Merry Christmas

Feliz Natal

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Feliz Navidad

Happy Anniversary to me

Today, it is my second blog anniversary!!

When I started to blog, I could never imagine how important this blog would become to me and how many wonderful people I would meet!!

Thank you all my fellow bloggers.

Christmas Shopping

Since we got engaged in 2000, this is our first Christmas so close to our families.

At first we were going to Paulo's family here in S*ã*o P*a*u*l*o, but....

I've been really worried about my grandpa, he is presenting a few Alzheimer's Symptoms and he has an aneurism in his aorta. So my mom suggested that we all spend Christmas together this year. Paulo and I, my sister, my BIL, my niece, my brother, my brother's girlfriend and her mom, my BIL's mom, my mom, my dad and my grandpa. So, we apologized with Paulo's family and we will be leaving on Dec 23rd and we will come back on Dec 25th at night.

With this new dynamic, we really had to go Christmas's shopping! What a problem heheheh!!! But I put a price for each gift and I needed to stay with it. Let me make myself clear, the budget does not apply to our presents (Paulo and mine's).

So, today was the day. We left the house to go to the church, but we passed by an A*d*i*d*a*s Outlet! Bye, bye-bye mass!! Paulo is just crazy about their things, so he ended up buying a pair of snickers. Then we went to a restaurant for lunch and out to the stores.

We live close by a neighborhood called Moema. This neighborhood is really special, it is a residential place, but it has a whole range of good stores and some outlets as well.

My first stop was a clothes store called H*e*r*i*n*g. They always have a good collection of T-shirts (yes, I am that original) with reasonable prices. There, I found gifts for my brother, my BIL, my sister and my dad. After there, we went window shopping a little and we arrived at P*B*K*i*d*s, where we found the kids gifts (my niece and Paulo's niece and nephew.). Those are the best gifts to buy, but you do have to pay attention in the price tags (toys can be really expensive).And I finally stopped by at Shoestock to buy my mom's gift. So I am just missing my grandpa's gift, but I will talk to my mom before I buy him anything.

And then, I just have to buy my New Year's Eve dress, and a few pieces for the summer!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday!!!

Long commute, high heels and the newest habit!!!

When you live in a city like São Paulo, traffic jams are your everyday standard. There is always huge traffic jams everywhere. It can take more than 60 minutes to drive only a few miles.

I work pretty close to my house, but it is completely out of the way. Since I don't have a car yet (I will have one by the end of the next week I hope), I have to go by bus+subway. So, I take a bus (a thirty minutes ride) and a subway (5 minutes ride) when I go to work in the morning. It is actually pretty good for São Paulo standards. But to come back, the commute is just a HUGE NIGHTMARE!!! The subway ride takes about 5 minutes, but the bus ride takes at least 60 minutes. When I get home, I am completely wasted, I can barely move.

So, I've been asking around if I can take another bus.... and I finally discovered. I can take only one bus to go (35/40 minutes ride) and one bus to come back (45/60 minutes ride). But there is a little problem, after I get off the bus I have to walk for 20 minutes up the hill in really bad sidewalks with high hills.... I did this huge mistake in my first trial with the new commute, and now I wear a pair of snickers and when I arrive at the office, I put my heels on ; )

I wrote about my new habit of exercising. I finally finished my 21 days period and I can tell you, I can really see the difference in my clothes and I do have to work out. Marilyn, you were right, it is an addiction.

So, as soon as I got the new habit in me, I started to work and with this commute hours, I don't have strength to go at night. Then I made a though decision, I am waking up at 5:00 am, three times a week and I work out for about one hour. I am so proud of myself.

~Have a nice weekend~

I have to live up to my father's name!!

I don't know if I ever told you, that my father and I share the same profession. Actually, I don't know if I ever told you what is my profession.

I graduated at Computer Science (under my father's influence) and I DON'T regret. I love this job. But I HATE the overtime, weekends and midnight calls when you are under a huge project with loads of changes. The last one was the main reason that I quit my job in Bahia and I ended up working at F*O*R*D in the logistics area.

Anyway, after this detour, I finally realize that I really like the IT area and I would go back eventually.

When we arrived in São Paulo, I started to look for a job and I sent my resume to my father. I asked him if he could send to one of his friends. So he did it.

It didn't take long, for one of his friends company's call me. When I arrived to do my interview, the manager told me: "Your resume came in a really unusual circumstance, Mr. XXXXX sent it to me, and when I read it, came to me: Are you Ferri's daughter?". I said "Yes, I am".

So, the interview took the normal course, with a little test and a promise of a future call. I left the interview with the impression that they could hire me only because of my maiden name. A week later they called me and said that I was approved and I need to start on Nov 26th.

On Nov 26th, I started and to my not so big surprise, I was introduced to all the senior management as Fabiola, Ferri's daughter. They were so happy and the first thing they all said to me was: How is your father?? When is he coming to São Paulo, so we can all meet???

I always had this weird feeling that I have to be even more competent that my dad is, because everyone is always comparing me to him and this time won't be different. I do have to be really good at my job and I have to walk in my toes to live up to their expectations.

~Kisses and Hugs~