Cute, lovable, cuddly

Netnet Camomot

ON Thursday, we watched “Kung Fu Panda 3” because the three of us–Ramil Caballero aka Jack Fryday, Kim Daguman and I–do look like pandas? So cute, lovable, cuddly–and, no, we’re not referring to us but the pandas.

I did wake up with a smile on my face on Thursday morning now that the accomplishment report was finally accomplished. But preparing that report required spending a recent vacation indoors, thus, while waiting for the plane to fly back home after that non-vacation, I texted a friend about my sked then, and he replied: “Kagamay ana nga work.”

Note to self: Shut up. Because there are people, like that friend, who do work 16 hours a day. Yes, 16 hours. From, say, 7:30am to 11:30pm. Like a robot. No lunch break, no time for snacks, with dinner spent having meetings. And they have to take care of the kids once they’re home. Sundays are for the laundry and cleaning the house. It’s a 24-hour cycle. Vicious cycle? Well, like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.

But there will be rewards for that hard labor. Someone up there sees all the work invested, and it won’t go unnoticed.

I have the highest respect for people who work hard. If only they won’t say they’re working so hard. Wait, they have another word for that: busy. That’s why I have to slap my face whenever I say I’m busy, so that, at the height of it all, I’d still answer texts and calls like as if everything was A-OK with my world. But there was that one phone call that I did miss while… where was I then? Manila, Cagayan de Oro? And now that I remember to return that call, I’m preparing for a 9am appointment.

That one phone call I missed was from someone who I do love to listen to–a mentor who has been there for me right from the start. Thus, she deserves more than a call made while rushing from one place to another. I have to sit down with a planner and pen right beside me, in case I want to write down her advice. That planner-and-pen habit, that’s her advice, too.

You should know whom to listen to in this oh so cruel world. Because there are people who deserve only to be heard–in one ear, out the other.

I listen to the 16-hour friend, if only he has more time to talk. But nowadays, he’s simply too busy to answer texts and calls.

I listen to the mentor because she helps me focus.

I listen to my, uh, heart? Because the heart sees everything, has all the answers?

Don’t listen to negative people. They’re the messengers of gloom and doom.

Don’t listen to people who seem to live under a cloud–dark, thick, stormy cloud.

Don’t listen to people whose aura is gray. They’re always in-between, neither black nor white.

It’s during the worst of times that you’ll learn whom to trust. But then, situations can change, and people could morph into never-ever-trust-them-forevermore.

Old age is supposed to give us wisdom and discernment on the trustworthiness of people. But sometimes all it does is evoke comments that can be summed up in two words: youthful looking. Like, She has remained youthful looking despite her age.

A friend and I were talking about hair dye last week. His hair color changes as often as the way Kris Aquino changes her retirement-comeback plans. We both figured it’s time to have that hair shining in any other color but black. Old age and white hair have finally given us the opportunity to be some other race, at least in hair color, might as well go blonde, brunette, fuchsia, hey, go for the rainbow while we’re at it.

I shunned hair dye and highlights for the longest time because they entail hair treatment. Which could mean one thing: expensive. You have to spend thousands every month for that hairstyle. Thousands that you could have spent for protein shakes.

Political colors are also as complicated. Well, you see yellow, violet, orange, and green for CDO. But politicians and political candidates can change colors as often as the way Kris changes the reasons behind her most recent retirement plans. And she’s also modifying her retirement from forevermore to–gasp!–three months? Aha na ang hustisya ani?

It’s time for her to give the TV audience a much-needed break from all that love love love. But people will probably miss her sidekick, the cute, lovable and cuddly Darla.

Other species are lucky for not spending a single second and centavo on hair color. Look at the panda: black and white will do forever and ever, thank you.

In the latest installment of the “Kung Fu Panda,” Shifu tells Po, “I’m not trying to turn you into me; I’m trying to turn you into you.”

Hmmm. Is it possible for a new hair color to turn you into you? Hmmm.