the inevitable happened

the inevitable happened

i have been delaying this far too long. had it not been for a chewing gum incident which rendered a part of me broken, i wouldn't have. yes, i was terrified. ridicule me if you must. i'm 18 years old and i'm scared of the dentist (which, mind you did not keep me from having trips to the dentist prior to this incident). as a result the inevitable happened, i underwent a minor surgery, the extraction of my second molar.

i opened my mouth as the dentist surveyed my teeth.

"we're good to go. either you have tooth extraction or root canal.(handing me a mirror)"

root canal wasn't an option. i have decided. it's either you take it out or you do.

"extraction, doctor."

"but if we do, we would have to install a crown jacket. do you know what that is?"

i know doctor.. but humor me tell me what it is. stalling...

"no doctor"

"ok its like this, (holding out a mold), blah blah yadda yadda"

i couldn't care less about a stupid crown jacket. take it out pleeease.

"so that' it. what do you say?"

"uhmm... i'll ask my mom first"

"ok. open your mouth"

i opened my mouth and closed my eyes. the dentistry tools are too scary. this i cannot see. with eyes shut i felt her (the doctor is a she), rub flavored topical anesthesia on the affected gum.

"ok gargle first"

i did. blindly following orders. after which she gently massaged my cheek. the events that followed, the tools she used and everything else from there on (except lucid moments when she asked me to gargle) are remembered through closed eyes. i couldnt bear seeing the tools. i didnt know why. i have handled scarier looking tools in the OR but i just couldnt stand the sight of these implements being used on me. until all movement ceased...

"ayaw ka yatang hiwalayan ng ngipin mo..."

apparently they're having a hard time taking it out. it wont leave me. but i have decided. more force was introduced. i couldnt open my eyes. i consciously did not want to see their faces while taking it out.

then i felt it. freedom at last!

"ok tapos na."

her words were liberating. i opened my eyes. a feeling of relief and a weird sense of liberty overcame me. she made me bite hard on a ball of i didnt know what (at that time), to stop the bleeding i suppose.

it's over. my right jaw was numb and i felt my lips were so swollen and i couldnt feel a thing, but i felt relief.

at last its over. now i just have the post-surgical pains to deal with.

and we wake up to the painful reality that is college

and we wake up to the painful reality that is college.

although my butt was practically glued to my sheets and getting out of bed is never an option, i unwillingly dragged myself to school. semestral break's over and we have been zapped into reality by 20 000 mega watts of unadulterated/overwhelming schoolwork. two weeks into the semester, and we have already been made to swallow papers, reports and a migraine-inducing long exam.

plus, in case you havent heard EVAT has begun raping our pockets and burning holes on our allowances. everything's skyrocketing but sadly our poor purses get left behind as we get lesser value for our peso. i just hope the benefits will be greater and more tangible this time, it wouldnt hurt to tighten our belts just a little more (but then again, it would, but we all have to make sacrifices), just make sure your eyes won't pop out, or else, EVAT will haunt you even in your medical bill.

however, this does not mean we have to be passive taxpayers, instead be vigilant consumers without overthinking because it can very well induce nasty stress-headaches which can be quite disabling.

remember, the following consumer goods are devoid of VAT:

- fresh produce from the market such as rice, fish, vegetables, eggs and meat

- house rent which costs less than or equal to 10 000 a month

- tuition fees, books, magazines and newspapers

- sari-sari stores, carinderias and other businesses earning at most 1.5 million pesos a year.

what does this tell us? to eat home-cooked foods instead, eat vegetables, to stay in school, read, support small-scale entrepreneurs and respect deadlines imposed by the landlady, understand economy, practice it.

this is a public servic announcement from yours truly :)

bum dee bum dee bum dee bum

bum dee bum dee bum dee bum

planet bum used to be paradise, but for some reason especially when you're bumming far too long, it isn't so fun anymore.okay, so i'm the queen of procastination, and i don't get anything done until the last minute, and i'm supposed to be enjoying this, but, hell i'm bored out of my wits and i've practically done everything in my power to stop it. i need to get out of the house. pronto! and as if the gods gave conspired, it kept raining all day today, when we're supposed to be out on EK. as a result, plans have been postponed indefinitely. i should have known something like this was going to happen. something like this always happens anyway. weirdly, i am kind of indifferent about this.

in the spirit of bumming, let's see what's on TV:

- breakfast shows, it's all over TV. you just have to pick one. your choice does not necessarily mean it is the most sensible. anyway, they are all alike. probably, you just need something to jump start the day (or load it with enough sedatives to render you on coma). yes, and there it is, pinoy big brother. guestings, features, more guestings. it's just there, early in the freaking morning. and wait, what are they doing? they're playing that song again and what? wtf?!? everybody's dancing. nooo... wait. what is this? i'm dancing too. get me out of here!

-late morning talk shows, where nobody actually talks. it's just littered with... well, you know what. i want to hurl myself out the window, but then again our house is just a storey high and throwing myself out the window wouldn't be so dramatic as it is utterly hilarious. oh no, not again. that song. everyone's dancing!!! even Boy Abunda, for crying out loud! it's scary! that song is seriously driving everyone nuts. it's like that Darna movie, where the antagonist (snake-haired woman, mother of all kontrabidas,Cherie Gil), hypnotizes people into getting into a zombie-like state. only this time, its a song.
-the usual spanish and asian telenovelas. are you seriously going to watch this? huh, huh?

-then its a carnival. noon time variety shows. woohoo! everybody knows how much i loathe these. i'd rather be a hermit than go through excruciating pain by watching these people make a fool out of everyone else. if you want to torture me, you know what to do.

-more daytime soaps. the ones in channel 7 are fun to watch just because you can laugh at the bad acting and super cliche dialogues and storylines, but it is equally painful if you watch far too long. and oh, watch out for that piercing headache, it's bound to come after.

-well, my favorite time of the day would be late afternoon, when i can watch cartoons. yay! they seem to be the only ones making sense now. it's quite hard looking for something sensible to watch. even the news is not making sense anymore. is it me? or is it?

holloween

holloween

local TV is a riot on Halloween. its absurd and utterly pathetic. all this media hype is driving everyone nuts as our minds are literally fed with useless and irrelevant information. just like this:

newscaster: ano na ang mga huling kaganapan dyan sa Manila North Cemetery?

field reporter: maayos naman ang lahat dito, paparami na ang mga tao, maraming nakumpiskang alak, baraha, patalim, na nakikita sa video ngayon.

newscaster: at ang puntod ni (so and so)?

field reporter: nagtirik ng kandila at nag-alay ng bulaklak ang pamilya ng namayapang si (name of dear departed here), dumadami na rin ang mga taga-suportang nais dumalaw sa puntod ni (so and so). sa puntod naman ng namayapang si (name of deceased matinee idol here), pila-pila ang mga tagahangang nais masilayan ang kanyang puntod, at ayan nakikita niyo sa video nagtitirik ng kandila ang mga kaanak ni (matinee idol). binisita na rin ni (name of murdered celebrity's daughter here) and puntod ng yumaong ina kaninang mga alas-tres ng hapon blah blah blah (useless shit you shouldn't care about). yadda yadda.

you turn on the tv for the 6 o' clock news and that's what you get. and all you ever wanted was your daily dose of current events.

well, apparently tv networks have this habit of feeding us with more than what we need to know. information overdose... overkill... imagine if these information were converted to calories we'd all be Obese type 5 by now, wallowing in lard and blubber. we'll all die of heart disease.

i mean so what? do we really need to know how much people actually visit these dead people? should we care about how every single celebrity remembers the dead? do you seriously want to know how much candles are burning on some dead guy's grave? come on...

and as much as i like useless information (or rather seemingly useless information), this one's so useless that it'd be accumulating cobwebs on your brain.and i tell you, you don't want cobwebs. they're too contagious. and by contagious i mean, viral. it will seriously corrupt your hard drive (i hope something's in there). scary.

as precious airtime is being wasted by pointlessness, people just have to be selective. feed your mind only with what adds to your brain. and if you're in for a good laugh, go ahead watch it. it can be funny at times until such point where you get annoyed but you'll laugh nonetheless. anyway, it will be another year before you see it again, or maybe waiting time will be less if election seasons coming, but let's not go into that now...