Surfing on Good Tidings

 

Reading several books at a time is similar to channel surfing, the now-defunct pastime of 90s kids who had cable TV. My currently-reading list includes Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Black Swan, George RR Martin's Fire and Blood, The Daily Stoic, while I finished two short books in between - Baek Sehee's I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, and Haruki Murakami's The T-Shirts I Love.

I also switch between different mediums and devices. I read some on a paper book, most of it on an ebook, on an ebook with the audio companion and even on a smartphone. Murakami's The T-Shirts I love was perfect on a smartphone. I wanted to see the color of the shirts, and appreciate the designs more. And this book is something you can finish overnight, so the eye strain should be minimal. 

Murakami buys a shirt for two dollars and ends up with a short story. 

Of all my T-shirts, which one do I treasure most? That would have to be the Tony Takitani shirt. I ran across this T-shirt in a thrift shop in Maui and bought it for about a dollar. I asked myself, “What kind of person could Tony Takitani be?” and let my imagination take over, and I actually ended up writing a short story with him as the protagonist, which later was made into a film. And the T-shirt was just one dollar, if you can believe it! I’ve made a lot of investments in my life, but this was, hands down, the absolute best.

I had a light bulb moment. I should do my own T-shirt designs. In my mind, I formed the Imaginary Anti-Social Run/Cycle Club. The Club's tagline would have been We Run/Cycle Alone/Together. We'd have team singlets and jerseys creatively inscribed with adages such as:

This is beer sweat.

Assuaging my anxieties

Now Burning (drawing of pizza)

Dad-joke spewing machine

Endorphin Chasing

In my mind (drawing of coffee)

Reasonably Optimistic Pacer

You're Not Tired. I'm Tired. 

I like reading too!

(In small font - I've never been to) Boston (in bigger font)

Promoting Self-Deprecating Humor

Let's Do This Again

ATM: Mood Boost

Enjoy your body. 

But did you stretch?

 

And then my light bulb moment died out. I never would have worn, much less design any of those singlets or jerseys. Another passage from the book goes: 

I would have loved a Talking Heads shirt too.

I was just listening to some New Wave. Now playing The Cure's Pictures of You.  

When I'm reading-surfing, since it's the holidays, I munch on the leftovers. I ordered a case of local craft lager online, slowly chugging away each bottle when the family's asleep. My own kind of low-brow revelry. I barely have anything, yet I have everything I desire. Now, that's rich isn't it?

 

  

うどん

 

 

 

It was my first night in Japan, in a Tokyo suburb a stone's throw away from Kanagawa. The late November's autumn chill easily sliced its way through my thin office jacket and scarf. M. and H. took me to a local Udon place. We sat on mats and ate at a low table. The restaurant was busy and I looked like the only foreigner around. The smell of broth and batter filled the air. The kitchen and service area was up front and we lined-up then picked-up our orders straight away. The soup and the tempura warmed my heart. It's been years, but I'm still deeply grateful for my host's omotenashi. 

 

 

 

We went to the mall today to accompany our son while he hung out with friends. They'll be at the arcade and will eat the KFC, while D. with V. and I decide to try out the latest in a series of Japanese chain restaurants that opened in the mall near our house. We stood in line at the Marugame Seimen We had udon, ebi tempura, even gyudon and curry. Like most Filipinos, we've eaten these dishes countless times, but there's still a welcome surprise, the pleasant element of a first-time. I called into my mind that Udon place in a Tokyo/Kanagawa suburb. I remembered the graciousness of my hosts.

 

I am even much happier where I am now, for the fact that years later, I still work with my hosts. For the fact that it's Wednesday afternoon and I'm out with my family for lunch. I am grateful that I'm with D., the constant in this equation, and with whom life is always better experienced with. Even if right now, we're only in a mall in Malate. Pretty soon, when life takes us elsewhere, I'm certain that anywhere we are in the world, udon's going to be great with you. 

Presbyopia

The optometrist recommended that I start using progressive glasses. At this age, she says, the the optic nerves start to harden. I didn't get the progressive glasses yet, because I was, admittedly, in denial. The price bump was even more annoying. But the eye doctor's recommendation about my retinas has infiltrated and influenced my belief system. I felt it more, and realized more often that I really needed to take off my glasses to read something closer, or that things blur out when I lower my eyes to a book or a phone. I've recognized it more among people, seeing them raising their glasses to their forehead, or moving their eyes to an upward angle when their looking at something close. I can see clearly that we're getting older, Jairus. But we can only hope that there's some wisdom to see this through. 

Anti-Smug Treatment

 

Whenever I write here*, I forgive myself for this, occasional smugness, because if I haven't been grateful or satisfied with my lot I would have been trapped in my own web of anxieties. A growing web of anxieties that will keep me moving inward and the world outside shrinks smaller and smaller.  I write these things for myself. Because at a certain age, it gets embarrassing to tell anyone. We don't want pity. Drugs and therapy are a privilege. Writing and perhaps a little bit of overthinking is a way to develop fortitude. Writing and all this thinking, dramatic as it may seem, somehow makes you grow a pair. 

*Fortunately, nobody reads it. It lives with me. I wouldn't want it to die with me.