Monday. No task to do and nothing exceptional happened. Most of the day was spent playing jigsaw puzzles on the National Geographic website. Is it noteworthy, though, that I received Belgian chocolate from a colleague who just came back from a month-long business trip in Brussels, Belgium?
It's not everyday that I get to eat Belgian chocolate that 's, well, really straight from Belgium.
Tuesday. No task to do. Again. I spent two and a half hours of the office hours outside the work premises and inside a movie house with my college best friend. Guess what movie we watched.
After cutting hours at the office, I just went back to the office to fetch my backpack and badge out of the office. (Yeah, I know, I’m such a very good employee.) Walking along ADB Avenue on my way to SM Megamall, I was surprised to see the familiar face of a former college professor. Back in college, he was a professor I greet with indifference (attributed to the fact that I flunked his subject) whenever we pass each other by. But what a great delight it was when I saw him among the sea of faces I don’t recognize. I blurted an ecstatic “Hi, Sir D!” and it wasn’t with the same indifference anymore that I used to greet him with. He looked at me for a few seconds and said “Uy!” with a smile pasted on his face. I was glad that he at least recognized my face even if not my name.
Another chance encounter with someone who was also a part of my college days made my Tuesday night. I have just passed the Robinsons Galleria’s East Wing entrance when I heard someone yell my name. He was a college classmate, once a groupmate in a project, and living in the same neighborhood as I do. He was already outside so I exited again from the mall entrance and we talked for a couple of minutes.
I don’t know why but these people who were part of my college days back there in that mountain of Mariang Makiling, meeting them here in the city makes me happy. They remind me of all the fun (and not so much fun) I’ve had in college. They also make me long for that daily dose of fresh air that I get to inhale when I was there, and which my lungs couldn’t enjoy in this polluted city.
Wednesday. A letter from the mailbox kept a stupid grin from disappearing on my lips the rest of my Wednesday. That and the fact that no task was still assigned to me.
Dear Singkamas, Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that the Board of Regents approved your graduation as of the First Semester, 2011-2012.
Thursday. Still no task to do. I was busy trying to figure out what word does A-H-S-Y-N-E form on my colleague’s iPad when I heard a loud noise that sounded like thunder, only, the thunder sounded off like it was very near. “Ay! Ayan na nga pala ang dinosaur kong pasalubong sa inyo,” a teammate, who was just back from his vacation overseas, jokingly said. Everyone in the team laughed at that. Little did we know that the loud noise which we thought was thunder, was actually the sound of one of the two grenades exploding just across from our office. No one was laughing when it was announced that one of our colleagues was hurt from the Robinsons Galleria heist.
I got home early and came upon my sister cleaning our messy room. I saw a small notebook with a hanging name tag. The name written on the name tag wasn’t my sister’s but of a male. I got curious and asked my sister if I could read it. Surprisingly, she said yes.
What I found in that notebook's pages are numerous I love yous, receipts, LRT tickets and a film strip of lomo camera.
As for the notebook’s covering, the guy chose my sister’s favorite color. I found it sweet. Never thought that guys could be that sentimental too. Being the nosy sister that I was, I asked her about the guy who gave that to her. She obliged and told me everything about that guy… and nine other guys. Yes, I was counting the whole time she was telling me about these guys who were smitten with her, but I lost count when her story came to the point where all of his male classmates confessed that they all have a crush on her. Talk about my sister being the crush ng bayan. Whew! What a lengthy story it was! I sat down and listened to her for five hours. Never mind that I did not get my coveted eight hours of sleep that night. Somehow, spending those five hours with her left me feeling a thousand days closer to her.
Friday. No task once more, except the conference call with our team’s counterpart in Australia. Why was it a task? Well, deciphering the words behind our Australian colleagues’ accent is a task enough. Pre-conference call, a teammate pretended that the call is already ongoing. She addressed the phone and said, “We can’t understand you. Can’t you speak slowly? ‘Cause we’re all very slow here.” The boardroom was filled with our jolly team’s laughter.
Next week, though, I hope I would have a task to work on. A week-long of inactivity leaves me restless.
banaag 