‘Bring-house’

Netnet Camomot

 ONE good thing about the fiesta is the bring-house. Aside from the lechon, that is.

By the term alone, bring-house already gives you an idea what it means. You almost bring the whole house of your host with you. OK, her buffet table with everything on it.

Thus, on Friday night, there we were, being asked by our fiesta host what we wanted to bring-house, and my instant reply was, Kare-kare. I didn’t see the kare-kare since my focus was on the lechon for the first round, and some ribs for the second round. By the time I learned about the kare-kare, there wasn’t any more room in my tummy for a third round. At least now I know that the 12 rounds are true for boxing only. For the tummy, two rounds are more than enough, thank you.

So, the morning after, last Saturday, I had kare-kare for breakfast. Yum! This is the kare-kare from Annabel’s at the Xavier Estates clubhouse where my favorite is the beef salpicao. The moment I’m there, it’s automatic–beef salpicao. No need to look at the menu. I order the shrimp salpicao when I’m craving for variety.

We talk about food after the fiesta because… Hmmm. Because that’s all we think of while waiting for the fiesta? With that long weekend hovering above our fats, the more we thought of food. Although I wasn’t sitting around and counting the hours before going to that fiesta dinner.

The long weekend happened to be the weekend when I could catch up with work, so, there I was, working while the rest of Cagayan de Oro was having a feast. This is the domino effect of my procrastination. If only I worked instead of playing “Pearl’s Peril” and “Plant Nanny,” then this world would have been a better place. Better because I would be more relaxed with the slower pace and there’s enough time to read as the R&R for the work.

But it’s panic mode now. No time to smell the roses. I even thought of not going to the fiesta dinner so I could continue working. Imagine me, saying no to food!

My priorities before had always been family, friends, writing and reading. Do you see work there? Not in the list, right?

The invite for the fiesta dinner was from family. So, forget about work.

The fiesta relaxed me for a while, I even ignored the fireworks that were echoing from SM.

And the favorite topic at the fiesta was…make a wild guess. Food? Nope. Fiesta? Not. Politics? Nah. The SM fireworks? Hmmm, almost there. Traffic? Yes!

Relatives and guests who arrived at my cousin’s house were talking about how their cars crawled for two hours from downtown to uptown. Two hours. CDO is not Metro Manila. So, how was this possible?

People who went uptown blamed the traffic on the fireworks. As for those who stayed downtown, they probably blamed it on the fiesta.

My cousin’s guests opted to wait for the traffic at SM to ease up after the fireworks. So, they stayed till after midnight. Since we didn’t have to survive through that traffic, off to home we went at midnight.

I was planning to resume working once I was back home, but at midnight? Nope!

But in the last few weeks, there are days when I’d work overnight and sleep at sunrise like last Thursday morning when I crawled to bed at 6:30 a.m. Only to be awakened at 8 a.m. by a phone call from a seminar venue about our reservation. O my gas. I couldn’t sleep anymore after that, so I worked the whole day till late night while thinking, This is bad. But the drive to finish work remained so I continued working.

The same thing happened to a friend on the night before we had to go to Valencia, Bukidnon for a seminar. She arrived home at 3 a.m. due to work, and texted me. I was already awake then since our assembly time for Valencia was at 4 a.m. to avoid the traffic caused by road repairs. She was going to sleep for a while, but with the reminder that we call her once we pass by Limketkai Center so she could wake up and get dressed.

The rest of the group were already in the car from uptown CDO, and the driver chose to drive through J.R. Borja Extension instead of passing by the Limketkai area. I don’t know what it was with early mornings that made us crazier than usual but we were all laughing so hard and were already near the subdivision where that friend lives by the time we realized we forgot to call her.

So, she had to rush through shower and getting dressed, and her beloved drove her to the highway where we continued laughing while waiting for her.

I thought she’d sleep during the drive to Valencia. She had less than one hour of sleep, sleep would be her mantra for the day. But she was the one who made us laugh more from CDO to Valencia, and the laughing only stopped when they asked me about some chika. My reply obviously registered a ho-hum in their scale, and they slept for a while, until we finally reached Valencia.

Note to self: shut up. Haha!

We were joking and laughing so hard again on our way home from Valencia to CDO many hours later.

But why can’t I be like my friend who could still laugh and joke after a sleepless night? All I’d have is a cotton ball instead of a brain. If I’m not funny when my sked is relaxed, imagine how I am after an hour of restless sleep. Don’t even try making kuhit. Although the kuhit may help reduce the temper. Haha.

Today is the last day of the long weekend. It’s back to work again tomorrow. But there are people who work even on holidays, and I’m now one of them. I don’t intend to continue this after June 2016. One year is more than enough.

And then, there’s the workaholic whose definition for bring-house is work instead of kare-kare. If ever I reach that point of no return, please make kuhit na.