Kasama Ng Yosi

Usapang yosi tau ngaun...

Natuto akong manigarilyo mga 9 na taon na ang nakakaraan. Nagkayayaan sa piyesta ng isang barkada, at ang gabi ay nauwi sa inuman. Mejo tipsy na rin siguro, kaya ayun, bumigay na ako sa matagal ko nang curiosity sa paninigarilyo. At nang sinabi ko na gusto ko matuto magyosi, ayun, dali-dali akong tinuruan ng mga mokong kong mga barkada. Sa kabila ng pagpigil ng ilan sa kanila na hindi naninigarilyo, nakatatlo akong sunod-sunod na stick. Sa palagay ko nga sa yosi ako nalasing, hindi sa vodka-pomelo. Ayos nga ang tulugan ko nun e. Sa sahig ng sala. Panalo!

Napatigil na rin ako magyosi nung 2004. Pero bumabalik-balik kapag mejo down, nasesenti, o mga similar na sitwasyon. Pero sandalian lang yung mga yun, tsaka madalang lang mangyari, mga once a year lang. Karaniwan isang kaha lang, tapos stop na ulit. Kakastart ko lang ulit magyosi ngayon-ngayon lang. Sobra kasing daming issue na iniisip. Pero sa pagkakataon na ito e mejo napapatagal ang paghinto ko. Pangatlo ko na atang kaha ito. Pero sabi ko naman sa sarili ko, hanggang December lang ito at the longest.

In any case, napansin ko na hindi ako nageenjoy na nagyoyosi na yun lang - kumbaga, parang kailangan may chaser lagi. Nahihilo rin kasi ako agad sa isang stick. Ito ang listahan ng mga paborito kong yosi-chaser:

1. Mentos
O kahit na anong mint. Sosyaling alternative ay Fox's. Ito kasi yung una kong nakuhang habit sa isa sa mga nagturo sa akin na isa sa mga malapit kong kaibigan.

2. Menthol candy na lemon flavor
Ito naman yung chaser ko nung mga time na nasesenti ako sa iniistalk ko nung hibang days ko nung college. Ahaha. Kaya kapag ito ang gamit ko, I remember how I was feeling back then.

3. Iced tea
Ito mejo staple ko na chaser. Usually kapag ordinaryong yosi lang ito ang chaser ko.

4. Ice cream
Panalo ito. Sa kapatid ko naman ito natutunan. Sarap din talaga.

5. Chocolait
Ito ang pinakahuli kong nadiskure. Solb na solb ako dito. Haha!

Yan. Mejo bad trip lang kasi hindi ako makapagyosi ngaun. Bagong opera sa ngipin e. Kaya kahit may ice cream para sa akin, hindi ko siya maisabay sa yosi. Sayang.

How 'bout you. How do you enjoy your stick?...

...Hehehe. Syempre pun intended.

A Good Screwing

My text message read something like this:

(above-mentioned text message removed for personal reasons)

The reply was quick, short, and blistering:

No.

And I don’t blame him for such a reply. But it was indeed hard to swallow, and I had to consciously dismiss bouts of depression that threaten to ensnare me shortly afterwards.

I rarely make such arrangements. I stopped doing so two years ago. I try to avoid sex outside a commitment, and I avoid having a relationship in the wrong circumstances. Heck some time back I was even invited to a threesome which included someone who I had great sex with two or three times before and someone who I haven’t met yet but was described as “yummy.” It was a good opportunity for great sex. But despite a wet and throbbing arousal, I turned the offer down. Thankfully something brought about freedom from dependency on sex. But sadly I break down every once in a while, when loneliness is at its peak. The last one was in April (and I am thankful for the one who took me in), and then now. And I have a high regard for the person I sent the invite to now, that’s why I chose to contact him instead of seeking someone from the net.

My mind wonders to the worth I have as a person. I look fairly good. I am smart (I graduated from a science high school and took a tough course in the country’s premiere university, the main branch at that). I am doing good in my career. And I guess most of all I have a big capacity to love. I know the meaning of sacrifice, selflessness, and understanding. It’s actually difficult for me to write these things down; I am not comfortable with admitting these at all. But with humility towards all the powers that helped me be who I am, I acknowledge what they did for me. But I guess my tremendous insecurity blurred what my true worth is as a person.

Having said that and all, I found myself wondering: If I am this kind of person, then why, in terms of love, am I picking up scraps off the table, instead of enjoying the full meal? It’s tremendously tragic that because of my insecurity I find myself being almost a mendicant for love. I have had my share of unreplied text messages/emails, and shitty turn downs. As if I deserve such kind of treatment. But deep down perhaps I unconsciously believe I do. Shitty ordeal, all of these.

Someone had been texting me the past few days. He was the one who responded to a friend’s distress call here. And I am really thankful for him for responding. But I found myself not replying, not primarily because I don’t want to, but I just don’t know what to do about it. But one thing’s for sure, I don’t want him to put his hopes on someone who is not sure. So the other night I called him up, because I don’t want to break it to him through text. The conversation started pleasantly. “Ok ka lang ba, nasa work ka ba nyan?” I asked. “Ayos lang,” he confirmed. More pleasantries were exchanged, as I was really trying to make it a good conversation. And then I dropped it, but as politely and caring as I could. And then “You woke me up for that!” followed by a break in the line. He defended that he was just trying to befriend me. I didn’t say the otherwise. What I am after is, if in the case of the contrary, I could spare him the pain of waiting for nothing. I tried to put that across in the text messages exchanged after, but, when ego is bruised, I guess the norm is to retaliate even when no bullets were ever fired. ”Hindi ko alam kung anong masamang espiritu and pumasok sa kukote mo… Hindi naging maganda ang asal mo.” I had to take that all in.

SHIT!!! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TALKING TO???!!!

I guess I just had to let that out.

Maybe half of the time the turn downs are well-meaned, and maybe the other half is from shit heads. It may probably be that the well-meaned ones are outnumbered by a bigger proportion. But, the thing is, I need not be exposed to these turn downs if I am in the proper state of self. I need not be a beggar for love. I am worth too much to be such. And this applies to all actually. No one is supposed to be begging for love. It’s tragic that the world is twisted wickedly that most are forced to begging.

Yup, I indeed had a good screwing. Of the mind and of the heart, that is.

Brokeback Revisited

I wiped the tears away as I closed the covers of Brokeback Mountain, and rose up from where I was lying down in a purposed position as to hide the book covers should someone come in my room which I share with my two other brothers, therefore concealing what was it that I was actually reading. I put it back in its careful hiding place, where it was untouched for the last 3 years or so, but it didn't take it with the emotions long forgotten but was unearthed with each page read.

The story started with two young lads, Ennis and Jack, finding themselves sharing a job tending sheep in a remote place in the Americas - Brokeback Mountain. Rough mannered as they both are, cowboys in every sense, yet they found themselves sharing an intimacy greater than what was supposed to between men. The beginning was all casual friendship which was growing everyday, until the night they shared the same sleeping bunk and Jack guided Ennis' hand into the proof of his arousal, which seemed to release sealed emotions within Jack, and soon after he was behind Jack, both consuming their pent-up desires. The days that followed were of similar oneness, until the fateful day the job ended and they had to part ways. Maybe it's the isolation, maybe it's the loneliness brought by the place, but both found something from the other that rendered them incomplete for the rest of their lives.

Ennis married his finacee and had two daughters, while Jack married a girl he met and had a son with her. Jack ended their fours years of separation when he visited Ennis, and they lost no time in reliving the days in the mountains. Yet the individual lives they now both have were tugging endlessly at them, and they were limited to four times or so a year of isolated intimacy. Jack yearns to run a ranch together with Ennis, but Ennis would have none of it, being stung with the childhood memory of the dead body of a brutally and horrifyingly killed old man ranched with another man, and he was afraid of having the same fate. Twenty years of locked emotions exploded one spring getaway when Ennis said he couldn't make it to their summer rendezvous.

"Jack I got a work. Them earlier days I used a quit the jobs. ... You forget how it is bein broke all the time. ... Let me tell you, I can't quit this one. And I can't get the time off. It was tough gettin this time - ... The trade-off was August. You got a better idea?"

"I did once." The tone was bitter and accusatory.

"... Tell you what, we could a had a good life together, a fuckin real good life. You wouldn't do that, Ennis, so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everything built on that. It's all we got. Boy, fuckin all... You're too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you."

Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable - admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears - rose around them. Ennis stood as if heart-shot, face grey and deep lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees.

That was the last time they ever spent with each other, for Jack had an accident. Ennis was left yearning for Jack. Upon a visit to Jack's folks to pay his respects, in the closet in Jack's room, he found carefully hidden Jack's shirt from Brokeback days, hanged, with blood from their scuffle the last day they were in Brokeback Mountain still unwashed. And underneath it he found his own shirt, whom he thought was missing, here, stolen by Jack, dirtied and unwashed, as if to preserve the memories which was Brokeback Mountain. It was Jack's place, and it held for him so many precious memories.

What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up from behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger...Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.

In the trailer where he was last mentioned to live, with a post card of their secret place tacked close beside it, Ennis hanged these memoirs of shirts, stepped back and looked at the ensemble through a few stinging tears, with finally the words "Jack, I swear ---"

And the rest of his life was lived brimming with the memories of Jack and Brokeback Mountain.

My life has always been a painful cycle of lingering in valleys of level emotions, coupled with a few heights of happiness, but marred by a lot of pitfalls of loneliness. I had almost always kept to myself, not wanting to be a burden to others, save for some instances that I couldn't hold up any longer that I open up to someone or something to address the need to fill up the open crater of sadness. See, I am still deeply sad in becoming who I am today. Given the chance I will gladly make do without my homosexuality. But life's not like that. So I have to live with it every moment of my life. Sometimes the bitterness is so intense that it brings with it pain that is so searing that it makes me want to cease to exist.

Yesternight saw one of those few times that I opened up. I texted one blogger, who I would like to be alone with, not necessarily to have sex, but to at least share intimacy, even if it will be just for a night. The move was a contradictory to how I usually am, and as I know that while it may be possible that the endeavor won't do us any damage, I'm sure that possibility is weak, for I believe that such arrangements leave a scar if the person is not fully prepared to handle it. My request was attended to, but with a no, as the blogger is not available. But he did send word to some of his friends, though at the back of my mind I know that such an arrangement is not deemed to work in my case. I texted some others, but in the end, I decided to go home instead, deeming it the wisest move to take.

It's just sad that intense loneliness brings out the worst in us. I was in one of my low points yesterday, and I believe I behaved below par than how I would have wanted to. My apologies to those who I have inconvenienced; but if you were what I esteemed you all to be, then I reckon you'd all understand.

Homosexuality, I sure wish I know how to quit you...

(Contains excerpts from Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx)

...

...

Why do I have to be gay?!!!

...

This sucks big time.

...

Shit!!!

Tragic

Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before


- Brick, Ben Folds Five

Lessons From The Kitchen

A frying pan is designed mainly for frying. Not using as designed produces undesirable consequences.

It is best to clean the pan before cooking another meal. Doing otherwise oftentimes create a big mess.

Best results come when cooking only what the pan can handle.

Man In The Mirror

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and make the change

You gotta get it right
While you've got the time
You can't close your mind


Man In The Mirror
Michael Jackson
(Composed by Glen Ballard & Siedah Garrett)

Of The Essentials

Tragic as it is, but the King of Pop is gone...

Once again the painful reality of death hit me. It's the journey that all of us will eventually take.

I always aimed at living a worthwhile life; one that gives importance to the essentials. It shall be a constant struggle, of which I will always endeavor to take, for life is too short and important for it to go to waste.

And for the search for the essentials, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince gives a priceless insight:

"What is essential is invisible to the eye..."

Pagmumuni-muni

Sa hindi maunawaang dahilan, hindi ko pa makuha sa sarili ko ang umuwi na. Pasado alas-nuwebe na ng gabi, ngunit nandito pa rin ako, nakaupo sa damuhan sa malaking parke ng unibersidad, at pinagmamasdan ang mga kislap ng mga liwanag sa langit, kasabay ang pakikinig sa tunog ng mga insektong panggabi.

Hindi ko inaasahang magiging ganito ang takbo ng aking buhay. Sampung taon pa lamang ang nakakaraan narito ka sa lugar na ito, bilang isang mag-aaral na wala pang muwang sa mundo. Binabantayan mo pa nuon ang mga bagong kanta na ilalabas ng Backstreet Boys o kaya naman ng Spice Girls. Ang madalas mong inaatupag ay manuod ng MTV o kaya ng walang kupas na Sailor Moon. Simple lang ang buhay nuon. Sapat na ang maiwan kang mag-isa sa bahay tuwing Miyerkules at magsasayaw o magkakanta nang malaya sa inyong sala, kasabay ng malakas na pagpapatugtog sa inyong stereo. Masaya ka na sa mga ganun. Kontento. Wala nang hihingin pa.

Ngunit maraming nabago sa loob ng sampung taon. Hindi ka na ang dating totoy na inuumaga sa mga internet shop kakapatay sa mga kalaban sa Diablo o sa Warcraft. Mama ka na. Ilang taon na lamang at mawawala na sa kalendaryo ang iyong edad. May mga responsibilidad ka nang hindi na matatakasan. Nakatali ka na sa sirkulasyon ng mundo at sa pangangailangang mabuhay. At ang kasiyahang hinahanap mo ay hindi na matatagpuan sa pakikinig sa "2 Become 1" o kaya sa "Quit Playing Games." Mas malalim na ang kinakailangang tugon sa pangangailangan ng iyong puso.

Magtatagal pa sana ako sa aking pag-iisip nang makita ko na ang lumalapit na liwanag mula sa flashlight ng mga rumorondang gwardiya sa campus. Kailangan ko na umalis bago pa ako mapilitang magpaliwanag sa dahilan kung bakit ako nakatambay sa damuhang iyun. Dahil ako mismo hindi ko alam. At sa pagpara ko sa unang jeep na magdadala sa akin sa Philcoa, alam ko, ako ay muling nabalik sa realidad ng patuloy na pagdaloy ng buhay sa mundong ito...

.....

Hindi ako down ngayon o kung ano pa man. Senti lang kaunti. Nagleave kasi ako ng isang buong linggo, pero kinain na ang tatlong araw ko dahil sa pending na dokumento para sa project na katatapos pa lang namin. Syempre pakiramdam ko nasayang ang mga araw. At naisip ko rin ang mga nasayang na ilang taon na dumaan na sa buhay ko. Kaya ayun, eto, nasenti, at kinailangan ng outlet.


Pahabol: Hindi na ako nagtaka na nanalo ang Lakers. Sa Game 4 pa lang hindi na ako umasa na manalo ang Magic. Sana matuto ako magbasketball...

Isa pa: Sana manalo si Nadal sa darating na Wimbledon. Kapag hindi siya umabot sa semis at nanalo si pareng Fedz, laglag siya sa number one.

Better, and Reminiscent of Days Past

It's a been a long time since the last post. I feel I haven't had the exact mood, frame of mind/heart, and everything else that I seem to need in order to write a post for the past month or so. I also have been reading other blogs, but just the same, I'm not leaving comments as often as I would have wanted. Guess it's just one of those days.

But in any case, brought by stirred emotions by a short story that I am working on, and the emo mood acquired by listening to the Backstreet Boys, I felt I just had to write here. Well, right now, I am very thankful that I am a lot better than the previous weeks. And I am truly thankful for that. I am so blessed to have a better grasp of the reality around me, and what to do with it. Got to thank the heavens for that.

And the connection between the emo mood and the Backstreet Boys? Well, I remember that I was in my early years at the uni when they first came out. I just found myself reminiscing on my younger years, when everything was terribly simpler. It wasn't the negative kind of senti though. This is the type that makes me smile, and a bit warm inside. Again, I am sure glad I am better now.

Having shared that, gotta get some sleep fast. Badminton game early tomorrow morning with my folks, and I haven't played for the past 3 months or so.

Addendum: Magic should have won earlier today. tsktsk...