TALAGANG GANYAN ANG LIFE
 
I have yet to recover from my bedridden state yesterday but I decided to go to work today due to extreme pressure. Ako din naman ang mahihirapan. Hay, buhay. The downside of earning a few bucks.

And as part of my horizon-expanding project, instead of confining myself to the four walls of my room blogging about the rest of my weekly review of this Sunday show, I was compelled to join a friend over coffee (a rather typical 'date' we have, which means she has something to tell me) across the office.  As soon as we entered the coffee shop, Ric, the "uncute" barrista greeted us and of course, it's the, "Ham and cheese croissant, Ms. Georgina?" that made me smile at him, changing my tone when I told him that there is a big fly (what's bangaw in English, BTW?) happily hopping in their ensaymadas).  It was a cold afternoon so I had vanilla latte (which is not good, I wonder why Erwin makes it his energy drink every morning..at ang mahal nya no!) which had me wondering why even if I didn't ask for it nor they have asked me if I want to, there was an additional syrup that went with my latte, costing me 15 pesos. Hey, I know it's only 15 pesos but hello? Red flag of Consumer Protection waving, don't you see it??!!

Anyway, spilling my friend's angst, be it about work or her seemingly colorful personal life, is not new. We have been doing it since we became friends in 2001. I was still an intern then. So you can just imagine how much training I got, perfecting the art of pretending to listen and comprehend, even if my mind is a thousand miles away. It doesn't mean that I do not care. I do. I just know that during our coffee talks, she doesn't need me to give advice because she won't really listen to it, believe me. That's what many people find odd about our friendship; many are actually surprised why we remained friends through all these negative stuff about her sensitivity which a lot but her fail to see. Maybe I am simply her listener-friend. I have long given up the idea that she will listen to me, much more, change her ways because of what I say. In addition, I pride myself to be the talker amongst my other friends so with her, I can somehow find the balance.

Anyway, this coffee chat is about the brewing war in our main office. I can't vouch for the magnitude of it, given her sensitivity level, but it is something that is true. You see, our unit is actually a small group of people. 20++ employees? Yet it could get really nasty. I think I have said it before that for someone who is just starting her career (yep, that's me), this kind of professional (if you can call it such...) rivalry that we have is something that's so frustrating. Oh well, enough of that.

We spent 2 hours, with her doing the talking, and me, doing the nodding and uh-huhs while nibbling every chip of an overpriced mini Ruffles while looking at the misty glass door, pretending to feel her angst. Our topic shifted from the brewing "leadership" war to her recent ka-M.U. who I tactlessly branded a "mental case" (she was taken aback but I didn't have the guts to take it back because I actually meant it) to jurassic issues of countless men linked to her to bowling games then back to the brewing war in the office (it has more branches than a mature narra tree, I must tell you) to my wanting a new cellphone, till I said it's about time to go freshen ourselves up and go home.

Talaga sigurong ganyan ang buhay. You work, you go out, you share your feelings, you go home. Tomorrow, I can have a different side to "going out and sharing your feelings" as I will be with my college friends. I hope to do about 40-50% of the talking, save the fact that Jacs is there, Jen is there and Michelle is there. By being "there", I cannot explain why. Maybe tomorrow or over the weekend, I'll try.