Labor day

When you're a regular government employee, you just wait for these moments - National holidays.

It seems like a curse if it happens to fall on weekends.

May 1, 2013, which is a Wednesday is Labor day. I planned not to go home since there was not enough funds for the fare. I listed down things to do to keep me occupied the whole day.

1. Basic. Do the laundry. It takes me 3/4 of the day to do that so what I need to care about is what to do to the remaining 1/4 and the night. Doing this would save me hundreds of pesos had I opt to bring my clothes to laundry house.

2. At least write an essay or short story which is a sort of reserve once I chance upon a notice for a literary contest.

3. To update some if not all of my blogs.

4. Scrub the floor. this means more than the usual scrubbing the floor. For months, I have this dilemma of having paint marks on the floor tiles. I tried numbers of ways to get rid of them but to no avail. The thing that worked was the by papel de liha.

On Labor day, I get up at around 6:30am, so excited to do those things. Then, I found out that my brother purchased fighting cocks and his wards are scheduled to pick those cocks up in a farm in Orani. the thought excites me more that I volunteered to tag along. It still does not interest me, I just see it as something new to me.

I grabbed pairs of pants which might be appropriate for a farm. The first pair was the one I would later decide to retire that midnight. Going to a cock farm is something new to me that I can not determine what overdressed and underdressed were. My brother in law who's supposed to drive came an hour late. Then, the Montero did not cooperate and start. My brother was fuming mad that we're still at home despite 2 hours elapsed from the agreed meeting with the breeder who came all the way from Nueva Ecija. His order was to go whatever ways possible. We are three hours late and we met the civilly irked people. All I know is that we are the buyer and that is enough excuse if we are late.

All along, I am in touched with my sister to go to my uncle's birthday. We agreed to be there for lunch. we changed our minds. We later agreed to be at our uncle's birthday on dinner. We changed our minds again. We then agreed not go anymore and just send message of excuse through facebook.  I hope she did because I did not. We had lunch at around 2pm. After that, I find myself with nothing else to do. It's too late to start anything for the fear of not having enough time to finish them. I slept.

At one point of the day, I managed to pick up the other set of clothes from a laundry service which was due a week before.

I was also then instructed to take pictures of the new cocks. Then re-intstructed to take pictures again not held by the kuya boy and the newly built flying pens. I got another message to take picture not with my phone because of the unclear images. The order was to take picture through Viver. I don't even know what Viver is. I don't have an i-pad nor an i-phone.

At any point I was not annoyed nor I felt bad. All through these I was getting a pakisuyo from a kuya na madaling kausap at madaling utangan - madaling hingan ng request.

  

Later that night, I thought about the things I did and did not do as planned. 

1. I was not able to wash my clothes - 13 kilos is around P330.

2. There was no essay, short story or web log.

3. The paint marks are still paint marks.

4. I gave justice to my favorite pair of pants. It just could not fit any more. That meant, mandatory retirement. Then,  I learned the proper attire. I should have worn jersey shorts which I don't have.

5. Going my uncle's birthday should have rekindled a childhood moment. His birthday decades ago was one of my earliest memories of a summer outing. Our family did not usually organize outings. As I remember, his birthday in Pulong bato (beach) was my first memory na lumusong sa dagat at 3 or 4 years old. All of the toddlers and kids then, now have our own children now. 

6. I started to get involved with my Kuya's dealings with his farm. Picking up cocks and taking pictures of them. More or less, I have come to terms that I have a new identity as kapatid ni Engineer - which is always the formal introduction. 

How  important are they to put much thought on them? First, it is because employees always look forward to holidays. It is not about doing important things because labor is a national issue. This is because what I did were the things I opted to do instead of spending time with my son. No matter how I justify the importance of them, it would not be equivalent to the time lost with my family. For now, I have to convince myself of my own excuses.

Did I mention I paid P27,000? I knew all along that my kuya and I are different. I just confirmed that we are indeed from different worlds and live different lives. Walang basagan ng trip.