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passed!

may 18, 2009

got a call from the SF office saying a letter had arrived from the CFP(R) board. i immediately ran over after work to find, indeed, a letter from the board.

phew~ what a relief. i was also very happy to hear that my co-worker had also passed the same exam; it would have been an awkward celebration had only one of us pass…

i had returned back to life after taking the exam, but the stress and pressure of not knowing the results were still very straining. it looks like i can back to life for reals now.

it’s a blur

march 14-21, 2009

the first quarter of 2009 was basically a big blurrr. i don’t see much purpose in trying to remember everything that’s happened… so i’ll just continue to log my blog going forward with the exception of a short paragraph of my past few months.

i basically hid… and i shut down everything else so that i could concentrate on studying for the CFP(R) exam. i was thinking about studying… thinking that i should be studying… thinking about where i should be studying… thinking what topics i should be studying… it was not pretty. hiding was no fun, so let’s hope i don’t have to do it again.

i was also sick… probably 1 out of every .8 days to start 2009. how’s that possible? it’s simple… before i got over my the first cold, a second cold would already be infecting my system; i’m pretty sure i had multiple sicknesses at once. it was quite terrible, frustrating, and stupid.

i was happy and felt rejuvenated after the exam, only to get food poisoning a day after i got back! i’m still feeling the ill effects of one of the worst sicknesses i’ve ever had… and only hope i’ll never have to deal with this again.

although i continued to hide the week before the exam, it was nice to be back in LA where i need not worry about anything else but studying. another benefit of being home was eating home cooked meals everyday, something i feel like i haven’t experienced since… maybe middle school. going home for a week before the exam was the smartest decision i’ve made so far this year… all i can say is i’m glad this quarter is over and that i’m moving on ^^.

promotion indeed

february 6, 2009

as it turns out, i guess i was doing something right at work because i was promoted a few weeks ago. today marked the first week in my promoted position, and i must say it feels very good to be here. i read somewhere that successful people tend say they’ve been lucky, and the unsuccessful tend to blame bad luck. not to say that i’m successful or anything like that but i sure feel lucky right now, especially in these current economic conditions.

with the new position being in palo alto, it would be a lie to say waking up at 6am hasn’t been a struggle… especially with my cold lingering around, strongly refusing to go away (my snot looks like corn chowder btw). even on wednesdays when i work out of the sf office, i seem to find myself waking up at 6am, an hour before my alarm setting. what’s weird is today, i woke up at 5am, an hour before my 6am alarm setting. how do you explain that?! o____O that’s right, you can’t.

anyway… my original intention was to study on the 45 minute ride down the caltrain, but i’ve been sleeping for… say… 40 minutes for most of the time. not only am i not sleeping, i almost missed my stop once. my train down is the bullet train making limited stops; the train i’d have take back north would not be a bullet train stopping at every stop. it’s inevitable, it’s going to happen sooner or later. i’ve already warned my bosses here that i will call from moutain view (the next stop on the bullet caltrain) one day, and that i will be very late this day.

the quality of assignments and the trust bestowed by the managers and partners (ill-advised or not) has been overwhelmingly rewarding here. i also get an opportunity to look at each client more in depth because the office is smaller relative to the sf office, and that has given learning opportunities hard to come by in sf. i think it’s also fair to say that i get a little more attention when it comes to training because i’m the sole administrator here, as opposed to a team of administrators in sf.

the upcoming cfp exam is still my main priority… and as it nears (t-42 days, yikes!) i’m beginning to feel a sense of urgency and pure panic. with the rewards that come with passing, and the dismal and depressing penalties of failing… i really hope i pass… as obama used to say, ‘yes we (i) can’. he has since turned to other words like… “disaster“, “state of emergency“, “sobering“. hopefully i can stay away from such words for like… ever.

(all my bags are packed, i’m ready to go~! i also look, like i just got let go~! :0)

(from the busy streets of downtown sf to…)

(…the quiet palo alto office)

fail

january 31, 2009

what not to do:

on saturday, being determined to study despite my stupid cold, i made my way out to a nearby startbucks. my study only lasted about a hour because my nose was running uncontrollably, and i felt like i was bothering the crap out of everybody.

unwilling to let a silly cold stop me from my studies… i went back home and got ready to study at work since the office would be empty. i hopped on the bus only to realize i forgot my building card, got off the bus, walked back home. found the building card, hopped back on the bus, got to work… only to realize my card didn’t work on the elevators that day. called the building people, activated my card, got to work… only to realize i left my keys back home while picking up my building card. hopped back on the bus, went home, and just stayed there.

fail.

study study study

January 14, 2009

studying last week was a failure, but it hasn’t been so bad this week. i finally received all my books from kaplan, and have been diving into the fundamentals book since monday after work. finding a place to study has been a challenge since after work, dinner and running/club meetings, it’s usually almost 9pm and most (if not all) coffee shops seem to be closed by then. not to mention, i’m not sure if i want to be drinking coffee at 9pm…

i took my studies to jubili on monday as they don’t close till 11pm, and i can replace coffee with some delicious frozen yogurt. i was initially skeptical at first because i expected a bit of a loud and annoying atmosphere, but it was actually pretty quiet and chill. i also learned that they have free wireless, so i can take my laptop and listen to some music on pandora to block out any distractions. the shop is also conveniently located right under my apt building, so i think i’ll come back to study here some more. it’s not like i have a lot of choices to start out with…

on tuesday after the aaum meeting near work, i walked back to the office and studied at my desk. although the work desk has all your studying needs (even free coffee and drinks!), there’s something about sitting there all day, and then again at night… knowing you’ll be there in a few hours.

moving onto some more fun stuff… i went out with some friends last friday to ozone thai for dinner then watched a swedish vampire film called ‘let the right one in‘. now, i’m all up for these artsy/creative films so i enjoyed it very much. i don’t think it shows in too many theatres, but if you happen to find one in your area i’d recommend it… but again, only if you’re into the ‘sundance’ type movies.