Lazy Day the First

It’s a Sunday today, a quarter to 1 pm. I got back an hour ago from jogging at Ultra. Bad idea to run at this heat, I should’ve known. But I promised myself I would go jogging so I did, regardless of the near-summer conflagration that made the rubber I was running on smell as if it was melting and getting burnt.

Did you know that in Hawaii you could see rainbows at night? I only found that out today. Just another one of the useless little-known facts that I don’t know why I’m aware of, but I am, so what the hell. If I told Mazeface this, she would laugh. I know that deep down all my friends think I’m crazy, and I don’t mind. Maybe I am just a bit nutty, but I like it that way – I suppose it adds some flavor to my character.

Ah, Sundays. If I were in Batangas right now I’d have gone to mass with my family at this beautiful church. Then we’d have eaten at the restaurant across the street from the church, where we’d be sitting at the little bahay kubos and eating crispy pata and large portions of rice. After lunch we’d drive a few minutes to my grandparents’ house, where they’d be listening to this radio station that plays all these old songs by Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra every Sunday – Tatay would hold out his hand to Nanay, and they’d both dance in the living room like they were 18 year-olds who had spent a lifetime of happiness and love with each other. I’d smile and be envious of them, and think that if I get to have at least half of what my grandparents have in one of my future relationships, I’d be happy. All these things would’ve transpired if I had been in Batangas on this lazy day, but instead, I am at my lonely dorm, being my lonely self. If I go out it won’t make any difference, as all I’d be seeing would be dull concrete and sunlight that would hurt my eyes and burn my skin and make me sweat. For some reason, the sun shines nicer when you’re home.

I have this other friend that got really drunk at one of our last-minute parties. After the party her sister picked her up because they were going home to their province. After they had left the city and were at the highway she turns to her sister and says that the moon is different in the province as it is in the city. It must have come out of her mouth because of alcohol but thinking about it now, it makes all the sense in the world. I love the little discoveries one can make through considerable alcohol intake. Hey, that’d be a nice line to a song. If I were a songwriter I’d put that in at the chorus somewhere – “I love the little discoveries one can make/through considerable alcohol intake”. And it rhymes too! But if the song ever got released I’d probably get a lot of hate mail and complaints from angry parents telling me I ought to know better than to tell kids to get themselves dead drunk. I’d probably smile and shrug off all of them. And if I were really feeling like a diva, I’d call security, or have one of them bodyguards all those huge celebrities have talk in his really deep voice to tell them to bugger off.

If there is anything I like about lazy days, it’s that they offer moments for contemplation. And contemplation, you see, requires no specific location. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re miles from home in a stinky flat living with cockroaches or in paradise. Okay, maybe it would matter a bit, but my point is, the mind can create its own space – it can design the setting of the movie that is your life, and on a lazy day is the best day to do it.

It’s past 1 pm, and I hadn’t eaten lunch. A final thought: one’s mind contemplates better with food in one’s stomach. Of course, you probably already knew that. I ought to know better than not to follow my own advice. So I guess I’m off to the mall, to that massive concrete effigy that stands for all those things that have taken away everything from parks and churches and homes on Sundays. I shall go and get a burger and be a victim to manic consumerism – that, however, is a whole other story to tell.