Friday

It seemed like the floods would never abate, as the typhoon continued its torrential, unforgiving downpour. It's already nearing past 12am, and still, I am stuck in the office, stranded because of the freakish weather, with no choice but to continue working for lack of anything better to do. Our deadlines are about, so at least I am being productive.

Finally, by 12.30, my officemates did relent, and we decided to finally try to go home. What greeted us downstairs was receeding flood waters deep enough to cover the sidewalk. Once again, our office address lives up to its name, being the Primary River in our side of the town. No choice but to try and hail a tricycle to ferry us along the ten meters of flooded road we must travel in order to get to high ground, and then to home. Thankfully, the trike driver we were able to hail was generous enough no to have overcharged us. We have had bad experiences in the past wherein the drivers bill us unconscionable amounts for that short trip, making full use of those murky, impassable waters to try to milk us of our hard-earned peso.

I was able to go home, late as it is, but the sandman has already made his rounds, and I missed my appointment on dreamland. Try as I might, sleep just wouldn't come, despite the fact that I had been awake for the past 20 hours, and was working for 15 of those hours. Thankfully, sleep did come around 3 am, cutting me off mid-thought.

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I was violently riven from my slumber by a sudden realization that I am late. It's our company outing, and our call time was 6am. Sure enough, I woke up just a few minutes past the hour. It was a good thing all my preparations were done before going to bed, so it was just a matter of fixing myself and going to the office as fast as I can. The bus we rented was slated to leave at 6.30 am, which means that a good number of people will probably get to the office around 7 am; and the bus would be able to leave an hour late. Getting to the bus before the stated departure time therefore means that I get to have good seats. Coupled by the hard rain we are experiencing, it is understandable that most of our number would be late.

Sure enough, most of our officemates were not yet there when I got in. I was able to get a seat at the back of the bus. I would have wanted a window seat at the back, but that was good enough for me, at least. And since we were still waiting for a few more officemates to get to the bus, I was able to go up the office and fix myself my morning cup of coffee, which I put on a take-out cup I "borrowed" from the office pantry.

The trip going to the resort was wet, but otherwise uneventful. I busied myself with my coffee and with watching the on-board movie: DOA: Dead on Arrival. My eyesight, imprfect as it is, and with me in the farthest row of the bus, it was quite a challenge for me to follow what I was watching. It was a good thing that I was able to see that flick long before, or I would have been irritable to all the distractions getting in the way of my movie viewing. I did bring a book with me to keep me from boredom during the trip, but it didn't occur to me to take it out of the bag just then. Probably, I just forgot that I had it in the first place.

Two hours later, we got to our destination. The weather became welcoming, with the rain coming to a halt, and the sun finally showing up to reign the heavens. After a few photo-op sessions around the resort, we were ready to swim. The group I mingled with chose the pool at the back of the resort, which produced artificial waves. I busied myself with jumping along with every crest, and finding that perfect spot where the waves are at their highest. It was rather disorienting, actually, because I'm seeing the waves, but the water wasn't salty. Also, I can feel the water pushing me, but the accompanying pull was missing; talk about incomplete. I guess it's impossible to replicate tidal ebb and flow.

I was prepared to be disappointed with our company outing. I have even made plans should I decide to leave our venue. Thankfully, the group I mingled with were fun enough, and wacky enough that I enjoyed the company. We basked in the sun all afternoon, jumping along with the artificial waves, that I ended up scorched and sunburnt, and aching all over -- my first physical activity in months.

I guess things turn out differently from what one is expecting, and sometimes, these unexpected results are better than what is originally planned. This is especially true in my case, for I have expected the worst scenarios to present itself, but instead, the results were quite favorable and enjoyable. I don't know... I guess, I'm just falling back into my habit of over-thinking...