j a n s e n. i. s. m.

After an ultra busy week at work (I left the office
almost 10pm last Friday), I faced the dilemma of how I would spend the weekend
to reward and to reiterate to myself that I am not loosing that work/life
balance just yet. It’s one of those weekends, when I have no plans, no invite
from friends to hangout, no special occasion, and I was somehow avoiding to
spend.

I realized pretty soon that this weekend is on the verge
of boredom but here are the things I did to lessen its impact:

1. Snap pictures of my niece

Here is a photo of my ’sometimes nice, sometimes bitchy’
niece Kyla. She has the most number of pictures in my digicam and this day was
no exception when she willingly volunteered to pose au naturel and in her
humble ‘pambahay’ clothes. She’s going to school this coming June and has
already closed a deal with me that I will buy her a Barbie schoolbag.

2. Read and reread books 

Just finished reading "Naked" by David Sedaris last week.
Although the book has more humor than wisdom in it, this is one of my favorite reads.
I admire the author’s witty writing and excellent storytelling. His new book (or
more aptly, collection of essays and stories) will be available this June, “When
You Are Engulfed in Flames” and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I started
rereading “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” because maybe going through
it again with a thesaurus on my side will give me something extra out of it.

3. Improve blog site 

In case you haven’t
noticed, my blog site has undergone some minor improvements. Gone are the
annoying banners and check the ultra cool “Site Meter” which tracks the number
of visits the site gets in a day. It took me a few hours of Internet time to
set everything up. And I am quite happy with the result and proud to a certain
level below being boastful.

4. Watch TV if bored 

I have recently discovered channel 21 in free TV. If you
think such channel does not exist, fix your antenna a little and you’ll know
what on earth I’m talking about. It’s called ETC Channel which offers some
really nice US TV shows like “Late Night With David Letterman”, “Tyra Show”, “America’s
Next Top Model”, “Beauty and The Geek”, “Gossip Girl”, “E News” to name a few.

5. Then watch DVD once bored with TV 

I am not a big fan of gory films but there’s a DVD compilation
of this kind of films hanging around our living room as if begging to be put on
a player. So out of sheer exhaustion from TV, I gave it a try and watched “Saw”
on a Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed this flick. I thought the Jigsaw killer
was such an interesting psychotic character. 

 *****

I find it ironic how in the previous week I had such a
great time hanging out, yet this week, I spent the entirety of weekend mostly on
my own and almost trapped in the house. I hate to rationalize but then the “it-is-your-fault”
finger only points to my ass. A catch-up on a self-help book I am reading, gave
me the lesson that if you want to have an interesting life, you have to plan and
decide for it. I never trusted my planning and decision making skills and
I’d like to believe that I’m  not ultra boring. But hey, it’s probably never
too late to begin to plan and decide for a more productive and exciting weekends
hereafter.

05.14.08. No food shortage today for me and my officemates. In fact, I never experienced a more festive day at work than today. We had an early lunch at Mr. Choi, a Chinese restaurant inside Robinson’s Pioneer, a short walking distance away from the office building.

The lunch was courtesy of Mel, the most senior resource left in the team after our lead resigned a month ago. It’s her treat before she officially leaves us for Canada this Saturday for a long term onshore assignment.— something she deserves for working so hard for the SMARTS team. We were already joking on her that she might change a lot once she’s in the Canada office. We will pop her in the vernacular “musta?” and her reply would be “what?”.  Worse her reply would be “who r u?” or maybe something totally French.

Pepz, the only female teammate that would be left, who has been there and done that in Canada , gave Mel some tips on how to survive and make her experience there enjoyable despite of. Upon her suggestion, each of us wrote Mel a message at the back of a paper Mr. Choi place mat. My message sounded a lot like a Friendster testimonial. She’s one person I can consider a friend at work and I’ve been used to with her around especially if there are issues within the team that only her can provide the answer or suggestion. But starting next week, there’s going to be a lot of adjustments in our office lives and I don’t want to start enumerating them now. Neither do I want to discuss what the future of my career holds for me now.

*****

Mel will be leaving with Mike from STAR team, a regular smoker on his twenties and a womanizer, some has said but he won’t confirm. The two gave a ‘merienda’ treat for the whole project in the afternoon ordered from Amber’s which is like one of the two options when someone in the office gives a blow out.

Then come night time, we were off to Heaven ‘n Eggs in Glorietta to celebrate a recently accomplished task of the SMARTS and STAR teams. The dinner turned out to be a send-off for Mel ad Mike as well, a continuation of the festivity and a reunion on the side with our former team lead Tyrone who came with his beautiful radiant wife. I’ve always fancied dining in there so when this opportunity came to suggest where to have dinner, I voted for it. Indeed, we made the right choice for it was just too festive, Heaven ‘n Eggs just proved that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and set the record straight that you can have breakfast  anytime of the day.  I was just too full, my mouth just can’t take another bite of that pancake and I have to skip the dessert. I can’t help but question why I was fed so well this day.

*****

We left the restaurant around 10:30pm, I was feeling sleepy. I was walking to the Ayala Terminal with Tyrone and his wife, when Ty asked if I am still happy at work. He’s probably the only person who can ask me this kind of questions and being my former lead, I know he mean it when he asks. I quickly answered, “Tough question!” and his wife gave a short chuckle. I guess it is a question I’ll ask myself on a daily basis.

My
brothers went to Orion, Bataan for a 4-night,
3-day vacation in our father’s hometown where the whole Canaria clan (except
us) resides. It wasn’t something really planned. My older brother Russel has been
expressing explicitly his desire to visit Orion for the fiesta this May and
earlier this week, he got to talk on the phone to our father abroad who was
more than willing to finance the trip. Luckily, he was able to convince our
youngest, Ejay to join in.

They
left Thursday morning, and I was near the office building’s entrance when I read
a text message from a cousin in Orion, asking
what time ‘we’ will be arriving and informing that our recovering grandfather
has been anticipating ‘us’ already. I wasn’t sure of the exact time the arrival
would be but I was certain that I was on my way to work that day and not to Bataan.

I
haven’t returned there for about five years, I think. Last time was in college
with Dad and I remember crying on my way out of our house as if I was to leave
it for the rest of my life or I will be going to some strange place where no
one knows me or I was a milk-sucking infant taken away from his mother.

When
Dad came home this March, he thought I could accompany him in his yearly visit,
but both work and personal issues prevented me. I thought Dad should have known
that of us siblings, I am the least excited to go there but Mom knows it better.

Cavite has always been home to me, It is not the best and
most friendly place to live but I grew up my entire life here. While  Bataan was just a place we spent some of our early
childhood summers and to associate it with my young adult life now gives me a
certain anxiety. I felt that I grew up away from these relatives that they only
know one dimension in me but perhaps I am being unfair for not giving them a
chance.

My
brothers were suppose to go home Saturday, but they went swimming so they ahd a
one day extension. They brought home with them, ‘suman’ (rice cakes, which is a
staple ‘pasalubong’ our grandmother cooks) and small talks on what’s going on to
almost every relative they reunited with. Some have curiously asked when I will
visit  Bataan . Soon, perhaps. Hopefully, not
forced by some reason to get my ass up there because I think for now, our lives
are just fine this way.