The Greatest

I love dear old Pop… While others are blaming me for being the dumbest person alive and for not having noticed that my phone was snatched from my bag pocket, he was telling me all along that I should regulate my strolling and shopping sprees and keep away from these robbery-prone areas… I didn’t hear him nag about how stupid I was or how easily I gave away money by losing that phone… He dialed my roommate’s number to tell me that I’ve changed a lot from being the homebody (he used to know) to being the great traveler that I’ve become… He told me that he’d send money right away… I said I still have my wallet intact; I just lost a phone and I haven’t transferred several photos in it to my laptop. I heard him chuckle. He told me to stay at home while I don’t have a phone to show off to the robbers. I let out a big, big smile. My roommate stared at me with awe. She was thinking from the instant that she handed me her phone (to take the call) that I’ll be nagged to death and belittled. We shared that thought. I’d be scolded to pieces, turn red and suddenly burst. But I was wrong. Roommate was wrong. He was always right.

And he will always be.

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P.S. I know I’ve been stupid. I just don’t want people telling me that it’s my fault. For freakin’ God’s sake, I didn’t tell the thief “Zip open the smaller pocket and take the fuckin’ phone!”. So simply shut the fuck up. Your nagging won’t bring me back my phone. And another thing: Don’t pretend that you’re kind and that you care by consoling me. I hate being consoled.

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Photo taken March 29, 2009 at the Manila Post Office...

CUMMINGTONITE

Just so you know. There is such a mineral named cummingtonite. Hell yeah! I’m not kidding. Just this morning when we were in mineralogy class -freezing our asses off at the NIGS AVR and waiting till the clock strikes 1:00- one of the lecture presentation slides caught my (short-spanned) attention. There it was. CUMMINGTONITE.Magnesium Iron trisilicate. (Mg,Fe)₇Si₈O₂₂(OH)_2. My face turned blank, then exploded into an annoyingly flushed one accompanied by a sudden burst of laughter. And then the whole class got my cue and began laughing too. F**k! I didn’t see that one coming. Although I know that a mineral’s name is derived from the locality from where it was first seen, I’m still wondering what cummingtonite looks like… And I’ve come to realize: my attention span is not that short after all…

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Photo taken at the crystallography class... 3rd year, 1st sem.

Crappy people do grow old

Yeah, I admit. Being a student assistant has a few perks in itself. You get to know where to find the books you’ve always “wanted” (or always been compelled) to read, you get to establish “connections”, you can enjoy the subtle feeling of freedom being able to buy the stuff you’ve been saving some bucks for and make do with what little salary you earn, and you get to brag about balancing work and academics in your resume. But here comes the irritatingly bossy and annoying people who terrorize your temporary stay at the workplace. They notice the tiniest details in your work that you’ve done wrong, they begin to memorize your schedule and know that you’ve cut some hours of duty. Then they start a lecture on time management and all that shitty stuff that you always hear from your parents, teachers and superiors. It is that stuff that forces itself into your right ear. And it is the same stuff that you force to let out of the left. They’ll say something like “We know that you’ve always prioritized your studies but then you also have to understand that we need some help here. You should have known -from the time you applied for work- the consequences of your decision to take the SA’s job.” Yeah, sure… Blah blah blah. Talk about total crap! All I know is that they’re sparing their bodies from sweating and hard labor. They’re becoming too unreasonable. They should stop this all at once. Crappy people do grow old. But it’s an early onset process. Each time they blurt out and do crap, a wrinkle pops out. Always wondered why they don’t smile? Now you know.

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Just added the pic above. Nerdy pic from those days...