An Early Night

Last night, I went out with a couple of friends for dinner at a posh restaurant in Makati. It was a quaint little resto, where the price for a three course meal will easily feed a family of 5 for a week. As soon as I stepped in, I could smell the expensive perfume lingering in the air which was, I surmised, coming from the table at the far side, where 3 middle aged women with diamonds bigger than my eyes were dining. I was ushered to our table, exchanged pleasantries with my friends and was offered a bag holder by the waiter.( first time ever). He immediately proceeded to hand out the menu for the night while reciting the "specialty for the night" - items not on the menu but are willing to serve to special parties. Wine was served and we proceeded with the meal, while we were doing our catching up and talking about what we did for the holy week.

I was actually fine until I was asked if I wanted to go with them to Italy for a week. Hmmm.... Let's see. I don't really run in those kinds of circles. Like to whisk off to some European country for a week to sample some wine. Of course I declined the offer, saying I really don't have the time and I don't want to leave my daughter behind. How about a weekend in Singapore? I said yes, maybe, because my best friend is based there and maybe we can stay with her so we don't have to stay in a hotel. Ok they said, let's plan it. Now, the night really started to slip from me when they started "itemizing" the brands of shoes and clothes they had on. I'm thinking, what is so relevant about that? Now, this part of the conversation made me feel queasy, something about putting a prime on labels did not sit well with me. All of a sudden, I thought of my daughter, and I started to panic. How do you raise a child in such a materialistic world, where people work their assess off to be able to pay for a designer bag that we all know costs more than it should just because it has the freaking logo. I'd rather she grow up to appreciate the simple things in life. Of course I'd like to give her the best things, but I think I need to reinforce how the expensive things are not necessarily the best.

Needless to say, I excused myself from going to another bar for some drinks with them. I felt the sudden need to be with my Cibel, I wanted to wrap my arms around her like a protective shell, as if it would protect her from the "outside world". I want her to appreciate people because of what they are, and not for what they own. I was in bed with my daughter at 11pm, I texted my husband to let him know that I was home already as he was out too, with his friends. He texted back and asked why I had an early night - I said it the conversations were getting ridiculous. As I was about to sleep I looked at Cibel and thought, I'd rather be here. I'd really, really rather be here.

Anna the blogger

Hmmm. Never thought I'd actually do this, but what the hell. It's the age of technology and I might as well be a part of it. First of all, I never considered myself important enough to write down my thoughts and actually think that there are people who would care enough to know what I'm thinking. I'm an under-the-radar kind of person. Contrary to belief, I actually shrink and shrivel in fright everytime my name gets mentioned public-ly, meaning, over the microphone in some meeting or some program. I'd really rather be in the background, listening to what others have to say. Secondly, I fear that starting a blog would open me to everyone else's scrutiny and judgement. "Ang baduy naman, or "ano ba 'to nonsense, eh ano ngayon if you had a bad day?" or the very common "who cares?" And then I realized, well, I'm not really doing this for anyone else, I'm actually doing it for myself. It kinda reminds me of the date books turned into scrapbooks I used to have back in highschool. So, here I am, anna the doctor, anna the mommy, now anna the blogger. Thanks Lu!!