inklingfair (said the great sage Xiumin… who is finally getting a solo in September!)
A few nights ago, our house-mice ate the potato chips I had thoughtlessly left on my desk. Good for them. Now Josh is considering adopting a cat. I wonder now who’s living on the House on Charity Lane, after all the girls left. Our friends the mice, no doubt, who witnessed me inviting work friends over for my birthday during the monsoon season, to paint the back fence of our teeny “yard”, a la Tom Sawyer, except with fun colors. That was also the first time Josh messaged me, to apologize for not being able to come over because it was the wedding of his favorite cousin, who, with her husband four years later, became our wedding godparents. It makes me cringe ever so slightly, remembering that message, which went something like “Happy birthday to the coolest tita of my future daughter!” That… turned out better than we thought it would.
It’s a Saturday, and not just any Saturday – it’s the Saturday of the first live concert that most of the active EXO members will be performing at, not counting the 10th anniversary fan-meet and Kai/Chen’s solo outings in Europe and Australia. I had been thinking of getting tickets to the official virtual stream, but decided against it – and a good thing, too – each member will only be performing solo songs, D.O. will not be singing any songs from his Empathy album, and Sehun won’t be there. Sure, SM. Anyway, I’m just taking it in stride, watching EXO-CBX’s Ladder. I might drop by a Discord stream with a few online friends for the EXO and SNSD bits.
Josh celebrated his birthday last Saturday, and we had a lot of fun storming the castle John and Hershey’s new home with a wildly random lunch spread of misua, barbecue, cheesy tteokbokki, spicy mandu, makgeolli+Jeju tangerine juice, Radler (I’ve missed you! All we’ve been having was the inferior San Mig Lemon), fresh lumpia, egg pie and Big Al’s chocolate cake. Josh and I probably slept the afternoon away. The house was very Instagrammable – the interiors looked like an Architectural Digest magazine spread, though to be honest if I had a house like it I’d probably be spending most of my time in the den/bar reading/writing and experimenting with cocktails.
Uncle G passed away last month from complications after his angioplasty. I heard the news from the community group chat while we were conducting a weekend workshop with the NCR Leni Youth, and I hurried home in a daze of disbelief. He had just been there the previous week, and we were supposed to have a youth meeting the next day. Josh texted Father Paolo asking about it, because it was his last message in the GC, and he said we’d push through. My parents were at our house for the weekend, and I felt guilty about being away from home for most of it, but we wanted to go. We went to his wake that evening, and the gospel was the same as what we were scrutinizing in the youth meeting: about the man who went to his neighbor at night to plead for some bread for a visitor. Uncle Gilbert was like that, always “asking for bread” for us, the community he loved and served. And he had that roguish persuasive charm that even the devil would probably open the door and give him all the bread in the pantry.
He gave Amy a set of encyclopedias when we were neighbors. At the time he said he was doing something like a death cleaning, giving away things that he didn’t want to keep by the time he passed away. I didn’t think he would actually die afterwards – David joked that he expected him to suddenly get up and take the mic during his own wake mass and make some announcements. I don’t know how many times I wept that weekend until his funeral Thursday of that week. Josh, Luis, and especially Pops and Mom were devastated. I miss his humor and passion, and how he made spiritual life alive for me – not just for me, but for all of us. He was a giant, and there won’t be anyone like him again. Still, we walk on.
That same week I was able to talk to Dr. K again, after over a year, and told her about my general lethargy, and she asked about my sleep. I wasn’t doing well. She gave me a new prescription that could help regulate my mood as well as help me fall and stay asleep. I read literature saying it decreased REM, which I took to mean less dreaming, which, yes, I couldn’t remember any dreams that first week. But lately I think I’ve adapted and started remembering my dreams better. Not enough that I can write about them when I’m wide awake, but I’m no longer as groggy or disconcerted as that first week. Progress?
Josh and I watched The Sandman last week, and while it was very engaging, I think I still enjoyed the graphic novel better. It felt too CGI-d and lacked that quality of… diaphanousness? might be the word, and the only character I feel was better in the series was The Corinthian, who was more charming and likeable, if that were possible. I didn’t like it enough to try to look for the comic book online – same feeling as looking up EXO/U2 DVD box sets – I know they’re on Shopee, but I’d rather buy Amy books. (And I did, this week – the last of the Chronicles of Narnia.)
Leni (V) is somewhere in Miami now, so I’m using the time to organize the learning strategy, and great timing, too, because my SALT team is working on the exact same thing. I might try using Gnowbe, and plan out how a hybrid/blended journey looks like next week. The comms team had a Paseo Day this week and it was fun to catch up again and just have a meal together after a long while. I wish I could bring them to Old Captain (that Chinese hole-in-the-wall with baby geoduck and crab/shrimp congee Luis and Aitana brought us to last week) when they come over to QC. Maybe if they’re up for a late night.
Did I say I sent the postcard to 디오? I did. I biked to the post office and dropped it off before riding to DAKILA HQ – that same day M tested COVID positive right before the staff planning and Floyd’s and Leni’s long trip to the Americas. We’ll probably get back to the office by next week, and Amy’s starting school on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the third case of monkeypox has already been detected in the country (no DOH secretary yet!), there are onion and sugar “shortages”, and people are disappearing and being found dead.
We pause for beer and facial masks, then we fight again.
Photo: Do Kyung-soo pouring beer on the rooftop of his homestay in Off The Grid
