Two Bridges

Last night I dreamed that I was standing by the edge of a tall cliff. Hanging ahead of it were two bridges leading to another cliff. To that cliff, I should go. But in order to get to it, I should cross one of the two bridges.

The one on the left was made of the material used to make baskets (synthetic fibers, I think). The bridge floor had many big holes on it, as the synthetic fibers were woven in such a pattern that resulted to large empty spaces between two fibers. The distance between two fibers were so big, you could stick a foot out of it. However, the bridge had railings which you could hold on to while walking down the holey floor.

On the other hand, the bridge on the right was made of concrete. By the looks of it, it would undoubtedly be safe to walk on it, but the thing is, it had no railings. So you’d have nothing to hold on to in order to support yourself, increasing the risk of falling.

So I was faced with this terrible dilemma: Which bridge should I cross? The one made with poor material with lots of holes but with railings to hold on to, or the one made of stable concrete but with nothing to hold on to?

I chose the latter.

Lord Voldemort

Daddy was a vampire who killed people at night and kept their bodies in a room. Mommy didn’t know anything about it, but I did, because I was a vampire too (a good one, BTW). One day, in an effort to catch him, my two guy friends tied Daddy to his bed, face down, with a scotch tape. And then, he was no longer Daddy but Lord Voldemort—thin, bald and naked. Milky secretions started to ooze out of his old wrinkled skin. One of my friends touched it, and his hand got burned! With eyes wide open, we stared at one another, fearing that any moment from then, the scotch tapes would melt and Lord Voldemort would rise from the bed to kill us all. The thought was horrible, so horrible that I felt my heart thump hard against my chest, causing me to wake up.

Donghae

First thing in the morning, I saw Kimmy‘s tweets greeting Donghae for his birthday. “Hmmm… so it’s Donghae’s birthday today,” I thought to myself. And then… “it” occurred to me.

Shiloh and Pfat are one.

I had this weird and very long dream last night (very long, in a way that its storyline spanned a couple of weeks, relative to my sleeping time of only 8 hours).

My dream was like a complete movie, with a real poster and tagline. The poster had a bluish gray hue in it, and across it was the tagline, “Shiloh and Pfat are one.” The poster had this characteristic that if you look at it, you would already know that the movie is a horror/thriller type of movie.

I can’t remember anymore what role I was really playing in my dream. I think it started with me just looking at the poster and wanting to see the movie, but the dream went on with me being an actual character in the movie, and then it was no longer a movie because I wasn’t acting at all. I was just being myself, and everything seemed to be just real.

As far as I could remember, it all began one stormy night, when a bolt of lightning hit the electrical post outside our home, and for some reason, drained the battery of our cellphones. I tried to turn on my phone and succeeded, and then a series of weird messages started filling up my inbox. The sender was someone whose name was Analea, and the messages weren’t addressed to me, but to my older brother, Shiloh.

Shiloh was sitting on the bed next to mine, struggling to switch on his own cellphone. I didn’t understand any of the messages, but I read them aloud to him nonetheless. Upon hearing them, Shiloh transformed into another guy who had the same skinny features, but with the eyes sharper and the face more serious, like he was devising a wicked plan at the back of his head. For a moment, I saw his eyes glimmer with a cold blue glow.

“My name is Pfat,” said the guy who used to be my brother. He told me he had supernatural powers and that he needed my help in order to beat this guy named Jay. I got scared, and hesitated for a moment, then I suddenly felt at ease and fearless, and finally agreed, though deep inside I knew that I was under Pfat’s hypnosis.

The next day, I went to our little sister’s school to bid her goodbye ‘cause that might be the last time we would ever see each other. I knew right then that a long journey was awaiting Pfat and me in our mission to defeat Jay.

Pfat must have really been serious about choosing me as his aide because he granted me special powers too, like I could manipulate the canteen cashier’s thoughts and pay only the price I wanted regardless of the quantity of food I ordered.

One day, I was in the canteen and it was my turn to pay. I ordered fried bangus (milkfish) and, as usual, manipulated the cashier’s thoughts to subconsciously convince her to charge me a cheaper price. I succeeded, but as I was leaving the canteen, the cashier, seemingly awakened from my hypnotic spell, suddenly rushed to the exit door to ask the people outside about the real price of fried bangus.

I hurriedly went out and saw a large gathering of people with tuberculosis (TB), waiting to see their doctor. The cashier was already asking them the real price of fried bangus, but before she could hear their answers, I had already cast another spell on her, making her deaf to the voices of the people.

Moments later, I heard someone say, “Hmm…manipulating people’s hearing? That’s cool.” I turned around and saw a tall young guy who was surprisingly aware of what I was doing. I was shocked, and before I could say anything, another person walked into the scene—a fat woman who seemed to be the tall young guy’s ally. With a wave of her hand, she made every TB patient cough. Then she waved her hand at me next, but instead of making me cough, she did the opposite. She made me gulp.

For some reason, it felt weird and sticky and the taste was so icky! Seeing the disgusted expression on my face, the fat woman grinned and said, “Hooray. You just swallowed their phlegm.” (Eeeww.)

They brought me to their headquarters and started to interrogate me. The fat woman seemed villainous (she had this Cruella De Vil aura upon her). On the other hand, the tall young guy seemed nice and gentle. Then I found out later that his name was Jay.

End of dream.

Leo

I woke up to a very cold (What an understatement!) morning at 7am (simply because I set my alarm clock at seven), after which I went back to sleep again and dreamed of myself and Audrey sprinkling “somnolence” powder on some farm animals. I tried sprinkling some on a chicken, and the effect was quick and awesome! The chicken immediately went to sleep, as if a sleeping spell had been cast on it! Then I tried it on a cat, and just like the chicken, it went to sleep at once. Next, I tried it on a cow, and the same thing happened. It went to sleep in no time! And then I tried it on a lion.

The powder didn’t work. So I spent the rest of my dream running around like crazy, with the lion chasing after me!

Thank God, I woke up before it devours me! I checked my clock and it was 9:30am. I swear, next time I’m really gonna stand up the moment I wake up in the morning!

So I did my usual routine: brush teeth, wash face, eat breakfast, brush teeth again, grab laptop, check e-mail, and open Facebook.

As soon as I logged in on FB, a chat window popped up. It was Anna, my former dormmate, who I call “Virgo Friend” because she’s really good in Astrology and simply because she’s a Virgo! Likewise, she calls me her “Scorpio Friend.”

ANNA: Scorpio Friend!!!

TSS: Virgo Friend!!! <3

ANNA: How are you? I miss you!

TSS: I’m good. How ’bout you? I miss you too!

ANNA: Uhh, I’m okay. I saw your pics! Seems like you’re really having a happy time. Anyway, with your great personality and all, you truly deserve it!

TSS: Awww… thanks! So what’s keeping you busy nowadays?

ANNA: I’m still looking for a job as a med tech, but they say med reps get a higher pay, so I might try that instead.

TSS: Ohh good luck to you!

ANNA: Thanks. You know what? Sometimes I feel really lonely and disappointed… I wonder sometimes, “Is there really an afterlife?”

TSS: Oh don’t think like that! Of course, there is an afterlife and I’m sure you’ll go to heaven when your time comes because you are a great person, but that time isn’t NOW yet.

ANNA: Yeah, I know.. But when I saw your pics in San Francisco, deep down inside, I felt a genuine kind of happiness. It was like, I really felt inspired, like it was telling me that life is beautiful, and that good things come to good people. Now I just wanna move on further in my life.

TSS: Awww, I’m happy for you. Your words are very touching. <3

ANNA: Thank you, Scorpio Friend. You are an inspiration.

TSS: Thanks, Virgo Friend! You made me smile today.

Right now, I'm still smiling. I never knew I could really inspire someone. LOL. Thanks to Anna for making me realize how blessed I am. I know all people are blessed, and we all share an equal amount of blessings from heaven because God is a fair god and He loves us all equally, but not everyone of us realize these things. That's why sometimes, God sends other persons to remind these things to us, and one of these persons came to me this morning in the form of Anna, my dear Virgo Friend.

"I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and power, You have made known to me what we asked of you, You have made known to us the dream of the king." (Daniel 2:23)

Just as God had protected Daniel in the lion's den, He will constantly strengthen me in all my struggles. He may let the lion chase me, but He will never ever let it catch me.

GOD LOVES ME.

PS: So what shall I name this blog entry?
Bad Dream?
Somnolence Powder?
Lion?
Virgo Friend?
Scorpio?
Leo?

Dinner

Mommy, Kuya and I are having dinner in a humble restaurant with red and white checkered tablecloths and chairs. On our table is a large rectangular pan full of mango float. It’s so abundant, it’s starting to overflow and spill on the table and on to the chairs. Pilar Pilapil is with the three of us. I’m actually sitting beside her on one side of the table, just opposite Mommy and Kuya. Pilar looks dismayed because her daughter who’s graduating tomorrow wants her to wear an orange RTW dress during the graduation ceremony, and not a tailor-made outfit like the ones she always wears. She’s already on the verge of crying, while the three of us are trying our best to comfort her.

And then, without opening my eyes, I realize that I’m awake. And the whole dinner scene was just a dream. I suddenly remember that I took a nap a while ago, and that I’m here in my uncle’s house, while Mommy and Kuya are probably having not dinner, but breakfast, in another time zone, miles and miles away.

I’m not opening my eyes yet, still wishing that this reality instead is the dream. For a moment, I feel like my head is trembling, and for the first time since long ago, four hot tears flow out of my right eye and on to my pillow, slowly, and one by one.

Forty Days: Day 1

The day started when I woke up from a dream about cretinism. I was a teacher in my dream and all my students had cretinism. FYI, cretinism is a form of hypothyroidism in children which results to the retardation of their physical and mental growth. Also, cretinism was one of our topics yesterday in our FPGEE review, so maybe that’s why I dreamed of it.

Today, as everyone may know, is Ash Wednesday, and the first day of the forty days of Lent. While in the church this afternoon, I was thinking of something to do for the next forty days (this day, included). I remember when I was in 6th grade, I didn’t use my Walkman (there was no iPod yet) for the entire period of Lent. That was my Lenten sacrifice. When I was in 1st year of college, I read Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life.” The book had forty chapters so I read one chapter each day during the entire forty days. Today, I think I’ll just post a blog entry everyday. For forty days. No specific topic needed. I’ll just write whatever enters my head, get back to them forty days later, and see how much a changed person I’ve become.

So I mentioned earlier that I’m attending an FPGEE review. I was so hesitant to enroll at first because I’d rather study by myself at home. Besides, the tuition fee was a bit high. I still didn’t give in even when my mom insisted me. I only changed my mind last Saturday when the college secretary showed us our grades in Pathophysiology. My grade was 93. And that was the highest.

I suddenly thought of what The Frustrated Artist told me, that I should keep doing what I do best. It was like saying that just being good at something is not enough. I should further develop my skills and be an expert in my career. After realizing these things, I immediately went to the dean’s office and told her I’d enroll. Today, I’m just thankful that I’ve made the right decision. We just started last Monday and I can already say now that I’m a changed person.