From Searing Sunday to Moody Monday

"Better u rest d whole day. Bt if ul keep on fretting, para k n ring hindi ngrest. Relax. Bka lalung lumala pg pumasok ka.”
--Mother, to me when I asked on attending school despite my fever.

Thank goodness that my sickness is starting to leave me. I’ve been sick since Sunday morning. Previously, that Saturday night I came home at 11 o’ clock. I had come from my church’s social night, a time when all members young, old and pastors would gather and play the silliest games. (I think I’ll post this story some other time). The factors that might’ve caused me to get sick were my tiredness, the waters that I washed over my face and hands, the cool drinks that I had, and the coldness of the night, with a fan blowing directly at my back. I was only partly covered by my blanket.

When I woke up at around 5 AM, when the sky was still so dark, I felt very warm and my throat felt so irritated. Don’t make me give you actual details. No one likes it. Soon, I slept again, and woke up at around 7:30 AM. The heat around my body and my burning throat had calmed down somewhat but after a few hours, at around 12 that little heat became a fever to me. Couldn’t eat my lunch right…

You know, I found out that being emotionally charged while I’m sick is very, very, very bad for me. It’ll make it much worse. And it was to my damn misfortune that I experienced two emotionally-charged moments.

Where have you been all my life?

First was this: While I was eating my lunch, I talked to Manang Salve, who was removing the junk from an old drawer I wanted to bring to my room. She found a couple of books (some from my father’s college days), and dried leaves (probably from bananaques. I don’t really know.) Then I saw her bring out a blue-green book with a Scottish man on it, his back and his face toward the viewer. My eyes grew wide and my mouth went agape as I read the title…Ghosts Go Hunting…

With childish delight, I swore many times in Filipino at Manang Salve. (ooh, ironic.) . I kept saying over and over again. “Paano mo yan nakuha Manang!? Hinahanap ko yan noong bata pa ako!” If I remember right, I received that as a gift from my mother when I was in Grade 5. I loved all the creepy Scottish styled-stories. Then I lost it and for months, I really went searching for it.

Forgetting my dust allergy, I went scanning the book, reading a few passages, and looking at the pictures in it. I became a child again, remembering the tales like The Man Who Helped Carry the Coffin, The Tale the Crofter Told, and The Wild Ride in the Tilt Cart. It was only after eating and going to the bathroom to wash did I sneeze a lot. Hundreds of ‘ah-choos!’.

For a while I thought my fever left but soon it got so bad that I had to lie down. Since I didn’t want to be idle the whole time, I read Charlson Ong’s “Bearer of Swords”, something I had to read for PhiliEn. Crap, it had so many flashbacks and super fancy words that I had to read twice the long paragraphs to get it.

My second emotionally charged moment arrived when Lola just went banging madly at my door and asking me angrily why I haven’t answered her calls. Gentle at first, I then flew into a rage and went down the stairs to write down the address she wanted me to write from the lady on the phone. Maybe it was because of my slightly irritated voice, the lady felt insecure when talking to me…

After I went back and finished reading, I waited in annoyance for Manang to come home and cook dinner (She had left 3:30 for Mass.) Soon, I weakly and clumsily walked down to my grandparents’ room to ask if Manang had finally come. Lola told me that she told her to buy me Neozep. That kind of struck me. Even though I had been very rude to her and that I was still angry, she took the effort to help me at least. Guilt began to gnaw me…

With my USB, my wallet, and my cellphone, I left the house to go to an internet shop for I had to send a group project to a classmate of mine to check and print. Damn it, my bad luck was really everywhere. The nearest internet shop had no connection! Acck. So I left and went out to go to the next internet shop, coming across Manang along the way. Since she was out anyway, I told her to go buy a Tagalog newspaper, a tabloid, whatever, for my Filipino Project

You know what? When I went to the next Internet shop, it was full to the brim!
“Maghintay nalang po kayo, malapit na silang matapos.” said the woman in charge.
“Ah kailan po?” I asked as gently as I could.
“13 minutes.”

13 minutes? Well, sorry, I’m sick and I don’t know how long I could stand, for I was really dizzy throughout the whole time. I couldn’t even see clearly throughout my whole walk from the house to there. I then called Tita Jing, who lived nearby. And thank goodness, they were kind enough to allow me to use the Internet to send the files. It was funny for all or us that Darryl’s (daughter of Tita Jing) boyfriend also had fever. Laughing weakly, as I left the house, I said to him, “Good luck, dude.”

As I left the house and dragged my feet to my house, I thought of their kindness. For many times now, I have always asked for their help in my college troubles. And they never hesitated to lend a helping hand. Sigh, it’s in times like this I thank God for such wonderful souls for a family…

After I ate my dinner, I took my paracetamol (Neozep wasn’t what I really needed. It was actually Paracetamol.) and called my mother at the province, a weekly routine. I was talking to her while I was lying down on 3 chairs the whole time. To boost my ill status, I talked to my sister Ruth and teased her about what could happen in her high school life. (She’s in Grade 6 and might come to Manila and attend high school in Sta. Scholastica.) She became paranoid and pissed whenever I told her she could most probably turn gay, being surrounded by only girls. Well that made my night, haha. I then slept early. My other planned projects (and blog posts) could wait…

Then when I woke up today at around 5:15 AM, my heat, dizziness and soar throat was much too overwhelming for me to stand up. Upon the advice of Lola who came up to me a few minutes later, I didn’t attend classes. At first I tried to wrestle with myself to stand up and attend classes for today had two long quizzes, a discussion on “Bearer of Swords” which has me slightly hooked, a critical discussion in Filipino and probably a new ComSki2-X (Communication Skills 2) activity. But the sickness was too much for me. So reluctantly, I wrapped the blankets around me, and texted my friends to tell my teachers I couldn’t make my usual gizmo borrowing duties. I then fell into deep slumber waking up at around 7:15 AM. The dreams I had were very troubling nightmares, a typical thing whenever I am ill.

Simply put, I didn’t do much today but watch TV at my grandparents’ room. They were thoughtful enough to leave it open for me since usually they would lock it.

Watching School Rumble in the Hero Channel, the channel that dubs animé shows in Filipino. Not bad but the voices sound kinda corny.

I watched some nice animés. I watched the crazy antics of Sergeant Keroro, the historical-fantasy tale in Ghost Slayers Ayashi, the Feng Shui episode of Samurai X, the last episode of Emma 2 (awww, it was just so cute. Call me corny but I really liked the theme when the rich man finally married the maid after the many troubles they had experienced. It was very poetic and romantic…), the troubles of School Rumble (a show I don’t really find that interesting. Sorry to all the fans out there. It’s just me, ‘kay?) and the cuteness of Alice Academy. I had a little Shaggy and Scooby and a few cartoons once in a while. But I soooo wanted to watch Negima?! (The girls there are just hot. And the story is just so darkly themed). Or at least any shoujo-ai show...acck…

I bet you’re bored now. LOL. Fine, fine, I’ll end it here. But here are some little things I learned:
1. If you need to rest, rest. Don’t force yourself or you won’t get anything right.
2. (Probably the lesson everyone loves…) It’s wonderful to be lazy and be a TV freak once in a while. Being a couch potato cleared my head…and I don’t mind at all if I can do it again…and again…hahahaha…naku tinamad na akong mag-attend ng klase, hahaha…