Sadyah

Feb.18, 2006 - So there I was - both excited and nervous for what he will gonna say with what I have written - though this is not the first time. I am not really in a hurry with this one. Or perhaps, I am taking it slowly in a mad rush for a degree. Life is short.

I paid compliment to the glowing floor. Real wood.  I was envious. It was already like that last December when we had our party there. He had many suggestions and it boiled down to simplify, simplify, simplify. To think that I was excited with the thought that I am doing, I will be doing something novel for Philippine Lit. with a proposed 3-D & 3G format in manipulation of narrative time and space. 1st POV, he suggested, to which I agreed. Truly. But omigod, it might turn out autobiographical, I thought, when I was already on my bed and somewhere in Leyte, survivors of the mudslide remain to be saved.

He drived me, first, to a Chinese restaurant. "Order what you want," he said and I chose sinigang na tanigue. He pointed me to the wall and proudly said, "I wrote that." The history of the restaurant owned by a good friend. We talked like friends. That after a heart operation, he was not able to eat corned beef, his favorite, as well as ice cream. How he felt sad about his grandchild in Singapore being left most of the time at the care of a nanny. He has a lot of writings to do for the summer that he forego sitting in the workshops at Bacolod and Iloilo. He dreams, though, of a workshop for a novel. But how would it be like? Perhaps there would be lectures, he mused.

I asked for a blurb for my forthcoming book of poetry and he gladly obliged. I don’t need Introduction, he said. "Call me," he also assured, when I told him that I am preparing my collection of short stories for a publication by a reputable university.

The sky was dark and it turned into a drizzle when he dropped me for a jeepney ride back to Manila. I carried with me the form with his signature, a pack of gift for a colleague, and a lot more of stories in my mind and heart.

WOWOWEE stampede and the 12% EVAT. Ito kaagad naisip ko nang pinakita ni Grace ang text message ng nangyaring tragedy sa ULTRA in line sa 1st year anniversary ng noon time show. Nanlamig ako. Ayaw kong isipin na mayroon akong kakilala - kapamilya o kapuso - doon. Nakakagalit. Talaga. Sobra. Kasi it only shows how desperate the Filipino masa are - going there for "bakasakali," for "suwerte" sa easy money that lured them; exploited in the name of ratings by ABS-CBN.

A new restaurant opened a few steps away from my place and it is named Old Spaghetti House. I tried it out yesterday and fell in love right away: the old, wooden furnitures, the lighting, the architecture, the music played and the warmness of waiters. I was able to do some writing while sipping green mango juice.

There’s a new restaurant that opened a few steps away from my place, and where are you, my dear?