caterpillar talk

me: doc, i’m just wondering because i counted my teeth and i only have 28 of them. adult dentition is at 32. i looked at my scan and there seems to be no teeth hiding in my gums. when will i have my wisdom?

the ortho took a look at my scan and smiled. then, he non-chalantly said, “you don’t have any.”

me: ha?

ortho: there are people who don’t have any and isa ka sa kanila.

me: ha? pwede pala ‘yun?! di ako magkakaroon ng wisdom tooth? sure?

ortho: (looking at the scan) wala talaga. the scan is clean. swerte ka nga eh. maraming tao nag-s-suffer dahil sa wisdom tooth.

fine. it took 26 years for me to learn that there are people who don’t develop any wisdom tooth at all. i found that amazing. i happen to be one of them. doubly amazing.

–originally posted on june 15, 2009

because i have yet to acquire the patience to clean up somebody else’s mess and i am very territorial..

i left that on my desk. i hope that come tomorrow morning my desk is just the way i left it.

p.s. i want patience, now na! hahahaha.

“There are nights when the wolves are silent
and only the moon howls.”
–George Carlin

it was already late at night (read: nine-ish) and we’d just gotten back to the company in batangas from a visit to a colleague’s house in sta. cruz, laguna. my urinary bladder was already complaining due to the long drive and too much soda. when the company vehicle came to a halt, i rushed out and practically ran through the deserted hallways to get to the restroom.

i went in through the door leading to the locker area since it was my nearest access to the restroom. i noticed that more lockers were already installed but nothing more than this made a different impression on me. well, saved for the observation that the locker area was also deserted and i was the only breathing soul there.

because i really had to and not because i was suddenly afraid, i rushed out of the locker area, proceeded to the restroom, and chose a cubicle. it was such a great relief when i was finally able to let go of unnecessary liquid from my body.

when i was ready to face the world again, undisturbed anymore by the urgent call of nature, i went out of the cubicle. i opened the cubicle door just in time to see one of my male colleagues walking nonchalantly along the restroom hallway. since he belongs to the facilities department, i figured he was there doing a regular dead-of-the-night check. still, his presence for whatever reason inside the ladies’ restroom didn’t really register as appropriate and i felt the need to demand why he was there.

“woist, bakit ka nandito?”

“ah…eh…kasi…sa mga lalake ‘to.”

oooops! my bad. sa lagay na yon ako pala ang nasa maling lugar. bwahahahahaha…

no wonder then why he, too, had a surprised look on his face when he saw me.

with a flood of “hala! oh-em-gee. oh nooooo! i’m sorry,” i hastily ran out of the men’s restroom red-faced and stifling laughs i could not share with anyone (or anything) just yet but the deserted hallways.

“Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.”
–Robert Fulghum

while i was deep into troubleshooting an unwanted circumstance involving my latest machine, my company-issued mobile phone beeped.

unknown number: bakit ##k ang sweldo mo?
ako: hu u? bakit mo minali ang sweldo ko?

even if the sender did not get the figures right, i still found the message irritating. my initial reaction to it was really something to the effect of “anong pakialam mo sa sweldo ko?”

i thought something slipped from the HR which got someone thinking and which resulted to that message.

unknown number: ay, na-wrong send lang po.
ako: hindi ka dapat nakikialam sa sweldo ng ibang tao, kahit kaano ano mo pa yan.

i know i should have let things go when the sender offered the information that the message was not intended for me. however, something in my boiling head (what’s up, temper? hehe) pushed me to key in an unsolicited advice. i am not one to discuss about salaries — whether mine or other people’s. the least i know about how much the people around me are actually earning, the better for my peace of mind (and, maybe, for my level of confidence).

the reply i got after that was something to the effect of… (i cannot write down the exact text message i received because i already deleted it but i’ll share what i can remember)

unknown number: alam mo ba sinasabi mo? asawa ako ni ____ _____ ka-trabaho mo ngaun ako nagb-budget para sa pamilya namin at ako din naglalabas nun sa ATM di ko kelangan ang unsolicited advice. WAG MO KO 22RUAN KUNG ANO DAPAT KO GAWIN. I KNOW MY RYT AS A WIFE (a lot of words here which i cannot recall anymore because i did not really read this part of the message which was keyed in using capital letters) NAIINTINDIHAN MO BA AKO KUNG GUSTO MO, PWD MO AKO TAWAGAN.

i did not make the call. i know how some wives can get praning when they get to find out that their husbands’ colleagues at work are female — regardless of physical appearance or whatever. i figured, there was no need to disclose my identity nor my gender. my officemate’s wife does not know who i am because the company number assigned to me was registered in her phone as her husband’s. sometime after i got back from korea, my officemate had to bring my company line to his trip to japan — hence, the reason why her wife mistakenly sent a message to me.

ako: sori naman. peace na tayo.

deadma. that’s what i got.

what happened had me laughing. i was really able to sense the difference in my mood levels right after i received the first message and when i got that super-long reply. one moment i was so irritated, the next moment i was sincerely apologetic.

after sharing the incident with the rest of the team (which included the sender’s husband) and after us sharing amused laughter over the consequences of my ‘yet-another-temper-driven-judgment lapse,’ i keyed in another message.

ako: i’m really sorry for what transpired earlier. i learned a good insight from you today. peace.

today, after giving in to the ill dictates of my temper, i was suddenly being unusually so kind.

i come from a household where my father does the budgeting — as the family’s breadwinner, he’s the one who allocates the financial resources — and my mother does second-degree/second-level budgeting of the allowance she gets from my father for her and their kids’ emergency expenses.

i understand that for other households, the wives are the ones who get to hold the ATM card and that they are the ones who guard the family’s finances.

doon pa rin ako sa walang pakialamanan ng sweldo (lalo na pagdating sa sweldo ko).

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

our company’s biometric system seldom fails in not recognizing me. my officemates go through it with a green light matched with a ‘thank you’ while i usually get the red light matched with ‘please try again.’ it’s always been just me since the start.

during our enrollment to the system, it took awhile before the biometric print collector could successfully add me. my work buddies didn’t have a hard time. one try and they got in. i was altogether a different case. my right thumb failed. my left thumb failed. my index fingers failed. my middle fingers failed. my ring fingers failed. even my pinkies failed. although i was quite annoyed by all the hassle that i had to go through, my officemates and i found reasons to be amused about it. (read: guess, who’s the alien?) only out of determination and patience and after several attempts did my right thumb and left thumb finally register. for good measure, my left index finger was enrolled as well.

every time i get the red blinking light, i mutter a ‘not again,’ take a look at my fingers, and wonder what’s wrong. my fingers look like fingers should (and with distinct fingerprints) so why is the sensor being so discriminating? of course, that’s what sensors are for but, i mean, why just me?

maybe it’s one of the universe’s little ways of helping me grow with patience. or maybe i’m really an alien.

could be both.

no, don’t ask me from what planet i came from — i’d still say earth.