Psssttt!!!

This hissing sound made from pursed lips used to irritate me. Dili ko taxi (I am not a cab), I would tell the one doing it.

I find it rude to be hailed this way.  Why not call me by name?  Equally rude is finger pressure on the back - the very offensive cousin to the tap on the shoulder, especially if you don't turn immediately and the finger keeps digging into your back.

I had a good friend in college who would do a very exaggerated version of it on my arm or on my thigh even if we were face to face.  Miat!, she would say across the library table, as she would scrape her middle finger on my upper arm to get my attention.  Ann!, I would respond by digging my middle finger with exaggerated pressure into her arm as well.  It never failed to amuse her.  She never stopped.

Sa Kabukiran

Bukid na gyud ni (This is as rural as rural goes).

Our house is surrounded by a lot of greens, but I only realized how close we are to nature when one rainy night, I drew aside the curtains to find a frog clinging to the glass window.

Accckkkkk!!!!  If there's anything I hate, it's slimy creatures.  I cannot stand frogs, lizards - any reptile, I think.  Another night, I looked out and there, on our terrace, was another frog.  Now, I check the terrace floor and sides before I go out.

Letting Go

When my husband's promotion entailed re-assignment to Batangas City, relocation was not really in the picture.  I had a good job in Makati City, my daughter was in a good school and Batangas seemed nearer than it was.

Look outside the shoe

I first saw Jessica Cox on TV and like everyone else who saw her, I admired how she went beyond her disability – she was born without arms – and did stuff that not every able-bodied person could do. Like fly a plane. Or surf. I don’t even apply makeup with the same expertise that she does and yet I have hands. She does so with her feet. 



Anyway, I viewed that segment on that early morning news program with the same detachment that I view novelty shows. Entertaining, yes, but not really relevant.

And then I had the chance to see her when she was invited as one of the motivational speakers in a conference that our company hosted for its employees.

What struck me was that she was very normal. She made everything seem normal. And yet you couldn’t forget that she had no arms because it was just staring you in the face. She was just so self-sufficient and unself-conscious about her disability (she prefers to call it condition) that to dwell on it would make one seem rather patronizing.

On her own

Last December, my six-year-old daughter received a very nice door sign - you know, the one you usually find in hotels that are attached to the door knob, saying something like "Do not disturb" or "Please clean room"?

Well, hers was different because it was wooden and had a provision for a pen and a memo pad.  I thought that would be the first and last time I'd see it until I came home one day and saw it hanging on our bedroom door.  On it, she wrote:  "Keep out.  Only Mommy and Daddy can enter."