there's a rainbow always after the rain

you know how it's like. the day you get home late is the day you hear water magnificently flowing in your bathroom. you open the door and it's almost cartoon-like as water comes out to meet you. as you resign yourself to the fact that it'll take the good part of an hour to get rid of the water, not to mention take care of the damaged stuff, you just pray that the leak started late in the day so your water bill doesn't encroach on the other items on your budget.

the following morning you decide to do a load of laundry before going to work and an innocent spark - caused by the rat in your house eating through the extension cords - kills off two outlets. you're thankful -- better the outlets than the washing machine and the refrigerator both dying on you.

it's been like that for me, and with a workload that's threatening to bowl me over, a fever that won't "come out" cause of the flu shot that's probably battling with the virus, and a fight with a friend, i'm this close to shutting down and doing something stupid like blow my extra income on shoes.

then i get to work, open my email, and receive amazing news: the po has been signed and delivery date for "hans" is april 30. that's 32 days away. or sooner.

i'm hoping it's sooner. because sooner not only means there's a rainbow, but there's a pot of gold thrown in for good measure!

breaking up is hard to do

sometime in may 2003, i crashed the car i had been driving for barely six months. it was a 9-year-old car, and i had only recently brought it to baguio, so i don't know if it was the stress of that trip, or just cause i was driving too fast, but as i turned a bend, a pick-up truck whose bed was filled with long poles was there poised to to make a u-turn so i stepped on the brake, and the brake gave and i magnificently crashed to the pick-up truck.

and the long poles came <---this---> close to poking the windshield, and subsequently, poking me. let's just say i almost learned how a hotdog feels like.

since my parents have always believed that i will never learn how to drive, i thought that crashing the car would just cement their fears about my lack of eye-hand-feet coordination. but, wonder of wonders, instead of telling me to stop driving, they actually lent me enough money to buy a new car.

i thought i'd get an altis, or a city.

but in the end, i saw a jimny in the rain and wanted it, and i saw it again at ATC and thought, i really, really want this. so i ditched everyone's advice and got it instead.

people said (take your pick): i was stupid for buying a car with a low resale value, i was selfish for buying a car that could only seat four, i didn't know what i was doing when i got a tiny 4x4. but in the end, spike saw me through good and bad boyfriends, several weddings and my best friend's funeral, law school, and five jobs. we've been to cabanatuan, tagaytay, taal, subic, and more malls than i could count. i have had flat tires and dead batteries, minor accidents, and parking lot incidents. i finally learned how to park because spike -- nose first, back first, parallel parking, inside the garage, and the weirdest spaces.

i never envisioned a forever between me and spike (i'm realistic), but i never realized that our break-up would be so swift, so immediate, and so permanent.

goodbye, spike. trust me when i tell you that i loved more than all of them combined.