Starbucks

A few years back, it was only once or twice a year did I visit a Starbucks, mainly because I didn't drink coffee. And in the few times I did, I ordered my usual classic iced chocolate drink and went into one of my out-of-proportion fits, seeing those people, students apparently, studying amidst the coffee-slurping, english-spewing, idiots Starbucks calls their parokyanos.

"Pa'no naman sila nakakapag-aral nang ganyan? Eh ang ingay? Ako, hinding-hindi ako makakapag-aral in a place like this…"


That was, again, a few years ago. Since then my little statement has turned out to be a hypocritical one.

I don't drink coffee. But I study at Starbucks.

Not only am I a Starbucks parokyano now, I also frequent it to find a good place to *cough* study. And I still don't like coffee. Hehehehe. My own little complex irony, right?





But during my study breaks, I head back to my pathological habit of people watching. This habit I think I acquired from four years of being a kulasa. Hanging out at some in-school tambayan, waiting for other students to pass by, and riling ourselves up in making pintas all those other girls. It was fun and I have since been addicted to it. And Starbucks is just the place to satisfy my addiction. A place that has proven itself to be a haven for people like me, who loves to people-watch, criticize, eavesdrop, and tick ourselves off.

It is always packed with different people, both genuine and genuinely fake, as if intentionally calling my pintasera prowess (it's not so much as being pintasera so much as it's simply being observant, hehehe). Of course, I spend an unreasonable, unadulterated time, pondering on the creatures I watch and their so-called life, as they tell it on Starbucks Channel.






Starbucks. So many people...so little time...for me to watch and "observe" them all.

An Away (ǽ-wai) a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Title being such, it was coined by myself and a couple of officemates to describe the somewhat "odd", to say the least, behavior I have developed during this busy season.

I work in an audit firm. What we call our "busy season" is actually the period right after December 31, approaching April 15, the BIR deadline for filing corporate tax returns. I think it is of an auditor's best interest to put this following tidbit out into the open. Our busy season, in the audit firm I work for, at least, calls for unreasonable overtime hours. Normal eight-to-five employees work over time, I think for two to four hours more after five. Not us. We work a minimum of five hours after five and would go as long as ten, twelve, fifteen…the office AC turns off at night and is turned on again the next day, with our worn-out selves still tinkering with our little calculators in our cramped up workspace. The sunrise sneaks up on us every morning, giving us an alarming reminder that we've spent the whole night working yet we still are not done.

These circumstances, coupled with the diverse personalities I have had to contend with the past months have transformed me to this…an irritable, discontented, war-freak, bungangera. Thus the title. Rarely has a day passed where I didn't have a confrontation of some sort. Palagi akong may inaaway. At some point, I did declare that antagonizing somebody made me high. But now, I admit that being this person has been really tiring.

Maybe I couldn't help but be this way. Anyway, I have always known myself to make a big deal of every little thing. A friend once asked me, somewhat insultingly, how I find time to burden myself with things so petty.

Of course, I looked at myself and found out that, I really do exert more effort than expected in wallowing in how people irritate me: from my friends' complete lack of sense of time to a complete stranger's idiotic fashion choice. I ramble on and on. I rant endlessly. Honestly, I do realize that I don't have to do that. That it's just a waste of time. But, you know, I can't help it. It makes me high? I do it anyway.

This blog is dedicated to my over-dedication to other people's business. It is an attempt to help me vent out excess angst. In the end, I hope I won't need an away (or the Tagalog word for "fight") a day to keep my doctor away anymore.

Join me in my misadventures. Let's whallow in the hilarity of other people's stories, from my standpoint, that is.