instances of separation

I didn't think that I was going to feel this way at the end of this day: a little sad and vaguely heavy emotionally.

It must have started sometime after ten this evening. Lotis and I had talked about changing rooms in the house and it's probably going to happen tomorrow. My roomie, Mafel, stood on the staircase and announced that our room was getting an air conditioner.

I said, but oh, Lotis and I are going to be switching rooms now. She asked when. I said this weekend. Then dapat mag-bonding tayo before then, she said. I asked her what we were going to do - dance some sort of ritualistic dance in our room? Heehee. And then realizing she was thinking the move was happening yet on next week's weekend, I said that we were planning to make the switch tomorrow already, Sunday.

Sometime later, I entered our darkened room to retrieve something, and Mafel, already lying on her bed, said that she was going to miss me.

We always try to lighten the mood during moments like that, don't we? So I joked, parang ang layo ng lilipatan ko. I'm just going to the next room. Mafel and I would still be in the same house, of course, except that we were not going to be roomies anymore.

Actually, I wouldn’t mind NOT making the move because Mafel and I get along famously. We’ve talked and sang together in our room ‘til dawn and we’ve had times like having breakfast on our beds at six in the morning when we haven’t slept yet. As I recall, that time, we had sausages.

However, for me, I had one overriding factor to consider, and which is that we, in the house, needed to reorganize logistically. Mafel and I occupy the bigger room in the house and there are just two of us. Chaids, Lotis, Pitchie and Maimai occupy the smaller room but there are four of them. Reorganizing would provide more balance and bring more harmony to the household.

Later still in the night, Maimai arrived, looking stressed and haggard. It was the eve of her birthday. We talked some - she said she has to work on her birthday and tonight, she was not staying; she was going to be sleeping over in her employer's house, taking care of the kids. After talking, I saw her down to the front gate which she said I didn't need to do, to which I joked that I just wanted to make sure that she was leaving - a reference to house jokes we make that there was 'world peace' in the house without Maimai. Joke lang, Mai.

While I was talking with Mai, I chatted with Clyde, cajoling her to share with me stories of her lovelife. She complained that between her and me, she's the only one doing the storytelling and that I don't ever share my own stuff. I told her there was nothing to share on my part. She asks what's new in my life. I ask her if I've ever mentioned Kurt Schneider to her. She said, like, only about 847 times. I said, yeah, right, I don't believe she has the exact number of times.

Thinking back on it, I realize that the night sort of featured three instances of separation. There was me moving out from one room into another (grabe, ang layo ha). Then with Mai’s brief interlude in the house, there was sort of a residual pang – maybe the kind related to situations where friends get together but have to separate somewhere. With Clyde, well, I used to stay with her in the same house but now I don’t.

And then morning arrived and everybody started waking up and visitors arrived. We filled the living room:

Mafel
Pitchie
Lotis
Tatay Darwin
Marlon

&

me.

Because I was busy typing this blogpost on my laptop, Tatay joked that I must be chatting with a Nigerian. I think he mentioned Nigerians because they’re going on a run, which is why they are up early, and from what I know, there are Nigerians who attend these runs and win. I responded by pretending to type aloud: Dear Nigerian chatmate, please assassinate this runner named Darwin, wearing a white and blue singlet…Hihihi.

I look sleepy na raw. I’m taking a bath and going to bed now. Buh-bye!

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