Right now, I am sitting cross-legged in a heap of bed sheets on the floor. Liwa and I slept over at Mommy Shiela’s house after a night of Tanduay Ice, The Bar, chichiryas and chismis about work, life and love.
It was Wednesday evening, around 7:30, when we first thought of doing this. We were all heading home, half-complaining about the amount of work that we juggle daily, but nevertheless happy that we are all heading home.
After a few suggestions on what to drink and bring and Mommy Shiela suggesting we all spend the night at their house, we excitedly waited for the day.
I thought I would be late. I was jam-packed with scripts to edit and content plans to finish. By 6PM, I was only halfway between both. I told Mommy that maybe I’ll just catch up with them. I knew half the route, because Mommy lives somewhere inside Road 20 and I, in Novaliches. She told me she’ll give me instructions.
But, Bacchus or Lourd de Veyra or Angelica Paganiban seemed to be in my favor tonight. I asked my boss if I could bring home my work and just email it. She agreed. Between having me there and paying exorbitant electric bills, I reckon she thought the latter was a bigger loss. Just kidding. I would still be e-mailing my outputs once I’m done so I guess my presence or absence would not matter.
We went to Parco’s Selection, the nearest supermarket, got the bottles and chips, hailed a cab and chatted all the way to Road 20. We were all eager to see Mommy’s baby girl, Anya (who has a nice name, by the way). She warned us against greeting Anya first and said the latter would be the first one to make ‘papansin’ when she feels she’s ignored.
Mommy’s family is nice and accommodating. When we arrived, their dogs started barking. But their tails are between their legs. We saw Anya and tried our best to ignore her. Liwa couldn’t hold hers and greeted the latter. As expected, she did not even glance back.
By 10PM, we were already outside, enjoying sunflower seeds and alcohol. They told me things I never noticed happen in the office. It seemed to me that I was really apathetic or unobservant. I was surprised that both of them agreed on seeing the same things and I can only gape. Hahaha! Nah, it’s not that I’m too workaholic. I really just didn’t go beyond my usual tasks.
We talked about one of our boss’ real gender and wondered if he and our other boss were in a relationship. We talked about office issues, dissected each of our office mates’ attitudes, who likes who, who dislikes whom, who is most and least disliked, and who seemed to disliked a lot of things. The night seemed to spy on us too, because there was very little wind and everything, save for the occasional barks from the dogs, was quiet.
Only our laughters broke it.
We also talked about two of our officemates who left. They got better offers and less work. One is looking for a greater challenge in her career and the other, just a chance to breathe from the number of brands she used to handle. I liked both of them and thought their absence was such a great loss for the company. One of them did not cry but the other one cried all day as people kept approaching her.
We slept around 2AM, and I remembered Barney Stinson saying, “Nothing good happens after 2AM”.
“Ganyan talaga ang buhay” was the recurring statement of the night. So it seemed. For all those who are still hunting for jobs, for those who cannot find what they really want, for those who lost what they have and for those who can only wait to have what they want to have, the night is young. There will be plenty of chances for those willing to wait.
Meantime, do what we did and douse your stomach with alcohol.
Ganyan talaga ang buhay.
