensitivity (to know if someone's coming or just passing behind you) and finger motion (to minimize). It's very vital to have an MS Word document simultaneously open with your surfing windows because it is your fall back. Don't mind if it's the same document all throughout the day...no one will bother to scrutinize what you're doing. Plus, all our correspondences should be made in standard Times New Roman, size 12 so the one-document-open-for-the whole-day really works. Hello, my name is Dilbert.

Of course, I'm kidding.

Sure, I may not be that passionate worker who really prioritizes my job above all my interests but still, I--actually, we-- work our asses off every single day, catering to the needs of our customers, no matter how ridiculous their demands could be. It is a fact that we cannot flaunt our jobs like most of you because of security reasons, but the pride that we get from it is just different, even if nothing is publicly said about it. By the way, during the training, I know that they mean it naman, it has been the DoS' line that they are proud of and thankful to all the foreign service nationals around the globe. It's something that can be simply said over and over but I actually felt the need to tear when I heard it from almost all our speakers/trainors.

As I said, I may not be one from who/where work innovation may originate, but I would like to pride myself to be a good and active member of the workgroup. Almost half of my colleagues are technically my boss and add to that an extreme amount of casework and occasional problem officemates, then that constitutes my work.

So, I titled this disoriented because I started writing on a Friday afternoon, supposed to be "wrapping up" day of the week which turned out to be the opposite. Now that I'm finishing it at 6 a.m., after a long 9-hour sleep, things actually feel much better. Something that will arm you for Tuesday (Monday is President's Day), when your backlog will greet you, a hundred more will come, and a thousand plus applicants to process will be waiting to be serviced. Initially, my team is not involved in directly servicing these applicants as they come, but with that ridiculous number, I know we will be asked to help. Which I would be willing to do, honestly. (I've been meaning to say something, more like a complaint, about how we are treated at times, but I decided not to. This is a very good morning.)