HOLA, SEñORES! QUE TAL?

I haven’t updated this blog for 2 weeks since I got home from Singapore. So much for calling it a blog. How can one keep it running without feeding it? No wonder my readership has fallen to Hades-levels enough to reconsider my plan of closing this site down and just relish the memory of what once was.

Anyway, a warm hello to all of you again. I haven’t really been busy lately save for the shooting for Vice Mayor Isko Moreno’s upcoming TV show on RPN9 but that being out of the picture, I’m back to my graveyard schedule and staying in bed all day long (or until 1PM, actually).

Oh, yeah. I’ve learned something new lately. I already know how to use Yahoo Messenger! Okay, okay. Pathetic, ‘di ba? I mean, in this day and age of XDAs and Blackberries (which is very good on wheat bread especially if you use the St. Dalfour brand), learning YM is almost like starting on the first rung of the ladder while everyone else has already moved on to the next floor.

Which goes without saying, of course, that one can still teach old dogs like me new tricks. I am online, especially during afternoons (not on a daily basis), to communicate with my co-officers at work. This saves me much on the effort of going to work early for near-useless meetings only to be confounded by the lack of work to do.

Anyway, updates.

My Yaya is feeling so much better now (she claims to be). She doesn’t need the oxygen tank as much as she used to so thank God, really, for this. And yes, Selina, too, for her generosity of heart. I haven’t thanked her enough. She’s still mad at me, I think.

Anyway, she loved the scarf I gave her from Malaysia and she uses it especially lately when the weather’s really, really cold for an old lady like her. My two Aunts have received their pasalubongs and they’re happy with them.

Work remains to be a non-issue. Nothing new ever happens there so I won’t bore you with details, or the lack thereof.

I’m still crying but not every day as I used to. It’s been 5 months now since Mom left me. Oh wait, I’m going to cry again. Drat.

(Pause)

I’m back.

Okay, the NCAA went very well. I was up to my neck in stress that day as I was still asleep when they needed me, ha ha! Thank God for kind taxi drivers who know how to step on the gas when they needed to. I got to Araneta from Las Piñas in one hour and a half, would you believe? I had one stop in Manila to claim the 195-yard black fabric I ordered just a day before. The poor old sewer didn’t sleep the whole night to put it all together (I paid her Php 2,000 for the effort). By the way, the fabric was used to cover the dragon used during the NCAA opening so as not to spoil the surprise before the show. Yun lang naman ang use niya. Aarrrghhh! It’s now at home and I don’t know what to do with it. I could roll around it perhaps or wrap myself in it and walk around my village at noon time, ha ha! Me and my crazy ideas. These are obviously ideas of the bored and insane.

What worries me is that I haven’t been paid yet and the rent is due next week. I am not the kind of person to badger, but as the rent date nears I will definitely start doing just that.

I am looking forward to traveling again in September to take advantage of the Php 1 plane fare of 5J. It’s my only way to keep my sanity. DVDs are not working anymore and I haven’t read a book in many, many months despite the fact that I am the lead promoter of reading in my workplace. I am hardly the poster boy for this project but hey, all my books are in bookcases at the HR Office right now. More than 200 readers have borrowed since we launched it last April. Some of the new books there I haven’t even read yet. They’d be in tatters once they get back to me. The 88th Manila International Book Fair is coming up in September. I am very excited to go. Let me know if you want tag along. Call me.

A series of writing workshops are coming up at work starting August 8. I don’t know what you’re going to do with this useless piece of information I just gave you. Suffice to say that my club is giving it.

I have been reading some Cebuano’s blog this dawn during downtime and realized what a difference it makes to actually have a parent (or parents) to guide you as you grow up. There’s always the challenge to be a better person, to be better at what you do. Mom always said that the only thing she wanted me to be is a better person who lives a normal life. I never really got to ask her what she meant exactly. I know now though.

The problem with being along is that you almost don’t have anybody to talk to. I find myself talking to, uhm, myself all the time – in the shower, while taking a poo, while walking, on public transports. Am I crazy? Please assure me that I’m not.

It suddenly dawned on me that writing this entry is akin to talking to myself because I absolutely have no legion of readers to speak of, ah ha ha ha!

Be afraid. Be very afraid.