Another Usual Day

Another routinary Wednesday, at 8:30 a.m., I finally woke up to prepare my and my grandfather's breakfast--bread with peanut butter cum strawberry jam and homogenized milk.

Every time I find myself on a boring day like this, I act like an astromech droid--silent and blank--I just do what I need to do without much thinking and talking.

Since the children (my cousin Mike's daughters, Amber and Julie) are in school, the TV's quiet; so, I booted my PC and played some non-New Wave songs to accompany my grandfather and me in our first activity of a day--breakfast. My musical mood changes from time to time. Here are some of the songs I listened to--a playlist which I think reveals how I was feeling this morning:

John Lennon - "Woman"
Jim Croce - "Photographs and Memories"
Air Supply - "Making Love Out of Nothing at All"
Cascades - "My First Day Alone"
Bryan Adams - "Heaven"
Chicago - "If You Leave Me Now"
Christopher Cross - "Think of Laura"
Cliff Richards - "Ocean Deep"
Colin Blunstone - "Miles Away"
David Pomeranz - "Got to Believe in Magic"
Kenny Rogers - "Through the Years"
Peter Cetera - "Glory of Love"
Journey - "Open Arms"
Teri Desario - "Fallin'"

Hours passed...while I was, as always, online, checking my e-mails. As a habit, I opened my Friendster account to check what's new on the Bulletin Board--interesting surveys from friends and other shared thoughts. Then, I decided to re-post some poems and articles I wrote recently--having in mind my new Friendsters, who are yet to read my previous works I shared in the past--in mind, in particular, was Nelson "Butch" Macaalay, a former officemate of mine back in my days at Quorum Litigation Services (Quorum-Lanier Phils.), in the late 90s. Butch surprised me with a message, in which he expressed his admiration for my individuality and for my works. This simple act of admiring another, for me, is a courageous feat--for in doing so, one lays down his pride to flatter, if not console, another. And above all, such valiant action benefits both--the praiser humbles him/herself, and the praisee tries to continue the goodness the other sees in him. (I will post Butch's message on a separate blog, as well as my reply and his reply to my reply.)

Rereading some of my previous works, I finally decided what I would be re-posting:

"All She Ever Wanted Was (In This World Devoid of True Believers)"
--a poem I originally wrote in 1996 as a gift to an office friend named Charlotte Belialba which I reprised in honor of Charlotte's and my crossing of paths for the third time--and this time, for the better--for we decided to get engaged after all the years of estrangement from each other. I now regard the poem as my prophetic way of saying in 1996 that she and I would after all end up together.

"Believe Me, Winter Is Gloomy When (You’re All Alone and Far Away from Home)"
--a Summer poem I recently wrote on July 7, 2004

"tulad ng matangpusa na (pumipikit din pagsapit ng takipsilim)"
--a poem I wrote sometime in 1992, as inspired by Virgilio Almario's Peregrinasyon at Iba Pang Tula (1970)

"Ang Pag-ibig Ay Lobo"
--a new attempt of mine in writing poetry using my native language, Filipino

Is Sadness the Default Emotional State for Every Being and Happiness a Temporary Sensory Plane on which All Try Hard to Be and Maintain Being There? Or,

Is Sadness the Permanent Emotional State in which Every Being Exists and Happiness Only a Temporary State of Mind or Emotion--the Ultimate or Ideal Feeling which We Try Hard to Possess but Never Will?
--the result of my "intellectualization" with friend, fellow writer Andrea Duerme through Yahoo Messenger (Yes! YM is not limited to chitchats)

"Could This Someday Be the Saddest Poem I Ever Wrote?"
--a poem I wrote on May 26, 2004, which to this day remains to be my most favorite poetical work of mine

And this triumvirate of poems each of which I wrote in a flash, in a sudden spark of inspiration:
"A Poet to His Future Wife"
"A Poet to His Firstborn"
"A Grandfather to His Favorite Grandson"

>>>
Past midday: Lunch!
Jenny (my cousin Mike's wife Marivic's cousin, who looks after their children, Amber and Julie), Julie, Papa ( my maternal grandfather), and I shared a lunch of rice, bacon and egg.

Lunch music:
"Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid
"We Are the World" by USA for Africa
"Tears Are Not Enough" by Northern Lights

--All of these songs were composed in the mid-80s, the monetary returns of which were used to help the starving people of Ethiopa.

Trivia: Midge Ure (of Ultravox) and Bob Geldof (of The Boomtown Rats), the original composer and producer of the song) are at the moment organizing Band Aid III, to rerecord the Christmas single in honor of its 20th anniversary. The British artists who already confirmed their involvement with the project include Noel Gallagher (of Oasis), Damon Albarn (of Blur), Coldplay, Travis, and The Darkness. Several Band Aid alumni like Bono (of U2) and David Bowie are expected to take part in this interesting project. (http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/22/uk.bandaid/)

After lunch, nothing much...write, write, write...then, while rereading the article I wrote about "Sadness...", I surfed into Andrea's blog site http://boonch.blogspot.com/. I was surprised to see that she has there some entries in which I was mentioned. And as I said in my first blog entry on this blog site, reading Andrea's recent posts inspired me finally to create this eLf ideas blog. (I will post Andrea's blog entries on a separate blog.)

And now, 4:27 p.m., Amber and Julie are in their room, taking their noon nap; Papa is watching TV (as always, Showcase and A&E channels--his two most favorite programs); while I, just finishing this entry, so I can get back to the book I'm currently reading, The History of Writing by Steven Roger Fischer.

Oops! I hear footsteps coming from upstairs...I said it! Amber and Julie are awake. Okay, time to go...snack time. We'd be having Pogo sticks (hotdog inside bread).

Till then...

The weather is cold, as usual, though it's sunny outside.

aLfie