discordant monday…
February 25, 2007
catesbool
the early morning traffic along shaw boulevard was enough to drive one crazy on a monday morning. it is supposed to be the beginning of the week and i am supposed to be feeling all fresh and relaxed after having spent a relaxing sunday with my family.
my day began with a pleasant wake up call from my husband and a kiss from my daughter. the aching muscles of my body were protesting and begging me to spend the day in bed just doing nothing. with a sigh, i recalled the days when i was in den haag, waking up at 8:00 in the morning, just worried about taking a shower on a cold winter morning and getting enough coffee and stroopwaffle to keep me awake during one of freek’s or lee’s early morning classes. aahhh, the smell of coffee emanating from the vending machines of iss… where else can i find them? i snapped back in reality as my husband told me that i still have to attend the flag ceremony this morning.
lately, my body has been protesting against the bumpy ride to the office using fx as a mode of transportation. being back in the third world definitely had its price. traffic jams in place of an efficient tram system. reckless fx and jeepney drivers not minding you and your soft curses at them while you hang on for dear life hoping you won’t get thrown out as they sped through the highways. the senseless dutch utterances announcing the next tram stop which seemed music to my ears have been replaced by the impatient sounds of revving up and swerving-killing-machines like the jeepneys and fxs on the street. aaahhh! this is the manila that i missed when i was in den haag. how i loath their recklessness now.
as the ride i was on it cruised through intramuros this morning, i asked myself why i was crazy enough to try to want to stick within the philippine bureaucracy all these years and why i was dimwit enough not to think about leaving home at such an early age.
cold reality on a monday morning from a what-used-to-be-an-idealist-bureaucrat-who-wanted-to-make-a-change-from-within is too much without a coffee for somebody who has learned to hate coffee in the morning.
the video in my mind plays back itself: i am inside seinpost kitchen heating up 6 pieces of pancakes as kazuyo, dina and avi call me pannenkoeken monster. the delicious smell of butter melting invades my nostrils as i conservatively applied on stroop over them and roll them up for savoring. jasmine tea wafts through the air. dina tunes up the music in her laptop to wake hernan and lucia upstairs with her music. rommel does not stir a muscle upstairs as he continues to slumber his way through lunch time while daigo and hou jun sets off to campus. the orange sun starts to peek in and the workers of the restaurant in schev gallop up and down the street to bring food and some other thing here and there. the neighbors inside the condominium across the street open up their curtains and lounge around watching us inside the kitchen.
ah, my mondays… they will never be the same again. i sit here cross-eyed. dung!
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