Weird Moments #2
Sunday morning, 2AM. Have the whole McDonald's for myself. A cackle of Korean teens enter.
Sunday morning, 2AM. Have the whole McDonald's for myself. A cackle of Korean teens enter.
The bus home: a policeman in uniform evangelizes.
Yes, we're busy. Yes, we've been busy. So we procrastinate, putting off time to get together and catch up, not knowing time itself will catch us up, and it's too late.
It's the Guilt talking Grachelle, sorry.
Pictures taken after this year's La Naval. Wala lang. I don't know why I'm posting this. Must have something to do with Cabangon singing in the background while researching for the seniors' send off.
And then there's Halloween. (Courtesy of A)
Why do these things happen to me?
Going home, a drunk man, dripping wet from the rain, flagged the FX I was in. When he got comfy, he asked me for the time. I told him. After a while, he started narrating to no one in particular how bad he was in business, he lost some money obviously, and then he singled me out and said, I looked like someone who finished college, what advice could I give him?
(Why me? Why not the guy sitting next to me? The one wearing a doctor's uniform?)
He then started recounting this high school episode where he was scolded by his teacher who told him... erm, what did he tell him? Anyway, the effect was disparaging. He said he has become afraid of his shadows -- his personal ghosts. You know the kind -- fear of failure, fear of the future. He kept on repeating these ideas. Seems like he's stunted by the high school experience which happened 13 years ago. His story was going nowhere, he was circumlocutory, must be the effect of alcohol or maybe he's borderline schitz, nonetheless his judgment was still intact (he asked the guy sitting next to me to change seat because rain water was entering the vehicle and the guy was getting wet).
Anyway, my part in the story is deathly pathetic. I need not feign interest because I was curious to begin with (me, being a student of human behavior and all), I asked the customary shrink-y leading questions while giving the Freudian affirmative nod and Jungian encouragement. (I wonder if the commuters were secretly laughing at me for talking to the guy, or worse, annoyed).
In the end, when he asked for an advice I could give him, I replied, "Face your shadows. Stop thinking of what your teacher told you. Do not dwell on it. Move on. Do your work the best way you can."
Argh! The horror! I'm echoing an after-school TV special from the '60s. Good thing I was near my drop off point, hate to skewer the guy's head any further. Hope he didn't entertain searching for a noose once he got home.
It’s a slow day, so I have an excuse to answer those wayward text messages I’ve been getting. This one, I couldn’t resist answering:
UNK: Wat f, im 0n t0p of a 99-flr bldg…redy 2 jump…Gv me a 1-line sentence, 2 c0nvince me dat i shud nt die.
This is too easy. So I wrote:
ME: There is no life after death.
And then he replied:
UNK: fuck! who are you?
ME: Sorry, my phone does not recognize your number. And it’s rude to curse someone you don’t know.
UNK: what is your name?, I txt my cousin not you…
ME: I’m Azrael. Good. I thought you already jumped.
UNK: I thought you are an angel of death. Where you from?
ME: Nice to know that you’re literate. I’m mostly everywhere.
**I wish I didn’t jump the gun in calling him 'literate' as I’ll be proven otherwise later.
UNK: Where is everywhere? Fuck i dont play games!
ME: You started it when you sent me a text.
UNK: im not txting you., i txt my cousin not you… Where do you live?
ME: I live in the Netherworld. Now, why would you text your cousin that you’re about to jump off a 99-storey building?
UNK: Where is netherworld? what is that place?
ME: You’ll find soon enough if you still feel like jumping.
UNK: Can you call to my phone now, can i talk to you? I dont believe in heaven and hell but i believe in death.
ME: I seem to have misjudged you. I thought you weren’t one of them -- ordinary.
UNK: One of them? Who? I have no time to playing games…
ME: See how insignificant you are? You don’t even know that you’ve just been insulted.
UNK: Im not insulted! I wanna know where do you live,i dont know where is netherworld because i live in netherland with peter pan and tinker bell.
**Duh! Netherland?!?
ME: (laughs) How old are you? Pray, tell. And I might just visit you tonight while you sleep.
UNK: Im 22, dont visit me if you are a guy,visit me if you are a girl. Why you visit me do you know my address?
**At this point I stopped replying. For the love of Zeus! He’s 22 and he texts like 12. Should I start complaining about poor education in the Philippines again?
I had a peanut butter craving last night, but I had second thoughts when I saw:
It's made in China. It's a local brand, but it's made in China.
With a lot of sinophobia going around these days, for a split second there I wanted to have the peanut butter tested for mercury, lead and aflatoxin levels.
And it's not just the local peanut butter that's been from China. Jollibee's Kiddie Meal toys are from China, clothes wear Bench and Penshoppe have their apparels made there too. And there are more examples out there, where known Filipino brands use and market Chinese-made products. And it's pretty much understandable: low wages, low product costs. It's good business. And it also does not necessarily mean that everything coming from China is substandard. (We hope.)
Someone told me that China's economy is in trillions of dollars and they can easily bankrupt a country like ours. They've conquered us, even before F4.
Anyway, in the end, knowing that the peanut butter came from China didn't discourage me from preparing a sandwich and eating it. I was hungry.
That must be it. We're all hungry. How to feed 6 billion using the least amount of dollars? Darn globalization. ^_^'
Don't you just hate it when you find the book you bought a month ago is now available a fraction of its worth in a different bookstore? And it isn't even a discounted sale?! Grrr.
McD Rice Burger + Me = MESS
(Funny how they made it seem so easy to eat one on tv.)
From my other blog, dated Aug. 6, 2006 (some parts deleted to protect the innocent, ^_^' ):
There was a major downpour... after the mass...
I must have looked funny and awkward ...(with my) umbrella in the heavy rain that I caught someone took a picture of me... (he was inside a car, waiting for the traffic lights to change)
...Talk about being at the receiving end... (having been) guilty of taking pictures of (...) people without (their) permission.
...Just think, somewhere out there, ...there's probably a blog... (now featuring) my picture (...) with the caption, "dork." ^_^'
I just breached the last hurdle to my domesticity today: I taught myself how to work the washing machine. I hope Mother Earth wouldn't mind me wasting that too much water. It was my first time after all. Now if only I could learn to read laundrelese and understand what all those label symbols mean. ^_^ '
Excerpt from my other blog dated Dec. 29, 2005:
...have been home alone for the couple of days... ...got tired of cooking for one so I went to *********** to have dinner. At the door there is this sign that says: "Ring bell when you had a great time." I couldn't resist; I rang the bell before leaving. It mustn't have been rung often as the waiters and waitresses were relatively (delightedly) surprised. ^_^ '
The person who started the tradition of eating fat-laden and high calorie foods at midnight of Christmas and New Year should be killed.
Someone from Friendster just called me "Mr. Suplado" just because I didn't reply to her message nor added her in my friends list.
I'm hurt. :-(
And then she closed her message with "God bless!!" (note on the two question marks). *sobs*
My friend's right... I think I'm a snob. *cries*
It's my second time in four days today to be given a discounted jeepney fare without me asking for it. Wow, I can't believe it. I could pass as a senior citizen! ^_^ '
Rereading my other weblog, something occurred to me. I wonder if this constitutes sexual harrassment...
Excerpt (Oct. 31, 2005):
...then there’s this weird thing happened while I was having dinner alone at ******** yesterday –- the waitress keeps on touching my back whenever she takes my order or asks if I needed something else. She reminds me of those stewardesses on TV when they touch a kid’s back to make them feel secure during their first flight. She must have mistaken me for a kid...
Spikey's been too excitable whenever I'm around lately. Now Patricia suggests I should wear the same clothes every time I go there, and to bring food wouldn’t hurt either.
I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that I once told her that I ate a dog... once. Now, even the neighbourhood dogs give me that 'look'.
Which brings me to a confounding enigma... Do dogs speak a universal language? Would a Chinese Shih Tzu understand a New York Rottweiler? Would a Mexican Chihuahua lap on a German wienerwurst?
Someone should really kill that darn chicken! x_x'
I was able to catch Pinoy Big Brother yesterday, and I definitely heard Uma say, "Frog bites." Hmm... shouldn't I ask for some form of royalties? :-D
A house is being built next to ours. And the construction workers have this “pet” rooster which infuriatingly wakes me up around 5 a.m. without fail. I can’t wait until he’s eaten.
You know you're way past monotony when the Fruitas lady recognizes you as "Green Mango, Grande." :-(
Yesterday, I had my wisdom tooth extracted and kept under my pillow for the tooth fairy.
...It is still there. Darn fairies! X-(
...sorry, just an after-effect of losing 50 IQ points. 8-|
Empty thoughts.
These questions have been bothering me for years...
Who invented kare-kare? What made him mix ox tail and peanut butter? Why did he call it kare-kare? What does it mean? And why do we add bagoong?
Hmm... Makes you think, huh?
Yesterday, a bird flew into the study and couldn't get back out eventhough I already cleared the curtains and opened the windows wide. After a few hours of frantic flapping and chaos (not to mention pooping on the bookshelves), I took pity and grabbed her (erm, him?) and let her out of the window. She quickly flew without even bothering to thank me, the ingrate. Are birds really that bird brained? :D