My Name Is Fernand Yim: July 2010

I Know What We Did Last Thursday

It was my plan not to write for a couple of days here in MNIFY because I wanted to keep my recent post, Our Love Knows No Time, posted here longer than usual. But I guess I need to write to keep my writing soul motivated so that I won’t need so much of revving up when I feel like writing.

So there. Last Thursday, it was my rest day (In Convergys, our schedule changes weekly and I am still adjusting to it.). I accompanied Gracia to the MediCard Clinic in Calamba and after that, we had our lunch in KFC. I was looking for our classmate in college Edrian who is one of the managers in that store but he was not there. So let us move on. Gracia looked for a table while I made our order. She found one near the door and I was still waiting in line. The man before me in line scratched his head like there was no tomorrow that I had to move a couple paces away. I looked to Gracia and she seemed looking fine at our table and I encouraged myself to be more patient in line. When the dandruff guy was done with his order and walked away, I happily made my orders. I did not know that there was this fat college girl with her friends behind me which I was surprised when she moved over to my side as if taking my place in line. Wanted to tell her, “Hey, I am not yet done with my order. Don’t you see that or what?” Forgive my attitude; I was just a bit impatient because I had no sleep yet in like 24 hours already, smiles.

So there. I walked happy with all smiles on my face as I walked to our table and greeted Gracia with my sincerely happy smile along with a tray of two glasses of Merinda and some tissue paper plus the table number. We waited for like five minutes before we got our order which was okay, really. Gracia enjoyed her salad minus those few old-looking lettuce (Was it lettuce?). And I enjoyed the barbeque chicken. And while eating, I was thinking of Jollibee, laughs! I don’t know. I can go to any fine dining resto and other fast-food stores but I always go back to Jollibee. Call me baduy or jologs and I don’t care. I simply love my Jollibee! Laughs!

Gracia and I had our first haircut together in Walter Mart. I forgot the name of the salon. That was the first time we did that together which I think it was fun. I also had my first experience of having my hair hot-oiled. It was a sleepy experience, laughs! Especially that the salon attendant who was in charge of me was so gay and so slow. It felt everything was like in slow motion! I was so tempted to shout at him so to wake him up and make him work faster. But he was old…and I have respect for oldies, laughs!

The feeling of having my hair oiled (Or is it waxed? Whatever.) and then had my head put under that egg-shaped machine which was producing hot smoke was terrible! I thought my head was on fire! I felt a couple of times the burning sensation right above my nape that I had to move my head away from it or I might have bled nonstop and drop dead right there! Laughs!

After that, Gracia and I bought two hoodies, one for her and one for me. That was sweet. We strolled around and when we got tired, we went to our secret place, smiles. There I easily fell asleep. When I woke up, it was like almost nine so we went to San Pablo and before we said our goodbyes, guess what we did…We ate in Jollibee!

To my few readers, you might find this post so baduy and all that, but hey, this is my life which I want to share with you. I know it is kind of…detailed and…boring and whatever…I just felt like I wanted to write about it. Why am I explaining? Laughs! Thank you for reading.

The Challenge Of UTI

Our first week on the floor was crazy and fun. It was great that we have our Team Chat where we can post our questions while on a call. Now, there was this time, I think it was Tuesday shift, that I felt a strong urge to pee and I was still on a call! It was like more than thirty minutes to go before my first break. Feeling desperate, I sent a chat message to Boss saying this:

Fernand: Boss, can I pee? I have UTI.

Then I noticed that people around me were laughing. I wondered why then I saw Mina replied on the chat.

Mina: UTI, Nan Boy?

***Err, I didn't know that I sent the message across the chatting room on the floor! Laughs!

Our Love Knows No Time

Lately, with the new and changing schedule in Transition and Gracia’s schooling, we find it a bit hard to find time to be together. Gracia even joked by saying this, “I never thought that school can ruin love life!” We both laughed at that.

But you know the saying that goes like this, when there is a will, there is a way. So we met yesterday and we watched Eclipse, the third offer of the Twilight Series. We had seen the first two movies, Twilight and New Moon, so we felt obliged to see the third movie. Obliged? Laughs! Yeah, we love the movie. There is nothing really extra-ordinary about it. I think what we like is the romantic touch of the movie. Gracia was telling me that the books are a lot better. Stephanie Meyer is brilliant in webbing the words together that she is successful in touching hearts of her readers. That is making me feel to want to read the books. Maybe when I find extra time.

Also, I think the movie is so sincere and frank that it tells a story of true-to-life people. It is just so happened that the characters include vampires and werewolves. But the story of love and its complications and aspirations are so real that we all can relate. I like the lines the character of Edward always tells to the character of Bella. I like it when his character begins to be all human-like that his heart speaking of love towards Bella. I even told Gracia that even if I haven’t read a book of Stephanie Meyer, I know she is very romantic and I like that so much. Like in the first movie, Twilight, I remember the character of Edward was telling about him not knowing how to leave Bella. Now with this third movie, I liked it when he talked about seeing the girl he loves and that it is no longer the gravity which is pulling me to the ground and all that. Laughs, I feel like I am now a fan of the Twilight Saga. Well, maybe I am. Or it is simply because of the girl I was with when I saw the Twilight series.

Then I told Gracia about Nikka asking me how did I propose to her. We looked at each other and smiled. It is because we did not have those traditional events in love stories. I never proposed to Gracia. Maybe I will do it for the sake of doing it anytime soon. But the point here is that, we felt we knew it. You know what I’m saying? When we look to each other’s eyes or whenever our skins touch against each other, we know we are in love. We don’t need to say it just to let each other know. Of course I tell her I love her and she does it, too. But you know what I’m saying? It is there. It is in our hearts even before we first met each other.

Now back to Nikka’s question. I told Gracia that I was caught so offhand that I didn’t know what to tell Nikka. Yes, I could have told her that I didn’t propose to Gracia that we just simply knew it, that we knew that we wanted to get married and live the dreams of our hearts together. But the succeeding series of follow-up questions right after that and how to answer them, that I don’t know how to manage. There is so much in my heart that only Gracia can understand and I will struggle a lot to tell about them with other friends. It is a surprise that I even get the fingers to type it all here, laughs!

Not only that. Nikka also asked me when our anniversary is and err, I don’t know! I know Gracia and I are together for like three years now. I can find a way to know the date because I have it recorded in my old real diaries. But I don’t feel like I want to know. I know Gracia doesn’t want to know either. We don’t like the idea of counting the years we will be together. Maybe when we are old, really old. That time we would feel excited to look back and to know how many years we have been together as a couple but counting it now feels like there is a warning that lies somewhere ahead which seems to tell of an end to all these beautiful feelings of being together. You know what I’m saying? It is not that we love breaking the traditions or the culture of the world. It is simply that we don’t count the time, we simply feel the moments and take it all into our hearts and be happy about them as they happen.

So there, maybe because somehow I want to say something to Nikka, I came up with a witty one to say whenever she would ask me the same question again or if someone walk up to me and ask. This I would say: Our love knows no time.

I remember when I whispered this into Gracia’s ear yesterday inside the cinema, we were giggling like high school kids! Laughs! We have so much of this. I don’t know why I can’t write them all here. I even told Edward this, as if he could hear me: Beat that! Laughs!

And the movie, it was great and cute. We did enjoy it. Was it the last movie? Gracia told me there is a fourth book, Breaking the Dawn? I hope there is one more movie to watch. I look forward to that. We look forward to that.

When Will Nikka Grow Up?

As you can read from here, I always tell about Nikka from my now life in Convergys. Everyone is a character, yes, that’s right. But Nikka is so different. It is so challenging on my part to make you feel how it is to be a friend of her, or simply to have her around. But let me tell here bits of my experiences with Nikka.

The story of a zit.

One time, she was constantly complaining about her right ear. So she went to the clinic and had her ear checked up. (She loves going to the clinic, I’m telling you. As in.) . When she was back to the room, she excitedly told me that the clinic nurse told her that she had a pimple inside her ear. I was like, okay…so… Isn’t it that weird? Then she went on like telling everyone about it whether she had a chance or not. I was feeling the weight of embarrassment for her so I told her this: “Nikka, would you want me to make you a poster saying, Nikka has a zit in her ear! That would save you a lot of energy instead of going around telling people about it!”

The story of hair.

The day before our last day in Product Training, I went to ATC with Nikka to buy a swimming sando. I always feel uncomfortable buying clothes like that so I let her do the negotiation in a Bench store. She was there choosing the color and all that. Then she asked me this with all the five store attendants around us: “Nan, may buhok ka ba sa kili-kili?” Right there I wanted to die and disappear.

The story from Jollibee.

In Jollibee, Nikka requested for a glass of water from one of the dining crews. Then the male crew asked her this: “May kulang pa po ba, Ma’am?” Then Nikka answered this: “Oo, kuya. Maraming kulang sa buhay ko!” That scared the poor crew away.

There is so much more to tell about Nikka. Remember when she murdered a book? But that is it for now. Smiles.