22 November 2010

I woke up at 4 am. I knew this would happen since i went to bed at 930 last night. I tried to read but I couldn't finish a page. Didn't even bother to turn on the TV. I just drifted into sleep.

And when I woke up, my mind was full of details -- bills to be paid, budgetting for the holidays, my meetings this week, and preparing for Monica's arrival on December 4. Bring bed sheets to borrowed condo, buy toiletires and breakfast food. And the logistics of moving her brood about -- she's arriving with a baby and two young boys, with stroller and luggage. Should I try and get a pass to help her get through the baggage area and customs? Details. Details. Am I a worry wart or what?

Call Rapa to ask Bodet for a NAIA pass.
Call Ed Mo to ask for key to condo.
Tell Poch we're picking up his van at 3 PM on December 4.
Finish all my deadlnes before December 4.

I have listed down all my immediate tasks, hoping I can get them all done in time. Before Monica arrives, I have to get the PBSP write-ups and Bei's request, and the Bayan brochure out of the way. I'll gt them done. I work best on a deadline.

Meanwhile, its getting light outside. In Mandaluyong where I live, the cocks start crowing at around 2 am. But strangely, they quiet down at around 330 until 430. Then the chorus resumes. I've gotten used to it. The crowing no longer wakes me. It is a given in a neighborhood as tightly packed as this.

It is the yapping dogs that I cannot stand. I think if you own a dog, you must see to it that it is comfortable so it doesn't inconvenience your neighbors. One morning, I awoke to the incessant yelping of a dog who was obviously in need of some attention. It was the dog of the neghbor downstairs who was left outside for the night. I wouldn't kill the dog but I could see myself strangling my neighbor for inflicting such cruelty on an animal.

Speaking of dogs, I have just realized that I love Ice Tea, our scrappy little Aspin at home. In Sydney, I fell in love with Jack, but it was some kind of forbidden love since he was under disciplinary action -- meaning he was undergoing strict training under my son-in-law with rules of behaviour that I tended to violate -- and he wasn't bathed too often and so I got really dirty and smelly when I played with him. But Jack is a handsome black lab, Ice Tea is not. He's a common dog, wih traces of some pedigree watered-down through several generations of cross-breeding, probably in some back alley. His body is overly long and his front paws toe in. But its his dopey ears that get me every time.

All my life, my experience with dogs has been negative. I hated -- make that feared -- dogs. All dogs. Cute ones, handsome ones, ugly ones, freindly and fierce ones. I'd cross the street when I saw a dog on my path. It didn't matter that it wagged its tail in friendship. I just hated those yappy critters.

But now I seem to be hooked. Ice Tea comes up to me and puts his paws on my lap, asking to be petted and I stop whatever I'm doing to oblige him. I have a feeling I know where this is going. I see myself and my need to be tactile in Ice Tea. Now I know why a lot of people need a dog. They're lonely. They need to touch and be touched. And there's no more loyal, more dependable creature on earth than a dog.

On that note, allow me to say, Good Morning World, and start my day's work.