Jandrea...so far

I think I have developed an aversion to riding taxicabs driven by men in red t-shirts. A day after election day, K and I rode a cab to school. Our ride with Cab driver #1 started out pleasantly until our conversation slowly turned into his tirade against existing ills in Philippine society, e.g. unfair taxation. Still feeling very tired after our stint as PPCRV volunteers the previous day, we just didn't have the energy to deal with his negative vibes. So the remaining 10 minutes of our ride seemed sooooo long! In the afternoon, we hailed a cab to go to PGH. Again, it was driven by a red-shirted man wearing a baller by the winning presidential candidate. We had not been in the vehicle one minute when Cab driver #2 decides he doesn't want to bring us to Manila. He said he didn't know where PGH was and where Taft Ave. was. Even if I gave him directions, he said he didn't want us as passengers. He reasoned that he doesn't even go to Quiapo. Oh my! I didn't want...

     Oh, my! It's as if that word was invented to describe me! Because I do have quite a number of unread books under my bed and in shelves all  over my house and my office. I can't resist book sales and I would rather buy a book than a new dress. But of course, there is a fervent desire to read them ... someday!      But of course, it is not for me alone. Because if such a word exists then it means it describes human behavior which occurs naturally in the culture where the word is used.   Like the many words there are in the Filipino language for rice - bigas  for rice grain, sinaing  for boiled rice,  sinangag  for fried rice,  bahaw for cold, leftover rice, etc. There are as many words for rice as they are found in our everyday activities.      And so I wonder whether there is an equivalent of tsundoku   in the English language. I couldn't come up with one word that was nearly the same....

Time to sip chamomile tea... Oh so deliberately Time to really listen to the music ... Word for word, note for note Life, not gulped by the cupful Memories of first love, savored Like watching butter slowly melting on oven-hot rolls Like watching the soft blue of clouds Seamlessly turn to orange And then grey Solace, at the end of day

A day after two students of mine shamelessly conversed during class, sharing something on a mobile phone, I am still incesed with myself for not calling their attention in class.The other day, another student was readimg what looked like a pocketbook while I was talking about job satisfaction and organizational commitment before a class where most seemed to be as engaged as I was in the discussion. Again, I pretended not to have seen the errant act! After many years of teaching, I still don't know how to handle these things! Do I treat them like impolite children and scold them in front of everyone? Maybe if they were rambunctious or insolent, it would be so easy to take this step. But if they were not and they were just showing disinterest in what is transpiring in the classroom? Do I tolerate this form of disrespect, not only for me, but for their classmates who patiently sit through whatever I have to offer in class? The latter option, maybe. Not because I am intimidated ...

I have just realized (and admitted) that I am now at the older end of the generation gap! Twice now, on two separate fastfood establishments, we asked for "cubiertos" and the food servers did not know what they were. When we "translated that to kutsara't tinidor, they met that with what seemed like a  combination of amazement and amusement! One even repeated the word twice, rolling it in her mouth, like she was tasting new flavor of candy for the first time. The other one, an earnest young man, after giving us the utensils asked what language it was from. He seemed delighted to have learned a Spanish word today! Good for him!  Cubierto  - Spanish to English Translation | Spanish Central www.spanishcentral.com/translate/ cubierto utensil, piece of silverwarecoge el  cubierto  con la mano derecha take the spoon/ fork/knife with your right hand los  cubiertos  the cutlery falta un  cubierto , porque ...

I have this crazy notion that the universe has determined that some days are perfect for important events. For a while now, i have noticed that on certain days, my appointment calendar is VERY full while on the spaces for other days, I have nothing written except my daily reminder to pray at a specific hour.  To illustrate, yesterday, June 28, I had two workshops going on at exactly the same time (Don't ask me how i managed to attend both!) and then another activity after dinner. Tomorrow, June 30, I have 2 deadlines for a paper and presentation (There was another one I managed to get out of). And then one meeting in the morning and another one in the afternoon. In the evening, i check in for another activity which starts morning of the next day!  Mind you, I do not set these deadlines and the dates for these activities. The universe hands them in, one by one, on my plate which is already full as it is! Maybe I should shout out  "No more!" to the Great Beyond when...

"You must not fear, hold back, count or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings.  It is also true that creation comes from an overflow, so you have to learn to intake,   to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you into experience and into writing. Permit yourself to flow and overflow, allow for the rise in temperature, all the expansions and intensifications. Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them."                                                                                                           ...