shorts

I'll borrow a page from my friend M's blog and (No, no, I will not post in Ilonggo.) post key words/phrases for expansion on a later day, when I feel like writing and updating. Today sucks.

1. Got a granny-style japanese bike from a friend for the price of lunch! Woohoo!

G. gave me a bike-with-basket, which having owned only mountain bikes before, I automatically categorize as a granny-bike. Went to his house a couple of weeks ago to get it and we went out to lunch, for which I gallantly offered to pay. It all came to about P150, with tip. Double woohoo!

2. Fear of death while crossing Katipunan with said bike--I had a dream/foretelling about this: "Corinne Baily Rae video turns bloody" is my anticipated headline.

For a week before I got the bike, I would have this dream of riding it to school, braving Katipunan Avenue and its weird U-turn slots. The dream always started out like that Corinne Bailey Rae video--a group of girls in skirts riding girly bikes, with me leading the pack, wind ruffling our hair and hems. Then I'd give the snappy little bell a flick, anticipating its krring-krring sound. Instead, the pee-in-your-pants whoosh of an air brake sounds from behind me, and when I turn around, the girls had been replaced by an 18-wheeler.

So until now, I haven't yet taken that bike to school. I'm not ready to cross Katipunan, and that thin line between brave and foolhardy--fool being the operative word.

3. Was put on a spot the last poetry reading--"a victim of circumstance" I said then, but I should've bet on the lottery that day, see if all that strange "luck" applied.

Well, that Monday started out weird enough. Went to a Starbucks near my house and when I got to the cashier, they perkily informed me that I was the lucky 100-something-th customer and that I get a free next-drink after I pay for my first drink, simply by visiting blah-blah-blahdotstarbucksdotsomething and encoding some 10-character code then answering a survey which will give me the code which I have to write down... (Pretty smart, offering one a free drink for answering a service survey. Goodwill to us and free coffee for all!) Anyway, never being one to win anything, I felt I hit the jackpot--which made me think of buying a lottery ticket. I mean luck works like credit card rewards right? The more you use it the more you get?

But. That Monday night proved weirder--This guy J. shows a short-film-cum-poem whose title was similar to my name. Which! which! nobody would've noticed except that the host calls me to read right after because! because! the film was named such-and-such. Which! which! of course lead to teasing hoots and speculative looks and inane questions (like, "Who were you in the film?" "Didn't the girl there look Japanese/Korean?" I mean, do the math, will you?). Thus, the victim-of-circumstance comment. And if that isn't enough, the poem I read then was a new one I wrote after I remembered Pascal's Wager (another post for another day...)!

(I mean look at this: future free coffee, almost-my-name-titled film, wager poem--all in one day! What does it all mean?)

Aside. When I was 17 or so, I got this eye infection from contacts which, my doctor told me, happened to one in every one million contact lens user. When my dad heard this, he immediately asked me for six numbers between 1 and 42. Apparently, he didn't share my luck-as-credit-card-rewards definition. Perhaps he thought it was catching, like an infection.

4. Saw pictures of Batanes' boulder beach, rolling hills, kitschy lighthouse and weird cattle. I want to go, I want to go.

I want to go.

5. Books, jeans, hair color. Oh my!

Last week, my dad gave me around P2,000 to buy whatever I want. Since it wasn't my birthday nor his, this was like christmas mid-year--or christmas when I still got presents from my parents, anyway. I thought of buying a nice pair of jeans. Then I thought of a trip to the salon. Then I learned that this weekend is the last two days of the international bookfair. I am going to have to make do with my torn jeans and the fact that my hair is now two-toned. And I'm going to need another shelf soon.

6. The past few weeks I was a slave in front of the computer at work. So I decided to paint my nails royal purple. Makes sense, no?

What else can I say?

7. Met with a cousin I haven't seen in years--no, decades--last Sunday. He's been all over the world because he shipped out, literally, when he was 18 or something. Asked him if there where any females in the tanker where he worked--Except for the wives of some officers, no. Sexist, yes? I gotta find me a sailor.

Aherm. Did I say that?

8. This is the same cousin who fell in love and married his first cousin on his father's side. (He's my cousin on his mom's.) My aunt told me how he'd gone home--on his knees, crying, to beg her forgiveness--and how happy she was that their priest finally gave in and married them. What bothers me about all this was how proud she seemed about the "kneeling and crying" bit. If this is religion-induced guilt and pride, I think, I'm glad my parents never imposed religion on us.

Don't tell my Tia M. about this. She'll be hurt and bewildered and convinced that my family and I are doomed, doooooomed! "And all that rock music. The work of the devil, I tell you. The de-vil."

9. This is the goddamn truth: Heart's version of Led Zep's "Battle of Evermore" is way, way better than the original. I'm sorry, but it is. And yes, Heart of "Alone" "Barracuda" and "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You" fame.

Speak of the de-vil. Funny, the same week I came to this conclusion, I met D. who's also a Led Zep fan and shared my sentiments exactly. His wife B. used to sing great Heart in karaoke during our Japan days.

10. Who needs a drink?

Who doesn't? To misquote The Boss, "You can't start a fire without spark"--If I learned anything from my chemistry days, alcohol is generally flammable.

August and Everything After

Yeah, that was a great album by the Counting Crows.

But for now, it's just a literal statement. It's August already, and everything after that will just be more (or, actually, less-than-half) of 2007 racing by like whipping typhoon winds, while I stand and... wait for the typhoons to come.

Living in an archipelago that expects an average of twenty typhoons yearly between May and November, and still expecting the first one in August is a bit like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Yeah, yeah. If I go by the weather bureau's alphabetical naming system (or lived in Samar) , I'm sure we've had at least two venture into our territory. But let me ask you this: Have you woken up to rain at 6 o'clock in the morning recently, and snuggled under the blankets wishing you didn't have work or class? Have you experienced an all-day rain lately, and resigned yourself to cold, wrinkled, fish-white feet when you take off your socks at the end of the day? Have you walked with an umbrella and have the wind shift directions so quick your umbrella becomes a funnel, and what-used-to-be-your-dry-side is slapped by a sheet of rain-pellets? No? Think back to June, May even. Still no?

Yes, we've had rain, and everyday too. But in case you don't know it yet, it's still artificial-to-offset-drought rain, a project of the agriculture department or the energy corporation. Hmmm. Are our waterfalls drying up too? And why in Metro Manila when it's the Northern Luzon rice fields that are really suffering? I mean, sure wind direction (and cloud positioning, I suppose) might be hard to anticipate, but if you're project has induced daily downpours at roughly the same time for weeks now, then you must be doing something right. Right? You just need a site transfer.

Besides I haven't seen a single rice field (or waterfall) within Metro Manila for the past 10 years I've been here. The only thing here I've seen grow and gush with the rain is traffic volume, and floodwaters.

So, no. Which makes me want to scream, What the hell is going on?

The reason I'm anxious might be purely selfish--I don't want typhoons (super or otherwise) for Christmas; I like knowing when it should be cheap to go to the beach; and most selfish of all--I don't want typhoons suddenly coming from the west, since I come from Iloilo (I'm just being honest--but this is meteorologically impossible, I think.)

To every season a reason is a cliché because that's the general idea. Otherwise, there's be no such words as acclimatize, or mothballs, and weder-weder lang 'yan would be a world-known expression. Call me boring but I do appreciate routine--If I wake up in the middle of the day and have my first meal at noon, I still call it breakfast. I hate Monday mornings regularly, and Friday nights I make it a point to be out of the house. I'm less likely to complain if I'm sweating like a pig in April. And I like my class/work-suspension-due-to-inclement-weather to fall during the first semester. Is that too much to ask?

And before you slap me down for being self-centered ass, Yes, climate change exists and is a great deal more urgent and wide-spanning problem than how I've presented it here. I also know that for every signal-number-three storm that cancels my classes or work, some family loses a makeshift house or have to temporarily relocate from under the bridge. And droughts in rainy season and typhoons during Christmas time are scary rather than inconvenient.

It's just that, honestly, I simply miss sheets of rainwater rolling off a wide glass window, or being caught willingly in a downpour (despite the odd looks), or that after-rain picture where the traffic's just starting to thin, the streets and sidewalks brown-puddled for miles, and the city looks grey and defeated--but for the green. Darker, bolder, greener. As if the world could really be clean again.

Three poems

Because for once, there are no stories to tell, or there is nothing I want to talk about--not that everything is great, lah-di-dah. I just can't seem to make things funny, which, as you might have noticed, is how I confess. So here are three poems/confessions:


1.
Birth Order

Because I was guilty
not being a good sister
I worked on homework
I must have done ten years ago.
She stayed up late
with me: Guilty too, perhaps
of always asking for help
and always getting it.
So we spent the night going over
formulas, patterns
over and over
feeling holes, filling blanks.
As if this were all
of life--hollows to be filled
with what fits for the moment,
why we practiced
on shape-sorter toys:
Trials and errors we live through
to get it right. Years later,
we get it: Square peg, square hole.
As if it were fit that bound us--
not love, not blood
but birth order: Guilt
relative to one another.


2.
Letter to a John
aaaaaaa(or, Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town... aaaaaaaaaTalking to Herself)

I love you.
Or I loved you--

Time, memory
I've learned not to trust them.

See, if I told you a story:
Two strangers meeting
In a country not their own
Falling in love, living together, lah-di-dah--

Say it ends with them
Returned to lives that used to be
Stories they'd tell one another--

Story, truth
These words interchangeable
Like foreign local house home.

Say it ends with them
Telling this story
Differently, and to different people--

How can I tell
What I feel versus
How I remember
You and I in ----?

No, we don't live there anymore.

aaaaaaa(With apologies to Pearl Jam.)


3.
This Story

You have heard me
or heard of me
telling this story or that--

How, for example, I left
science for poetry--
and you admire me.
Passion, you say, how brave!
This is what I want you to say.

But now, listen:
This is me naked in front of you
and I am hideous.
You are looking at me
and you do not want me.

There is honesty here.

I am the woman who forgets
to check the mirror. In fact
there is no mirror.
I forget to look
the way I forget to answer the phone--

The way my fingers shake
because they have something to say
and I have refused to open my mouth
or let go of the pen
or let it move.

There might be nothing
here: White paper like flat glass
without silver backing.


Yun lang po. Bow.

Lunes na naman!

Featured poets for the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights in magnet katipunan this coming Monday are:

1. Gémino H. Abad
Poet and literary critic Dr. Jimmy Abad obtained his B.A. in English from the University of the Philippines in 1964 and his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Chicago in 1970. Since then he has fulfilled a number of functions at .P., particularly as Secretary of the University, Secretary of the Board of Regents, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Director of the U.P. Creative Writing Center, now an institute. He continues to contribute to the growth of the Institute of Creative Writing as an active member of its Board of Advisers. At present, he is Emeritus University Professor at the College of Arts and Letters in U.P. Diliman.
He co-founded the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC).

2. Marne L. Kilates
Sir Marne has published two books of poetry, Children of the Snarl (Aklat Peskador, 1987) and Poems en Route (UST Publishing House, 1998), both of which have won the Manila Critics Circle National Book Awards. He was educated in the province, at the Divine Word College in Legazpi City, and has attended the Silliman and U.P. writers' workshops. His third collection, Mostly in Monsoon Weather, will be published by the University of the Philippines Press.

Apart from writing his own poetry, Sir Marne is also a translator of Tagalog poetry. His most recent translation is that of National Artist Rio Alma's, Sonetos Postumos (UP Press, 2006). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) and is an Associate Fellow of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC). He has also won several Palanca Awards and the 1998 SEA (Southeast Asia) WRITE Award given by the Thai royalty.

3. Glenn Vincent Atanacio
Glenn obtained his AB Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas in 2005. One of the most promising poets of his generation, he has honed his craft on the streets of Manila as much as in the conference halls of workshops and seminars. He has been a writing fellow to the UP, Ateneo and IYAS National Writers Workshops and has received due recognition, including the award Thomasian Poet of the Year 2003-2004. Glenn has served as associate editor and literary editor of UST's The Flame journals and the organization's head literary folio, Dapitan, which was awarded Best Student Literary Folio by the Catholic Mass Media Awards.

4. Enuh Iglesias
is a law graduate, an instructor in the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and a banned show dog trainer. She is interested in events-organizing, blogging, podding, and troubleshooting her ibook. She is one of the prime-movers of BANNED Movies.

5. Andrea Liamzon
Deep in her heart, Andrea desires to be a professional birdwatcher and/or amateur iconoclast. In her spare time, she likes diagramming the confusion in her head. She will be leaving for St. Petersburg this August to continue her studies in Russian Literature.

6. Alexander Barrios Agena, Jr.
Alex is a budding and published poet from the University of the Philippines, Diliman.
His poems have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including Caracoa 2006. He currently works as a technical account executive in Makati. He is a member of the U.P. Quill, the web-based Peaks, Pinoypoets, and Guni-Guni. He was a fellow of the 3rd UST National Writers Workshop.

7. Nash Benitez
is an interior designer, part-time writer, and part-time host. She is interested in architecture, art, design, travel, reading, football, extreme sports. She says she is passionate about life and her country. She believes that to whom much is given, much is expected. She loves the latin phrase, Carpe Diem.

8. Arkaye Kierulf
is a chemistry senior at the Ateneo de Manila University. His works have been published in various literary journals and nationwide magazines, including the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, The Philippines Free Press, the and Ateneo Heights Journal. In 2005, he won the San Francisco-based Meritage Press Poetry Prize.

9. Ramil Digal Gulle
Ramil is a two-time Palanca-winning poet and the author of several books of Poetry, the most recent of which is Textual Relations, published by the UP Press in 2006.

10. Kris Lanot Lacaba
Kris "El Pinoy Matador" Lacaba is a well-published poet, performer, and filmmaker. His works have appeared in various literary magazines. He was a fellow of the U.P. and Dumaguete National Writers Workshops. He recently finished his M.A. degree in Creative Writing form the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He now works for the Manila Bulletin.

11. Kash Avena
is "magnet" incarnate. A senior student of Miriam College, Kash is finishing her degree in Comm Arts and is keen on working in an advertising agency soon, or becoming a full-time poet. She gets enough credit for her passion for poetry and distinct poetic voice. She was the literary editor of Miriam's literary folio, Fragments, last year.

12. Corin Arenas
is a junior Comm Arts student in Miriam College. She is into visual arts, poetry, music, and theater. She is a co-founder of PINAY, a theater group in Miriam.

13. Drey Teran
will host the reading with Joel Toledo.

14. Mikael De Lara Co
Kael graduated with a BS degree in Environmental Science from the Ateneo de Manila, where he is currently pursuing his masters in Panitikang Pilipino-Malikhaing Pagsulat. He was a fellow for poetry in the Ateneo, UST, IYAS, and Dumaguete National Writers Workshop. He is the lead guitarist of the band Los Chupacabras.

15. Angelo V. Suárez
Gelo is an MA Communication student at the University of Santo Tomas, is the author of two books of poetry: The Nymph of MTV and else it was purely girls. He has won prizes from the Carlos Palanca and Maningning Miclat Foundations, and the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle and the first Bridges of Struga International Poetry Prize from UNESCO and the Republic of Macedonia for Nymph. He is currently working in close collaboration with visual artists on his new book, Dissonant Umbrellas: Notes Toward a Gesamtkunstwerk.

16. Lope Cui, Jr.
is the deathbringing, harmonica-toting singer of the art-goth-snore-core band, Tabloid Lite and an up and coming poet and Mall of Asian. He holds an MBA degree from UP Diliman and is a business professor at Miriam College.

17. Lourd Ernest De Veyra
is a multiple Palanca-winning poet and essayist, music critic, musician, and chef to friends. He was a fellow of the U.P. Advanced Writers Workshop in 2006 and the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop. He is the frontman and lyricist of the acclaimed band, Radioactive Sago Project.

18. Joel M. Toledo
will host the reading along with Drey Teran.

19. Israfel Fagela
Easy was a fellow for poetry in the UP and Dumaguete National Writers Workshops. He is a practicing lawyer, and the lead singer, composer, and instigator of the band Los Chupacabras.

20. Rock Drilon
is a much-acclaimed and recognized prime-mover and figure in the realm of the visual arts. He graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He owns the Magnet chain of galleries, cafes, and bookshops.

21. Michael Balili
Mike is a member of the U.P. Quill, winner of the Amelia Lapenia-Bonifacio award for Poetry, and a published poet.

22. Bianca Consunji
works for the 2BeU section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A graduate of U.P. Diliman, she is a former winner of the Ramon Magsaysay awards for the essay.

23. Ken Ishikawa
is the co-editor of the upcoming anthology of new Philippine Poetry with PLAC founder Cirilo Bautista. He is a former fellow of the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop, a published poet, and the proud father of daughter, Yuuki.

24. Adam David
is the random fandom fellow of the recent U.P. Advanced Writers Workshop in Baguio. He experiments and innovates with his fiction and poetry. His works have appeared in the UP Writers Club folio, The Literary Apprentice and the Caracoa 2006.

25. Khavn de la Cruz
is a filmmaker, writer, and musician, and two-time Palanca winner. Since 2002, he has been the festival director of the .MOV International Digital Film Festival. With his independent film company Filmless Films, he has produced ten digital features and more than forty short films, several of which have won prizes in the Philippines, Tokyo, Spain and Italy. He has served as a juror in the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France) and Jeonju International Film Festival (Korea). He has been invited twice to the Berlinale Talent Campus, and has received the Hubert Bals Fund grant thrice. He is the lead singer of the bands, The Brockas and delakrus.

Reading runs from 7 to 930pm. The prog-stomping, nearly experimental, almost famous, and semi-obscure band Shinjuku Lager Club plays in between the reading.

and after, the wasakan continues as Wahijuara and Radioactive Sago Project rock the house!!!

Yes, I also happen to be...

An emo boy. Obviously, I am a girl with many faces. Not necessarily a girl's face, too!

Great. So the list, yes, the Drey-is/Drey-is-not list keeps on growing. Here's what we have so far:

1. Drey is not Filipino-at-all;
2. Drey is a tomboy;
3. Drey is not a lesbian;
4. Drey could be a convincing lesbian; and the latest...
5. Drey is an emo boy.

Yup, you heard me right. Drey is NOT an emo girl. She is an emo boy. It started out with a conversation that went like this:

Me: K. has two [my sister's name here]s in her class and she thought the more groovy one was my sister--because of how I dress! Haha! Aren't I a shirt-and-jeans kinda gal?

Her: Well, you do dress a certain way, Drey. Actually, you dress like an emo boy.

Yahoo. Of course, a few days later, I was out for midnight smokes with L. and D. (at the 7Eleven, of all places) and another conversation went like this:

Me: I wish I weren't me today! (Face burried in hands in mock tears.)

L: That is such an emo boy thing to say!

Me: If I could draw, you know what I'd do? I'd make comic strip of this whole incident!

D: Yeah, that would be fun! Have somebody draw it for you!

L: Yeah, but the last panel's got to be that emo-boy moment: "I wish I weren't me today!" with your face in your hands.

(Laughter. Even I had to laugh. Even the guy eavesdropping to that conversation had to laugh.)

Yup, I guess the verdict is in. And guess what? I found this on the net. Knock yourself out.

*****

I was down with vertigo twice (yes, twice!) the last week. Another thing to add to my useless-vertigo-knowledge: Never trust a mild attack. A more vicious one is just around the corner.

Weirder thing about it, though, was this: Last night, just before drifting off, I started singing in my head this Yuzu song "Itsuka" which was the one song (except for the Voltes V theme, of course) I could sing in Japanese, and sing well in karaoke. Perhaps coupled with vertigo, this somehow triggered some part of my subconscious, because I ended up dreaming a long train ride with my Japanese professor, and we were speaking in Japanese the whole time! I never knew I could speak Japanese like that! I mean, I was conscious of using words like hypertext (God, what were we talking about?!) but I was saying it like "haipaatekisto" which is how they'd say it. It was unbelievable!

In the morning/noon, I was puttering around my sister's apartment (raiding her fridge, actually), when I saw some yakisoba and chopsticks, and wham! To misquote Celine Dion, It All Came Back To Me Then. I told my sisters, but they didn't seem to appreciate its significance. I mean, listen to this:

Me: (Gasp! as I was opening the fridge) I dreamt about Hor-sensei last night! Oh my God! It was so weird. We were on a train, and we were talking in Japanese the whole time! It was crazy!

Sister: Who's Hori-sensei?

Hori-sensei, hontou ni gomen!!! m(_ _)m

*****

Happy Mondays at Mag:net Katipunan

I'm currently trancscribing and editing this interview with an author for an online journal--and I just remembered he said something like this:

"Performance poetry is having a great time because it has immediate effects and... it's partying, really."

Right on. So see you tonight at Mag:net Katipunan, you guys. Let's eat, drink and read poetry. For tomorrow... is Tuesday. And c'mon, there's no gate for this one.
*****

The following poets will read their works!

1. Ramil Digal Gulle
A two-time Palanca-winning poet, Ramil is the author of Textual Relations, recently published by UP Press.

2. Jamie Wilson
Jamie is a professional actor in theater and indie films, nominated for numerous Aliw Awards as well as for best actor in last year's Urian Awards for the Cinemalaya film, Bigtime. He has been doing spoken word poetry since the mid '90s in Old, Bohemian Malate.

3. Ingrid Reynolds
Is an Australian poet currently in the the country for hectic work, sublime art, and meditative Yoga classes.

4. Johanna Fernandez
Started writing poetry back when she was in 3rd year high school at St. Paul's, Pasig. She is currently a sophomore in the Ateneo and has sung with the Nictynasty band gigs in Magnet.

5. Yanna Verbo Acosta
Works as a performance poet with the collaborative group Project Ganymede, and has performed with several musicians such as Punnu Wasu of Sing India, Oz Arcilla (violin), Silverfilter (electronica), and percussion group Sruvaleh. She is part of the Electric Underground Collective which regularly performs at Cesare Syjuco’s exhibit openings.

6. Mikael De Lara Co
Kael is an M.A. Literature in Filipino student in the Ateneo and a published poet who's been to various National Writers Workshops in the country. He also plays the mean lead guitars for Los Chupacabras.

7. Keith Cortez
Was a recipient of the UST Ustetika awards for his poetry and co-edited the most recent issue of Dapitan.

8. Yol Jamendang
Yol is a bayaw teacher in the Ateneo's Filipino Department as well as a former fellow of the Ateneo Writers Workshop.

9. Angelo Suarez
Is a two-time Palanca-winning wasak poet with two books of poetry and a third one close to publication. His book, The Nymph of MTV, won for him the National Book Award.

10. Arkaye Kierulf
Is one of the youngest and most promising poets in the country. He was the winner of the 2005 Meritage Poetry Prize and his poems have appeared in various literary publications.


Other expected readers include Ken Ishikawa, Cos Zicarelli, Kash Avena, Corin Arenas, Lope Cui, Jr., Khavn Dela Cruz, Kenneth Magadia, Pancho Villanueva, and John Torres. Rising indie band Tabloid Lite jams in between.

*****

"..." said the fish underwater.

*****

Oh, and I can't believe I forgot. But this is the last one, I promise--until next season, anyway. Bring out LeBroom--it was a sweep!

UAAP next. Hahaha. Go Ateneo!

A Plumb-Crazy Story

(From Sunset Slope Realty Corporation File No. 2007-JO3739)

Trancript of complaint filed by Andorea Tehran (Tenant 205-X) of Unit 205, Sunset Slope Homes 3+1, A. Ebada Street, Yoyola Valley, Quezon City regarding a leaking sink (and other matters).

===Start of Transcription===

SUMMARY
On 31 May 2007, Andorea Tehran (from here on referred to as the Tenant) filed a Job Order (see attached copy JO3739A) with the Management of Sunset Slope Homes (from here on the Management) to have her sink fixed and a deadbolt installed on her front door.

The Management assigned plumber Jhaysohn Kuku (Contractual Employee # CE502, from here on CE502) for said job.

Fixing of the sink and installation of deadbolt began on 01 June 2007 (3:00 PM to 7:00PM) and finished 02 June 2007 (10:30 AM to 2:00 PM).


CHARGES
(1) Sink
Cost of fixing the sink was charged to the Management to be taken from previous occupant's deposit. (JO3739A falls under Article V Section 2 of contract, Regarding Job Orders Filed within 2 Months of Moving In.)

(2)Miscellaneous
aaa(a) Deadbolt--provided by Tenant.
aaa(b) Installation--Php 150.00

(3) Total
Charge to Tenant-- Php 150.00


REMARKS/COMPLICATIONS
(1) Sink
Pipes were fine, but sink had to be re-tiled and re-grouted.

(2) Deadbolt
N/A--"Very satisfactory."

(3) Others
On 02 June 2007, the Tenant complained to the Management (see attached complaint form # CF2326A) that CE502 used information found on the Job Order (JO3739A), specifically the Tenant's cellular phone number, and used it to harrass her the night of 01 June 2007. The tenant claims that "five minutes after he was out the door" CE502 started sending her somewhere around ten text messages, ranging from popular forwards, chain-text, jokes--"even picture messages!"--to the usual "polite" messages (e.g., "Ingat U", "TY", "Gudnyt", etc.). When the Tenant did not reply to the aforementioned texts, CE502 sent her load worth Php 30.00 (SMARM Economy Autoload), "even apologizing that it was all he could afford". Tenant says she felt "a bit guilty" after that, so she sent one message in reply, only to say that CE502 "shouldn't have done that but thank you". Tenant admits that she herself "shouldn't have" replied at all, but insisted that she felt "guilty". She further claims that her reply was never meant to be in any way interpreted as a form of encouragement--she was simply "very polite to the point of stupidity".

CE502 "obviously did not share this opinion" as he continued to send her messages until late at night, and even called her five times in succession. She never answered any of his calls, and claims she was very embarrassed by all this, as she had put her celphone in her pants' back pocket, and she felt she was "walking around Kupitanan Avenue with [her] ass ringing". Furthermore, since the job wasn't finished on the same night, she worried about how to deal with CE502 the next day. She insisted that her fear was "very valid" as she believes CE502 is "very familiar around lead pipes".

The Management later on called CE502 to the Main Office at the Sunset Slope Homes 3+0 Building, and met with him regarding the complaint. When asked about the Tenant's accusations, CE502 said he "couldn't understand what her problem was." He admitted to copying her celphone number with the express purpose of texting her, but firmly stated that he was just trying to be friendly since she lived alone, and was "pretty, and seemed to be nice". He added that the Tenant "even gave [him] a cigarette when [he] asked for one". He reiterated that he meant no harm, and that the tenant was just "lucky" as he had just availed of the SMARM Unilimited Text promo, and only decided to text her as "she just happened to be a SMARM user as well". CE502 also asserted that this whole incident wouldn't have occurred--"nor this meeting"--if the Tenant had been "say, a GLOB user instead". When asked about the SMARM load he had sent her, he shrugged and said that he bought the load with the tip she gave him, "so it was her money, really". When the meeting was wrapping up, CE502 added that "on second thought, [the Tenant] wasn't that pretty" and that she was a "boring textmate, anyway".


RESOLUTION
On 02 June 2007, the Management reprimanded CE502 for bothering the Tenant. The Management also apologized to the Tenant for CE502's behavior. The Tenant decided not to pursue the complaint further, as she was very satisfied with her "very new, very shiny deadbolt.. and oh yeah, the sink, too".


NOTES
A few days later, CE502 was hired again to fill out another job order for another occupant (Tenant 313-B, see copy of file 2007-JO3845) in a different building and there were no problems.

(Incidentally, Tenant 313-B is a STAR Cellular user.)

===nothing follows===

===End of Transcript===