The value of time

“What you get free costs too much.” -Jean Anouilh

Beware SM shoppers. If very friendly people in semi-formal clothing approach you in order to give you free items such as umbrellas, knapsacks or even movie tickets (and the chance to win a BMW!), make sure you have 3 hours and a lion’s share of divine patience to spare. If you don’t, just walk away.

I learned that people in sales have this unique gift for conversation, but a lack in empathy. I understand that they need to sell in order to earn (hence the intensive training on what to say, how to say it and how to counter common excuses), but to overhear that they get scolded for “lost sales” (which I am a part of), is simply inhuman. Sure they need to try hard, but if a potential customer simply chooses to remains so — that is, a potential — then the salesperson can do squat to convince that customer otherwise. Not even a supervisor or manager can change that. NO MEANS NO. Nobody is obliged to buy a product, however good it is, within a deadline. Heck, if I really wanted to buy a product, I want to think about it at least overnight. I don’t like having my hand forced NOW.

Detention in an air-conditioned room, face to face with a sales agent can be the most trying time of your life. All for 3 knapsacks and 4 movie tickets. Considering what I lost that day, I regret it.

Sour Cream Fries

This afternoon found me looking for a small reward for getting myself out of the house for something productive — getting a haircut.

Instantly I thought of my fill of my Food-of-the-Month: a Cappucino McFlurry from McDonald’s. However, as I stood in line for my 30-peso delight, my eyes drifted to the menu plastered on the ceiling behind the counter.

Try the new McShaker Fries! In Sour cream or Chili Cheese! Only 42 pesos.

Being a sour cream-on-anything fan, I decided to try it out. The fries were placed in a paper bag, and I was given a packet of the sour cream powder. After shaking the bag with the powder, I was delighted to see that the powder evenly coated each fry, with the ones at the bottom getting more than the others, since the powder had more time to stick to them.

Rewarded I was, with a full 10 minutes of palate pleasure. The powder was really sour, not justin small measure, but truly tongue-watering sour. The salt content was negligible. This is the way (powdered) sour cream should be done.

Now, will McDonald’s come out with the real sour cream?

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Moments like this afternoon remind me that amid the chaos of everyday, in between work and more work, beyond the momentary preoccupation of the tired worker, there lie experiences waiting to be relished. Maybe it’s not a pack of french fries. Maybe doesn’t have anything to do with food.

Maybe it’s simple conversation. A walk in the park. An unexpected opportunity to be more of a friend to others.

As John Mayer put it: I am bigger than my body gives me credit for. Live!

Silent Sadness

I look back at months of posts and wonder: where has my passion for writing gone?

The new posts seem lackluster in comparison to the posts of old. It's like color was removed from the canvas of my mind, and all that's left are shifting shadows of lif that rarely, if even at all, give justice to the rambling of my soul.

Where has it gone? When will it come back? 

Graduation notes

The ceremony has been two days over.

Students no longer come to school.

End-of-year meetings dwindle.

My cubicle is now bereft of any work-related material, save for envelopes that bear the seal of the school.

My hand is now forced by fate. I must take the long and difficult look at myself, and assess. Reflect. Chart a new course. A new day comes. Seize it.

A heart bares itself

I was surprised to receive an IM from my sister, who was on the computer in the next room. She was adamant that I read her latest blog entry, which I did.

More so than in the previous days, I feel deeply loved. I am so blessed. :,j

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Aside from the touching things said in the blog entry described above, I couldn’t help but think that our baby is now a lady. Cliché, yes, but clichés become clichés because they are true. She is slowly but surely maturing before our very eyes, and I, for one, am proud with the way she’s turning out. A bit of innocence, with a splash of curiosity; a warm friend, topped with barrels of laughter; a princess rugged enough to venture out into the world. That is she.

If she professes difficulty in expressing herself in straight English, I say to her, express yourself in any manner you wish. What matters is that you express yourself. The world may remember mistakes, but it will celebrate milestones. Immortality, in this sense, is the legacy one leaves behind in the journey back to God.