I'm still alive!

Well, obviously I haven’t been posting much on this blog recently. Also obvious, I’m still alive as evidenced by this spanking new post, just in case you were wondering. The reason for my absence? How I would love to declare “Because I’m not bored!”, but that would be a lie. Truth of the matter is, I don’t get to hang out at my usual gas station with the Wifi access. Work has me running around so much that it’s pretty inconvenient for me to do so. And though I have been writing stuff which I had planned to post at a later time, I keep forgetting to do so and eventually don’t post it at all. That’s that…. Just in case you were also wondering.

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So now I live with my little sister who has decided to take up my other room. Suddenly my room is cluttered with stuff that used to be in the other room. I don’t mind though, she does share the rent, and does the dishes and takes out the garbage. There’s also a strange comfort in knowing there’s someone around to feed my pet hamster, if and when I finally get around to buying it, that is.

I dared open up to her my plan of getting this hamster, soon-to-be-named Bob. She objects to the name, and proposes Hammy. Not bad, but it doesn’t sound too good in a conversation, does it? We agree to name it when I finally bring it home, depending on what it looks like. Expect a name like “Ballscratcher” or “Uglylittlehairball” to be considered pretty soon.

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The universe has conspired to get my ass to finally watch a movie in an actual theater. Courtesy of my beloved and much used Citibank credit card, I’m actually good for 4 movie tickets. Now a dilemma ensues, do I use them or sell them? My idea is to tag along with people who want to watch a movie then offer to buy them their tickets, taking their cash and using the credits I have instead. I’ve offered this scheme to some officemates who seemed aghast at the whole scheme. They feel that I’m some evil creature who has nothing in mind but to take someone else’s hard-earned money and benefit from it. What the heck?!

Fine then, I can use them, there’s no cost on my part anyway. But what to watch? Do I even remember how to watch a movie? Maybe it’s like riding a bike, and I’d get the hang of it pretty fast. As far as I could recall, there’s “2012”, “Paranormal Activity” and “New Moon”. That last one I know I won’t watch, seems like a chick-flick with vampires and werewolves, not really my type. I wonder if “G-Force” is still playing? Nothing like watching rats saving the world for a story.

Of course, the question of what to eat while watching a film is something not easily answered. My fantasy of a whole bucket of buffalo wings seems a bit messy and awkward in a darkened movie theater, pizza is a bit hard to manage as well, burger? Soft tacos? Arrgh! This is why I’d rather watch a DVD at home!

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Despite my disdain of the movie theater, I am a movie buff. I grew up watching tons of films, a lot of which are B-movies and pretty forgettable to say the least. When I used to have movie channels on cable, I could spend a whole weekend just tuned in to HBO or Star Movies. Evidence of this would be my habit of recalling select scenes from movies whenever a peculiar situation arises, a particular specie of deja-vu. For example, when someone asks me what I think of someone else whom I’m not fond of, I think of the Rocky series to a scene with Clubber Lang and utter the infamous “I pity the fool!”. Or let’s say someone is giving me a lecture on how to pronounce a certain word or phrase correctly, then “Mickey Blue Eyes” comes to mind and I say “Fawgedaboudit”.

Somehow, its fun to try and see one’s life as a series of scenes from different movies. Always, I picture myself as the Freddie Prinze Jr. type, smart, athletic, good-looking and witty. Unfortunately, I’m not as athletic… “nobody’s perfect” (Independence Day, retort by the rabbi to the phrase “but I’m not Jewish”), I guess.

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Two of my dear friends were hospitalized for kidney problems. I was able to visit one in the hospital, the other now lives in the US but I got word of her ills from facebook. As a result of this coincidence, I guess, I started to feel some lower back pain while driving the 5 hours from Baguio to Manila yesterday. I know that in all probability it was due to the long drive to just hours earlier, but I just can’t shake off the possibility that maybe I too was having kidney problems as well.

So I stop at a gas station, get a liter of water and chug down half of it in one giant gulp. Instantly, I feel my bladder fill up and drain it, right before I force feed myself the other half of the water. Then tonight, I stop myself at two bottles of beer instead of the usual barrel. Wow.

Then I get home and realize that beer kills livers, not kidneys. Cheers!