(In which all my hardships were two minutes short)
***
This morning wasn’t an ordinary morning. I slept at 1:30 AM after talking to a newfound friend over the phone and woke up at 9:30 when I used to wake up at 10:30. I did some house chores with my sister sitting on the sofa, reading Seventeen magazine right after she left the bedroom with all the mess for me to take care of. And since I asked her to wash a single dress for me yesterday, I needed to give her two packs of Ghana chocolate pies. It’s a Korean chocolate pie. It is made of chocolate-covered soft cookies with a yummy marshmallow filling. ^^
Anyway, so she’s enjoying eating while I’m working. I guess she might have sensed that I needed some help so she helped me cook. I left the house at 12:30 and got an almost empty FX so the driver drove to a different route to get passengers. Anyway, I don’t feel so bad about it because I was sitting next to the driver which means I have a better access to the air conditioner. However, after several minutes of sitting there, I started feeling the heat of the engine which was worsen by the vehicle’s clear windshield. The weather was so damn hot it felt like riding a jeep!
When we reached Tiendesitas, it was 1:30 and there was a heavy traffic. When I say heavy, I mean heavy. It was the kind of traffic jam in which you will experience two feet of movement every two minutes or so. We reached the end of Tiendesitas, several meters before SM Hypermarket at 1:45 and I have to be in the office at 2! Then I remembered that I have set my phone clock seven minutes ahead of the company clock. I can still breathe.
1:47. And we’re still on the same spot. I thought of walking to our office which is located at the Taipan Place in Emerald Avenue. I still have seven minutes to spare but with this kind of movement, I’d rather walk. I got off the car and started walking. I walked lightly at first but after realizing how long the travel would take, I started running. I wasn’t sure whether it was a right decision or not so I thought about what my friend once told me. “I’d rather walk under the heat of the sun than sit in a car which is not moving. Imagine the distance you could have gone!”
That was a motivation. But it didn’t last. It’s not just about walking. It’s walking some minutes past one o’clock in the afternoon under the April sun! But I can’t go back. The car might be at the same spot where I left it or it might have gone some meters but I’m definitely ahead of it. That’s for sure. Now I started to feel all the pressure from the chafing of my feet to getting to the office on time. I stopped to get a cab and it was everything but successful. So I have to walk up Julia Vargas Ave. to Emerald Ave.
I finally reached my destination and the wind was blowing hard on me, messing up my and everyone else’s hair. It was like saying “Here’s for the weary traveler.” I walked the stairways to the second floor and to the receptionist desk and guess what? It was 2:02! Oh no! I did it again!Goodbye perfect attendance bonus!
