Kat in the Box

For her birthday last September, I asked my sister what it is that she wants for a gift. Through my mom, she said that she wants this book entitled “Twilight”. I asked for what genre but she couldn’t quite figure out but she was certain that the author was someone name Stephen.. Stephanie Meyer? (or so I thought I heard). Not sure of what is it that I will be looking for in a bookstore, I searched in the internet. I only have to type “Twilight”, and boom! There it was, several sites all connected to “Twilight”. Oh and by the way, it is only then that I realized that the author is Stephenie Meyer. Thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to know more about the book. Ok, I admit, I read the synopsis there and ruined the suspense. But nevertheless it didn’t stop me from wanting to read the whole book itself. I also got intrigued with the cover, a pair of hands holding a shiny red apple. Which I later found out, is biblically inspired. The cover itself is appealing, or more appropriately, intriguing. I figured that since it is this popular, I wouldn’t have a hard time getting hold of that black book.. But boy was I so wrong. for several days, I’ve practically searched every bookstore I can go to from National bookstore to Powerbooks, from Alabang, Glorietta, SM north and even Trinoma. But I searched in vain. All these huge bookstores sold out all their copies and the only possible way I can get it is by placing my reservation and I was even about 100th in the line. Oh my! Is this for real????? I can’t believe it! Is this like the Harry Potter series? But how come I didn’t heard of it before, until very recently? Anyway, my mom eventually found a copy (thank Heavens!) and it was from a National bookstore in one of the smallest and less populated SM Malls in Muntinlupa. The one mall that only has two levels, almost a hundred parking spaces only, and about 50 (or maybe even less) stores inside it. The one which has its supermarket and department store combined in one place called hypermart. Can you now see my desperate attempt to describe how small, and how unappealing this mall is to the shopping public?? Hahaha.. it’s a boring mall, but for me, it’s heaven sent. With the book in my sister’s hands, I’m already guilt free on giving her her birthday present. As days passed by, the craze goes on and on, especially with the upcoming movie. My friend Julie is already talking about our entire Budget team watching the film, even including our bosses. Hahaha.. I’ve read “Twilight” myself (but I will save my review and comment on my next post) and I’m about to start with New Moon. With all the craze going on, together with the upcoming movie, I wonder, will it be as popular as Harry Potter? Will its movies hit the box office the same as Harry Potter series? Will the 4 books be equally popular like Harry Potter’s wherein fanatics are not getting tired of reading the entire collection? I wonder.. and come to think of it, are Twilight and Harry Potter even comparable??? Well, it may be unfair to compare these two highly popular books being the two having a different genre and different readers appeal. You can love one of them or even enjoy them both. But one thing’s for sure, I guess to all fanatics, both these books have in them something that touched their inner soul…

Just a month ago I got myself a new simcard (availing one of my benefits as an employee of a telecom company!). I initially thought of the inconvenience of sending everyone a text message informing them of my new number. based on experience, not everyone gets to update their phonebooks either because they did not receive my text or they accidentally deleted my message.. sigh.. I would then be experiencing “who’s this” answers when I call or text from my new number. As I was browsing through my phonebook, I realized that I don’t have much people to send my new number. Most of the contacts in my phonebook already left the country and my means of communications with them now are through email. I then begun this memory game of identifying to which country that person went…. Cathy’s in Dubai, Alvin in New Zealand, Maya and Vanessa in Trinidad and Tobago, EJ in BVI, Hanzel in Gibraltar, Europe and Singapore (what the heck, he’s been everywhere!)… hmm.. my friends are scattered all over the globe! We can already have a United Nations pageant during our reunion wherein each can wear the national costume of the country their in right now! I don’t know whether to feel happy or gloomy about this current realization. I’m glad that each of my friends are pursuing their dream and taking on new challenges but i also felt like we were all living our lives now separately and literally apart from each other. Gone are the days when we can just call each other and hangout, have coffee or watch a movie. Or just have text marathons (international text messages are way expensive). Hmm. I think I’m getting sentimental. but it makes me wonder, is this overwhelming desire to work in a different country really common nowadays despite of nationality? Or is this a Filipino thing only? Are people more adventurous now that they are willing to live in a foreign land, interact with foreigners (but I think if you’re the one who’s now a citizen of the country you become the foreigner) and eat foreign delicacies? Or is it the need to uplift one’s life financially because “earnings in the Philippines are just not enough”? is it the Philippine economy? But then, the entire world is experiencing a crisis, even the United States, right? Is the thought of foreign employment really promising?? Once in a blue moon I think of the possibility of leaving the country as well. But then again when I think of every non-financial things that I get to enjoy here in my own country, I always scratch the thought. The comforts of being “home” outweighs the financial rewards of working abroad. but I don’t want to speak too soon. My son is growing, and who knows, someday my husband and I might let go of our “home” and comforts to migrate in a place where our son’s future will be most secure. Who knows?

Finally, I’m an official blogger! I can’t claim that this is my first ever blog because it is not. More than two years ago, I launched my blogging career (hahaha! Career?!!) but only to retrieve my post because.. well, let’s just say what I wrote about was something very interesting.. way interesting. I retrieved my post with a heavy heart and it left me wondering if writing was really for me. The incident made me lose my confidence. But every now and then I think of writing. If something interesting happens to me, I (unmindfully) think of how I will write about it in my “blog”. But then, I shrug it off. I don’t have the time, I tell myself. But recent turn of events gave me the conviction to try this new world. I found out recently that one of the personalities I admire has a blogsite. I don’t aspire to have as many readers as this person but I admire how she was able to share a piece of her life with her readers. I realized that I don’t have to write about very personal stuff about my life if I don’t want to but I can still share my thoughts about different things around me. Yesterday, the Gospel is about the owner of the vineyard who built and made this beautiful vineyard and let some people live in it. He left someone to manage and take care of it but the inhabitants of the vineyard always ends up killing them. Until one day he sent his son since he thought that being his son, the people will respect and accept him. But he was wrong. They punished and killed him as well. Initially upon hearing the Gospel , my initial thought was, “oh it was about what people did when God sent his son Jesus.” But I guess I didn’t think deeper than that. Rather, it is all about how we human beings tend to think that everything we have and we are are truly ours just because God allows us to manage our lives. We became possessive and refuse to be grateful. All our talents and skills were just lent to us by Him. And what have we done with it? I personally admit that I was not able to maximize and make use of the talents. Fear of disappointments always take the better of me. If God do asked me what have I done with these talents, I don’t know what to answer Him. And so here I am. I’m not claiming to be the best writer in town, nor do I intend to make myself a famous blogger. But I can say that this is the start of my new found confidence in facing my fears and doing the things that I wanted to, whether I become successful in any of it or not. As I am writing this, excitement fills over me. A feeling that (I think) only a passionate writer (blogger) can understand. As what I said, this is the beginning of many things to come. Who knows, one day I might try bungee jumping! And if I did, I’ll definitely write about it and even post a picture!