Tales of the Last 35 Years – My Lost Tooth and My Near Death Experience Part 2

There are times when you gain something, you lose something in return. I gained another lease on life (and avoided wrecking my car) but in return, I lost something dear to me for the last 35 years.

I had tooth extraction yesterday, ending a little less than 35 years of partnership at the dining table. It was still a good tooth, no decays whatsoever, but it has somehow affected its mouth-mates prompting them to vote him off in the very first eviction episode. The judge, jury, and executioner (aka the dentist) said the tooth was guilty of causing great discomfort---the highest form of crime a tooth can commit. He pleaded for root canal but was denied. Sentencing was swift and the verdict was death by extraction.

 

The day before the execution, I was preparing my tooth for the longest (and last) day of his life. I cleansed his soul by gargling Listerine. Surely, he sobbed a bucket (I was salivating the entire night) with every thought of the end. But with every passing moment, he was desensitized by Sensodyne as he began to accept his fate. In the hours leading to his death, we gave him a decent meal of pandesal and coffee. We gave him a good bath and massage by brushing. To make sure he smells good when he meets his maker, we blessed him with a strong dose of Betadyne.

As I walked to the execution chamber, he was steadfast. This is his fate. He has lived a full life of servitude, munching at bones and meat, even if it meant tartar and odor. He was ready. 

The dentist gave his final instructions. They were like prayers but no miracle was coming, no pardon. Death began by lethal injection of numbing meds. This way, he cant feel his life slipping away. Then came the heavy artillery and finally, the pliers which ended everything with a bloody mess. 

With tooth as souvenir (would make a nice necklace pendant), I was reminded of how swift life can be taken away. Often, it doesnt even come with a court date or a sentence. It can happen in an instant and you cant even say goodbye. God is great. If you think that Im just lucky, Im pretty sure God made that luck happen. I havent been the best Christian for the longest time and I doubt I'll start being one now, but things like this affirms my belief in Him and that ultimately, He made me stay a bit more to fulfill my destiny. 

I live to blog another day. 

PS

A day after I wrote this entry, it occurred to me what the priest said in his sermon. “It's our belief in God that saves us”. Amen to that.

Tales of the Last 35 Years – My Lost Tooth and My Near Death Experience Part 1

I LOST MY BRAKES!!! was what was boldly written on my Facebook account one sunny Friday afternoon. It wasnt the 13th of June but my day kinda started with that hair raising feeling. My balls went up my throat when I realized Im pressing the brake pedal all the way to the floor but Im getting very minimal braking action. 

Good thing I already exited the expressway where my minimum speed was around 80kph. Good thing I was already beyond the toll booth where a mandatory stop is required. Good thing I was already beyond the busy Bicutan intersection where the traffic flow is as chaotic as it gets. When I first noticed I lost my brakes, we were about to enter the DOST gate which requires us to cross the opposite lane. Good thing the lane was free. Good thing too that the DOST guards are now very familiar with my car and I get a free pass without going through the mandatory inspection. When I made a sharp right turn, I ate much of the left lane which meant trouble had there been a vehicle, or worst people---or cats (dont want to add to roadkill stats)

What worries me most is that I was driving with my wife whom I wasnt telling what was going on. Fortunately, i still had minimal braking power which was enough to make the vehicle stop (no more pressing the gas pedal since we entered). But stupid me, I still wanted to go to work so I made another go. As I left my wife's office, I realized what Im about to do is like Russian Roulette and that I'll be praying like a mad man anytime soon. My senses came back with every failed attempt to achieve acceptable braking power. No such luck. Mechanic needed now.

The brakes were eventually “fixed” but my shattered confidence wasnt. I was able to drive all the way from Bicutan to QC on jogging speed, a hand on the hand brake, keeping distance from everyone, and blowing a horn everytime someone wants to change lane. On the way home, I kept testing my brakes before hitting the road. I went by two more mechanics but they all said my brakes were fine. Obviously, the problem now is mental. I even called my wife to tell her I wont be picking her up because should anything happen, I dont want her to be a part of it. Let me suffer alone since I was hard-headed enough to drive on “bad brakes” and a shattered confidence. 

Things are now back to normal. I have faith in my car again and I drive on speeds Im used to (this after just a day).  Looking back, you can say I was very lucky my stars aligned. Or you can make a clear case for Divine Intervention, clearing my path the way only He can do. Clearly, it wasnt my time yet. 

Or maybe, God wanted to have a “tales of the last 36 years” in 2010 (and succeeding sequels ofcourse). Im really glad Im sharing this story with you now in the flesh and not in spirit. 

End of Part 1

Tales of the Last 35 Years - "Rebuttal"?

it seems my horde of fans have yet to come:) what i meant was my adoring friends have yet to visit my blog and comment as promised. no biggie, blogging goes on. one day they might find this crap lying in the Internet universe, similar to all those missing stuff which you'll find gathering dust under your bed.

Speaking of finds, I read a blog of an RTPI mate, a year younger, who wanted to write a comment on a blog of another RTPI mate who happens to be a classmate of mine, si Taga RTPI. I was actually looking for Taga's blogs when I came across her own blog. She wanted to make a comment on Taga's blog entry about sabayang pagbigkas (thats chorale recitation for you non-filipinos or filipinos who dont know filipino) because we never won it. She wanted to say they were the ones who dealt us all those painful defeats that made philip (our director, conductor, and all-around non-homo guy) shed a bucket of tears. And she even said if only they knew we would be bitter to this day, they would not have practiced all that much. But she kinda back tracked and ended it with "Peace", perhaps trying not to raise the peace god's ire or something. but it may have been a bit late because she never got to pose her comments on Taga's blog so she resorted to putting it on her own blog in hopes of Taga finding it.

Im not sure if Taga found it but I did and if you want him to read about it, i can let him know.

Anyway, Im not about to raise hell and start a word fight with anyone. Afterall, despite the comment having this pacqiuao like stance, i think it was written in jest. It may have been a jab at an old "foe" 18 or so years ago but it was in the spirit of fun. Just the same, surely, they whupped our asses in sabayang pagbigkas but surely, we whupped their asses in chorale recitation that made jessie (their director and all around homo guy) shed his own bucket of tears. I made that statement not to brag but to simply say that you won, we've won, things cancel out and that makes us even (okay, ill say the mandatory "peace" just for good measure:)

Speaking of jabs, we did that all the time in RTPI. But the jabs were not thrown at batchmates (I mean there was no Narra vs Molave or Gold vs Silver --- oftentimes, batchmates support each other, we never looked at each other as competition) but rather to section 1  of other year levels, i.e. Narra vs Gold vs Rizal vs Daffodil (or something similar if they changed section 1 names). Section 1's look at each other as competition. The freshies are the most innocent since they are kids coming out elementary but their initiation to this "hate" business starts when they begin competing in chorale recitation or sabayan pagbigkas because they will go head on with their counterparts. Mostly, the hate is more heated between Narra and Gold---its almost like a tradition. They are the oldest and most "mature" so naturally, the power struggle is heightened between these two combatants. Narra, being the older tree and being above ground (Gold has to be mined:) would push his weight around, leveraging his being a cadet officer (CO) to punish cadet officer candidates (COC) who happen to be Gold. The power they have over the COC is just enormous as intimidation becomes a weapon. But the battle really is in the group competitions like chorale recitation. Things just heat up. I guess thats how kids were before or thats how emotional/competitive highschool studes are in general. 

However, if you look at it, Narra is actually training Gold to be Narra next year. Its basically passing the queen bee tag. Hence, how mean Narra is to Gold now will be the same treatment Rizal will get when they level up. 

Its a vicious cycle but this cycle of competitiveness has generated many a good student. So its all good for as long as we just keep things competitive and not personal----which unfortunately seldom happens. Taking it to the personal level spices things up and adds to the fun when we look back at things. In the end, i think its all good because hey, we all ended up for the better:)

One last, to attyarj, you guessed (or asked someone) who Taga is, Im not really privy as to what happened to the people in your batch but I can take a guess. Are you from UP Econ and UP Law? If yes, then I have a pretty good idea. Anyways, it was nice doing "battle" with you guys and I hope after 18 or so years, we will all just share a laugh whenever we remember. PEACE:)

roach

Tales of the Last 35 Years - How the Brain Coped with All These Stories

Turned 35 just a few days back. Time flies when your at this age---birthday now and before i know it, its Christmas...then its my birthday again). I think when the military invented the Internet and when Google came to life, everyone aged faster. Too much information to process, so little gray matter. I think the body tries to cope by making you feel time moves faster just so you can catch up with all the things you have to do, giving you this false sense of elation that you accomplished so much in such a short time (dont be a dumbass, you corporate slave:). Last I checked, a second is still a second. 

Funny how at this age range, we all tend to be forgetful. Me thinks its because the brain has an auto delete function to accommodate more information and more tasks. Too bad, the terabyte brain running a quadcore processor and 4gigs of RAM has yet to be invented so lets face it, most of us mere barbaric mortals run a pentium1-256RAM-1GB brain hence le old gray matter has to delete files every so often (evolution is such a slow process - people in 3009 will probably call us "Homo Internetus Monkey-us Sapiens"  or simply the monkey who knows how to use the Internet---payback to us since we branded our ancestors as apes. I'm having a pretty good vision of how that very popular evolution drawing will look like:)

Back to the auto-delete thing, we tend to be selective as to what we should retain. Work matters? probably 80% gone in a minute (that's why the bosses want you to take notes dumbass---notes are the extension of our office and school brain). The new celeb sex tape scandal---100% retained--but theres a compromise because video eats so much space you have to forego the classic ones in your head. So bye bye Saving Ryan's Private because Im making space for Olongapo student sex scandal or something. If for some reason you have grown an attachment to these decent, emotionally moving movies, then you have to let go of the classic porns like, i dunno know, 69 in Jump Street (an 80's classic starring Jonny Deep:). 

But ofcourse some files are undeletable like your first and current crush, Angelina Jolie/Megan Fox, your wife's name and birthday (never forget), your personal heroes, your folks, God, your gfs/bfs, your buddies from highschool/college/work, good books, entertaining blogs, your hot neighbor, the first time you did the nasty and hence the loss of innocence(?), your sins, the first porn you've watched (the first wang you saw was oh so veiny and the vagine' was an ocean) so on so forth. Its a mixture of good and bad things because humans are both good and bad (though it was never designed that way but somehow there's the human resistance factor). 

If for some reason you suddenly remember something from long ago, its probably because it wasnt completely deleted but was placed in the brain's Thrash Bin, ergo its recoverable. If you cant completely recall it, I guess the brain permanently deleted it from amongst the thrash. How the brain manages to do all these stuff is puzzling. Me thinks the brain has a brain (a mini-me so to speak) to let it do all these stuff.

The contents of the brain were never designed to be downloaded (sorry Matrix fans, not happening). Nor were it designed to be passed on through our gene pool. The genes carry certain physical characteristics but it never passes your brain contents. And for good reason, you dont want your kids to know what you have been doing in all those late night outs with the boys. If that happened, your kids first words when they come out of the womb is not a cry but "dada, your an ass"

Oh, how rude of me, blurting out all these nonesense when I havent even introduced myself. You can call me roach (no relation to freddie). Im an average joe, i mean juan (proud to be Filipino)---perhaps too average----so i represent a pretty good chunk of society. Im happy to be 35 and i look forward to being 36 next year (oh, did I mention that the "Tales of the Last 36 Years" is coming out in 2010:). Obviously, 35 years is a long time to amass a sizeable amount of stories to share. I like telling tales to friends and other people. Like a friend of mine said, its like having coffee with them (in a virtual sense). Ill mostly talk about my experiences (35 years and counting), common stuff that will make you say "oo nga ano?", things that i grew up with, highschool(RTPI, Morong, Rizal) and college (UP Diliman) stuff and whatever comes to my 35 year old mind. 

The first of this series is a celebration of the brain--- the seat of our memory(hence, the foregoing was a bit geeky). Often forgotten, much maligned, we have a lot to thank the brain for (clap, clap). Now that that's out of the way, Ill start sharing my stories in my next blogs.

Till then.