’Tis always the season

“FOR everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven…”

That must be the Bible’s way of reminding us to smell the roses. But when we’re multi-tasking, do we even have the time to look at a rose? That may sound different for men though if they’re with Rose, the apple of their eye.
Books, magazines and newspapers are the collective apple of my eye nowadays. I look at them and wonder when I can get my hands on them. Haha! There is no rest for the weary. And the weary has no time to read but she does have time for the Clumsy Ninja, Pearl’s Peril, Jigsaw HD, and even the Plant Nanny.

Where to insert the time to write? But she does find the time once EIC Herbie Gomez texts that word with the question mark: “Column?”

I can’t say I’ve not been warned. People who have been there, done that with this busy sked have been telling me it’s not going to be easy, that there are times I will be alone, that my patience would be tested. Well, I’m not exactly known for my patience, but why wasn’t I warned about this when they were still trying to convince me to say yes already? It was only after I ever so reluctantly accepted this voluntary job that they began to warn me. O my gas. Puede nako ilabay sa ila the books that I won’t have time to read?

But once you have accepted the responsibility, you have no more excuse to be lazy. Your life will now revolve around this one particular club and its activities. Focus focus focus. And don’t dare misspell that otherwise you’ll have sh*t in your hands.

You now wake up with that club in mind. And before you sleep during those days when you do find the time to sleep, you’re thinking of the many things the club has planned. It’s one whole year of weekly meetings, activities, projects. And people outside of the club and the organization it is with, think it’s all about the tarpaulin, that that’s all the organization is good at, having photo ops with tarpaulins. We should recruit these people so they’ll know the real meaning of volunteerism.

But still, there are other clubs, organizations and groups that are way much busier than ours in helping the community. Some of them are voluntary in nature, too, while others do get paid for their work. It takes a village, for there’s no organization that can do everything for everyone except probably the future presidentiable who promises “gaganda ang buhay” for you if you vote for him.

Well, there’s this coffee that also promises a beautiful life to the winner of its P3-million grand prize. Its name sounds like the great white shark. Oops. Surely they won’t appreciate this comparison? But it promises to have great taste, and it’s white, and it will give you lots of cars, Apple products, P200,000 and P100,000 in cash, etc. if you’re among the lucky ones to win in its raffle promo. And here’s an additional perk for the grand-prize winner: meeting PBB All In Big winner Daniel Matsunaga and a sneak peak into the Pinoy Big Brother cave. Ah, may I go straight to meeting Daniel? Without drinking the coffee? My senior-moment afflictions constantly warn me against caffeine, so…

At the promo’s launching here in Cagayan de Oro last Wednesday, the coffee brand’s marketing people showed a video of Pinoys who were asked what they would do with the P3 million. And one of our female media colleagues said that if she were asked, her reply would be: “Ipalit ug bana!” Haha! Winner!

Coffee is and will always be a best friend especially to media people who need to be awake while covering events, writing pieces, editing those pieces… With emphasis on editing since that could be the, hmmm, most challenging part. Go ask Herbie if you wanna find out why it’s challenging. I used to receive emails from fellow editors, with this particular medicine for headaches as the email’s subject to warn me of the piece they were sending to me for editing. It takes some kind of madness to sit down and write. To set aside the other things you need to do for the day, to live in a bubble as you try to build a mountain out of nothing, to watch that clock as the deadline hovers above your head. Only the most patient of editors could withstand the waiting for a column that’s still churning in your fats. But this could be your only respite from the maddening daily sked, so you continue to write even if it means squeezing a word into every nook and cranny of your day. Yes, this is how you smell the roses.

One day at a time, one column at a time, one meeting at a time, one activity at a time, one project at a time, one club bulletin at a time, one text at a time, one phone call at a time, one shower at a time. Or you can do all that at once so that you’re answering the phone with shampoo dripping into your eyes. Because the one calling you could be that member who wants to get your reply now na. Not the next second or minute but now na. So, you rush from the bathroom and grab that phone, say “Hello” ever so nicely, and don’t even dare tell the caller what you’re not wearing in order to answer her call ASAP. You’re stark naked, with shampoo in your hair and eyes, soap on your skin. Too much information, right? Thus, hush.