Yesterday was a very exhausting day for me. Have you ever had one of those days when you had so much fun despite being deprived sleep the previous night? Yes, my day was a lot like that. No, wait. It was actually that exact situation. I didn't sleep at all Friday evening. I watched a musical along with two cousins and tagged them along to see a live band perform.
Following that, I had a ton of work waiting for me on my desk. I didn't even know where to start. I fumbled through the pile paperwork for something interesting, but everything seemed bland. Imagine: I had to drown myself in coffee just to stay awake. I told myself, "This is what you get for procrastinating so much!" I know; I know. I'm the master of procrastination. There isn't a need to remind me about that anymore.
I was so immersed in the shining, shimmering, splendid colors of my notebook's display monitor that I didn't realize the sun was up. I didn't even bother to check the system tray to know what time it was. The next thing I knew, my grandmother was already standing behind me, curiously looking at what was keeping me busy. Consequently, she asked me to eat breakfast with her, but I aptly declined in favor of work, work, and more work.
To cut the story short, I went to bed at 10:00AM, got up at 1:30PM and left the house at exactly 2:00. My companions, who were my fellow members of KaKa (Kaliwat ni Karyapa - a Boholano Poets' Organization), and I headed to a Catholic Nun-run retreat house somewhere in Alburquerque.
In that vast bed-and-breakfast-like place, we picked a small hut that could accommodate our small number. There, we ate and chatted like mad. We didn't mind that we were in a place crawling with nuns and crucifixes and statues of Christian saints. We talked wholesome; we talked green! We read poems of various kinds--of love, of the ridiculous, of children, of courtship, even of sex.
To note, there was this one particular dish that my companions--in their chronological advancement--were so amazed by the presence of and I wasn't able to relate. It wasn't unfamiliar as I had seen it on a number of occasions peddled by street vendors near my old grade school, but it just amazed me how they went all "ooh" and "aah" at it. It was, I guess, the Filipino equivalent to a crisp-fried chapati. It came with a coconut cream and sugar-based ultra-sweet dip that my grandmother would probably scream at the sight of. It induced a sort of reminiscent trance in each of them. It led them to speak of their elementary school years and how their mothers would cook it on afternoons as a snack. It somehow made me miss the old days when we still lived near the beach and my mom used to cook. Well, times do change.
Anyway... The going home part of that endeavor was pretty uninteresting, so I'm not going to write about it anymore. Check these pictures out, instead!
Cheese-Filled Egg Rolls
Ate Mitzi
The dish that drove everyone crazy
Sister Mitzi (a skinny Mitzi)
si Vera ug ang Lapay
Mom Vida ("Mom" because she's with the Order of the Eastern Star)
Me, reading
The hind part of the retreat house
Sister Mitzi reading
Dad, singing
Ate Mitzi reading about Yoyoy
Mom Vida singing
Me, reading
Vera, reading
Breathing the Breath of a Dragon
Laughter: a priceless part of the session
