Survivor: Chicago The Finale

Day 6 and 7

Sorry for those who have been asking for updates and I appreciate all who have offered help. You have no idea how much attention this series has generated. Day 6 was a pretty boring one and so I didn't bother writing about it anymore. The funniest thing (by my standards) that happened was when I had "Green Garden Expired Salad" for lunch. It was one fourth of a salad bag, some ranch dressing, pepper and "croutons" (which are really old slices of bread that i chopped... then I later found out that croutons are actually baked which is why they're hard... not because they're old and moldy... ewww...). I was saved though on that day since Rico had his farewell party and that night I ate up all the chicken wings i could gobble.

Day 7 came. Woke up, poured some milk that was past the "sell by" date and grabbed a bag of Cheerios (which was on sale at Walgreens). Turned on my laptop, checked my account online and saw that my allowance has been credited already. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! I wanted to eat at Red Lobster that night but was too hungry to wait. I ordered for some Italian Beef (I've always wanted to try that) from Portillo's that night. Strangely, 1/4 into the sandwich and I was already full. :-S

...and so that concludes the reality bit. Some ending credits:

- I should have started a charity... "Alms for Arn" would have sounded nice.
- I lost 7.5 pounds. Maybe if my allowance took 2 more weeks, I would have gone up to 812, knocked and called Gezelle fat. :P
- Thanks to Jaye for making sure I was ok. (mwah)
- Thanks to Ria for offering the food she made for Rico's party.
- Thanks to Vince for offering to drive by and drop some canned goods.
- Thanks to Weng for offering to ship some frozen meat. Can you really do that?
- Thanks to Tessa and Copi for offering to lend me money. You guys would make a great couple.
- Thanks to Tito, Jhon and She for offering to lend me money. Jhon and She would make a good couple but... Jude's my friend e... sorry dre.
- Thanks to Mike for picking up the extra two dollars after our billiards game. That's good for 3 bars of Snickers.
- Thanks to Gezelle, Mel, J-Lo and Aji for always inviting me for dinner.
- Thanks to Gwen for the moral support. :P
- Thanks to Oakwood for the donuts and the cookies from the leasing office.
- Thanks to whoever cooked that pasta in the pantry.

Survivor: Chicago Day 5

Still no money. Actually I have 18 bucks left but I’m setting it aside for emergency. Gezelle paid me 10 bucks (we ate out last week), and loaned me another 10 bucks.

Same question. Different morning. What’s in the kitchen? I have tostito’s, a few more slices of bread, some pasta noodles, and spices. Spaghetti noodles with chips, basil, olive oil and pepper? Sounds nasty but I can place it there with the squirrel recipe :P

Now it gets real ugly. For lunch, I skipped the team lunch out since I went to the bank with Reza to help her setup her account and I thought it would be best if I don’t eat out for the next few days to hold on to what I have left.

Across our conference room was another room where a meeting just ended. It was a lunch meeting and so naturally… there was lunch. But they were now gone… and there was my lunch. I took a bite out of a roast beef sandwich with the petrified bread which carved the upper part of my mouth. Who cares? After that, in the pantry was a big platter of chocolate cookies, brownies and fudge bars.

I had dinner with She, Lei and Sha at Rock N Roll McDonald's. She and I shared a cheeseburger meal. =)

Breakfast: took 2 donuts from the Oakwood lobby
Lunch: kwento
Merienda: Pasta and brownies
Dinner: McDo

Thanks to…
Reza, Pads and Lianne for providing the kwento (or listening to mine)
She, Sha and Lei =D

Status: hungry.

Survivor: Chicago day 4

Still no money. No more pasta. No magic menudo. It’s always the same question I ask every morning while staring at my bare fridge.

“Now what?”

I don’t know why I even bother opening the fridge. Nothing there but my Brita pitcher, some packets of ketchup, cheese and other condiments. For lunch, I ate out with the team and used my emergency funds. I found out there was no maintaining balance for my account. Good.

I had dinner with She and Sha at my place after another long pictorial along Michigan ave. Though it wasn’t much, having people over for lunch/dinner makes you more full.

Breakfast: a donut. It’s on sale at Walgreens
Lunch: cheeseburger and fries at Portillo’s
Merienda: cookie which I took from the leasing office (hee hee hee)
Dinner: Jewel roasted chicken and bread.
Late night snack: the rest of the donuts. Portillo’s choco cake!!!

Thanks to:
Walgreens for placing the donuts on sale. I didn’t check the expiration date anymore. Don’t worry, if it’s bad already, I won’t sue.
Leasing office
She and Sha for having dinner with me. =)
Ria for the choco cake! My favorite!!! :D :D :D

Status: good but wondering when the blessings will end.

Survivor: Chicago day 3

No money. No more pasta. I was checking the house for any makeshift squirrel hunting gear.

Now it’s turning ugly. I was able to use the loose change I have to buy a wrap at the canteen. After work, I went grocery shopping and got me a roasted chicken (my tummy wasn’t well anymore). I invited Gezelle over to help me with the chicken. She brought the rice =)

Breakfast: a cup of water
Lunch: a half wrap.
Merienda: coffee from the pantry
Dinner: Jewel chicken
Late night snack: more water

Thanks to
Gezelle
My ashtray for holding my change for me.

Status: hanging on.

Survivor: Chicago day 2

No money. No more menudo. Time to hunt squirrels at the park?

I went to the office with a laptop and a prayer. Lunch time came and I was going to have coffee for lunch. I bumped into Shellane…

Shellane: yan lang lunch mo?
Arnold: a oo. Diet hahahhah…

20 minutes later she IM’d me and told me there was free salad and pasta at the pantry. 10 seconds later I was at the pantry with a styro plate and a big spoon. Salad? Nah… I took some pasta and placed it in a bowl, grabbed another empty bowl and placed a rubber band. I grabbed another bowl and ate that for lunch. The other one’s for dinner. I’m saved!!! Gezelle IM’d me a few minutes later saying that there’s pasta in the pantry.

“ows? Di nga?” :P

Breakfast: one last serving of menudo. Bye bye menudo.
Lunch: the pantry pasta
Merienda cold pantry pasta
Dinner: pantry pasta in a bowl (and a slice of bread)
Late night snack: even more pantry pasta

And they all tasted like menudo.

Thanks to…
Shellane
Gezelle
Whoever provided the pasta

Status: good.

Survivor: Chicago day 1

The biggest problem will be food as expected. I can go on a few more days without shopping for anything else but food will be the main hurdle.

Breakfast: menudo from tito roger
Lunch: reheated menudo from tito roger
Merienda: reheated menudo from tito roger
Dinner: reheated menudo from tito roger
Late night snack: reheated menudo from tito roger

Thanks to…
- Tito Roger
- Gezelle for bringing me food from Tito Roger =D

Status: good. Developed a strong dislike for menudo for the next few days.

Survivor: Chicago

The Greek tragedy of financial planning. Here’s what happened in a nutshell. I charged a lot for expenses this pay period and so I’m expecting a haul. Pay is given on the 7th. On the 6th, I bought myself a laptop which cost a lot but it was ok since I was gonna get paid the next day anyway. I think it was something I did but fate just came down and kung fu kicked that plan on the crotch.

My payroll processing got screwed up and they couldn’t give me the money yet. Right now my money is there and I’m sure to get it before I leave. The only question is when.

How about my credit card? Good question. There’s another twist when I bought my laptop. I bought one online, I was informed it was backlogged (will take 25 days to ship from their warehouse) and so I cancelled the order. The problem was that the amount floated in my credit account and now my credit card is worthless.

It’s not as bad as it seems to without money while on an onshore assignment. The utilities have been paid for. I have some groceries. Maybe this will be so easy… it will actually be boring and I’ll end up asking you guys to ignore these posts.

So what’s the status? I have 25.05 dollars, a CTA Pass (no need to pay bus/train fares), an ashtray full of loose change and some coins under the couch.

I appreciate the people who are trying to help me. The thing is, I dug myself into this hole and I’ll figure out how to get through this.

…I think.

Welcome to my first reality show series exclusive here at the ArnoldRocks blog! (who would post something this stupid anyway?) By the way, these were all posted on the same day here but I wrote it on my other blog days ago. Don’t mind the date/time. =)

The Past Few Days...

Ran Lakeshore
After some rehab sessions I was ready to try out my knee through some long distance running. Oakwood to Lakefront to North Ave Pier and all the way back. I was running while talking to my friend behind me. I think I was explaining something then a minute later, I looked back and Gezelle was more than 10 feet away from me. We reached the end of the pier with a magnificent view of the Chicago skyline, Lake Michigan and some geese. Dang! We didn’t bring our cameras =(

The next day, I got tendinitis and I was back on the disabled list.

Lucky Strike
Mike and I have been looking for pool tables around downtown to no avail. I know some pool tables but… well… they’re in bars and it’s a totally different environment there. There’s only one place here I know that has those Manila-style pool halls with 15-20 tables lined up.

Gezelle, Mike and I were supposed to go to Lucky Strike down Illinois St. Gezelle bailed out on the last minute after our 2 hour long pictorial in Michigan (pagod :P). Mike and I had to play one on one now on a small 14 dollar an hour table. 14 dollars?!??! (pause to convert)… but we were so desperate to play that we agreed anyway. This was the fastest game I played. No more thinking or strategizing. Just aim and shoot, aim and shoot, aim and shoot and once the 9 ball was down, 5 seconds later the balls are already set followed by a break another 5 seconds later. Mike won 11-6. Bill was 17 dollars (included tax) and we didn’t tip anymore. Mike didn’t know we had to. I didn’t know that Mike didn’t know. So it's Mike fault.

Transit
Clubbing and drinking on a Saturday night in Chicago. We went to transit again (see Gwenny’s blog for details about our previous event there). It was that night when me, She, Sha, Lorna, John and Mike were all not ourselves. Maybe it was the beer. Maybe it was the atmosphere. On a Saturday night that was supposed to be our rest night after a grueling trek earlier that morning, despite the fact that was raining ridiculously, we had fun. Lots of it.

Bought a laptop
It’s a Toshiba A105! :D Cool machine! I bought a lower version of this laptop online but then the order got backordered and fixing that was such a pain. You should have heard me over the phone with a customer service representative who could barely speak English. I was so upset you would have sworn I was talking German.

I eventually cancelled that order and bought one directly at Best Buy Clark. Patience really isn’t one of my virtues.

Rent
“I should tell you, I should tell you, I should tell you, I should tell you…”

Gezelle and I watched Rent… the musical/movie (so do you call it a movical?). We were glued from start to end… analyzing, feeling, singing then finally crying at the end.

Gezelle used up all my tissues. :P The next few hours I was singing about everything I saw…

“The eggs are buuuuurrned… the eggs are buuuuuuurned again”
“I don’t wanna get up, doesn’t feel good, doesn’t feel right after a weird and wacky Saturday niiiiiiiiight”
“I hab to do my laund-ree… so I hab to call up melody… but melody is busy… so I hab to wait for mon-dee”
“Whhhhhhhhhhhhy is the garter of my brip sira…”

oops… overshare :P

Labor Day

No-work Holidays are very few and far between here in the US so I plan to make the most of labor day on Monday next week.

I still don't get it though. We celebrate labor day...

...by not doing labor?

Not that I'm complaining but just like NAIA's terminal fee, it just doesn't make any sense.