carbonarap

I got a cart full of grocery bags when I felt the need to quench my thirst. On the way to the food court, my pace was interrupted by a long table of pasta and salad for sale. The carbonara came with a free scoop of fruit salad and that’s what I wanted.

The lady seller put my order inside a plastic bag, handed it to my special gurl who immediately placed it inside the cart. When she walked further down the table to buy her own food, I started to push the cart away.

I parked the cart beside the long table and tapped my fingers as I stared at my order in the plastic bag. I was making a decision. When she came back, she found me eating the salad.

I’m thirsty, I reminded her.

She put down her own order, which was in a separate plastic bag, inside the cart and then left to buy me a drink. While waiting for her return, I started to eat the pasta. At this point, I began to notice people walking by were gawking at me.

Yes, gawk not glance.

They were looking not because I looked pitiful. But rather they were curious of what I was eating. Or maybe it was the way I was handling the pasta with a teaspoon.

You bet, they gave me a teaspoon. There was actually a second when I imagined I was in an eating contest just to convince myself that it wouldn’t kill me to struggle with the pasta using an inappropriate utensil.

I could have asked these people, What’s your problem? But there was no need to freak out on them.

So there I was, a cowboy behind a shopping cart, shoveling the pasta with a plastic teaspoon. Now whatever it was that they saw, it absolutely benefited the ladies selling the pasta and salad. People just kept coming to buy from them.

Darn. I should have asked for TF, although a fork would do.

When my special gurl came back with a large cup of soda, she was surprised to see me cleaning up the styro.

SHE: Kumakain ka?
ME: (Smiles) Ubos na. They should pay me.
SHE: Bakit? Tinitingnan ka nila?
ME: Oo. Tapos bumibili sila.
SHE: Para kang yung pinyarap kid.
ME: Why?
SHE: Kaya mabenta yung Marca Pinya dahil dun sa pinyarap kid.

Hmm… It seems like I’m having a memory gap. I can’t recall that TVC other than this lil boy saying, Pinyarap!

Did that boy drink a cup of soy sauce and uttered, Pinyarap?

I wouldn’t do it even if they stick a pencil to my neck.

* * *

kids should know that...

Soy sauce does not contain the beneficial isoflavones associated with other soy products such as tofu or edamame. It can also be very salty, so it may not be a suitable condiment for people on a low salt diet. Low-salt soy sauces are produced, but it is impossible to make soy sauce without using some quantity of salt. (wikipedia)

construction on-going

This blog is being updated. You probably won't notice not until you get to familiarize yourself with my archives section, which normally no one checks out.

I've had two weblogs in the past. Both are now dead but the entries will remain alive here in this bloggy.

I'm in the middle of transferring those entries. Well, talk about getting a life after coming home from my day job. I never thought it would suck a major deal of my free time. But, you know what? I find it very fulfilling. It's like sewing together everything that I wrote after slashing my blog life more than once.

Transferring is not boring. I get entertained at the same time because I get to see how crappy a blogger I was (something you might have already discovered).

And yea, this transformation caused me to retitle my bloggy. I believe I finally found a blog title that is apt to my personality, Kid Opener.

I'll be updating the archives section more nowadays. I still have to transfer articles written from 2004 to 2006.

* * *

After my dad saw the painting I bought, he got impulsive one day and brought home this:

I am my dad's pet. But never in my growing up years did I abuse that, although my brothers would urge me to use it for their advantage.

Last Saturday, we went to Puerto Azul and went fishing. It was the new moon weekend and any fisherman knows that the best time to catch fish is on a new moon.

The next day I traveled to East Fairview and visited my "other" mom. She introduced me to my "brother," Louie, and to her husband. She wants me to visit her again on the last Saturday of the month.

Weekend was catching up with the family, I'll say. I had to take a 2-day leave from work just to bond with my favorite people.

* * *

kids should know that...

In astronomical terminology, the New Moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth. At this time, the illuminated half of the Moon faces directly toward the Sun, and the dark or unilluminated portion of the Moon faces directly toward Earth, so that the Moon is invisible as seen from Earth. (wikipedia)

one time for 50 minutes

I want you to take a look at what I bought yesterday.

There are quite a lot of things that I share in common with my father. Aside from saltwater fishing and love for cars, we have this penchant for paintings featuring fishermen or the sea (or any body of water where we could fish). I actually realized this only when I saw that he has about 10 of this.

Sampu! Wow. Medyo OC ata.

I think I inherited that OC gene.

Anyway, one time for about 50 minutes, I just might be able to stare at it on a lazy day, my back caught by a soft mattress, lost in the scene on the canvass and imagining myself sitting on that small bamboo bridge, legs dangling on the edge, staring at the moonlit water while swatting pesky mosquitoes away from my face.

The artwork, by the way, is by an artist from Pampanga surnamed Nocom.

* * *

This morning my special girl and I dropped by the Asian Hospital to check on my dad who was scheduled to have a minor day surgery. On our way out of the building, walking on the upper ground floor, she pointed to me a little sign hanged on the doorknob of a tiny office beside the chapel.

It was the chaplain's office. And the chaplain has a nun who works as his assistant.

Well, at least, that's how I look at their tandem.

The sign on the knob is made of laminated paper and enumerates the places in the hospital where the occupants of the office may be found. There's a tiny magnet that helps pinpoint the whereabouts. It's really very ingenious the way it was made.

SHE: Baby, look o!

ME: Yeah, I know.

SHE: Ang galing, no.

ME: Yep. It'll tell you where he is.

SHE: He?

ME: Where he's at right now.

SHE: He? Nun?

ME: That's the office of the priest.

SHE: Office din yun ng madre. Nakita ko sya dati, dun sya nakaupo.

ME: So what. That's still the office of the priest.

SHE: Hindi nga eh! Sa kanilang dalawa yun!

Pauses.

ME: Nobody cares to know where the nun is.

SHE: Ano?! Ano?! Ikaw ha! Ang sama mo.

At this point she says something about the importance or worth of women...or it may be something else that's meant to tell me how politically incorrect or mentally jurassic I may be at times.

I think my ears folded at that particular moment.

.....

Alright. If it pleases to let you know, I dropped my head in embarassment. Lower than her head, as a matter of fact.

.....

Come on.

I just thought that sick people would rather set an appointment with or rush to have the presence of the priest for, I dunno, something like last rites or exorcising demons.

Something like that.

And the nun is left in the office to answer the phone or to send the priest sms for updates on God's calls.

Tsk. I feel the hole is getting deeper. I'd better just s.t.o.p. explaining.

* * *

kids should know that...

Political correctness (often abbreviated to PC) is a term used to describe language or behavior which is intended, or said to be intended, to provide a minimum of offense, particularly to racial, cultural, or other identity groups. A text that conforms to the alleged ideals of political correctness is said to be politically correct. The term itself and its usage, however, is hotly contested. Some commentators, usually on the political left, have argued that the term "political correctness" is a straw man invented by the New Right to discredit what they consider progressive social change, especially around issues of race and gender. (wikipedia)