come to think of it...
hitting the casino on a Thursday night is not my idea of a night out. i don't have any urges to gamble money (mainly because i don't have any to squander like that) and besides, i don't know most of the games people play there, literally and figuratively. but since we were given complimentary tickets, i, along with Coco and Chrysmas, headed to the Pavilion after fuelling ourselves with alcohol in Penguin. the tickets we got were actually for a stand-up comedy show/sing-along that was held at the Alegria Lounge so that's where we went first. the last time i was in a comedy bar was in Library and that was way back in freshman college. i know the comics in those places have a penchant for plucking out innocent members of the audience with the sole purpose of burning them with humiliation and that's why i don't go there.. i'm afraid that if they pick on me, i'm going to end up either walking out in kapikonan or wrestling with a fag onstage.
anyway, so there we were and the host for the evening was this BEAUTIFUL Snooky Serna-lookalike trannie. he/she was slap-your-knees funny and at the same time hand-over-mouth-in-shock crass.. what a deadly combination. we were only thankful that the set was ending and so did not give him/her a chance to put any of us in the hot seat. one of the last people who did the sing-along was this geriatric man and he chose to sing "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Chrysmas had to quip, "whenever i hear that song, i think of dead bodies.. damn 'Good Morning, Vietnam'!" however, when the old man (who actually looked quite well for his age or generation, whatever) started singing, we were taken by surprise because he could belt out almost as well as Mr. Armstrong himself! he was smiling the whole time too, which made for a pretty good show.
and watching him looking genuinely happy like that made me think.. if he, who has survived the last world war and gone through things i can't quite yet imagine, can still smile and sing THAT particular song.. then what kind of person am i to think of giving up whenever harder-than-usual challenges come my way and be bitter? for a couple of minutes, a complete stranger inspired me to look at this world and my life in a completely better way. there's still so much to learn and be thankful for, after all. i'm young and even though the world isn't exactly my oyster, that's no reason for me to not get as many good things as i can from it.
* * *
last night, i dreamt that i died. what's strange about this is how it happened. apparently, there's this gadget that you put in your car. it's attached to this bong-like contraption that will not only make your car go faster, but will also make everyone in the car HIGH, as in acid-trip high. ok iza, no drugs for now, ha? i was in the car with 3 friends and only Chrysmas survived the freak accident (whether the car crashed or whatever escapes me right now). next thing i know, i was semi-floating, looking over mountains and such. Chrysmas was beside me and while i can still perceive the scene clearly, everything else was quiet, as in "there is no life in the void"-quiet, but i can hear Chrysmas whenever she says something to me.. which is odd in itself because while we both knew i was dead already, we were still yakking away.
so there i was.. drifting along a deathly silent world. the sun was shining bright, the view was serene and i had no idea what to do next. even the proverbial tunnel was nowhere in sight.
hmm.
what warped dreams may come.
* * *
on a totally sabaw-note, i single-handedly managed to embarass myself in front of family and relatives over dinner in greenbelt the other night. while finishing my food, i overheard my kid brother talking to some titas about going to the Manila Cathedral. i scoffed at him, saying, "what in the world are you planning?!" and he told me he wanted to be a part of the Cardinal Sin affair. my next question almost caused the entire table (a huge one, because there were 15 of us there) to become quiet:
"Anong meron? Is he going to do mass or something?"
of course they informed me (rather violently, might i add) that he's there because HIS wake was being held there. then i had to add insult to my own injury by further asking:
"Really? When did this happen? Are you kidding me?!"
oh sure, like people actually joke about this sort of thing.
everyone seemed to debate whether to laugh or berate me. my father kept quiet and i suspect it was only because he was keeping his blood pressure from shooting through the roof. i didn't know what to blame, my extreme lack of practicing my religion or not seeing the papers the day the headlines screamed the news. besides, i've taken to ignoring the front page the second i see bylines reporting on the "latest" development regarding the whole "Hello Garci?" mess.
but yeah, i suck.
anyway, so there we were and the host for the evening was this BEAUTIFUL Snooky Serna-lookalike trannie. he/she was slap-your-knees funny and at the same time hand-over-mouth-in-shock crass.. what a deadly combination. we were only thankful that the set was ending and so did not give him/her a chance to put any of us in the hot seat. one of the last people who did the sing-along was this geriatric man and he chose to sing "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Chrysmas had to quip, "whenever i hear that song, i think of dead bodies.. damn 'Good Morning, Vietnam'!" however, when the old man (who actually looked quite well for his age or generation, whatever) started singing, we were taken by surprise because he could belt out almost as well as Mr. Armstrong himself! he was smiling the whole time too, which made for a pretty good show.
and watching him looking genuinely happy like that made me think.. if he, who has survived the last world war and gone through things i can't quite yet imagine, can still smile and sing THAT particular song.. then what kind of person am i to think of giving up whenever harder-than-usual challenges come my way and be bitter? for a couple of minutes, a complete stranger inspired me to look at this world and my life in a completely better way. there's still so much to learn and be thankful for, after all. i'm young and even though the world isn't exactly my oyster, that's no reason for me to not get as many good things as i can from it.
* * *
last night, i dreamt that i died. what's strange about this is how it happened. apparently, there's this gadget that you put in your car. it's attached to this bong-like contraption that will not only make your car go faster, but will also make everyone in the car HIGH, as in acid-trip high. ok iza, no drugs for now, ha? i was in the car with 3 friends and only Chrysmas survived the freak accident (whether the car crashed or whatever escapes me right now). next thing i know, i was semi-floating, looking over mountains and such. Chrysmas was beside me and while i can still perceive the scene clearly, everything else was quiet, as in "there is no life in the void"-quiet, but i can hear Chrysmas whenever she says something to me.. which is odd in itself because while we both knew i was dead already, we were still yakking away.
so there i was.. drifting along a deathly silent world. the sun was shining bright, the view was serene and i had no idea what to do next. even the proverbial tunnel was nowhere in sight.
hmm.
what warped dreams may come.
* * *
on a totally sabaw-note, i single-handedly managed to embarass myself in front of family and relatives over dinner in greenbelt the other night. while finishing my food, i overheard my kid brother talking to some titas about going to the Manila Cathedral. i scoffed at him, saying, "what in the world are you planning?!" and he told me he wanted to be a part of the Cardinal Sin affair. my next question almost caused the entire table (a huge one, because there were 15 of us there) to become quiet:
"Anong meron? Is he going to do mass or something?"
of course they informed me (rather violently, might i add) that he's there because HIS wake was being held there. then i had to add insult to my own injury by further asking:
"Really? When did this happen? Are you kidding me?!"
oh sure, like people actually joke about this sort of thing.
everyone seemed to debate whether to laugh or berate me. my father kept quiet and i suspect it was only because he was keeping his blood pressure from shooting through the roof. i didn't know what to blame, my extreme lack of practicing my religion or not seeing the papers the day the headlines screamed the news. besides, i've taken to ignoring the front page the second i see bylines reporting on the "latest" development regarding the whole "Hello Garci?" mess.
but yeah, i suck.