yesterday was A’s birthday.
was quite surprised when he told me last week that he had been allowed to take
his birthday leave on the day itself. i was pleasantly surprised, and was very
happy for him. if there was anything that i’ve learned–in all these
years of knowing him and being married to him–it’s that, vacation leaves are a
luxury in his job. save for holy thursday and good friday, and those vacation
leaves he is able to snatch throughout the year (except for december), a good
reporter is supposed to turn in stories for 346 days of the year. (ay, less 54 pa pala for the day-offs). A goes
to work even on christmas and new year’s days. the last time he was able to fully
avail of his vacation leave was when we got married. next was when we had
anton (but he was only able to take a week off.) and after that was when anton
got sick.
my poor A.
we had planned to go to binondo, to president’s tea house, then do some
malling afterward. but even before he could get up from bed (i let him
stay in bed till 8:30 AM while i bathed and fed the baby) and have breakfast (
i cooked him his favorite beef steak with thin, sukiyaki-style slices of beef
marinated in kalamansi and kikoman and topped with chunky caramelized onion
rings), his phone was beeping and ringing non-stop.
so before leaving, A had to finish a story. i had known something like
this will happen. because we celebrated A’s birthday a month late last
year, in tagaytay (i even remember being scared that i would give birth before
we got to celebrate his birthday ). so i asked him if he wanted to reschedule
for the weekend. maybe he was thinking i would get mad. and maybe it was
also because he was already pissed with the office and work, he said no.
and so we went. the phone was thankfully silent. at least till we
got as far as sta. mesa.
and then it started again. the various editorial assistants and editors kept
his line busy again with fact-checking, instructions for revisions, comments,
etc. understandably, he got pissed. it really didn’t help that the
baby (i decided i would do without yaya’s services so we can enjoy the day as a
family) kept squirming and, at times, jumping in my lap.
we were able to make it–but it took us forever–to get to binondo.
binondo was unrecognizable. had known it from ten years ago, when we did
a pictorial for a client. (we got terrific shots and my client was so happy; my photographer/tour-guide was patrick uy.)
because yaya wasn’t with us, A and i took turns eating and minding baby (he
had his baon of gerber banana). was not sure if A secretly was pissed
with me for not bringing yaya along. he didn’t say anything though. i was
rather ok with just the three of us. baby was not fussy. he amused
himself by looking at his multiple reflections in the mirrors of the tea
house. i had brought a camera and forgot all about it. i wanted
pics for this blog. darn.
anyway, on the way to the mall (we decided to go to mega mall so A can work
on his revisions in an internet cafe), baby was able to catch a
nap. heaven knows how much crankier he would have been later if he wasn’t
able to nap.
so as A pounded away the keys on a rented computer, anton and i killed time
by window-shopping. and it was very difficult, because anton didn’t like
to ride the stroller, and he was getting antsy, and so i had to carry him with one arm and, with the other,
push the stroller loaded with the diaper bag and some stuff we bought, around mega
mall.
we pretended, at least for some three hours, that we didn’t exist to
A, so he can work in peace. hay.
and so my arms are aching till now. and all we have to show for a whole
day of A’s birthday celebration is a couple of pics taken at pancake house mega
mall, where we had a very light dinner.
it goes without saying that everybody was so exhausted.
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