Of One-Topic Friends and Foretelling the Future, NOT!

 people are not characters
from your favorite comic strip;
feeding funnies every morning,
for breakfast, to remind you that 
the next hours wouldn't be that bad,

the same way memories of
happy days are not episodes
of feel-good sit-coms that
provide down-to-earth wisdom,

they are past…
no more but past.

Title: People Are Not Episodes of Feel Good Sit-coms
Date: No date indicated, probably c. 1989

I had a dream last night, that i recently received an email saying that i passed the cyberesponse application and that i need not go to work today as my shift will start tomorrow.

Problem is, I am with the cyberesponse team now and have started training. Got the news a couple of weeks ago. And same thing happened, i went to work one night only to be told i don't have a shift for that night and my shift with the cyberesponse team starts the very next day.

.. i think i have a gift of foretelling the future… i just need to work on the timing.~ hee hee!

Anyway, as i was about ready to go home from work yesterday, I saw a colleague who was also getting ready to leave. He's actually from another team I had a chance of talking to one midnight last year regarding going to Batangas. As my partner is from Batangas, I find affinity with people or topic about the province (except of course, showbusiness in the province. I mean, politics in the province!). I think we became "friends" because of that topic, Batangas, but we actually started out talking about our respective schedules. I was in the 4-day/10 hour grind, they were in the midnight shift at that time.

Anyway, the topic veered towards Batangas as he was discussing going there with another agent who happened to be there as well, smoking. When I joined in, saying that I too go to Batangas, he began asking how to go there by car. As I don't drive at all, I simply get on the bus, take a nap, and hope to wake up on my stop. He was asking a lot of question about the fastest way going there and since I couldn't offer any information, he talked about making a promise to his mother in law to visit Batangas.

I thought that ended there. Unfortunately, over the next few months, although the encounter was not that frequent, every time he would meet me, he'd talk about still not learning about the fastest route. And so after 5 months (again, the encounter is not that frequent, but just the same…), and that's yesterday, as I was getting ready to go home, this colleague saw me and we just nodded as a greeting, very Filipino, and walked our separate ways. I went to the locker, he, I don't know. I was organizing my things when a voice came from behind…

"Pare, alam ko na pala ang fastest way to Batangas…"

So how about you, do you have a one-topic friend? Someone you only get to talk with on just one, solitary, sad topic in this world???