Monday, July 31, 20065:25 PM first entry in a two-month vacation
I'm in Surigao. Still alive and kicking. Been sending SOS emails to Audrey because it is possible to love and hate being home at the same time.
Let me just say, the weather is fantastic. Sun oh glorious sun! I couldn't have chosen any better timing than now to leave Manila.
I've been hanging out with cousins. All about a hundred of them for the Great Gonzalez Reunion. It's funny that my brain is fluent in English at the moment in the dead of Mindanao.
Three days of reuniting with the extended family. Wow. I am exhausted.
And injured.
Day one of the island-hopping tour I fell of the boat. I bruised my elbow to this sickening blue-black color. It looks like I have a spot on my arm that's rotting. Eww. Plus I skinned my left foot when I landed on the beach. Couldn't walk properly for days. And did I mention the sunburn??
Day two I fell off the stage of the Provincial Convention Center (yes we fill up Barbers' monstrous convention center). I have several bruises on both shins. Talk about loss of poise. I was hosting the cultural show that night. I wanted to die. Instead, I acted tribal crazy on the dance floor, never mind the pain, I just wanted to dance the night away. I sang with the band too.
No injuries on day three. But I'm going island hopping again tomorrow...
my funny brother-in-law
I always make fun of my American brother-in-law. I like him. He's funny and if I want my dose of sarcasm for the day, I just have a beer with him on the beach. Anyway, he showered one morning and there was a knock on the door.
"Come in, if you want to see me naked!" He yelled, thinking it was me.
The door opened and the maid came in to collect the laundry. Needless to say they both ran for cover after a horrifying experience.
I thought this is the worst definition of the word until I read this:
adj: marked by disrespectful levity or casualness.
And being the researcher that I am, of course, I'd re-confirm what levity would mean.
Levity n: lightness of manner or speech, especially when inappropriate; frivolity.
Oh and I almost forgot:
feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness
Damn. Disrespectful. Inappropriate. Casualness. Flippant. This is how the big boss describes me? (Okay fine I'm exaggerating, he just said I'm flippant.) His reason being that I just smile too much. I told JJ who just laughed it off. We both agree that I should just have might as well told Dr. Estanislao to smile a bit more.
I never do well when asked what my plans are. Based on experience and my personality, I'd rather not talk about plans because if ever I do, none of it will ever come true. So I just stay quiet, much to the dislike of my parents, especially of my dad who is supposed to be the one that understands me the most in my family. I found the unlikely ally in the keeping-silent department in Reg, my Army man, who also believes that being talkative about the future leaves no room for action.
It's quite a paradox. I'm as talkative as hell is fiery-hot. I can talk for hours. I can smile about anything, that's true. Even when in anger. JJ described me as one of those rare people who can and does smile through life. A living example for the serious types like Dr. Estanislao. Unfortunately, I've gone Carrie-moment. As if I am warped in a Sex and the City episode, is smiling such a negative thing? I'm talkative and yet I cannot talk about how I see myself ten years from now. I smile. Truthfully in fact because there is always something in my mind that still gives me a grasp about the sincerity of life itself.
Although the question has no right or wrong answer, when asked "what are your long-term plans?" by a former Finance Secretary, I felt I gave the worst answer: none. I only got to the part of describing what my future life would be like. I didn't exactly lay down the tracks on how my train will get there. On the second to the last day of working in ICD, I found myself wondering what my life will be like after July 14th.
It will be a Saturday. I will clean the house, pack some of my stuff for the long vacation home. Fix my airline ticket. Make sure that someone will pick me up in Butuan so I can head for Surigao. Normal stuff yet different because I will no longer have that mixture of excitement and anxiety of dreading Monday.
So how does one react to the seriousness of smiling too much? Taking smiling a notch higher, I guess. I'll start laughing from now on. Or worse: I'll start giggling. That should just relieve me from the worry of people taking me seriously.
I guess I should lessen the smiling. After watching the last full show of Pirates in the Carribean last night, I told the lobby guards at my building about it. I was pretty animated (i.e. smiling, laughing, and of course, giggling). I was having the time of my life.
And just how ironic life can get, as I looked at my bathroom mirror to brush my teeth 15 minutes later, there was a small but very visible piece of popcorn stuck between my two front teeth.
In my opinion, that's a heavier reason why not to go on smiling.
* * *
Tuesday, July 11, 20061:25 AM i sorta take it back
Okay maybe the Italians deserve to win the Cup after all. So to all Azzurri fans, congratulations! Hopefully the Italian football league will be rid of the scandals that has been miring them the past few weeks.
* * *
Monday, July 10, 200611:01 AM now in love with zidane
I declare my undying affection for this football retiree.
On his last World Cup match, he got a red card.
For head-butting an Italian.
Not like I hate Italians. (I dream of visiting Tuscany some day). I just didn't want them to win this World Cup... Why? Because they kicked the Aussies out of Round 16. (Yes, still griping).
So now onward to World Cup 2010 in SOUTH AFRICA!!!
I was telling Dude I should just have my honeymoon there.
I just hope my Army man will approve...
* * *
Friday, July 07, 20064:35 PM two students miss a final exam.
Introductory Chemistry was taught at Duke University for many years by Professor Bonk. One year, two guys took the class and did pretty well on all the quizzes and mid-terms --- so much so that going into the final; they each had a solid A. These two friends were so confident going into the final that the weekend before finals week, despite the Chemitry final being on Monday, they decided to go to the University of Virginia to party with some friends. They did this and had a great time.
However, with their hangovers and tiredness they overslept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final then, they found professor Bonk after the final and explained to him how they missed the final. They told him they went up to the University of Virginia for the weekend and had planned to come back in time to study, but they had a flat tire on the way back and didn't have a spare. They couldn't fix it for a long time and were late getting back to campus.
Bonk thought this over and agreed that they could take the final the following day. The two guys, elated and relieved, studied that night and went in the next day at the time that Bonk had told them. He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a test booklet. he told them to begin. THey looked at the first problem that was something simple about morality and solutions; it was worth 5 points. "Cool," they though, "this is going to be an easy final". They then turned the page. They were unprepared, however for what they saw on it. The question contained only two words:
(95 points) Which tire?
* * *
Thursday, July 06, 20063:33 PM still the champions of our hearts
I am taken by the overwhelming feelings of German fans around the world. We still love our team. Now more than ever. Even in defeat.
Some excerpts from Tears Flow on Fan Mile "The party was well and truly over. Within the space of two short minutes, the city of Berlin had been plunged into despair as the gnawing pain of gut-wrenching defeat began to sink in. How the mood had changed from only two hours earlier. Tears of grief were the last thing on the minds of the city's inhabitants as they flocked in huge numbers to the Fan Fest on the Strasse des 17 Juni, convinced they were about to see their heroes seal a place in the Final."
"And then came the moment they had all dreaded, as Italy took a leaf out of Germany’s book by scoring in the dying minutes. The 'sound' of one million people falling silent at exactly the same time has to be heard to be believed, and although that silence was momentarily broken as Odonkor went off on one last run, it soon descended again for good as Del Piero hammered the second and final nail in the coffin."
"By the time the final whistle had blown the tears had already begun to flow. Groups of boys who had gathered in expectation consoled each other as they wept. Others saluted their fallen heroes, while many more stared disbelievingly at the screen as a poignant and richly deserved tribute flashed up before them: 'You are the champions in our hearts'."
What an epic.
* * *
Wednesday, July 05, 200610:29 AM this has got to be the worst/best world cup ever
First it was Brazil. Now Germany!
The world has gone crazy. We've finally proven it!
But then that's the beauty of the World Cup. It's cruel.
"There are things out there that I want to discover, that one day this will all make sense... I am searching for the meaning of this cosmic existence that we're in. And
probably when I find the answer, I'll go and look for the anti-thesis."
5 THINGS
1. I sing in the University Chorale of the University of Asia & the Pacific, and we swept four gold medals in Greece for our very first International Competition. I got to do my two absolute favorite things: singing and traveling.
2. Although I am an Alto Two, my range widens up to Soprano One when I am drunk. Think Charlotte Church's Flower Duet. (I think it has something to do with swallowing the diaper pin when I was a baby). Dancing barefoot in debut parties may also be expected.
3. I work in an non-government organization focused on private sector development. It involves sleepless nights in the office and the constant worry of displeasing a former Secretary of Finance. My other two bosses are harmless.
4. I like my men in uniform. The Military has always been a fascination of mine even before when I was finishing a BA degree in Political Economy.
5. I no longer watch The Bold and the Beautiful much to the joy of friends and family.
