| 3:22p |
friispirit, thegirlfriend, rockband, and the perils of alcohol
Saturday at the shop was crazy. We had one of our best days and that is always good but our manager-on-duty Zig took a few days off to attend a wedding and Andrea was under the weather. To make things worse, there was a private party in the lounge room, a Guitar Hero tournament, and it was Burger Night (and Che is the only one who can cook the burgers). The end result? Che and Jen running up and down the stairs, syncing remotes, cooking food, handing out drinks, changing games…all with a smile on our faces (I love talking about myself in the third person). Okay…maybe at one point, I wasn’t smiling. In fact, I was on the verge of throwing a tantrum. Thinking it was my business and that some day I will sow what I reap kept me going. Oh…plus Cobra energy drinks.
It also helped that the girlfriend paid me a visit. She brought her sister along so they could play games and hang out while effectively spending time with me. Of course, our disturbingly comfortable beanbags, good food, Guitar Hero and Wii games could also be the real reasons why she showed up but I’d rather believe the former so please humor me. (And the sentence above was my attempt to discreetly plug FriiSpirit).
So after working myself to sheer exhaustion and after the girlfriend had gone home, I stayed at our relaxation area and tried to chat a bit with Carlos, Andy and Larcy. Since I can no longer avail of Jack Daniels to lubricate my tongue, I needed to make an effort to be funny and amusing while I was sober. I don’t know if it worked but Larcy still insists she likes me better when I’m drinking beer.
I was prepared to spend the entire Sunday alone at my condo, sleeping the day away, but who can stay home knowing that your shop was getting “Rock Band” that day and there are songs to be unlocked? Rock Band was finally released for the Wii and we snapped up two sets real quick. So after taking intermittent naps, I rushed over to FriiSpirit to find Andy, Carlos and Carol impersonating “The Police.” I naturally kicked Carlos away from the guitar and started strumming away. I also ended up being the resident go-improvise-and-sing-this-song-no-one-knows-and-make-sure-you-don’t-die-because-we-need-to-unlock-songs dude. So as soon as an obscure song needed to be played, I took over the microphone and tried my best not to fail. Forget about sounding good…I just wanted to reach the end of the song.
I slept early Sunday night because I had to be prepped for my day job. One mustn’t forget that it’s my day job and sidelines that pay the bills. The shop will pay off later but in the meantime, I need to be editor-in-chief-writer-extraordinaire if I don’t want to end up living on the streets (which is naturally an exaggeration because as Andy once told me, “You can always sleep at the shop.”) Come to think of it, even when the shop starts making money, I don’t think I’ll ever earn more in the business than I do in my day job. Which means, I’ll forever be a grease monkey (if I was a mechanic, which I am not…but I can’t think of a cool phrase to describe being an editor).
I woke up early Monday and after my morning rituals (which isn’t much, mind you), I tried to get a cab to take me to Makati. After I kept getting turned down left and right even when I was willing to add to the meter, I asked one of the drivers what the hell was going on. I was told that a tanker filled with alcohol (not the one I like) overturned in Edsa turning all routes to Makati a virtual nightmare. Unfazed, I bargained with him like crazy and got him to agree to brave the madness (and I didn’t even have to sleep with anyone). It was a nightmare all right. I was stuck in traffic for two and a half-hours and I ended up forking over almost four times my usual fare (which made me wish I just slept with someone…have a sense of humor, guys. It’s a joke).
So here I am taking a few minutes off work to type out this long, convoluted blog entry in an attempt to fight off burn-out and keep my sanity. One reading this might immediately deduce that I am tired and unhappy. I hope I am not leaving that impression because in truth, I am exhausted…but I have also never been happier in my life. |