The Roger Rabbit and the Running Man

Over the weekend I updated myself on what's going on with my fellow bloggers, and I came across Lissa's blog last. Lissa has a real talent for writing, and I was amused with her last statement.

It's about the roger rabbit and the running man.

Instantly, I was on a quick trip down memory lane.

Sometime in the early 90's (not sure if I was in sixth grade or in freshman year at high school), I was an appointed member of our batch's dance group. I don't dance for performances, but I do have a sense of rhythm. I'd copy the dance moves being shown by the Universal Motion Dancers at That's Entertainment in the privacy of my parents' bedroom. The more experienced dancers in our batch picked me as part of their group (guess that's where the barkada factor comes in). The group needs representation from all the sections of our batch, and they were at a dilemna who to get from the honors class.

And they picked the class valedictorian, hehe.

So for 3 weeks, we'd practice after school for about two hours. The performance was for an intermission number of our school's concert-event featuring the "Ang TV" cast. Our group of 11 did hops, waves, air-swims, dolphin get-ups, slam-claps and whatever choereography we could think of. What we did during those 3 weeks is good material for a movie storyline.

And of course, we had to insert THE roger rabbit and THE running man. It was, at that time, the dance craze. Along with the scissor steps.

Come performance time, all I could remember was that the crowd went wild when they heard the first bars of the roger rabbit theme. It was a 6-minute dance number, in front of a packed gymnasium. It was my first time to be onstage in front of the spotlight as a performer.

And when the sax portion kicked-in, we did the roger rabbit and the running man and the scissor steps. Executed them perfectly and in sync with each other. More shouts and more cheers.

It was one of the best 6-minutes of my life. =)

And that's why I smile whenever I hear or read about the roger rabbit and the running man. Being young then, it doesn't take much to get that feeling of enrapture.

How to Describe My Work

Last night, I joined Bai and Marlon for a late round of beers (note: ice-cold beer is definitely tops for the hot weather we've been getting recently) at Technobar. As I just recently got back from another business trip from Malaysia, the first question they asked me was "How's the meeting?".

My reply: "Crazy, dude."

I had to juggle economics, linear programming and engineering simulations during the course of the week. On top of that, there were a lot of info that were being thrown around by the discipline engineers that we're calling in from time-to-time. The whole week was something like hell week on my senior year in university --- lots of new things, papers due the following day, oral reports in-between, a lot of reading assignments and trying to get that 4.0 mark. And it wasn't on a single subject solely; it was on plenty of subjects!

I was pushing something like 16 hours/day just to keep afloat of all the info and tasks I was handling last week. ZZzzZzzz....

This morning, I received this picture file in my email. I absolutely laughed when I saw it, because there are a lot of similarities between the student's predicament on his problem set and the way I currently see my work's demands:

Happy Monday! bwahahahahaha... (sarcastic laugh)

Happy Mother's Day!

Gifts I would have given to my mom and my friends who are moms and my friends' moms if my wallet were bottomless:

1) To Ma: that LaZy Boy couch from Blims that she's been making parinig to me since her birthday, wrapped in her favorite color apple-green. And the pearl earrings she saw in Cebu. and shoes that she saw in Hongkong. and a round-trip ticket to Canada to visit her amigas.

2) Mrs. S (Quito's Ma): a dozen long-stemmed red roses and an orchid bouquet, delivered to her by her apos at her bedside when she wakes up. Note: I need to coach my godsons (her grandchildren).

3) Tita 'mommy-ni-MJ': pictures of my available guy friends na ipapakilala kay MJ. And a fashionable hat for her summer trips.

4) Mrs. Molina (mommy ni Tin): charcoal portrait of the Molina family (na kasama na si Buddy).

5) Mommy ni Glenn: Fuel cards from Shell, so she can go out on more road trips with her anaks, apos and family.

6) Mommy G: A gift certificate to San Benito. The ultimate spa treatment for the hippest and coolest young mom I know.

7) Tita Cors (mommy ni Chard): a Saladmaster pot, to replace the one that I and Chard burnt 6 years ago while cooking at the apartment.


Each gift will come with a handmade greeting card, saying "You're one of the best mothers I know!"

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Muted Sighs

A muted sigh is a sign of silent surrender. It's what helpless people do in the short instance when time seems to be suspended. It's the feeling of having a pocket of dense air that you swallow and settle at your stomach. It makes your ears red sometimes and your eyes watery.

It's what a kid does who eagerly looked forward to a weekend fun trip with his dad, only to be disappointed later on because his dad was called on an urgent business trip.

It's what the shy girl does at the prom who eyes on a guy, waiting for him to ask her to dance with him, only to see him scan the faces and leave abruptly.

It's what the beggar does at the end of the day after counting his meager alms before he sleeps on the cold pavement.

It's what the traveller does when he finds out that he won't make it to his flight because of the traffic jam.

It's what I did when I was told today that the organization cannot grant me my release window yet and take up a broadening assignment.

*Sigh*

But these people who do not sigh out loud are brave people. Surely, they look forward to the following day, week, month or year hoping that things will be better. They do not wish to invoke unrest in the balance of things and events in their influence.

I just need to hang on a little longer. I hope that the time does not come when I sigh not because of regret or surrender, but because of a compromised fulfillment. I hope that the time will come when I need not sigh.

p.s. I look forward to working with my future boss. It should make my current career more bearable and inspiring.

Lola's House Test

I'm a good boy.

One of my officemates requested if he could sleep over at our house in Baclaran last weekend because (1) he was playing in a badminton tournament at Manila on one day and (2) needs to be at Timberland Heights in Rizal for a trailrun at 6 am the following day. His normal place of residence is either Batangas or Sta Rosa -- both too far and a great waste of 'rest' time.

After getting the necessary paalams from my parents, ate and my dwendes, I agreed that he could sleep over.

I was wondering at that time if my lola would make her presence felt to my colleague when he sleeps. You see, lola has this habit of letting it be known whether or not that she is in favor of our sleepover guests being the friends of her apos. And she lets it be known when our guests are sleeping.

What lola does, if she disapproves of your sleepover guest, is that she visits the hosting apo in his dream and reprimands him for bringing the unfavored guest to HER house (our Baclaran house used to belong to lola). On top of that, she grabs the sleeping guest by the ankles and suppossedly pulls them off the bed.

Among our sleepover guests over the years so far, lola has pulled the ankles and tugged the blankets of five of our visitors. A couple of them actually screamed in the middle of the night (and waking up the whole household). They have reason to scream, because only a few of us can see lola. She's been dead since 1942.

The descriptions of lola's scare tactics are consistent: something tugs the blankets, then a clammy feeling at the ankles, followed by a sensation of someone holding your ankles and pulling you off the bed. Some slept through it, only to find themselves halfway off the bed when they wake up (nobody can provide an explanation how they ended up like that). The two people who screamed got scared at the 'clammy feeling' stage. Who wouldn't, specially if the airconditioning in all our rooms are perfectly okay?

But anyway, lola's been a good judge of character. Ma would give us warnings on our choice of friends everytime lola does her thing. The persons she pulled off the bed -- they wasted their lives eventually, pulling down a lot of their friends with them.

So when my colleague slept over at our house in Baclaran, all my siblings were excited to know the following day whether or not lola visited me in my dreams and if my colleague had an encounter with her.

(Un)fortunately, nothing extraordinary transpired. Both of us even got a good night's sleep. (Actually, we were dead tired from a badminton tournament that day).

I guess lola judged that my colleague was a good guy and that I'm still a good boy.

Dinner and Drinks: Kuala Lumpur

Last week I was on a business trip to Kuala Lumpur for a meeting with our technical consultancy arm - Global Solutions. There's a significant Pinoy representation in Global Solutions and I'm on close tabs with all of them as they have been previously assigned to my current workplace.

The opportunity was there to have a small gathering and get updated on the latest news and issues at our respective workplaces and communities. So, we agreed to have dinner at our suki street-food restaurant Tong Yuk Fat Keen at Bukit Bintang.

Benny and Anne brought their 3-year old angel, aptly named Angel. I took plenty of shots of her (kids are very challenging subjects, specially if they keep on moving here-and-there).

Post-dinner, some of us decided to go out for a beer or two. I suggested that we hang out at my *favorite* bar in Kuala Lumpur -- the SKYBAR (I actually consider its location as one of my secrets). Most of my expatriate friends in Kuala Lumpur wasn't even aware of it.

The Skybar gives you a fantastic view of the Petronas Twin Towers while you enjoy their 'Tower' beers.

In a couple of weeks I'll be back there. Hehehe.

Childishness

I've been tremendously busy with work and business travel recently which is why I haven't had the chance to update my blog as often as I wanted to.

Out of nowhere, Quito blipped into my schedule last week.

The one thing I can depend on my best friend is that he remains the same guy that I know for the last 10 years. He's switched jobs thrice, was close to bankruptcy for about a year because of a bad investment, got laid and then married, have 3 kids in tow, gained about 4 inches in his belly since college, chose to be with his mom when his parents separated a few years back and raised 9 puppies in-between (one of which was his personal favorite for me, because it liked sitting on my lap, and later told me that the puppy does that because she's in heat).

He invited me for a late lunch last week after finding out that I was in the area. We catched up on what's new with the other's family, relationships, jobs, next car to buy, problems, idols, patriotism, election, insurance, oil prices, newly-tried positions, health, etc. Both of us had pretty hectic schedules, and burn-out was a serious topic for both of us.

Since both of us were free for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to grab some Ice Monsters at Fort. He then had the idea of sitting on the grass near the Adidas Sports Camp area under the 3 pm sun in our respective business attire cooling off with Ice Monsters like a couple of student truants who skipped classes from University.

Sitting there on the grass enjoying avocado slices with shaved ice was enjoyable. It was as if the cool ice temporarily froze my brain to focus on that singular moment of bliss. I must have been mesmerized by the idea, because the next thing I knew was that Quito punched me *hard* on the shoulder. Major ouch.

"What was that for?!"
"Hahaha... wimp!"
"Oh yeah? Hah!"
"I dare you. You can't do your judo moves anymore. Wimp!"
"No problem."

Without warning, I sprang up my feet, grabbed his left hand, slid it to his back, placed my leg behind his shin to get him off-balance and did a judo take-down move on him in less than 10 seconds. Quito went face-down on the grass.

And the funny thing is he was laughing. And I found myself laughing with him a couple of seconds later.

Yep, it's nice to know we didn't grow up much. We both believe that an occasional bit of childishness helps manage the stress.

Hehehe.