A Few Hours On My Own

There are times when I miss being just by myself. On the day of my leave, I was contemplating on things I could do on my own. My day didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned, mainly because I didn’t have enough energy having had little sleep after a full shift. Still, it was a good day to be on my own again.

Dec-30, Morning

In a funk, I decided not to get a cab going home today. Aside from my shoulder bag, I had to carry a big Barbie doll bag filled with Lays, Pringles, Doritos, Crunch, Toblerone, Yanyan, Chips Ahoy, Kit Kat and Oreo Candy Bars. This is the goody bag I got from attending a “chill out session” with our managers… not a bad way to waste 1.5 hours.

Oh, and aside from these goodies, I threw in my Starbucks tumbler and a separate water container in the bag. Must have made it two pounds heavier.

I met up with Erika just before heading home and she handed over Ippo’s Christmas gift. No problem going home with all this stuff on the day I decide to commute (5 minute walk + tricycle + jeepney). Did I mention I was wearing heels?

At home

My son was delighted to see the bag full of junk food. For some reason, the first thing he grabbed was the tube of Pringles. We opened his Christmas gift and plagued our mattress with Pringles’ crumbs. He saw me holding a Kit Kat and from then on he just couldn’t stay away from me. Mental note – buy more Kit Kat today.

My mom told me to take my leave (since I was still thinking about going to work). She has plans with friends. Denver is in Antipolo. That leaves Ippo, his heaven sent yaya and me. I’m not exactly alone but this is the first time in a very long time that I was going to be without my mom or Denver. Besides, Ippo’s yaya and I barely speak so it was destined to be a silent day. No arguments, no conversations, only Ippo’s gobbledygook.

After beef tapas, time for siesta. I intended to read a few chapters of my current book, but after a few paragraphs, I was dead to the world.

I think I snoozed for only a couple of hours. My mom was gone when I woke up. I wanted to go back to sleep but I could hear Startalk on television. That was enough to get me up. Not a lot of good stuff in local showbiz today.

After Startalk, I took a shower, kissed my son goodbye and started walking. By the way, he cried when I left.

I walked from my home, all the way to SM Hypermarket. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was enough to make me pant. On the way there, I noticed for the first time that there are a lot of fish in Pasig River. I had to cross Sandoval Bridge and I took notice of these black creatures moving very near the surface. Oh well, I just thought it amusing looking at them. Must be fun to fish, but I wouldn’t dare eat them.

At the overpass, I attempted to tiptoe. Denver wants me to tiptoe when playing badminton. Just four steps up and my calves were already in grief. I must remember to practice more often. Enough for today though.

First task. Pay Meralco bill. A whopping P3,042.45. I wonder why my electric bill shot up to this amount. I think it was around P900 to P1000 less back in October.

Too many shoppers. I decided to do the grocery shopping a bit later and went to Tiendesitas for some window shopping. I was just supposed to look around, but I bought two pairs of shorts on impulse (1 sleep shorts and 1 badminton shorts). I got some new underwear for the New Year too. I took my time looking around since I had no responsibilities waiting for me.

Went back to SM for my groceries… Ippo’s diapers, 1 kilo of sirloin steak, over 1 kilo of pork belly, half a kilo of bacon, soybean oil, Downy and 6000 ml of Ippo’s water. Drat! That was heavy. And to think I wanted to walk going home.

I had to put down my grocery bags a few times before reaching the street where I hailed a cab. I was hesitant to get in because the cabbie looked like a crook but there were just too many people wanting to get a cab on a night like this so I went for it. A few minutes later, I was in our compound struggling with the grocery bags. I paid the driver sixty bucks. The schmuck did not have a working meter. I knew he was some kind of crook.

At home, I still hadn’t figured out what to have for dinner. I intended to buy roasted chicken at Hypermarket, but I already had 3 heavy bags, and the queue was quite terrible. I asked Mai to make some soup, while Ippo and I went out to walk around the compound.
Darn, I forgot Ippo's Kit Kat.

Still no mom and still no Denver, I went to check out the nearest internet place. The place was packed with grimy kids. I saw a chicharon stand and bought 100 g of chicharon bituka. Dinner problem solved.

Things I wanted to do but didn’t do out of exhaustion:
Read book in Starbucks Silver City.
Go to National Bookstore (Mega or Eastwood) and use my P300 GC.
Watch Juday’s MMFF entry (alone of course).

Aside from my exhaustion, I also felt bad about leaving Ippo. I've missed sleeping next to my son.

I didn’t have dinner. Instead, I took my third shower for the day, asked Mai to go ahead and eat by herself, took Ippo to our room, wrestled him, and fed him, until he was finally knocked down.

I had my soup, chicharon bituka, tapa leftovers and jasmine rice while Ippo was sleeping. I was eating with so much gusto until this faith healer segment of Imbestigador was shown. The healer was sucking illness away. There was a woman with tumors in her breasts. The old male healer sucked her breasts to make them well. What disgusting crap!

I spoke with Denver on the phone. He said he was going home. He asked if I wanted to go to Starbucks. I said yes but I was knocked out myself.

I stayed beside Ippo, watching him sleep, until finally, Denver arrived. We stayed in and I told him about my day.

I was by myself for just a few hours. I had a nice time.