Love Stories Are For Normal People

I had a good friend way back in high school who told me that given myphysical handicap, getting a girl to fall in love with me would be next toimpossible.

My friend was, of course, being frank and simply telling the truth. Still, the stubborn part of me ignored the above statement, and went on courting several girls. Take note, these are not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill women. They are particularly attractive and can easily stand out in a crowd.

In all of these courtships, the results were naturally not to my disadvantage. Thus, I always ended up nursing a broken heart over and over.

The heartbreaks finally stopped ten years ago when one special girl entered my life. She was, like all the other girls I have courted, particularly attractive, but she had one single difference. She actually said 'yes'.

This girl eventually became my wife, to the dismay of my mother who believes that this girl is not really serious with me. She said that given mydisability, it will not come as a surprise if this girl will one day decide to look for a more normal guy and have a more normal life.

I refused to believe this, confident in the fact that my wife is faithful and completely in love with me.

There are times though when I can see her looking at other men. When confronted, she would deny this.

Still, those are rare occasions, and my wife would often assure me that she is not the playgirl type and that she will never do anything that will bring ruin to our family.

We now have four children, and are still living happily together. Last weekend, however, a chance encounter with another man awakened me to a dark reality in my life.

My wife was then playing at the arcade while carrying our one-year-old son. I was by her left side looking after our two-month-old baby. To her right was a young man in t-shirt and who was wearing  a white cap. He was quietly watching her play although I believe that they do not know each other.

At that point, my wife was on a winning streak, having earned several arcade tickets. I could see that she was particularly happy as arcade victories came rarely to her.

I was half-expecting her to look at me and smile. To my surprise, however, she looked at the man to her right, smiled at him and said something about being particularly lucky that day. The man smiled back, and then hesitantlywalked away.

My wife then looked at me innocently. I asked her if she knew the guy and she said no. I then asked her why she smiled at him, and she jokingly said it's because I was not looking at her.

To others, this may pass off as something of no value at all. To me though, it was a wake-up call, a pat on the back to help me keep in mind that fordisabled people like me, love can never be a long-lasting experience. That one incident alone is a clear indication that I could easily lose my wife anytime if ever a 'normal' and good -looking man should come in to her life.

In all the years that we have been together, I have known her to be extra friendly, even to men. That is why many of them are drawn to her. We have a small sari-sari store, and  I often notice that whenever the customer is a guy, my wife would make the first move to be of service even if I'm the one tending the store.

Many of our customers also happen to be men as there is a car wash outlet located in front of our store. Practically all of its male employees know my wife by name and often look for her whenever they come to us to buy something.

This has somehow put a dent on our marriage since I usually end up gettingjealous. My wife continues to assure me of her love, but her many actionsoften contradict this. Secretly, I feel that it is only a matter of time before she falls for someone else.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the day will never come, if only for my children's sake. Still, when I recall my old friend's declaration and my mother's belief, I can only bow in agreement.

Whoever said that fairy tales do come true is probably living in dream land. And whoever said that all is fair in love is probably one who has never shed a tear for a badly broken heart.

Payment received

I'm not really sure if anyone out there is reading this blog, much more add me in their list of followed blogs.

In any case, sometime last year, I wrote a blog about getting a legitimate online income. Guess what? I just found one.

The website is donkeymail, and you can access it through this link: http://www.donkeymails.com/pages/index.php?refid=simon430

The job is a simple pay-to-click routine. You receive emails in your donkeymail inbox, click the paid ad links, view the webpage for a few seconds and you get paid.

The routine can be quite boring, and if you are the impatient type, you might find the payout requirement of just $1.00, a little too hard to reach. This is partly true as you get paid only $0.001 per click. Still, once you reach the threshold, payout is practically guaranteed. I waited for only about two weeks or more and I got my payment in my paypal account.

You do have to check your paypal account though. For some reasons, donkeymail did not send me a confirmation email to say that my payout request has already been processed. I'm not sure if this was the same with the other members who requested for payout.

Still, you should check out donkeymails since they really pay their members. Just access it here: http://www.donkeymails.com/pages/index.php?refid=simon430

Days of Old

In decades past, Holy Week was a very solemn event. As little boys, we were not allowed to laugh out loud, play with our toys, or even watch TV. We were even made to believe that getting a scratch or a wound during Holy Week, particularly on Good Friday, would mean that the wound will take quite a while before getting healed because the Great Healer is dead.

Being disallowed to watch TV at the time was not really that hard to accept, for there was hardly any show on the boob tube. Most of the TV networks then would go off the air, starting on Maundy Thursday all the way to Black Saturday, with regular programming resuming only on Easter Sunday.

The few daring stations who opt to go on air during this time would offer only religious programs, usually old movies depicting the life and suffering of Jesus.

In short, Holy Week was a lonely period for kids like me for it meant being removed, albeit temporarily, from all the things that I love to do all year round.

Yet, it was also a time for reflection, particularly for grown-ups. For three straight days, people then would pre-ocupy themselves with religious activities: joining the 'pabasa'; watching the senakulo; going to confession; or simply praying at home.

These days, however, people no longer see Holy Week for what it is. The event is now regarded by many as a regular but extended holiday. A time for fun and enjoyment. So, instead of visiting places of worship, we now go to resorts and beaches. Rather than be stuck with old and replayed religious films, we can opt for a marathon of our favorite movies through rented dvd's.

TV has also gone into a make-over vis-a-vis the Holy Week. There are now movie specials and modern-day takes on the redemption of mankind, but if you prefer to enjoy your daily dose of TV watching, there is now cable TV to keep you satisfied.

As it is, young people these days no longer know how it is to observe Holy Week. A sad note really, considering that its essence is the very foundation of the faith that we now practice.

Terminal Terms

For those of you who might be reading this from a foreign country or from another planet, we have just celebrated a special event in our nation's history several days ago. The event was the phenomenal People Power Revolt wherein an overstaying leader was overthrown through bloodless means.

Traditionally, the occasion was marked by a street party on historic EDSA where the life-changing revolution took place. This naturally called for the declaration of a special holiday all across the country.

This brings me to the heart of this blog. For this year, the day was declared as not a working holiday. The term was rather vague, so to the ordinary man, it can only be assumed that it was a working holiday.

Now, the term 'working holiday' is also somewhat vague, if not a contradiction of terms. When one says holiday, it obviously means there is no work; thus, if there is work, then it simply means it's not a holiday. So why come up with such a mind-boggling term such as a 'working holiday'?

There is also the 'non-working holiday' phrase. This is likewise a contradiction of terms. As I stated from above, a holiday infers there is no work, so why does one need to say 'non-working holiday'? There has to be some form of redundancy here somewhere.

This is not really a matter for experts to discuss. Even the ordinary college graduate can distinguish that non-working and holiday need not go hand-in-hand.

Why do we have this penchant for making simple things extremely complicated? Just like at EDSA 25 years ago, let's make everything clear and simple, and not go into the complexities of keeping things beyond the comprehension of the ordinary man.