A day in the life…

I’ve always looked at life as a learning process. And the things and people you encounter as you go along just offer guidelines on how to live. If you’re just being given the facts and you do not have a chance to experience triumphs, failures, fears and realizations, then you haven’t lived your life at all.

Lalim debba? But really, I do not believe in spoonfeeding a person of information that he would need in his terrestrial journey. Maybe because at an early age I learned to depend more on myself and limit the control of the people around me. And maybe because of this experience, I expected others to do the same.

Even the bible sums it up, when it said to teach man to fish, not give him fish. Mawiwili yan sa puro bigay na hindi na niya matatanto ang kahulugan at kasiyahang nakukuha sa paghuli ng isda.

I think I’m going cryptic…

——–

I regularly go out of the house during Sunday afternoons.

Yesterday, I had another reason to do that again.

I just didn’t want to kill myself of excitement brought about by Game 1 of the UAAP Finals.

Unfortunately, as my SO and I were going around the mall where we were, the game was televised on the mall’s giant screen.

At one second left, we were leading. Guys cheered. Security guard walked past us, announcing "Panalo na ang Santo Tomas."

And by some twist of fate, after that half-court inbound, we lost.

Damn jumper.

To reiterate my thoughts, I really do not expect UST to win against the more experienced Ateneo.

But it would be cool. Underdog wins; team celebrates by eating lechong agila (but eagles are endangered species, so they opted for lechong manok instead).

But whatever happens, I’m proud to be a Thomasian. Yebba!

This early, I wish to congratulate Coach Pido Jarencio and the team. Put up a good fight again on Thursday.

I’m not a bit surprised that our boss is back and here in the office.

Previously, chismaxes reached us that he’ll be back Friday or Saturday. My SO and I concluded that if he was in the country by Friday, he’d probably go straight to the office, instead of his house.

And he did.

Ah, no more wars… at least we had a taste of de_dust, even if it was just for a night.

Well, guess we gotta thank him for the chocolates.

And the new Gaiman reading material  he gave me. Hmm.

——–

Ateneo versus Santo Tomas in the finals.

Blue versus Black-Gold-Black-White (parang cheer).

Eagles versus Tigers.

Who’s the most ferocious? Who’s got the sharper claws?

Will it be a soaring or a growling UAAP season?

Honestly, I have had my doubts on our team. Fairly inconsistent compared to the blue guys. But hey, it’s a question of who’s hungrier than the wolf for the crown.

And as I see it, they’re both famished.

Here’s hoping luck will smile upon us. Then maybe Benavidez would be pointing in another direction. Or maybe rotating his raised arms to the tune of "Go Uste!!!"

The Philippines is commemorating the "tragedy" of what was the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972 by then president Ferdinand Marcos.

Today, Thailand has declared Martial Law, beginning with the overthrow of their prime minister Thaksin and a bloodless military takeover… I just hope that their promise of immediate normalcy in governance would not be broken… not like in our kind of Martial Law…

Round and round it goes…

Hmm, which is next…?

——–

Do you know the band Sino Sikat? The first time I heard their song "Turning My Safety Off" over NU 107, I knew I loved the song… and them, too.

If anyone of you have the MP3 of the said song, pahingi!

I guess I just have this habit of trying to please people around me.

And more often that not, this causes a lot of conflicts, even sacrifices, on my end.

The bad part about is that I end up pleasing neither parties. And I highly doubt if they understand how it feels like to be in this pit.

And at the end of the day, all that is left is guilt.

Nakakainis ang mga taong gumagawa ng mga bagay na ikasasakit ng damdamin ng mga taong nasa paligid nila.

Bilog lang talaga ang mundo. Ay hindi, oblate spheroid pala, sabi ng science teacher namin.

Feeling: sick… of myself… no, really, got the colds today. Since yesterday, actually.

But I’m here at work. Workaholic kasi ako e. Eww, yuck.

Anyway, after going to the World Trade Center in Pasay to check out a client’s booth (and at the same time have my fill of samples from other booths, which apparently became my lunch), I went back to the office riding an FX taxi from Shell Maya. Sat in the middle, which was quite roomy. Was feeling sleepy because of my colds.

Plus the soundtrack in the FX was Making Love Out of Nothing At All. The original version. That alone would make you sleepy.

And then this girl on my right put her earphones in full volume. So imagine me, less that a foot away from her, hearing what was playing on her MP3.

Hmm, RnB-Hiphop. On her playlist: Beep.

Fine.

The thing was, she began singing the Pussycat Dolls’ lines while banging her head, shaking her shoulders and twitching her fingers.

Ineng, otis ka ba?

Not contented, she went on by singing Mariah Carey’s Shake It Off, occasionally singing one word or phrase louder than the other.

Worse, if she doesn’t know the exact lyrics, she’d murmur it.

I couldn’t do anything other than, errr, shake my head and raise an eyebrow.

And control the voice in my head that said, "Pag di ka tumigil sa kaka-Shake It Off mo, ishe-shake ko yang mukha mo… off your friggin’ neck!"

Well, nothing’s worse that singing My Way in a videoke bar…

Even fate has agreed with me… maganda ako. O debba?

Just this morning as I was on my way to work. I rode a jeep with the Crossing route (due to the lack of FX taxis with the Megamall-Crossing route). Time was slowly going against me that I had to do something or else I’ll be coming in late. So I hailed the next jeepney that came my way and sat at the back. Shit, naniniksik naman itong babaeng ito on my right. Di porke’t nagdadasal ka e ibig sabihin di ka na aayos sa pagkaupo mo…

Sorry, I digress a bit.

Anyway, I always have this knack of observing my surroundings even inside a public trasportation. Maybe because I was wary of SC’s (suspicious characters for the uninformed) who may be with us at that moment. So as I move my eyes from right to left, something caught my attention by the driver’s side.

There were two signages in front. On the left, a green-colored board hung just above the driver’s head. It said "Ganda dito." Uh-huh. And on the right… another green-colored board that said, whoa! "Pangit dito."

Hehe, guess where I was seated…!

My weekend consisted of too much traveling. Somehow, amid the scorching heat and ala-microwave aisles, it was pretty, uh, refreshing to see places you’ve missed for so long.

Like my alma mater.

After our arduous yet fulfilling trip to Divisoria (yep, I got to buy a blouse-type shirt and some kinda pedal pushers for a total of Php350 only), my dad, my sister and I went to the UST area to get her ration of Sinandomeng at P. Noval (UST employees get their rations every two months, as she says). From DV we passed by Dapitan first, and as we did so, I was looking at almost all the buildings there (with comments ranging from "Uy, buhay pa yung xerox-an dito?" to "Anong nangyari sa may Max’s? Ba’t ganyan yan?" to "Natayo na yung building sa harap ng library?" to "Almers, SR, Jolibee Asturias!!!" to "Sosyal, dorm yun?"). Then left to P. Noval ("Si Mang Toots!!!" "Asan na yung kainan dito sa kanto?" "Uy, Coffee Indulgence!" "Dati may binibilhan ako ng pirated CD dito e.") to the bigasan.

We decided to go inside UST because nostalgia was already beside me, so we went around again to Lacson, then to España ("Sosyal, may screen para sa announcements!"), then inside to the parking lot ("Di na pwede lumusot sa Main Building papunta sa simbahan?" "Angelo King? Pareho nung sa St. Luke’s." "Sosyal, may fountain sa harap!" "Php25 for the first 3 hours, tapos Php5 per succeeding hour? Ba’t di na lang flat rate ang parking?") which apparently was rented by the Velayo dude, the one-third of the SGV and Co. deities. Honestly it looked like I was transported to a part of Greenhills, with McDo, KFC, Hotshots, KISS, a gift shop, a tiangge-looking prepaid selling spot, and pay-per-use-unless-you-have-an-ID comfort room going on, among others. Too commercialized for me, who was used to seeing a more spacious UST. And that was like so way back…

Well, at least the Cerealicious experience was good. Though I wanted to suggest that they have hot milk for breakfast. Too bad they were out of suggestion sheets.

——–

Bastard Thoughts for the Week:

Feel the effects of global warming.

Such a small place for bureaucracy to infest.

I’m spending my vacation leave on October.

Count how many times I mentioned "sosyal" in this entry.

It’s the weekend, finally. Wait, I just remembered I have a take-home copywriting task. Shit, turning workaholic… that’s so not me.

Well at least I get a break by going to Divisoria tomorrow. Yep, even if it means walking under the blistering summer-like heat and getting to swap faces with customers and salesladies in 168 Mall.

Again, all alone on a Friday. My baby ain’t gonna go home ’til next week, which I perfectly understand.

It’s just that it’s getting a tad bit lonely on this end.

But what the heck. All efforts translate into ka-chings anyways. He even got to buy a PS2 all of a sudden.

While I tighten my budget for four months to buy that two-year overdue reward-to-self.

Dang.