The bracelet was given to me by my best friend, Cindy. We used to hang out a lot every day; before and after school and even during weekends. Our neighbors even had a nickname for us — the “inseparable twins.” If you saw one of us, chances are the other was not far behind.

As a sign of our friendship and loyalty we gave each other a charm bracelet. When Cindy gave me the bracelet it had three charms on it: A frying pan, a shoe and pants. Cindy said that since I love to cook she put the pan charm, and because she hoped I will go places someday she added the shoe. The pants was nothing symbolic actually, I wore pants almost every day, end of story.

I never anticipated that this will happen. Now, we are seldom seen together. Cindy has her own set of friends now. I don’t know what happened exactly but when she came back from a vacation in Europe, she came home a different person. I still have the bracelet, I wonder if she still has hers…

Each year we try to go to different places, check out local cuisines and scenery. This is a family tradition of sorts. As such, we choose each vacation spot as carefully as you choose your life partner in life. There are specific criteria upon which to decide where will be the best way to go. First, it should be somewhere secluded, meaning it shouldn’t be crowded even if is in fact the time of the year when everybody takes a break. Second of all, every family member should agree to it. And lastly, and the most crucial of all is that it should be inexpensive. Yes, we do save up but we are also on a tight budget. But then this is also one of the reasons we look forward to this “cheap family vacation” every year, we are excited to see how creative we can get. We searched on the internet for the best packages, call different agents and sometimes we do come up with a vacation package of our own. Actually we all came to realize that what we do each year is beyond vacation, our trips are family adventures that we will always treasure.

But since I am a chef I think it is already a given as to what part of the house would be my favorite, of course the kitchen. And as my favorite place in the house, I have a very vivid picture in my head of what it is going to look like, to feel like, and to smell like. I have thought of the perfect kitchen lighting that will bring warmth and solitude in the room, kind of the way I feel whenever I am cooking at work. The ambiance that the lights will bring will make every person reluctant to leave. It will definitely be a place where my friends and family will come together to have good food and honest conversation. Broken hearts will find solace here and I knew I would feel right at home there.

I may have yet attained my dream house, but I believe that it wouldn’t be long. I have faith in the power of visualization.

Just recently, however, we decided that apart from the valid reasons I have earlier mentioned for going to the beach every summer, we wanted to also use this as a means to give back to Mother Nature. So, we are planning of setting up a website where we can encourage people to care for the environment, particularly the waters and the animals inhabiting it. We are thinking of also including a forum section where everyone could debate on or discuss how to save the environment. We are also going to buy waterproof digital cameras so that we could document our summer at the beach and even our adventures under water for posting in the web site. We will also encourage the people visiting the sites to do the same. We are so looking forward to actually carrying out all of these plans so that we would definitely have a worthwhile summer.

Anyway, I am the maid of honor, and one of the tasks delegated to me, apart from the official wedding duties, was to help them fix their new house. I forgot to mention that I am an interior decorator. It should have been fairly easy but they practically have zero budget for it. But then I thought I could use the challenge. It was like trying to build something from scratch. And I am excited on what I could come up with.

I went scouting for really inexpensive furniture and I was really pleased with my purchases. Actually what started the ball rolling for me was when I found this store with discount bathroom vanities. You wouldn’t believe how pretty and reasonably priced the items were. Once I was done picturing how the bathroom would look, I knew exactly what I was going to do with the entire house. I asked my friend to stay away until I have finished my work at the house and I am sure she will be really pleased with the result.

We need to get everything ready for the party. Especially the house, everything should be perfect and every guest should be comfortable. Just when I was tidying up the place I noticed ants, and not just a couple but a whole bunch of ants walking in perfect line in the corner of my kitchen! I followed it and I was flabbergasted to see a whole ant colony or something at the back of my oven!

Now this is not happening especially before the big event. Good thing I live in Dallas, Texas and one of my friends know this Dallas pest control company. I was not a fan of insecticides or foul-smelling chemicals but my friend assured me that this company has a lot of treatment options that will fit my needs and wants. I didn’t believe her at first but when the pest control guys went over to my house I was relieved to find out that they even have an all-organic treatment program. I was so happy. I think this year’s family get-together party will be amazing!

Let me tell you something about my husband first. Well, like most of people I know, my husband is very driven. He knows what he wants and he will not stop until he gets it. Be it in his job, he is a successful engineer, or in his personal life. To be honest I never liked him romantically at first, I never even thought that I will end up marrying him. But like I said, he is a persistent man.

Anyway, about an hour ago, one of his colleagues called and left a message about finding cold feed bins (I have no idea what he was referring to) that my husband wanted and I forgot how obsessive my husband is about the things he wanted. Here was the catch, I forgot to tell him. I was only reminded of it when he mentioned that he was very frustrated that his assistant hasn’t called yet. So we had our first argument as husband and wife. Apparently, he had been looking for that contraption with his precise specification for several months now and the delay caused him to lose it. I was sorry.

I was tasked to do a marketing plan for the company’s most controversial product. Controversial because analysis by environmentalists showed there is a high-risk that the product will cause harm in the environment in the long term. However, the said results weren’t conclusive and needed more studies to further support its findings. I was instructed to focus my marketing strategy towards discrediting the environmental group that conducted the study. I had a value dilemma. However, there were two things I was certain about when I first heard the assignment: one is that I don’t want to do it and second, that if I wouldn’t do it I will get fired, meaning goodbye amazing company health insurance and hello self-employed health insurance plan.

Deciding the right course for my situation was very difficult. If I stayed I need to forget my principles and if I leave I have to take the risk of ending up broke. But I had to make a decision, and guess what? I am now looking for my personal health insurance plan.

In our circle of friends, Jessica was the first one to get married, a few years after we graduated from college. She always wanted a big family that’s why she wanted to have an early head start. Unfortunately, life is really not fair sometimes. While of all of us are already “moms”, Jessica remained an “aunt” to all our kids. We knew how tough it was for her. There was this one time when a store-bought pregnancy kit confirmed that she was pregnant and she was so happy that she couldn’t sit still. At that time we were on a mission, our first stop was the mall and Jessica literally went crazy shopping for baby items. We tried reminding her that it was still early in the pregnancy but she didn’t listen. So you could just imagine how heartbroken she was when she found out that it was a false positive.

I kept all the things we bought that day. We all knew that it would be much harder for her to recover with all the “baby cuties” in sight. But now, I am so happy that I could finally give all the baby purchases back to her, after all it is now her turn to be a mom.

Anyway, you will think that I would have found the love of my life in my cooking class, but guess again. Most of the guys there were either taken or gay. So I was a little disappointed at first, when I thought that my plan wouldn’t work. Good thing in one of the classes we were assigned to concoct an Indian dish. And since Indian dishes are known to be flavorful because of the right combination of herbs and spices I needed to purchase a Waring spice grinder, since my old one was broken and even if it’s not, the brand of spice grinder I previously owned was completely useless.

So I went to the mall and just when I was about to grab this equipment I so desperately needed, there was another pair of hands grabbing it! We fought for the grinder but he was stronger and quicker. So what else can I do that will definitely work? I gave the guy my pleading look and sweetest smile. And I bet you wouldn’t guess what happened. Well… let’s just say I didn’t just get my grinder; I had a date with the guy chef I “fought” with as well.