Bloated

I was on the way to class yesterday when I caught up with a booksale along the college corridor. Easily browsing through the pocketbooks, I found that there were too many Tom Clancy books around. Pisses me off, that's what. Anyway, good thing I found another pile of books and found Hunter Thompson's Rum Diary.

I began to pour the gin onto my glass for the nth time and started feeling a little off-balance. I was on the 17th page and suddenly the words jumped off the pages like popcorns on a heated pan. The gin began to work from my stomach to my head. Phrases like Puerto Rican, The Daily and "feel sorry for myself" made round-abouts in the room.

I did not notice when those words actually became alive. But I started seeing a jungle emerge from the living room. There was a loud bang. I saw four people arguing over game of cards. The dizzy feeling came over me again and I can't remember anything after that.

I'm turning 20 tomorrow. NOOOOO!

Oliver: Hindi ka na teenager.
Eric Erickson: As a young adult, you will enter the Intimacy vs Isolation Stage. You will long for a partner in life and seek comfort in romantic relationships..
Batman: You killed my parents! *Flungs into batcave*
Kenneth: Uy happy beerday. Tanda ka na!
Karl Marx: Soon you shall be a part of the work force that will eventually cause a power struggle to topple the burgeousie. Its a historical inevitability.
OG Diaz: Oi badet ganda mo, gurangers ka na ever.
Britney Spears: Not a girl, not yet a woman.
Oprah Winfrey: You are entering a delicate phase in your life when all your childhood memories will come flowing back. Lets consult our resident psychologist...
Fox Mulder: You will turn 20 tomorrow. How many more people would have to turn 20 for you to believe it?
George: Just try your best to be unaffected by things that annoy you most. Be happy always.
John Lennon: Imagine that you're 20, it's easy if you try..
Darth Vader: Wield your saber and welcome to the dark side.
Joey: Have a glimpse of ur life in general and the relationships you've built and the accomplishments you've made..
Arthur,King of Brittons: Now thou shalt seek the Holy Grail!
Nietzche: You vill actually become Superman vith absolutely no human veakness.
The Pope: Its for God to know what path you will take, child.
Moses: And God came down from the Heavens, and He said to Faith, "Thou shalt turn 20." And Faith turned 20, and there was much rejoicing.
Charles Dickens: Bah humbug! You shall age like me in no time.
Emily Dickenson: Because you couldn't stop for death, you turned 20.
Freud: The fact that you are writing this reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
Voltaire: I may not agree with you turning 20, but I will defend to the death you right to do it.
TS Eliot: Weialala leia / Wallala leialala
Charles Darwin: You have been naturally selected and evolved over time in such a way that you are now genetically endowed with the capabilities required to turn 20.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: You did not turn 20. You transcended it.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago: Aha! I know it! You turned 20 to provoke me. I move to permanently hold in contempt that adult! I request for a restraining order, your honor, so that this girl would not celebrate another birthday again!
Jose Rizal: You shall turn 20 so that you will see the dawning of light in our Motherland.
Einstein: Whether you should turn 20 or not, it is still dependent on your point of reference.
Caesar: To turn into adulthood to come, to see, to conquer!

I was so friggin' bored I decided to write myself.

Tara:

I remember you as articulate, outspoken, an airhead and an elitist. If you know me, you would grin and immediately think that I gave you a compliment. Anyway, the first time I saw you was in Megamall Tower Records Children Section. You were in some dress from ukay-ukay and had Britney Spears on your mobile as ringtone. The sweetest was when we went to SFAS to shop and check out Mich Dulce's designs. It was also the time when we tried out clothes in the same dressing room (because the store only had one room and we were too excited to wait for each others turn).

---

My 20th birthday turned out okay. I celebrated with a garden-fresh pizza, chocolate icecream, junk food and goldilocks mamon topped with a blue birthday candle. They asked what I wished for when I blew the flames off the candle. I didn't wish for anything. Everybody's so discontent with what they have, its time for a change.
---

I celebrated the New Year with my family at Ongpin and saw the Dragon dance and all. Can you believe that the minute I got home from school my mom told me we were going out to watch the festivities and then visit the temple for our wishes? I JUST GOT HOME! Waaah! I just had enough time to put my bags down then we left. I ate so much tikoy that if you open me up, you would find tikoy in lieu of my organs.

---

if you read this journal,
even if i don't speak to you often,
post a memory of me.
it can be anything you want.
it can be good or bad,
just so long as it happened.

FRIDAY

Today's Love Actually Day, a pre-valentine celebration held at the sunken garden. We had to show something worth watching about why we love UP Red Cross Youth. I sang (its a solo ha) All I Ask of You from The Phantom of the Opera, Sarah Brightman style. After the celebration, Sugar and I bought 3 Red Horse Grandes. We were just able to drink two bottles and I had to sleep because of the first aid station to be set up tomorrow.

SATURDAY

Its hard to concentrate when you lack sleep and when you're intoxicated. After drinking the night before, I had to wake up to set-up a first aid booth at Miriam College for a sportsfest for the deaf sponsored by LINK and UP Special Education Council.

Nangungusap ang mga mata. This is the first time I believed this line when I was able to communicate with the hearing-impaired yesterday. The kids were passing by the first aid booth and they were either smiling or looking at the kits with curiosity. I was able to make friends with a deaf kid and the one I massaged because of his cramps.

SUNDAY

Two hours ago, we had a medical-dental mission somewhere in Batasan Hills, QC. I didn't know there was such a place, its inaccessible (dirt roads galore) and it has the most amazing accumulation of dust I have ever seen. When I arrived (about 2 PM), I went straight to the committee I signed up for (Pharmacy) but there were many of them already. I looked for other committees in need of manpower so I sat down with Kim and Jeff in assessing the patients.

I got their pulse rate and temperature then turned them over to Logistics to sort if they want either medical or dental service. The problem is we had only one dentist and she was so mad at this one woman who had a BP too high for anesthesia.

Babae: Sige na po, doc. Bunutan nyo na ko.
Dentista: Hindi po pwede. Masyadong mataas ang BP nyo. Dati may naturukan akong masyadong mataas ang BP tapos nahimatay siya.
Babae: Ok lang po mahimatay yan. Hindi naman ako mahihimatay eh.
Dentista: Mas mahalaga ho ang lisensya ko kasya sa ngipin nyo.

It was hard to take a child's or an infant's pulse rate because they were moving around a lot and were crying when their moms leave them. I was surprised when a lot of the kids there were scared of the thermometer. I had to show them that the silver shiny thing doesn't hurt a bit when you pit it between your armpit.