Catch Me If You Can

#41: Catch (My Breath For Me) If You Can

I have to leave for Bangkok tomorrow. It's 1:34 a.m. and I haven't packed. I'm thinking that since my flight is at 2:40p.m., I won't need to be at the airport till 11:40. That means I won't have to leave the house till 11a.m. We'll get back from church around 10 so I still have a full hour to pack tomorrow. Lots of time. (Yeah, lots of time to panic and end up leaving critical stuff like my passport or laptop or something that will make me want to cry.)

My head is still not screwed on correctly. I'm working on the VivaGlam Europe HyperEdition Newsletter (to be released soon, I promise) while going through each of the 600ish pictures I took during the trip to weed out sub-standard shots. (In my incorrectly screwed mind, I'm preparing entries to an exhibit plus hoping that at least a couple will be good enough for this photo contest.) Call it Multi-Tasking, call it driving myself to my wit's end, I don't know. I just know that this Bangkok meeting is not giving me enough time to meet up with friends and yak about my European trip complete with visual aids and all the crap I usually bring. It's not even giving me enough time to have the pictures screened and printed. In fact, it isn't giving me enough time to fully absorb the impact of the fact that I'm back to reality and supposedly ready to wrestle with work again.

Last night, I met up with a couple of dear friends. I call them dear because I scheduled the dinner for 8pm but work wouldn't let me leave the office till 9:30pm. By that time, I was already imagining them walking out of the restaurant huffing and puffing at my disregard for the value of their time or something icy like that. But they stayed on, even checking from time to time if I've managed to get through the horrible Makati Friday traffic already, asking if I'd like them to already order my food so all I have to do when I arrive is eat and yak. Sweet things like those. When I got there, they were all smiles like I hadn't wasted 2 hours of their lives in waiting for what turned out to be midnight snack instead of supper. And my garlic rice, sisig and lechon kawali were all there, ready for me to jump into. (Yes, I seriously requested for greasy Filipino food - food which I surprisingly really really missed.)

They asked if I brought pictures with me already. I hadn't. I didn't even bring their pasalubongs. Why? Because I haven't really unpacked my Europe bags. Quite embarrasing, really. But it was all okay with them. They still listened eagerly to my stories. They still spent time with me, even going for a Starbucks session of lounging around and being lazy over a cup of glorified coffee till 1:00 a.m. We even did that "hang-out-at-the-parking-lot-by-the-car-because-we-still-have-a-lot-to-talk-about-even-though-we-all-should-really-get-going" thing. I drove home with a grin. (Very tired, very sleepy with very unreliable eyesight and a very high likelihood of getting into an accident BUT with a very big satisfied grin.)

I don't know if I'm just becoming a sentimental freak but I just loved last night. And I loved that I was able to spend this "Travel Gap" time with such wonderful people. Love them to bits.

It's close to 2am. I'm still refusing to pack. But unlike 30 minutes ago, now I know why. It's because I'm extending this "Travel Gap" period as long as I possibly can. Maybe, just maybe, by doing this, normalcy will be able to catch up with me before I leave again.