The First Time.

Sometime October 2013

I quit my teaching job to try and work it out with an ex who I discovered was cheating on me. The guy, hereinto who shall be referred to as x, implied that one reason why the relationship had not been working out was because of the distance, both physical and time-zone wise - read, he was a call center person.

I applied at this company called "Not X's Company" at Market! Market! and got hired for a customer service account for a British grocery delivery account. It was a UK account so work starts 4pm and ends 1am. I was fine with it. X wasn't happy about it, and insisted that I live somewhere else. I found friends to live with, I learned that he had been at it for over 6 months already, so I stormed to their house, and slapped the bejesus outta him. And then that was that.

Before I signed my contract though, the HR officer told me that they were also looking for people to join a 10 man team for a new LOB (Line of Business) and I had the chops for it so why don't I go and interview with the head big boss to check if I was worthy. Apparently I was. (yay)

The job started sometime October 2013 *insert jeers of title-sakes here* and I was the first member of the team. It was called "XYZ". For the first few days of training, they didn't know what to do with me and let me join the other customer service trainees. It was fun and life was easy and I felt sort of special to be the first of this XYZ elite team that was yet existing.

L-R. Me, Jazzie, Crystel, Mutya, Mama Jha. I'm XYZ, they're Customer Service 

and then one day

Mutya, one of the resident gay guys in the batch (there's typically one or two every wave, believe me I have done a lot of training) came in the room very excited and said, "Tiffany!!! There's a new member of the XYZ team and I saw him! His name also starts with a T and rhymes with your name! and he's cute so you can stop being heartbroken already!" In our batch, there were two of us who were heartbroken, and the other one was wayyyy prettier than me.

I rolled my eyes.

And then he walked in.

And boyyyyy was he a looker.

-end-

I kid, I kid. I saw him, and thought, Meh, he looks stereotypical, Hiphop, overly friendly and all that. Plus someone like this MUST have a Filipina wife/ girlfriend.

Jazzy, (resident gay guy number 2) did not let me down. He immediately asks : "UY ARE YOU SINGLE?"

Everyone stops breathing.

"Yes," he says.

I silently looked at other broken-hearted chick. I squinted my eyes and pursed my lips. It was on. Hahahaha. No, This guy says his name was Timothy, of course Timothy and Tiffany jokes started and he was gracious enough to not spoil everybody's fun.

He's brokenhearted, he starts, left in a country by a girl who he'd been together with for seven years. He doesn't know where to go, and he's stuck in the Philippines. He grew up all over the world, his parents are in DC and tickets are not inexpensive. He has family in Zambales but he didn't want to impose as everybody had lives of their own and families to feed. He decided to get a job, he says, and what better job than call center?

After everybody introduced themselves, Tim and I decided to walk together during break just because we were the only members of the XYZ team, and everyone else was customer service. We might as well get along.

And I shall never forget the first sentence he spoke to me:

Tim: Hey, did you lose a lot of weight? (I did. Breakups do that to you)

Me: Yeah, how did you know?

Tim: 'cuz your butt is small but your boobs are still huge.

Me: your observational skills are amazing.

and the second conversation we had during lunch.

Tim: So you're also XYZ? Aren't you glad we're getting paid a lot of money for training?

Me: meh- it's not really a lot.

Tim: Really? Php xx,000 is not big enough for you?!

Me: What do you mean Php xx,000?!?! I'm only getting *not Php xx,000*!!!

Tim: Must be because I'm American. I talked directly to Big Boss

Me: ME TOO! WHY AM I GETTING LESS?!?!?!?!

Tim: I don't know, I'm sorry. *proceeds on eating his ice cream*

and that was our first day.

The first day we met. That's the ice cream he kept eating after making me money-sad.

Him in orange, me in red.

Me and Him

ME!!!!ME!!!!ME!!!!ME!!!!ME!!!!ME!!!!ME!!!!

Hi everyone! My name is Tiffany. On a normal day I look like this:

But on special days, I swear I try to look prettier. I am one of the faces that you would see blending in the crowd. I don't like standing out, I feel like that's too much of a bother. But I guess I like dressing up sometimes.

A~nyway, I'm Filipina, born and raised, but my parents kind of brought me up in a weird internationally-knowledgeable household. My dad works on ships and when I was a bit younger I would always be excited to hear stories about the different countries he had gone to while on his ten-month (sometimes even more) travels.

Legend has it that I learned to use chopsticks before the Filipino "kamay" style because my dad gave me a pair of Hello Kitty chopsticks when I was three.

I love love looooove musicals. Mom made sure to blast Broadway, Disney, Opera, everything that is singing-slash-acting during my formative years! I will never get tired of listening to the soundtrack of the popular ones- Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Rent, Wicked, Phantom, Sound of Music, Evita, etc.

I read, but not much recently. Sad face. I find myself tapping on the apps instead of the ebook reader function on the tablet when I try to. I will try to find more time to read. I swear.

I like eating. I'm not picky. I like travelling to sample food.

I like computer games. I want to make a separate blog about why I think it's very seldom to find gamer girls in the Philippines, and what the importance is to Tim and my life.

I've been dabbling in different careers, mostly just jumping back and forth teaching and call-centering. Money versus passion. It's always a sad predicament.

Tim describes me as jaded all the time, and I answer, I'm not jaded, I'm a realist.

Music. Food. Travelling. Games. Reading. Sitcoms. Jaded. Yep that's me.

HIM+

(yes, his has no exclamations hohohohoho)

He is Timothy. Tim. Timmy. On airplane days, he looks like this.

He cleans up nice too don't worry.

Blah. 

He is Filipino-American, born in Zambales, and brought up everywhere. You know when I said I was brought up in an internationally-knowledgeable household? This guy was raised on international households. His family was military so he moved a lot growing up. (btw this is the "script" he uses so hang on). Anybody would be jealous but he says although it was fun and he appreciate everything that he picks up whenever they moved, it was kind of hard to make friends, knowing that when they leave the country, he would never be able to go back to that city and find him and catch up with him. 

Ok more of script answers to questions he's been asked a million times. Why is he here in the Philippines? Obviously, it's because he met me and doesn't want to leave me alone ever again. *eyeroll* 

No, seriously, he loves his family here (extended, mother side). He did not have roots growing up and he wants to stay in a place where he could call home. He doesn't want to impose on anybody so even though he loves his parents and his sister, he doesn't want to just go there and bother them. 

He decided to stay here, work here, build a life here, and visit his family in the provinces now and then. 

He likes pizza, ice cream, video games and rough housing. He's a boy.

He likes history, impressionism, quoting Shakespeare, and swing. He's a sophisticated boy.

He likes animes, superheroes, random facts, and mythology. He's a sophisticated nerdy boy.

Buuut I love him, so he's my sophisticated nerd- and as I always add- in very nice packaging.