Too damn hot in here.

I met with my old friend Paolo today and got to see his girlfriend too. We met over my very old tripod, which their group borrowed last month and for some reason got broken at the gear connected to the crank to raise or lower its head. One of the gear’s sixteen teeth got totally stripped and two got bent out of alignment.

Both of us were starting work pretty soon, with me ahead by three weeks. He was going back to Zobel, as I thought, on May 15th as a computer science teacher for the high school seniors. His monthly salary’s much higher than mine, though, which is really great and I’m happy for him. When I met him he was doing last-minute preparations for a sportswriting seminar he was holding.

As for me, I have no plans of going back to Zobel ever again. The thought of returning as a teacher crossed my mind, but it’d be best if I left that school altogether and burned it out of my memories as much as possible.

I can say now that I was never truly happy in Zobel. I spent too long in that fishbowl largely as a misfit. Looking for my happiness took too damn long and too much of my energy from what I should really have been doing.
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After the trouble of getting my NBI clearance, getting an NSO-authenticated birth certificate was a walk in the park. I am very glad the National Statistics Office, through its E-Census facility (http://www.e-census.com.ph), gives you the option to apply for any documents of theirs you need online.

Application is straightforward, though it could be a little more intuitive. It’s paying for your request that could pose some problems. The e-mail E-Census gave me said any Equitable PCI Bank and Union Bank branches can accept payment of the request. However, when I went to Equitable’s branch in DLSU, the manager didn’t know what to make of the acknowledgement e-mails I had with me.

A lot closer to home, I finally got to pay at Union Bank Bicutan. No questions asked, they accepted my payment. What’s more, I received the birth certificate I applied for this afternoon, in the mail. That sure beats going to the NSO’s Times St. building and waiting in line in the sweltering heat.

Now why can’t more government agencies act like that?
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Ever since I recovered from my last fever and headache, I find the summer heat has been oppressive. My condition’s fine for the most part, but strangely I still have hints of dizziness and light-headedness hounding me. Once it hit me while driving home with my sister and our pug Cooper on board because I felt uncomfortably heated.

I’m trying to avoid salty food and lack of sleep to remedy this, and I’ve been drinking like a camel these days too.

Now if only something can be done about the other nasty thing summer seems to bring: lots and lots of lousy, stupid drivers with no lane courtesy whatsoever. Goodness.