The room with a view

Netnet Camomot

THE room with a view is the one with trees, birds, people passing by as they jog.

Or it could be the one facing a golf course as the sun rises with airplanes and a helicopter flying overhead. The helicopter scene in “Miss Saigon” does come to mind.

But no matter how many stars the hotel has managed to accumulate, the view from the dining room while having the protein shake is still the best of ’em all. This is home for now, and nothing can replace it, for now.

This was the first time I went to Manila without visiting Makati which somehow reminds the hilaw New Yorker of New York. I don’t know, though, if I’ll still love NY now that I’m, hmmm, not sweet sixteen anymore.

NY means No Yawning, with lots and lots of walking. There’s a certain age when yawning becomes a habit and body pains require less walking. Thus, NY is for the young who’s always wide awake, and can still run down the subway’s stairs and reach the train’s door before it closes on both sides of his nose.

Pinoys don’t walk around that much while here in Pinas due to the ambience–humid, sticky, dusty. Then, there’s the lack of a sidewalk. That’s why the Pinoy drives to the mall even if it’s walking distance from his house.

But Holy Week can be the time for the Catholic Pinoy to walk as he hikes from one Station of the Cross to the next. There’s always a debate on the number of churches one has to visit and when–100 churches on Holy Thursday? 1,000 churches on Good Friday? Will Black Saturday be too late for visiting churches?

My sis-in-law always has a plan on the churches to visit and all we do is follow her list. This is one tradition we didn’t “inherit” from our parents who would rather give us real estate–hehe. But it has become a habit for us to visit churches, with each of us having our own turn to lead the prayer for a Station.

Then, afterwards, there’s the fast food outlet’s drive-thru for burgers. Oops!

I have a question. If your diet is now three protein shakes a day, with one solid meal of fish and veggies, are you allowed to feast on steaks on Good Friday? Because that’s when you’re supposed to have the food that you don’t eat daily, and for most people, that’s fish. For people like me, it’s red meat, processed food, anything with flour, sugar, milk, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, and these were the food groups I indulged in while in Manila. Oops!

Thus, it’s back to the healthy lifestyle and, well, back to reality now that a certain, hmmm, dream has gone pfft, there’s no hope there whatsoever, no more terms of endearment, no more late-night and early-morning texts and calls, no more shoulder to cry on. It has gone gone gone south, which was one thing the other didn’t want to happen but it was the other who seemed bent on making it go south.

Still, there’s great news! And it arrived last Friday night while having a seemingly formal dinner at the hotel with many stars. I was curious on the latest updates of goals that I had been trying to reach, and finally, there it was: a Y in green. Happy dance again!

I did the happy dance for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Finding Dory” the moment we were able to reserve the block screenings for each of these movies. And that’s what I felt like doing for the Y in green. But I was right in the middle of a ballroom while clad in a barong, so all I could was this demure and crazy shout, like, Yay!, but with a hush.

With the accomplishment report finished and submitted, and the green Y to complete the picture, everything else after this till June 30, 2016 will be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake. I can now sleep, stare and smile. Or not smile. But sleep and stare are definitely ongoing.

The Holy Week is an excuse to do nothing, it’s also the time to sleep and stare. There are people going to the beach, with this one particular resort in Medina, Misamis Oriental becoming a favorite destination. And I always ask those who are going there this question: Why?

Why not Camiguin? Oh, with everyone going to Camiguin for the Holy Week, no, you have to avoid Camiguin. But the island is still the better place for the Cagayanon to sleep and stare because it’s near, and it has all kinds of water: falls, hot spring, cold spring, ocean. And it has White Island.

But the best vacay venue of all is your own home where true love resides. This is where the people you love and who love you live. They’re the ones who accept you as you are, no conditions required. That’s the message of Holy Week. It’s not the fasting and the rituals and the beach. It’s all about love. Thus, if driving to a place far far away is not your thing, stay home then, and have the best vacation ever.