The Kitchen Sink

Who would've thought I'd find refuge in the most unlikely place--the wall fronting my kitchen sink! I was surprised myself, come to think of it.


Today just wasn't my day. It didn't start out right and it didn't go well. The kids were having a field day all over the house while I had to meet my quota of processed mall links for the day. Aggravatingly enough, no matter how many times I mentally pep-talked myself that "attitude is altitude", I honestly could not muster enough motivation to turn things around.


Did I hear someone ask, "Have you tried praying?" Yes, I did. But it was more like frantic 911 calls every hour to the heavens to have mercy on me and grant some divine intervention. I was thinking about being bodily whisked away to some far flung island with white-sand beach, a hammock between two palm trees, soft sea breeze and quietness. NOT!


Divine intervention came in the form of my on-autopilot-body pouring hot water into a mug of instant coffee+milk+sugar, pulling up a chair against the wall facing my kitchen sink and clinging on to the steaming mug for dear life. The wall was a surprisingly comforting buffer that partially separated the kitchen from the rest of the house. I could still hear the kids but they couldn't see me and vice versa. I even put up my feet on the counter top and watched the slow trickle of water from the leaky faucet.


Miraculously not one of my spawns decided to take a peek and see where I had disappeared to. And for a few minutes I had some me-time. Not what I exactly had in mind every time I craved for some me-time but pleasantly surprising that it did the job to settle me.


Hey, my God is the God of the impossible so He could've easily taken me to my dream me-time spot on the beach at the blink of an eye. However, that divinely sponsored vanishing act would've frightened the kids so He gave me the most practical spot available. *sigh* Okay, maybe next time...

Squeezed In Time Out

Finally after what seems to be like eons, I get to go out of the house. Ok so it may not be exactly what I wanted but at least for a few hours I get to be alone with myself—away from laundry, away from dishes, away from cleaning little tykes’ butts, away from “momma look at this…momma look at that”, “mama can I have this, mama can I do that”…away from scattered toys that I seem to be constantly picking up, away from ministry lessons that stare at me in the face waiting to be done, away from the church newsletter I have to complete every week…away away away---if only for a few precious hours.

Alright already! Where did I go? I went to Trinoma (it's a mall with the name that's short for Triangle North of Manila)—way way up north—to meet my boss. Okay so it’s a business meeting, but at least it’s in an altogether different setting.

Maybe I miss working outside the house, maybe I miss walking through malls on my way to work and on my way back home, maybe I miss browsing through shop windows looking at their latest “sales”, maybe I just miss the sights and sounds of the busy city. But then the thought of waiting for the bus or shuttle every morning, alighting, then getting on another bus or taxi to my place of work and going through the same route back suddenly just brings all that “missing stuff” to a sudden halt.

I feel my stomach lurch…no no no…I don’t think I can go back to doing that again. Nooooo!

So I’ll settle for this quick trip to meet my boss at one of those foreigner-owned Pinoy-franchised coffee shops that have been sprouting like mushrooms whenever a commercial niche presents itself.

No I don’t go there for the coffee either. More than a mug a day gives me a headache. And I’ve had my caffeine fix earlier in the day so I don’t need one at 4pm. I like the coffee shop ambiance though….just take away all those trying-hard-to-look-successful yuppies with their laptops and mobile phones or the looking-studious college students browsing through his college books with their titles facing out to other shop customers. For crying out loud—it’s a coffee shop where people are supposed to relax while they drink their brew, not an extension of the office or college library!

Sorry I digress. Anyway, I meet my boss. We talk shop for about an hour. He wants to know how I find my work, what’s up with the work load and what’s with the rest of the techwriters. Of course, he’s also discretely fishing for information on what we might be saying about our jobs (or about him) that we’re not telling him straight to his face. But he does it oh so sensitively and carefully.

He’s a nice boss but since we all work online at home, we don’t get to see much of him and vice versa. Since he meets his staff individually from time to time, the way things are put across from both sides might not be exactly the same for each one. Not communicating by communicating.

On my part, I’m happy with what I have at the moment on my workplate. And I’ll give it my best shot. So our talk ends quite well. And he hurries off to his next appointment. Me, I’m on my home again. Retracing my route the way I came--with a little sidetrip around the mall...hehehe.

The meeting took about an hour. My trip to the meeting place took two hours and it’s another two-hour trip via public transportation back to my house. Now you know why I don’t want to go back to work in an office.