12.25.2008

christmas day blues

All the physical exertions of yesterday—waking up early from an up-til-dawn drinking session with mar, so i could deliver gifts to the grandchildren (its a complicated matter, really—older nephews and nieces marrying early make gentle, grampa gentle) living in the other side of the metro ; then later running to a bus station brimming with passengers with a singular intent that day—to be home to his or her respective province in time for the Christmas celebration—made me feel like a walking, breathing zombie; not really quite sure where he is waking at and who he’s waking to. Hehehe. I arrived yesterday just in time for the dinner preparations which, in our household takes up a good part of the evening starting from six o’clock way until eleven o’clock in the evening. So much to cook, so little time!! Earlier, upon arriving in town though, i had to squeeze in a bit of shopping for people i forgot to include in my list and which will turn up nonetheless; i also managed to buy a prepaid internet kit for gael so i could be online whenever there’s a signal available to be had. I asked ms. lady receptionist if my location in manila will pose no problem should i choose to avail of their product; and to which she answered, ”every corner in the metro is covered”. Good enough for me, i said to myself. Knowing that our barrio usually gets a strong signal from the network, i had no doubt that surfing the net would be a breeze. Well turns out i’m in for the surprise of my life! The signals came in drip-drops, trickling slowly like the first spring rain. It’s not that i can’t access the net but there’s a window when i should do all my online chores before everything grinds to a halt. Hehehe. The culprit? A rival network recently built a communications tower on the other side of the river, but just the same, still in our barrio; and that made my online life a living hell, hehehe. So i really don’t expect that i can post this tonight—the signals mostly get jammed up at night, so like avon’s latest tagline, i should be saying “hello tomorrow!” hehehe. So, how did i spend my Christmas? Nothing spectacular, really. I just stayed at home for most part of the day finishing a poem i started writing some two nights back, when i was still in manila. It’s a piece i came up with, exploring the nuances of seduction, hehehe. I had the idea some days ago of juxtaposing images of angels vis a vis what happens when two people meet for the first time...stares and hellos exchanged. I really had no clear idea where my poem is headed, just a vague outline suggested by those images i mentioned. In the course of writing it, it sort of acquired its own character, unlike anything i’ve written so far. i really don’t know what to make of it, so instead of blabbering out gibberish, i’ll just link you to the poem here and let you decide for yourselves. Ate, kuya and kids had to go to Pampanga to pay respects to his mom so it’s just nanay and me bonding in between my writing breaks—which is just like saying going through the fire in terms of having one’s sanity tested to the limits, hehehe. Nanay could really test your will and calm as she could be quite the kid in terms of the “kulit” factor. Hehehe. I think that one comes with age. She had me at the tender age of 42 which explains why we are like cats and dogs, battling it over such simple things as my schedule with doing the laundry; or taking the latest development for example, she wants to know what time will i be changing the curtains tomorrow. Knowing her, if i don’t do it exactly on the time i said i’ll be doing it, she’ll be terribly, terribly bothered and will keep on harassing me til i do it. Sigh. A big, big sigh. We’re only at peace when we are eating. So we ate to our heart’s content and retired early for the night to the other house across the street (the one broken into by unknown men in the blog entry “the curious case of the broken lock”), where i’ll still be praying hard for signals.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ang haba ng entry mo. hahaha. anw koya meri xmas(belated) and hapi nyunyir(adbans) sau at sa buong pamilya mo geft ko?

Popoy I.

. said...

Nice, very fluid ha! I wish I could write an entry like this.

gentle said...

@ popoy - salamat sa pagbati! hehehe. pasensha na kung nahabaan ka, sanay lang ako magsulat sa ganitong style. :) test of patience ba? hehehe

@ mugen - thanks. you do write well, been reading some of your posts before. :) thanks for dropping by.

Anonymous said...

i could imagine your christmas haste, and i envy the same. it was only me and my sister for christmas eve, as opposed to your sort of gathering with family members =)

gentle said...

@ gravity - just the same, having your sister to share christmas eve with is better than having no one at all, right? i'm sure your sister loves you. and thats all that matters, in christmases and in any other occassions--that we share it with people we love. ;)

Anonymous said...

aaaw! thanks! i'll link you up =)