tickledpink

while the rest (mostly) of my batchmates are starting their review, i’m at home sick and tired. it started with a sore throat; swallowing became painful. then came the fever on sunday. maybe the trip to the beach saturday night for wenbert’s company outing helped trigger it. the fever’s been on and off since then. i’ve had sleepless nights and frequent vomiting. my run-in with bacteria (my tonsils are inflammed) has put me in some frustrating, awkward and well, funny situations.

there’s this famous pediatrician and family physician in our town. he’s really good. but the joke around town is if a dying patient goes to his clinic, he’ll die before the doctor can get to him. see, clinic hours start in the early, or worse, in the late afternoon… patients number up to 50 a day. but this soft-spoken doctor can only attend to an average of about 7 patients per hour. it’s not because he has a hard time diagnosing the treatment; he’s considered the best for miles, after all. it’s because he likes to make small talk, that well, usually stretches longer than the shores of liloan. so i was there last monday. i was patient #35. from 2 p.m. till 5 p.m., it was still at patient #23. i returned at 8:30 p.m. just in time for the doctor to take a break and eat dinner. it was already patient #30, so i hung around. it was 9:15 and still the doctor was out. then he had a personal visitor and frustrated, i resigned to my fate. i went home.

today, i went to another doctor, still in my town. he’s younger and absolutely less experienced. but i had to settle for him than suffer longer. i got there and in the receiving room, i found this 40ish guy in jeans and shirt talking animatedly with this old man. i came in and sat down opposite them. while they talked, i realized that the younger man was "the" doctor. it felt rude to interrupt so again, i waited. but when 20 akward minutes passed just looking at them, i couldn’t take any more of it, so i said, "doc, do you want me to come back later?" then he said, "oh, i thought you were this old man’s daughter. i didn’t know you were a patient."

turns out it was my blooper after all. but i really thought he and this man knew each other since way back because they kept saying "there in our place" and they talked about common acquaintances. and when i came in, the secretary didn’t say anything. anyway, i hope his diagnosis is not a blooper.

its 1:40 a.m. just got home from the ms. liloan 2006 pageant. my younger sister taray won 1st runner up. though sick with fever and really sore tonsils, i was there to watch and give moral support… but the outcome’s just sooo frustrating! i don’t care if they say i’m sour-graping but it’s just sooo frustrating! imagine, the candidates were ASSIGNED their question for the casual interview…worse, they were told of the FINAL QUESTION for the top 5 finalists!!! arrg! i thought beauty pageants were about beauty AND brains… not beauty ONLY. the organizers say they want to avoid "hecklings" should the candidates give out "funny" answers if the candidates are not told ahead of the question…. now why am i griping about all these when taray won 1st runner up? shouldn’t i be happy already? well, i’m so frustrated because I’M SURE the girl who won ms. liloan wouldn’t have won IF the question was not given ahead. i should know, she’s my cousin…. if ms. liloan 2006 was about BEAUTY AND BRAINS, my sister would have gotten the crown….

i was at the mall last saturday just doing some window shopping.  at the department store, there was more than the usual traffic of customers because of the end-of-summer sale. as i was making my way to some funky skirts some racks away, i felt something push against my right shoulder that made me miss a step, almost throwing me off balance. puzzled, i glanced back and saw this short, fair-skinned old lady. she was angry and she told me "you almost stepped on me! you should have said "excuse me!" then, she carelessly dismissed me as if i were just some annoying little bug, not even waiting for my reply; taking her eyes away from me, she continued looking at the skirts. then she sermoned, "you young ladies nowadays have no manners".

at that point, i was getting irate and began to see her as a bitch rather than a shopper. how dare she scold me, and then generalize, and then refuse to hear a single word from me. so i told her that i had said "excuse me" but she didn’t hear me. we were arguing then, right in the middle of curious shoppers who were now enjoying our little catfight. i think she said that i shouldn’t have passed in front of her but the other way where there was wider space. i asked her "why did you have to elbow me?" she vehemently denied ever touching me and then to my shock, she cursed me "Bullshit!" 

in my mind, i was thinking she’s old enough to have some manners. but maybe due to my anger, i was only able to say "you’re old enough"… and then, listen to this, she said, "i’m old but i’m rich. you, are you rich?"  then she started walking away.. i came after her and said, "oh my god! does being rich make you have the right to hurt other people?"… then she pointed her fan at me and said, "stop it lady!" and then she said something like "…bastos!" 

after our encounter, i was shaking with rage and i thought of a million things i should have said to her.  i should have told her, "if rich makes you lose your manners, then i’d rather be rat-poor"… or i should have told her, "if you’re rich, then why are you shopping here at sm? why don’t you shop in singapore or hongkong or paris?"… or i should have grabbed the item she was holding and inspected the tag if it was an expensive one….or, i should have announced to the public that this lady claims she is rich so walk on tiptoes….or, as my boyfriend says, i should have just laughed at her face when she bragged about being rich….

i felt really bad at what happened. first of all, if indeed it was my fault for not looking carefully where i was going, nicer people would have handled the situation better. i would have apologized instantly but she didn’t give me the chance to. and who likes to apologize to somebody who starts lecturing you like some grader and who starts branding her english when she can speak filipino or cebuano? personally, i don’t mind when somebody speaks english because i’ve been school-trained to speak it. i’m not as fluent at it as native speakers are, but my english is excellent. but nevertheless, it was offensive. just because i looked so "bisdak", she felt she could intimidate me with her english and her being rich. clearly, how easily the word "bullshit" comes out of her mouth shows how full of shit her character is….

at least, next time, i already know what to do when i get attacked by a rich old fart.