parents. but childless...(for 2 days!)

Last November 2, we opted to leave the 33-month old gogol at my parents house because we thought farm life would do good for his curiosity and his fondness for beds with thick mattresses that he can use in lieu of a good trampoline, which, unfortunately, our house in jaro does not have: no farm life, no 10-inch thick mattresses.

he's also gotten very very fond of getting around with the 6-wheeled (if i recall correctly) truck my parents use for mill operations -- hauling sugarcane stalks form the farm to the mill and hauling muscovado from the mill to our house. Keith was quite unhappy of the latest developments in my parents' house: the den/tv room and living room now converted to a packaging and storage area, because the packaging center has yet to be built and partly because no one "lives" in the house anymore.

after about an hour of waiting at the waiting (how appropriate!!) shed under the burning heat of the 2pm sun and after refusals from 2 ceres buses we decided to flag for the jeepney.

So.

Keith and i bravely fought (and succeeded) the bus seats with the rabid college students because we have no hyper-active toddler to focus our attention to, just our 2 computers and a bag full of adobong baboy that my mother gave us to take to Iloilo for my meat-eating brother. keith was assigned to chase the bus so he can get ahead the rabid students and i was supposed to go up the bus once the coast has been cleared in order to protect the bag full of adobong baboy.

with my computer bag, the adobong baboy bag and the laundry backpack, i had to be assisted by the bus attendant up the bus. it took me 2-minutes to find Keith and settle down with some stranger because the seat which was built to carry 2.5 persons had to contain 3 heads.

i was planning to eat that apple inside my bag but it was too cramped i can't even move to reach for it.

so we traveled fine, moving at about 40 kph and stopping every 10 meters to pick up passengers. but that's not the worst of it because when we went home to Antique 3 days before, the COLORUM van (plate number ZKZ 641) owned by some guy named Aladdin who resides in Bugasong, Antique, crammed TWENTY -- yes that is right 2-0: t-w-e-n-t-y, people, 19 excluding the driver inside. it's a little difficult to visualize but if you imagine 5 people sharing a seat good for 3 then you know what i mean. gogol was with us but he was already asleep before we reached arevalo so he doesn't know a bit of what's happening in the van and how angry i was.

(Mas expert pa sila sa Fisheries-major-in-fish-processing mag-canning ba!)

i won't even mentioned that the colorum van driver even tried to race with the susie star van with plate number FWT 394 somewhere in the mountains. it happened at 7:00 in the evening. if you have traveled to Antique you'll know how dangerous it is. I yelled at the driver to stop racing but i still feel i haven't done anything to stop this hazardous public transport services.

(Keith said one way is to postpone travelling beyond 4pm but i really had to be home that weekend. it's that or the 3am bus. but i think i'll take the 3am bus next time.)

without the gogol around there's also no household help because the help goes wherever gogol goes so our first night as childless parents was celebrated with reheated adobong baboy, rice and cold water. we went up to our room early tired from traveling. Keith went on to play the remaining levels of Plants vs. Zombies; i forgot what i did, i think i tried to reclaim my reading habit because reading has suddenly become a leisure with a toddler around.

(the remaining discussion will focus on Plants vs. Zombies so don't tell me you have not been warned.)

so Keith went on and on playing plants and zombies. when i left for office the next day i saw him with his computer on with the autocad open only to be told in the evening of that day that he practically spent his whole day playing plants vs. zombies. he kinda regretted i introduced him to it but was, at the same time, felt so delighted of his new found hobby.

well, at least even if he doesn't know how to plant he has experienced (virtual) planting, even if it's just in plants vs. zombies. Out first night sans gogol we spent with both our computers open, playing plants vs. zombies for 2 hours. keith tells me, "we have to take this opportunity because we can't do this anymore after gogol's back. "

it's a weird scene, you see: we're as if single, again, and living together but instead of going out for dates or cuddling together or having sex (like we would surely do if we weren't married...eehhh) we stayed in our room, not talking except for very few exchanges, sat a meter away and allowed to be absorbed by plants vs. zombies.

what's weirder is we kinda enjoyed it.

welcome to modern life of childless parenthood.

***gogol came home 2 days after. for 2 days, our house rested, was still, quite and had been very low maintenance. when he arrived together with his grandmother and grandfather, our house was again turned into a playpen cum storeroom, with a turning-deaf grandfather watching tv at maximum volume, a grandmother who turned our house into a muscovado stockroom and gogol whose blocks and miniature cars and trucks scattered around and i thought this must what it feels like to live in Duran area of Iloilo, the biggest dens of squats in the city (eeh...informal settlers). eeeehhh.