Walang tigil

By Netnet Camomot

WALANG tigil ang kain at nasaan ka liempo.

But on rainy days, it’s “Walang tigil ang ulan at nasaan ka araw.”

Better rain than an earthquake, eh?

It’s now standard operating procedure (SOP) for a Mindanaoan to check his house for cracks right after an earthquake. A house’s resilience is nothing compared to its owner’s resilience, though, so keep the faith forevermore.

Each person goes through the eye of a needle at some point in his life and that experience will either break him or make him stronger. The good side of this is, he has the right and the freedom to choose his way to survival or—God forbid—to failure. If he keeps the faith, then, he will survive. Once he quits, it’s going to be failure pa more. As Dory loves to say, Just keep swimming.

Trials and tribulations are signs of being alive. But once they have become too heavy to carry and are now making life miserable, it’s time to pause and reassess before moving forward. The Christmas season is one of the best times to do this as it’s at year-end when New Year’s resolutions are presumably and hopefully achieved.

Christmas songs seem to be the only Muzak you hear in restos, stores, and malls now.

While having dinner at an SM City CDO resto, my sis noticed Wala lagi music diri karon. Good for me—I don’t like Christmas songs. But then, as if on cue, instrumental Christmas carols began to softly crawl out of the resto’s sound system. Hahay. Nabuyagan.

SM City CDO had gigantic reindeers for Christmas last year but for this year its Christmas attraction is not as bonggang-bongga as that of SM CDO Downtown Premier. Well, who’s comparing? Not the Cagayan de Oro uptowner who continues to shop at SM City CDO a.k.a. SM uptown.

But stores and malls are not as busy as they used to be in Christmases past. Or perhaps it’s too early to compare.

Online shopping and delivery services are now the preferred ways to shop, forcing some physical stores and malls to close especially in the US.

There will come a time when people won’t have to leave their house any more as they can work from there and transact everything online, from food orders to laundry pick-ups.

While paying for groceries last week, I pondered on the possibility of ordering them online, to which the supermarket cashier replied, Di ka na mogawas sa balay ana. Hmmm. And then, my thought bubble started thinking that the cashier would lose her job if she won’t be absorbed by the warehouse from where online purchases will be delivered.

Online grocery-shopping is possible for one who buys the same grocery items. The same toothpaste, same shampoo, same conditioner, even the same kinds of fish, veggies, and fruits. Roaming around a supermarket with an empty cart will only encourage me to buy new brands that will prove to be not as good as my suki brands.

Since the supermarket is usually located inside a mall, there’s the tacit SOP to have a meal in one of its restos, coffee, and cake in one of its coffee shops, and in between the meals and snacks, there’s the sale at one of its stores. You end up spending more. Like as if Manny Pacquiao’s Shopee “11-11” video wasn’t enough for your shopping experience.

Online shopping does not guarantee savings, though, since an online purchase is merely a click away and is as easy as watching Netflix. You can even order while in bed and dreaming of the most spectacular Christmas ever.

But my shopping habits are old school. I still prefer going to a physical store where I can use all my senses in deciding if an item is worth buying or not. This is a decision-making process that’s easier for clothes—if they don’t fit, goodbye.

Food is more difficult to choose even though I’m now seemingly stuck with Cheding and Growers, since the more food items I see on the supermarket’s shelves, the more I want to buy them all.

Unsaon na lang pag-diet ani now that Christmas and its never-ending parties are almost here. And even before the Christmas indulgence could arrive, the once-in-a-blue-moon diet already has a result: I was at a gown store a few days ago and had to ask its sales staff for the biggest sizes. Tsk tsk.

I’ve had almost a year to lose weight. Where did that year go? Hmmm. “Nawawala, bumabalik, eto/Na naman”—that’s how resilient my fats are. Oh, well.