Or the near-dead, as is the case for those of us who work in media, when there’s a long weekend looming in the horizon. Sure, they’re a welcome respite, but these holidays do take away precious days from the magazine work cycle. The result? We kill ourselves working late and losing sleep just to get a leg up on deadlines—so that really, all we can do during the long weekend is…sleep.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to catch up on your zzzzs against this paradise backdrop…
10 THINGS THAT SCARE ME THE MOST:
1. Cancer.
It runs in my family. I’ve seen the effects on friends. I eat healthy, exercise regularly, try to avoid toxic people and situations, I strive to be happy, resolve all emotional issues, not take things personally, and live in the moment. But you never know. It’s really scary. Plus, I dislike most doctors, who have terrible bedside manners, keep you waiting forever, rush you like their meter’s ticking, and hate it when you so much as ask a question or bring up something that you’ve read. Especially if you’re under a medical plan. Nine times out of ten, they’ll say “Stress lang ’yan.” Well I could have told them that. So I avoid them like the plague. I really should see a doctor soon.
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It’s always a dilemma, taking foreign friends and business associates out to dinner in Manila when they request to eat typical Filipino food. I can’t really think of Filipino restaurants where the food tastes authentic and where the ambiance is devoid of singing cooks and waiters or a family fiesta, which are fine if that’s what you’re in the mood for at the moment. It can also be disappointing to step into the latest hoity-toity Pinoy (con)fusion restaurant because you can’t help but compare it to the familiar traditional tastes in your head.
They say that to eat the best Filipino food, you have to be invited to someone’s home. It’s true. Every single time I am invited to my boyfriend’s Lola’s house to eat, the food is excellent—whether it’s sinigang, tinola, pochero, I have yet to taste better Pinoy food in any restaurant. AW’s late Lola Ata put up the famous Bungalow restaurant in the 60’s, and they still do catering today. Sarap!
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Pardon my absence, but to quash my burnout blues, I sort of took a breather with my lovey-dove for a few days in his home state of San Francisco to stop and smell the flowers, not to mention…
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Silly Putty – tdmk. A trademark for a soft colored modeling material that can be stretched and bounced.
The silliest things I’ve ever done in my life have all involved money.
After chucking what was supposed to be a dream job in SGV & Co., where I basically counted beans for a living (okay, fine, I wrote accounts receivable, payroll and inventory software in dBase III+, guess what year), I really thought my next and future life would just become one fabulous glam slam under the klieg lights, sashaying (yes, in that hip-swinging motion we were known to have walked in then) down the runway, or “emoting” (trademark emotions: Headache Pose, Stomachache Pose, or Hug the Backdrop) in the studio.
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It’s a city of contrasts and ironies, where crass mixes with class to make a delightful brand of cheesy goodness and kitschy cool in true Manila style. Your existence in this city can range from humdrum and monotonous to eclectic and surreal, depending on what you’re up for at the moment and what you’re willing to do about it.
One day you’re making tusok-tusok fishballs and choosing between three trademark sauces in garapons (Hepa A, Hepa B or Gastro), the next day you’re sipping mimosas at Sunday Jazz Brunch in your metallic Havaianas the morning after a glamourous night out on the town. Today, you’re hobnobbing with Quentin Tarantino at a film festival, the next day you’re reading about him wading in the baha on Arlegui and getting into a pedicab to meet PGMA in Malacañang.
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Last night while walking around Greenbelt, I smiled as I felt the first chilly breeze signaling the start of the ‘ber months, meaning December would be upon us before we knew it. I couldn’t help but be transported into the mood and spirit of Christmases past.
Oh all right, I was pressured by this week’s topic, so I forced myself to feel the holiday spirit. While racking my brains to come up with something to write, it occurred to me that the Christmas season always means a yearly influx of balikbayans. And in the light of all the OFW brouhaha (no, this is not yet another entry about you-know-who), I remembered something I wrote for my CW241 class in non-fiction in UP in 2003 under Jing Hidalgo, a piece about one of my most memorable Christmases ever. Here’s an excerpt:
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