Minatamis

Sinfully glazed
With warm sugar
Cubed bananas
Sit lap-to-lap
Overlapped
Competing for my
Attention

I pinched the topmost
Piece with the fork
In my hand
Some juice squirting

I bit it
Tasting the
Coffee-colored
Lava that dripped
Enveloping the
Little banana
Boulders under

It was hard
Not to close my eyes
As I savored each bite
Thick with glory

There seemed to be
Little children
Crawling around
My tongue
Depositing
The sugary sauce
All over my mouth
Before it dives
Down my throat

Then after that
My taste buds waited
For the next shot
Of those cubed friends
Sitting quietly
Though sugarly-drenched

And for the first time
After I received
That plateful
My eyes darted
A little upward

And then, and there,
I realized,
A more blatant kind
Of sweetness

Luring me
To go closer

It sat across
Smiling
And reviving
That sugary taste

Left in my mouth.

*I was inspired by the free saucer of minatamis I got his lunch(Thank you Red!). I actually ate it slowly so as to make sure that I use the right words to describe how it felt. Then I added a little teaspoonful of love. The words were scattered in my head all throughout the day and it was only tonight that I finally "finished" it. I was also inspired by the poetry-reading activity of Davao Writers Guild before lunch. Another ispiration also, was the fact that I had lechon for lunch. And I had a hellish exam after lunch. And everything else that involves lunch---my seventh most favorite meal of the day :)

As usual,
You are two hours late.

(I hope you haven't forgotten.)

And as usual,
I compose reasons for you

As if those would heal.
As if we can stay.

I haven’t heard
From you for a long time.

(I hope you haven't forgotten.)

Did you take care
Of my bonsai?
Did you keep
The withered roses
By the medicine cabinet?
Did you throw away
The tea bags I hid
Under the sink?

But okay,
Let’s get back
To fray.

Say…

Have you also forgotten
To love me today?

*Photograph by Red Agreda

STRESS: SPIDERMAN'S BLACK REVENGE-SUIT

Top ten killers by year 2020 will be led by Cancer, and next is (guess what) depression. I’ve read an article in a health magazine which says so. Diabetes, even, comes third.

Reading such article amazed and alarmed me. Times got faster. Technology kept on improving just as fast as a baby born in China. Thing is, because technology has been seen to do so much for the human race, people expect more from it. We want things to be as fast, as efficient and (what the hell) as cheap as the ideal gadget we have in mind. See, people are more impatient now. I know. I am guilty of this too. I don’t like colored cellphones because they have “Opening Folder” flashed on the screen when I open messages. It takes longer to go in and out the inbox. I am pissed by dial-up internet. Even waiting for a jeepney for five minutes annoys me now. I continually remind myself that I shouldn’t be that impatient. But then the thinker in me kicks in and analyzes. So far, I’ve hypothesized that my newfound impatience is a product of technology. And so, I’ve began to despise technology bit by bit. (Never mind I’m writing this article via a Windows XP-ed PC.) Stress comes in handy, doesn’t it? It’s so so destined to kill me someday. Haha.

Depression is a daughter of stress. A more powerful daughter at that. It’s easy. We begin to worry when things don’t go our way. We get sick. It’s either we get physically sick or emotionally sick, or worse, both. Then we become more worried. We try to take a break---go on a vacation perhaps---but then we can’t FULLY relax because office/school/relationship/financial stress will haunt us way before we become aware of it. It’s like Spiderman’s black revenge-suit. It sticks to us when we least like it. It sticks to us even when we try to pull ourselves away from it.

And so we pull ourselves away from it.

Let’s talk about Davao City. I see Davao City as an implicit anti-stress zone. There is a growing coffee shop culture in the city. Salons are paces away from each other. Spa shops got cheaper and cheaper because of tight competition. All with the intention of “making you feel good”, which is, merely a euphemism of “to forget for awhile of your goddamned life”.

In this entry, I’ll use the coffee shop method as an example because it caters to both sexes majorly. Ironically, having coffee in the coziest coffee shops doesn’t come cheap. A cup of ordinary brewed coffee starts at P65. But if you want the yummier ones, be prepared to dish out around P150. The price itself is stressing for the mass Juan de la Cruz. I mean, imagine having this fixation every single day. Enough to feed a family.

Speaking of family, one peaceful night, I saw my dad wearing a black crystal bracelet which didn’t look that good on his skin tone. I asked him where he got it. I said it was hideous. He laughed and said he bought it for P700 because the crystal was believed to “sip in” stress. Some Chinese thing. I rolled my eyes on my once-practical dad who refuses to buy a third pair of shoes because he thinks they’re unnecessary. How stressing!

This morning though, I could just use that bracelet because I was scholastically coerced to finish two papers in two hours. I became caffeine dependent since the beginning of my junior year. I actually forget lunch (this is so not me). It’s obvious I am currently wearing Spidey’s black suit (if you know what I mean).

I’m keeping my fingers crossed about surviving til next sem.

Check this out

Every year, 11,000 Americans injure themselves while trying out bizarre sexual positions. (I'm glad that I'm not one of them. How embarrassing!)

The Archives of General Medicine say coffee drinkers have sex more frequently and enjoy it more than non-coffee drinkers. (So I drink tea. What does that mean for me? Is it the caffeine or something else in the java? Food for thought, friends.)

A sperm whale's testes weigh in at a bouncing 25 lbs each, roughly the same size as a bulldog. (Super happy that I'm not a girl sperm whale. Think about those things coming at ya. Scary!)

The first automatic vibrator was invented in 1869. It ran on boiling water and was steam powered. (Can you imagine getting this thing going? It sounds like a locomotive, where a couple of people had to shovel the coal to keep the vibrator on. Ay yi yi...we've come a long way, baby!)

The orgasm was first called Hysterical Paroxysm. (Uh, okay. At least it's easier to pronounce. Haha.)


Napadaan lang ako sa "Who knew?" part ng isang woman's magazine. And I felt like sharing these amazing stuff.

Life's like that

Out cleavage, come collarbones. You’ve been seeing a lot of them off-shoulders, tube tops, V-neck sweaters and spaghetti straps lately… Never mind it’s rainy season. This landmark just below the sexiest part of the woman’s body (the neck) takes center stage now. A lot of men like seeing the woman’s collarbones because it is one of her “vulnerable” portions. Other “vulnerable” features include neck, shoulders, wrists and ankles. The contemporary majority actually like it better when these features belong to the skinny woman. Voluptuous may still be sexy for some, but hey, it’s the age of anorexia.

Out eight-hour stress, come part-time/freelance. The yuppies just got more versatile. Latest surveys from all over Asia say that fresh grads---and err, fresh job-seekers--- prefer having one or two part time jobs or do freelance than be stuck in the office for eight hours straight. They say they want their day to become less tedious, have a more diverse network and make their schedule more dynamic. Clever isn’t it? One can have brunch dates, lunch dates and mid-afternoon munch dates.

Out monthly salon trips, come home hair treatments. In a world where everybody is in a hurry(this world is called college), the average human being who usually had monthly hot oil/hair spa at her trusted salon would actually opt for home treatments. It is easier, cheaper, faster and there’s no need to dress up. (You can even do it naked.) You just have to apply the cream in her hair evenly, massage your scalp for awhile, wrap it up in a shower cap, wait for 20-30 minutes and rinse with water. Even foot spa and hair relaxing can be done at home. Sweet home.

Out Sheldon, come fast-food fiction. Cosmopolitan books, chick lit and Youngblood have skyscraper sales during the past three years. Blogospheres have more participants. Thing is, people nowadays may still want to be entertained by reading, but you know, their business (read as busy-ness) forces them to read quicker stories. Albeit Literature remaining sweet, it just keeps getting shorter.

Out Atkins, come Three-hour diet. The Chair of Harvard's nutrition department went on record before a 1973 U.S. Senate Select Committee investigating fad diets: "The Atkins Diet is nonsense... Any book that recommends unlimited amounts of meat, butter, and eggs, as this one does, in my opinion is dangerous. The author who makes the suggestion is guilty of malpractice." The Atkins diet is also known as the nightmare diet---especially to the rice-loving Filipino. You’ll likely be facing a self-inflicted psy-war before you get to your dining table. The Three-hour diet on the other hand, makes you lose weight by following time intervals. Just eat one hour after you wake up, then have a light snack after three hours. Have lunch after three hours, have another light snack after three hours then dinner after another three hours. Eat nothing after dinner. Drink water whenever you want to eat, when you’re not supposed to eat---especially during the after-dinner time. Voila! You’ll lose inches after a week. That’s the 3Hour diet. Easy, quick and cool. Most importantly, you can still eat WHATEVER you want.

Darwin was right. There had been evolution. Coz there still is.

how weird is weird

Here is the list of top 10 weirdest things about me, and err, of course, why YOU love me so much. *wink*

1. I love the smell of paper. I smell receipts, quiz papers, newspapers, flyers, even cartolina! I dunno why, i really really love the smell of papers. My friends' eyes roll everytime i sniff every kind of paper that passes my hands. I especially love the smell of old books, newspaper and newly photocopied paper.

2. I cry easily because of a song, or a poem, or a TV commercial. But it's hard to cry in real life. Like, you know, if my current squeeze and I are on a fight or if my mom scolds me. Top tearjerkers: That's Why You Go by Michael Learns to Rock, Neruda poetry and some McDo commercials.

3. I read books halfway, then I forget about them, then read another book, then after a while I remember that I have a "unfinished" book so I go back to reading it again, albeit dizzy trying to recall the plot. Sometimes, I just read the whole book AGAIN.

4. I eat at least four cups of rice a day to maintain my weight. If I eat less than that for one straight week, I'd become Nicole Richie. My metabolism is so promiscuous.

5. I can't write straight news. I just can't. I've been writing feature essays since high school and lots and lots of poetry. Plus I have no plans of practicing. How the hell can I write straight news?! One time, I did a creative twist on my business paper, I was "scolded" in class. Tsk tsk.

6. My first dream was to become an astronaut. Or an astronomer. When I still didn't care whether I wore a panty or not, I'd coerce my parents to buy me books about space and heavenly bodies. My ninong---my lovable ninong---whom I haven't heard from for more than ten years thought that I still want to be an astronomer and last year he gave me a huge astronomical telescope. Won.der.ful!

7. I love tearing the skin off the sides of my fingers. It's a habit. An old habit. You know what they say about old habits. *sigh* Sometimes, they bleed. Which brings me to my next weirdness.

8. I love the taste of blood. I have my own share of blood everyday. I get it via my tooth. Hehehe. It's true, I love the taste of it. It has this fruity-salty taste and playful-salty smell which tickles a part of me.

9. I can be addicted to peppermint tea. I had been addicted to this. And I can go back to being addicted with it again. Especially now that I've found out that drinking peppermint tea will make your *bodily* juice smell like mint. *wink*

10. I'm in love with indie music. I dunno if this is really weird. I know we have preferences and this is simply mine. Mine. All mine. I'm falling for Meg and Dia and Feist.

Nice to know

WARNING: Things about to be read in this entry is made from the cluttered mind. Or the wandering mind. Or the lack of mind. Ah basta! The one who made these didn’t mind. They may not be suitable for people who actually read. Parental guidance is advised.

***

It’s fascinating to know that you know what people think they know without them knowing that you know that they don’t know what they think you don’t know.

And the preceding paragraph spells exactly the reason why I am smiling like a drunken hyena right now.

Gestalt psychology talks about people perceiving things as whole units. That when we see a “square” with broken lines, we would instinctively fill in the broken parts for it to become a square. It is also the reason why dancers SHOULD have a costume, why when we look at corridors we see the people passing by as people-passing-by and not as different individuals off to different ways. Maybe it’s because looking at people is easier if you look at them as one group. I mean, we only have two eyes, duh. Oh-kay. Enough of the char. It’s just like gossip. When somebody hears something so juicy but quite incomplete, s/he would fill it in and draw conclusions from it. Then voila! You got a whole pitcher of brand-spanking-new slander. It’s WHOLE now. Of course, they wouldn’t want an incomplete thing to gossip about. They wouldn’t want to appear in-credible! Amusing. They should win Palanca. *grunts*

Anyway. I am currently in the stage of falling in love with my course(BA Mktg). Before, I used to hammer myself with thoughts about shifting, or about graduating as soon as possible and work, or about just quitting school and work full time on my previous employer. I especially needed lots and lots of vodka when I took my first look on my print out. I will have 6 units of Financial Management. The risk-return-stock-price-fluctuation thingy. Grr. It even involves formulas which I think were made before there was the Ten Commandments. Andami! My gosh!

And one more thing, I really can’t get along with the calculator. Everytime I face it (especially for Finance), love isn’t an option. I can’t think of any positive word, my brain cells just rally and I feel like stabbing myself with a brass protractor.

But now, I’m learning to love it, you know, embracing my calculator to sleep…participating in the two-hour-thrice-a-week class…stroking my scalp with the fact that this hell is only gonna be for five months. (Yes, honey, I’m not failing again. I’ve slapped myself a million times. Some people also helped in the slapping. Haha.)

Syangapala, I have this immediate need to gain mass and have longer hair. So help me Goddess.