The Last Week of March

Ever since I became a work-from-home problogger and freelance writer, I’ve rarely endured weeks that totally sap the life-force out of my sickness-prone body. Those weeks were the fare in UP, where I was continually battered by exams, extra-curricular responsibilities, and part-time work (not to mention the arduous commute!).

Sadly, just one year after graduating from college, it seems I’ve lost my resistance to fatigue. As I write this, I’m recovering from five day’s worth of coughs, chills, wheezes, snot, and whatnot. You can thank the last week of March 2007 for those.

This blog post is my way of paying homage to that tortuous week.

The Essay Contest Prize

Five thousand pesos worth of National Book Store Gift Certificates.

A thick wad of GCs = a thick pile of unread books.

The first ‘activity’ of the week involved going to National Book Store’s headquarters at Mandaluyong to claim my prize for the If My Life Were a Book essay writing contest.

Located at Pioneer Street near EDSA, the giant bookstore chain’s HQ wasn’t a physically impressive structure from outside. I expected something grander, but heck, when I stepped in, I wasn’t also expecting to see one of the country’s most venerable figures — no other than Socorro Ramos, founder of NBS!

The octogenarian exuded humility as she made her way to the front door, smiling and refusing her employees’ help to carry her belongings. I later learned that every working day, she’d be there at the office, even at her old age and the success she has enjoyed. In Tagalog slang, nakaka-elibs!

A kind lady by the name of Cai Gualberto gave me the prize and accomodated me and my dad, as well as sharing a few things about NBS. One thing she said stuck in my mind and raised my appraisal of the country’s top bookstore. To paraphrase Ms. Gualberto: “One requirement for us NBS employees is to have a real passion for books.”

National Book Store Gift Certificate Envelope

I am March 11.

The prize took the form of a thick pad of gift certificates amounting to 5,000 pesos. Truth be told, I’m hesitant to part with this sweet-smelling pack anytime soon, especially since I currently have a mountain of unread books and magazines. (It doesn’t help that my ‘will-buy’ books are in Fully Booked, and are nowhere to be found in NBS!)

Still, having five thousand dough ready to be spent on any book that strikes my fancy definitely has to rock. A great start to the last week of March, no?

Literally Dealing With Crap

Have crap, have these little buddies whizzing around you.

Great start, indeed. After my dad dropped me off at the house, the first thing that greeted me was a slush of wet dog shit prettily strewn across the dining room/kitchen floor. That set a fragrant precedent for the rest of the week.

You see, our househelp went on a half-month-long vacation to the province, leaving me and my dad (I have no mom) to fend for ourselves. To exacerbate things, my dad left for Davao the next day after the NBS trip, leaving me all alone in the house for three days.

Being left alone is no problem, really — unless you’ve got five dogs and four cats to feed and clean up poop after them (yes, we love animals, terribly). Unless one of those dogs happens to have almost-nil bowel and bladder control, no thanks to epilepsy (yes, dogs do the mad dance, too).

So the better part of the week found the Corsarius dutifully scraping crap after crap from the floor, mopping up pee after pee, and feeding the nine denizens of our zoo. A torrent of shit and piss would be no exaggeration. I barely had time to feed myself, much less work or write literature. It might sound overly dramatic, but the world did seem to stand still during those three days. All pet care and no work makes Life a dull one.

2007 Philippine Blog Awards Night

RCBC Plaza, Makati, site of the Philippine Blog Awards

Guard: Bawal po mamiktyur.
Corsarius and Ia: Pakyu.

Capping off the week was a trip to RCBC Plaza in Makati for the first-ever Philippine Blog Awards Night. I was there to support and accompany Ia, who was a Finalist for Best Technology Blog.

Yours truly at the Philippine Blog Awards, with moleskine to boot.

After enduring two hours of waiting (”Filipino time” is wait lang! time) — happily taking forbidden shots of the venue, sipping Starbucks Venti OurMoneyDownTheDrainicino Latte, and generally complaining between the two of us about the said Filipino time — we had to sit through another hour or so of the program proper.

To make a long story short, her blog didn’t win, but she bagged something else. That alone is cause for happiness for me; getting to discuss stuff with her mother made the day more enjoyable.

Ia’s mom, Dr. Adelaida F. Lucero, Ph.D., is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the UP College of Arts and Literature. From RCBC Plaza to a Jollibee branch where Ia’s parents treated me to dinner, I had the privilege of receiving an informal, two-hour one-on-one lecture on lit and creative writing, something I’m sorely in need of.

Tita Del’s discussion was effective in making me aware of what I currently lack in my writings (especially poetry), so much so that I’m setting aside the next few days for analyzing my past works and tinkering with my style.

I got home at around midnight, spread congratulatory love to my blog friends who struck it rich in the awards night, then hit the sack, hard. The very next day, fever, colds, and asthma — long-time friends of mine — paid a visit. Too bad they overstayed their welcome.

* * * * *

And we’ve reached the end of a quite lengthy homage to the last week of March. Believe me, if I weren’t sick right now, I’d be writing an even longer entry!

21 comments so far. Subscribe to comments feed.

[...] I was supposed to write this post last Sunday, but a bout of asthma (now running at five days) deprived me of the chance to do so. The Philippine Blog Awards Night wrapped up an exhausting week for me, and here’s a brief recap of the event. [...]

Isa lang sasabihin ko: ang jologs natinnnnn! Did you know that we also treated Pepoy to Jollibee Philcoa after Awitan ‘06? Haha. Fun times. :)

(I won’t comment any further. ^___^)

jologs? LOL :P well, you know i really love jollibee’s burger steak. jollibee pa rin ang babalik-balikan, hehe.

Congrats on the GCs! I actually got one (lololol) from a raffle.

know what, I have no dad. :D maybe that’s why we tend to think alike. haha. at least you’ve met yours.

OurMoneyDownTheDrainicino Latte- haha! it’s drugs I tell you!

hey benj, thanks! i’ve never been lucky with raffle draws in my whole life — i think i still haven’t won one!

garro, ah, hence your alias. :) yeah, i do have vague memories of her…last time we talked was about a year ago, over the cellphone.

yes, starbux/figaro/sbc is the new opium! mwehehe.

Hi! Congratulations on winning something. Sayang I was not able to talk to you :)

Cool NBS GCs! You should buy me a book that I like if all of your ‘will-buy’ books are in Fully Booked. :D

Anyway, your March was quite an experience. It’s great to meet successful, passionate on their work, and skillful people like Soccoro and Ia’s mom (I just have to keep calling her Ia’s mom) because you’ll learn a lot from them. Or maybe it’s just me… I just love talking to people. :P But hey, the point is you’ll learn a lot from different people.

And how’s your spiritual life going? Hope you don’t mind me asking. We haven’t talked for months anyway. :P

[...] I’m not really a prankster but during the rare times that I think of something, I make sure I execute it. This year, I had too few windows of opportunity. Nobody even reacted when I uttered “Happy April Fools’” nonchalantly at home. And it was the day after a very tiring Philippine Blog Awards night (Corsarius has two better narratives). [...]

Hi there…. happy tinkering with your style ^^*

Mastery of the medium indeed constitutes the art…. One of the things that makes your blog stand out from the rest (and why I keep browsing your archives) is that you see and treat writing as an art (albeit merely an “exercise” i.e, blogging is good practice for writing)…

You are extremely talented. keep it up~

juned, you were there? agh, and i thought i did a fine job of spying on the nametags of bloggers to see if anyone was a blogger friend! :D thanks.

fredda, thank you very much for those words. i hope my future entries won’t disappoint ;) indeed, i treat writing as a treasured art, something that must be continually improved and experimented upon.

just to share, my main problem now is that i can’t publish all my works here as freely as i did a year ago — recent experience has taught me many print and online publications do not accept blogged works, treating them as ’self-published’ already. hope i can find a solution to this, soon.

thanks again, fredda :)

geo, here’s the deal…name a book that you want me to buy for you (not too expensive, hehe!). consider it a treat for our years of strong friendship (balato na rin).

nowadays, i rarely leave home, but you know i mingled with a lot of people back in college (hey, we were together in lots of projects!). all those interactions are paying off today, i tell you :P

on spiritual life…no prob. ask me more and i will ramble on, haha. (email mo na lang ako ‘pag mas malalim nang tanong!) like in the recent years, i keep the Faith, though i can’t claim to be less of a sinner than the average Roman Catholic. if you would take an unsolicited piece of advice, i would suggest you regularly read the Bible. a few chapters a day won’t hurt. it has helped me a lot in my life. :)

(though Holy Week was less holy for me than the past ones. i wasn’t able to properly observe it due to sickness, hay.)

Wow you serious? Sure, I’ll visit NBS and find a book I want. Thanks buddy! :D

Yes, actually I learn a lot from the books I read and from the people I meet. And to be honest, I thank you and Ia that I got “good” (a little bit) in English (both written and oral).

That’s good to hear that you still keep the Faith. :) I’m really really happy that my friends still believe and love God. *winks at Ia*

Hey buddy, here are the books I’ve found in NBS:

Winkie by Clifford Chase (Php 839)
The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin (Php 795)

You choose. :D You can read it too before giving it to me. Hehe hope the price is just right. :P

Btw, are you busy on Sundays? Do you and Ia want to join me in CCF (Christ’s Christian Fellowship). It’s a Christian Community, not a religion. Let me know if you’re interested.

All right then, I’ll buy one of these for you next time I drop by NBS. Medyo may kahamalan ah! Just kiddin ;)

well, sundays are my only rest days (i work monday-saturday, a consequence of working at home). often, my sundays are earmarked for family affairs and such, and of course, Mass. i’ll inform you when and if i free up some time. is CCF a Catholic community? :)

Thanks!

CCF is a Christian Community. It’s not a religion-based community. :)

i see :) all right then, i’ll just email/ym you. thanks for the invite.

Socorro Ramos’ house inside the old Subic naval base is right next door to my cousin’s.

I was just over at NBS in SM San Lazaro today; they didn’t have the book I was looking for, but Fully Booked in Greenhills’ Vira Mall supposedly has a copy in stock.

sir eric, wow. have you met her personally in subic? and re: the book, is that the palanca anthology? maybe some NBS stores’ stocks have been emptied, esp. since the 80s anthologies have been in stores for quite some years already. :(

sakitin ka tlga manong! naku, eat and rest well! - hehe i think this is also addressed to me pero at least im not sakitin. =p

All pet care and no work makes Life a dull one. - lagot ka, madaming tututol kase trabaho na rin nila yan eh. :)

Eat and rest well — somehow, I can’t do this. Grrr.

You know I love animals and pets…I guess I wasn’t just prepared to take care of so many, alone. Now I know I can’t be full-time animal welfare volunteer :(

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