lethargic

i was on the phone with my dear friend this morning.  she's in clark.

after her it was my best friend -> she's in nueva ecija.

just a while ago, i was talking to my high school buddy.  she's in mindoro.

hmmm... looks like i'm the only one who did not go out of town... : }

my high school buddy had actually invited me to go with her to mindoro.  i declined.  i don't feel like traveling.  i dunno.  could it be age?  yikes!

falling into place

i drove my mom and my aunts to the moviehouse this afternoon.  the same place where my batchmates and i watched a movie last saturday.  the classmate who has seen fewer movies than i have crossed my mind... and i thank our lucky stars i brought my cell phones that day otherwise we wouldn't have been able to hook up.

i was supposed to meet my high school buddy and her son, my godchild, that day.  upon setting the schedule, i sent an e-mail to our high school e-group saying everyone is welcome to join our get-together.  a classmate sent e-mail saying he would come if he does not forget.  (i didn't remind him and apparently he did forget, ha-ha.)  another said he'd be coming, too.

so meeting was 3 pm.  i arrived on the dot.  my buddy and her son, together with her sister and niece and nephew, were already there and they've just ordered lunch.  they said they had a late breakfast so are having lunch just at 3 pm.  i didn't anymore eat as i was just at another godchild's birthday party lunchtime.

after eating, the teens roamed around supposedly to go shopping.  we stayed behind at the restaurant for some adult buddy talk:  about life, about loves  ->  past and future, no present, ha-ha.  4 pm we joined the teens in their (window) shopping.  all along, i had my phones with me so my dear friend who was going to join us would know where we are.

my friend arrived past 5 pm and told me that a classmate told her another classmate was supposed to be joining us at the restaurant.  ooops... we left the restaurant 4 pm!  yikes!  it was already 5:15!  we went back to the venue but saw no one.  i texted her source about our situation and the source replied she didn't say the classmate was going.  she said the classmate actually has just recovered from sickness.  oh, ok.  sigh of relief.  we therefore proceeded to the venue where we were supposed to watch a movie.

while waiting for the movie, we decided to go to starbucks.  when i plopped my bag on the table, i heard a familiar sound, beyonce's check on it.  i moved my ear to my bag asking, "is that my phone?"  i'm not used to having my phones with me roam-around time, you see.  well, yup, the sound was coming from my bag, from my phone.  and, i had 6 missed calls and 3 text messages!  uh-oh.  they're all from the classmate who was supposed to have just recovered from sickness.  she was asking where we are.  she was at the restaurant.  eh?  it was close to 7 pm!  i started wondering what meeting time i wrote in the e-mail i sent out.  it's supposed to be 3 pm.  i tell her we're at starbucks and will be going inside the theater in a few minutes.  she follows us to the place... and watches the movie with us.  her first since 2004.  aaawww.  isn't that nice?

i was just thinking everything seemed to have fallen into place.  had my dear friend gone to the meeting place with me, which she usually does except for that day when she had to attend to something first, i would not have brought my phones with me.  i would have left them in the car as i usually do.  had i done that, my classmate wouldn't have been able to locate us and not seen her first movie in 4 years.  hmmm... hmmmm... hmmmm... yup, everything does work together in ways we don't really expect... some blessings indeed come in disguise...

rarer still

i watched my second movie for the year yesterday.  yup, less than a week to year-end and i've seen only two movies the entire year.  first was a very special love last august.  second was desperadas 2 yesterday.  neither would be a finalist as greatest movie of all time, ha-ha, but i'd also say neither was an awful way to spend time ; )

the second almost became iskul bukol, 20 years after, oh my.  good thing the group decided to break up for the movie and just get together again after.  the first group (my godson, his cousins, his aunt and his grandmother)  watched iskul bukol.  the second group (my high school buddy (my godson's mom), two batchmates, a schoolmate and i) went to see desperadas 2.

entering the theater i told one batchmate it was just my second movie for the year.  she counters the last movie she watched was in 2004 yet.  ooops... i told her good thing she followed us otherwise there would have been at least a five-year gap in her movie-watching : }

in bed last night, "i cried when i had no shoes..." lingered in my mind...

bananas

bananas from my best friend



i had fried bananas at breakfast today. no ordinary bananas. they're harvest from my best friends's husband's land. and they are really good actually.

last friday, i was surprised when my mom told me my best friend sent bananas to their place. i think i know why. a couple of weeks back, my dear friend and i were at my best friend's place and her husband was offering us fruits. my dear friend ate. me, i just said thank you but did not eat.

they offered some other.

no, thanks again.

how about this?

no.

that?

no, thanks.

(there's always so much food in their house. if you're hungry, that's where you should go. don't ever make the mistake of going to my place, you'd die of hunger, ha-ha. i am not a food person, you see. i'm a sleep person. before i got married, my sister told my fiance i am low maintenance. she said, 'you need not feed her, just let her sleep.' true, lol!)

anyway, my best friend's husband mentioned a number of fruits and i told him i don't eat them. i said it's just bananas that i like.

two weeks later they send a bunch to my parents' place. isn't that sweet? i truly appreciate the item, more so the thought. i feel so lucky having such people in my life. thank you, guys... : )

young and old

after the school presentation yesterday, i was fixing stuff in my bag before boarding my car when i heard voices saying "miss... miss..."

i didn't think i was the one being called so i just ignored it.  but then it kept on going and the voices seemed so near.  i turned around and saw two kids behind me.

i asked, "bakit?"

one replied, "miss, may boyfriend ka na?"

huh????!!!!  these are school kids, as in, 3rd or 4th grade!

there's a 30-year-old guy who's been trying to play cute with me and i just tell him off, saying he's too young.  now i have before me two grade school kids?!  yikes!  suddenly 30 seemed old... and 43, ancient!  ugh!

all the world's a stage

i'm supposed to have 3 meetings today, 3 simultaneous meetings.  now there's only one of me so yesterday, i asked my officemate to choose which ones they'd like to attend and whatever's left will be what i will attend.  well, guess what.  the one assigned to me has been set for the 23rd.  instead of attending either of the remaining two, i decided to attend instead the annual school presentation of my nephew and my niece held at the theater of a university near my office (my alma mater actually).

so there i was in the audience, seated beside my sister-in-law, waiting for my nephew to appear onstage.  then my sister-in-law tells me that the voice we're hearing is that of my nephew.  (the audio for the presentation has been pre-recorded and the actors were now just lip-synching their lines.)  i asked my sister-in-law where my nephew was as there were only a handful of characters onstage and i couldn't see him.  she says it's just his voice.  he won't be appearing in that scene.  oh, ha-ha-ha.  ok.

so watch, listen, watch, listen.  and then what we've been waiting for, my nephew appeared onstage.  it was a dance sequence.  goody-good!!!  he dances well  : )   true!!!  i'm not saying this simply because he is my nephew.  i was very happy.

i thought that was it for him so there i was awaiting the appearance of my niece when what do you know, my nephew again appears onstage.  there was a group of dancers on centerstage and there he was to the far side, holding a sign which read 'APPLAUSE.'  he would put it up every once in a while, ha-ha-ha.  it's part of the presentation.  he's supposed to be a floor director/prompter in that scene while another schoolmate was supposed to be a cameraman holding a cardboard camera making as if he were shooting the dancers.

i was actually uncomfortable in that sequence.  i was thinking my nephew would have preferred to be among the dancers in that scene instead of a floor director.  i just prayed that his young mind would understand that their group already had their moment earlier and now it's another group's time to take centerstage.  (it was a school presentation, as in, every class, every single student actually, teacher even, from nursery to high school, was part of the cast.  i was oh so amused by the presentation of the little ones.  sooo out of synch (every kid was dancing to the beat of his own drum, ha-ha) but soooo cute nevertheless.) 

anyway, i was just thinking, regardless of the number of people onstage, regardless of whether you are on centerstage or in the sidelines, the ones who love you will always have their focus on you... you'll always be the cast member who matters in their eyes...

gaming

i didn't go to the office today.  i still am not feeling well and i wanted to rest.  the thing is, i wasn't able to rest.  i wasn't able to sleep this afternoon as i was preoccupied with myminilife  : }  aaargh!!!  this is an addiction already!

saturday i was at serendra when my laptop's battery ran out.  could you imagine, for the first time ever, i went to netopia at market!market! to rent a pc to continue what i was doing.  i was there until closing (almost 3 hours!).

weeks back, i was at bonifacio stop-over to buy my weekend pizza meal.  i noticed that gloria jean's had free wi-fi.  guess what, i went back to my car to get my laptop and then stationed myself at a corner table to do myminilife.  (i did buy a tumbler of i don't remember anymore to sip while using their wi-fi.)  'twas just the second time in my life i ate alone at a restaurant.  usually i just buy take-out and don't stay at the place.

years back when computer games were still new, i got addicted to pacman and this certain driving game.  i would be up till dawn just playing and playing and playing.  then one night i suddenly asked myself, why on earth am i doing this?  right there and then, i quit, cold-turkey, and haven't gone back to gaming, at least, until september when i discovered myminilife.

i like that you have custom outputs here, that you go shopping, that you get to build homes you wouldn't normally afford to build in real-life, ha-ha.  i now have 35 lots, some with completed homes, others under construction, still others yet to be constructed.  i have more than 200 thousand minibucks and will be buying 5 more lots tomorrow (i like the date).

this one i don't really intend to quit.  but i sure intend to cut down.  that would be my new year's resolution.  no more than 2 hours of myminilife per day.  plus no renting of computers just to play.  i won't really be waiting for new year to implement the resolution.  i'll start tomorrow.

in case you want to see my homes, they're at http://www.myminilife.com/cynthia.  the more views i get, the more minibucks i earn, the more items i could buy, the less sleep i will have... ooops, joke!  i intend to keep my new year's resolution this time... : )

sick

i was running a fever last night.  on top of that, i had a runny nose :}

i would have skipped the office today except that we had a dance presentation in the afternoon.  my morning meeting i could have made someone else attend; the dance, however, would really have to be me.

in spite of not feeling well therefore, i still showed up at the office.  i attended my morning meeting, partook of a birthday lunch after, then participated in the dance in the afternoon.  the meeting was in another building within our office compound, the lunch and the dance in still another building also within the compound.

by the time i got back to my office, i was just so pooped.  i told my officemate i was just going to rest awhile.

i sat on my chair and rested my head on my desk.  my phone rings.  it's the manager of some project asking whether they could go to my office to discuss some things.  oh... ok.  so we met and discussed and adjourned.

i told my officemate i really wanted to lie down.  i formed three chairs into a makeshift bed and told her i was just going to lie down awhile as i felt like i was about to collapse already.

i haven't been there 5 minutes when someone comes in telling me that a korean was looking for me.  i thought it was one of our inter-agency project consultants.  ' turns out it was the malaysian from one of our other projects.  (yesterday my officemate told me that a taiwanese was looking for me.  i didn't know any taiwanese we have dealings with so i was wondering whether it was the taiwanese my best friend met while stranded in bangkok. but why on earth would he be at my office?  when i came out, it turned out to be the same malaysian.  he's so fair and chinky-eyed, malaysia's not really the first thing that comes to mind when you see him.)  anyway, we discuss some things and then he leaves.

soon after, i had to take the call of the head of one of our data centers.  much as i wanted to, i couldn't go back to my 'bed' after we hung up as some other officemate has dropped by and i didn't want him to see me lying down.

i was so happy when he left and i rushed to my 'bed' right away.  i haven't been there awhile when my phone again rings.  ugh!!!  it is again the malaysian.  we talk and after the call, i tell my officemate, 'i don't want to lie down anymore!!!'

she amusedly tells me, 'yup.  something always crops up when you do.'

i therefore spent the rest of the workday on my toes, eagerly looking forward to going home.

then my brother calls, he wouldn't be able to pick up my sister.  i would have to be the one to do it.

i tell my officemate i was going to pick up my sister at 5:30.  she reminds me, 'but you're coding today!'

ooops...  i forgot!  my car's not supposed to be on the road until 7 pm.  aaarrgh!!!  i couldn't wait that long!  i was going to drop dead already.

i told my officemate if i get apprehended i'll just ask the officer to touch my neck so he would feel my fever.  i suppose he'll let me off the hook that way.

my officemate tells me, 'what if he asks you instead how come you're driving when you're not feeling well?'

waaaahhh!!!  times like this i couldn't help but long for someone special in my life.  someone i could call and say, "sweetheart, i'm not feeling well.  kindly pick me up please..."

i wonder when he'll come.  i hope it will be soon...

sakto

we're supposed to have a provincial deployment today.  afternoon i texted the one assigned to the activity to check how he is and to remind him to ring me in case he encounters problems.

soon after sending the message, my phone rings.  i reject his call and then ring him back (so the charges will be on me not on him).

i go, "kumusta ka diyan?  may problema ba?"

"ma'am, naiwan po ako ng eroplano..."

ooops... i thought he was already in mindanao turns out he's still in manila.  i cut the call and dial his landline.

"na-late ka ng gising kaya ka na-late sa airport?"

"hindi po, ma'am!  eksakto po ako kaya lang naiwan ako ng eroplano."

oh... eksakto pala 'yun?!  hmmm...

resched... : }

pictures

at the christmas party last friday, a batchmate approached me and asked for a picture.  i said ok and went with him to their table.  they were ready for the shot and there i was standing still waiting for whoever it was who was going to take the vacant seat at the center.  i asked, 'how come there's an empty chair?  who's going to sit there?'

they said it was for me.  oh, ha-ha.  i thought they wanted me to take their picture.  ' turns out they wanted a picture with me.  lol!  comedy.

reminds me of the same group's christmas party last year.  my dear friend told me, 'you have pictures with so many guys!'

hmmm, i didn't notice that.  i checked out the shots and true enough, i had pictures with this guy and that.  uh-oh.  i told my dear friend they were the ones who asked for a picture not i.

she then chides me, 'how come you obliged them but not big brother?'  (big brother is someone who's been interested in me since high school.)

oh, so that is her point.  i told her we do have pictures.  she, however, wanted ones where there's just the two of us.  yikes!

when i was in the US, a batchmate was telling me that they thought big brother and i were an item.

i was like, 'huh?!  where'd you get that?'

he said from the pictures.

really?!  we have lots and lots of pictures but i don't think i can pinpoint a particular one which would lead them to such a conclusion.

last friday, a classmate suddenly asked us, 'what is the truth?'

i thought he was being philosophical or something, profoundly asking about truth during a supposedly light-themed christmas party, he-he.  ' turns out he was asking about the truth between big brother and me (we were seated beside each other, with a decent distance between our respective chairs, take note.).  this is his first time to attend a batch gathering and he has such a question?  what's going on here?!

to set the record straight, we do hang out but ALWAYS in groups, NEVER just the two of us.  and read this, and read this well, regardless of how things may seem in pictures, we were never an item.  to be blunt about it, we've never kissed, we've never hugged, we've never even held hands.  ' hope this clarifies things...

t not d

i attended my second christmas party for the year last night.  i got home 5:20 this morning : }

the party was supposed to start at 6 pm, my friends and i arrived close to 10 already  (it was my parents' wedding anniversary;  my best friend had another party;  my dear friend attended a political rally).  even if we missed a big chunk, we had a really fun and enjoyable night nevertheless  ->  talking, laughing, dancing, posing, ha-ha

one of my classmates, our first time to meet again since high school graduation more than two and a half decades ago, told me he really enjoyed looking at our pictures.

i went, 'really?  which ones?'

he goes, 'your shots...'

now my shots appear not just in my site but in the site of another batchmate as well.  she reuploaded more than a thousand of them to the site she administers (' am tolerating piracy here so no cause for concern).  i therefore ask, 'what site?'

he hesitates a bit then goes, 'front... back...'

i was like, 'huh?!  site! t!'

he didn't quite get it still so i said, 'sites, i, t, e... picasa, multiply...'

he chuckles and goes, 'oh, i thought side.  picasa.'

lol!  why on earth would i ask what side of my shots he enjoyed?  we're not talking chicken here -> leg part?  breast part?  ha-ha.  oh, guys... ; )

putting a smile to my day : )

i woke up to the following text this morning:

Gud mrning
... pretty, dazzling & stunning ...
...
Ingat s pagdrive, roads are slippery 2day.
Have a nice day.


nice way to start a day : )

sometime back i also received the following text from the same guy:

Gud mrning
... pretty, charming & flawless ...
(ok b s intro hehehe)...
...


i replied:  K. Ingat

his next text made me chuckle:

K lng? I was ac2ually starting a cnversation...
...
Pro oks lng...hehe. work muna.


ooops, i was ultra-busy that time so my reply was brief, ha-ha... he did pick up so i guess it's really ok.

i am grounded enough to know that there are elements of levity and exaggeration in such texts and they should not be taken seriously, they make me smile nevertheless.  thanks, guy... : )

i wish! ; )

the inter-agency meeting i attended last tuesday was in makati.  now, my car is coding tuesdays so from quezon city (it was an afternoon meeting), i took public transportation going to the venue.  first a jeepney (i try to avoid cabs when i'm alone), then the train.

there were only a handful of us in the jeep and to my right was a guy who gave his fare to the driver through me.  i noticed that he was cute, ha-ha, and a seeming gentleman, too  ->  he so nicely said 'thank you' when i got his money to hand over to the driver.  i liked that.  not everyone says 'thank you' for little things.

he, however, almost made me burst into a laugh when he suddenly started to sing along to the tune  playing on the radio.  he was unmindful of the other passengers and was singing as if he were in his own car!  (i do that in my car, ha-ha)  i couldn't help thinking, could it be his car was simply not available, too, that is why he is riding the jeep?

anyway, the song was vulnerable:

she's so vulnerable
like china in my hands
she's so vulnerable
and i don't understand
i could never hurt the one i love
she's all i've got
but she's so vulnerable

i first heard that song a long time ago and liked it.  i haven't heard it in a while.  suddenly this guy is singing it out so loud.  i was actually tempted to sing along, ha-ha-ha.  for a while there i wished he were singing it for me.  oh, well...

yes or no?

i was at an inter-agency meeting yesterday.  then, during a lull in the discussions, the presiding officer mentioned that our agency backed out of showing a foreign guest around.  i was taken aback, but kept quiet, amused at the statement.  and then what do you know, the co-chairperson pointed to me and said, 'you, it was you who backed out.'

huh?!  my amusement turned to embarrassment.  i said i did not back out explaining 'back out' is when you say 'yes' and then you change your mind.  i said mine was 'no' all along.

the presiding officer countered i reportedly said yes.

whoa!  we were meeting in their boardroom and we had a u-shaped table and all this was very well heard by those around the table.  this is an inter-agency meeting, attendees were not just from our office but from different companies : }  i really didn't want to talk about it but, to defend myself, ha-ha, i gave a brief of what happened.

i said i received a text message from my big boss asking whether i could show a friend of hers around and the friend was supposedly looking for a girlfriend and i just might like the guy.  i said i replied i could show him around but if he's looking for a girlfriend i'd rather not.

there were chuckles in the room.  end of inter-agency story.

now for the details:

my reply actually was:

Ooops... R u serious mam?
Pd k sana cya samahan para ipasyal
kya lng kng naghahanap ng gf
parang yaw k nmn.
Wa p po akong bf
pero my suitors p ako, haha.
Huwag n lng p mam ; )


(yup, i back up my phone messages to my computer.)

was i surprised therefore when following day my boss's secretary called me up about the arrangements for my supposed meeting with the foreign guest.  huh?!  i told the secretary i declined the night before.  the secretary got back to my boss and then came back to me saying my boss said i said yes.  she said my boss was going to provide a driver, etc.  huh???!!!  i reiterated i said no and forwarded to the secretary my reply to my boss the night before.  she confers with my boss and comes back to me saying it's ok, they'll just say i backed out.  yikes!

i showed the above text message to my officemates and asked them whether it meant i was going out with the guy or not.  every single one initially said i was not.  when i, however, asked them how come our boss was saying i said yes, every single one, ha-ha, dissected my text message and came up with the conclusion that it was a yes.  whoa!  it was a 'no' to me!!!

i kidded my officemates that's probably the reason my marriage failed  ->  i wasn't getting across  : }

the concern is mutual

the party i attended last friday had a red and green theme.  guests were requested to wear either of the two colors.

now, i am not really a color person.  i prefer my clothes in muted shades, subdued, neutrals.  whenever you see me in a colorful outfit, you can be pretty sure what i'm wearing is not mine.  it could be my mom's, or my sisters', or my sister-in-law's, ha-ha.  i often borrow from their closets  ; )

for a red or green outfit therefore, i had to again look outside my own.  i checked out my parents' place and found a few reds.  i got a simple one and brought another as well thinking  my dear friend might want to wear it to the party.

guess what, when i picked her up and pointed to the red top hanging in the car for her, she brought out of her bag a spare green top intended for me!  she said she was thinking i might not have a red or green outfit.  aaww... isn't that sweet?  thinking of each other.  i really am thankful i have such people in my life... : )

sticking it out

i attended my first christmas party for the year last friday.  it was actually the christmas party of one of the companies owned by the taiwanese businessman my best friend met while stranded in bangkok.

part of the program was a speech from the businessman.  he acknowledged the presence of my best friend and then went on to relate how things were while they were in bangkok -> eating, eating, eating, always eating, he gained so much weight.

what struck me most in his speech was the part where he said, during the time when flights were uncertain, his wife called him asking him to contact the manager of a certain airline.  one of their companies has airline connections and his wife told him the manager has guaranteed a seat for him.  true enough, when he called the airline, the manager assured him that a seat is available for him.  he could have left that friday but he could not bear to leave the friends he had made while in bangkok, i.e., my best friend, her officemate and a belgian guy.  amid the uncertainty of the situation, he opted to stay.  they all finally got to fly back to the philippines tuesday already.

(he said he told his wife about this only upon his return.  during the time when she called him in bangkok asking why he hasn't come back, he simply told her, "no seat.")

oh, that is so kind.  thinking not just of yourself but of others.  my friend got really lucky in bangkok.

head and shoulders

ha-ha, this text made me laugh:

hidden soldiers.



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V

pacman's reply to the question:


what is the world's number 1 anti-dandruff shampoo?



; )

unfazed

last night we were at my best friend's house to welcome her back after being stranded in bangkok a few days.  she had a lot of stories, good and bad.  apparently, the good very much outweighed the bad  ->  she was convincing us to join her on a trip to vietnam!!!  she was there just a few months back!  yikes!  not at all fazed by the bangkok experience : }

bangkok

i received a call from my best friend this evening.  she'll be back tomorrow aboard a special flight taking off from a military airport.

she is among those stranded in bangkok because of the closure of the Suvarnabhumi airport.  she left sunday on a personal/pleasure trip with an officemate and was supposed to be back wednesday except that rallyists took over the airport tuesday evening.

she was worried, irked and inconvenienced in the early stages but was already ok not long after.  i was surprised actually.  she kept on telling me before, she's a changed person now, strong and positive.  much as i would have liked to believe, i must say i was not totally convinced.  at least, until this bangkok experience.  i believe her now.  through it all, i did see someone strong and optimistic.  i am surprised and i am very, very happy.  keep it up friend  : )

i'm taking the liberty to share two of her text messages to me while there:

"Sbgay srap buhay dto dami fud kain tulog lng relax.pg dating dyan presured ulit sa work.me taiwanese bus.man p kmi frend dto gud thing di p alis n iwan kmi"


"U r rite bfrend i know everythin hapens 4 a reason n 4 d best.o positive na outluk ko di ba.thnx 2 u.sbi hipag ko pti usa n davao nkta me tv.dami pa love sa kin"



she got interviewed while there and the interview was shown in various newscasts.  my sister was saying so many people there, she was chosen to be asked and her portion was aired.  i didn't see it but a lot of people did.  she got a lot of calls and messages after that.  the calls, highly appreciated, of course, got us worried though.  she's on roaming and whatever messages and calls she receives, she gets corresponding charges.  we've twice made advance payments to her phone so she would not exceed her credit limit.  we didn't want her line to be cut-off, even just temporarily, as there would be delays in reconnection.

i was on the phone with her husband and he was telling me he was initially thinking his wife would get burned somehow and not go out as much after bangkok.  then when he talked to her over the phone, he said his thoughts changed to, 'aba, hindi madadala ito!  buffet, executive breakfasts, free accommodations... nag-enjoy pa!'

i'm not sure whether my best friend mentioned that the hotel is just across a mall.  and that they've gained friends, one belgian, the other taiwanese.  plus we discovered that it was so easy to send her money.  i sent through western union the money her husband gave and my best friend just crossed the street to claim it.  voila, her funds were replenished, ha-ha.  ooops, uh-oh?  ; )

anyway, this is not intended to make light of the current situation in thailand.  there is danger, there are risks.  there are lessons to be learned, agencies to be emulated and agencies to be rebuked.  not everyone is as fortunate as my best friend.  she just got really lucky but even then i think she'll have a mouthful to say, especially about her airline, once she comes back.  being positive does not just mean taking everything in stride.  it could also mean taking action so the negatives do not proliferate.