The trip gets off to a sordid start when, after one hour of lining up, we are greeted by the excellent news that – due to their mistake of overbooking the flight by 10% -- one of our party of four would suddenly not be accommodated on the plane. The mishap slowly escalates into a disaster as the clock ticks on, and the plane finishes boarding its passengers – minus ourselves.
Our poor friend who unexpectedly does not have a seat on the plane must wait to get his luggage back, and the waiting is arduous as the crew members attempt to locate one bag out of several hundred that they are not familiar with.
Already it is 7.20pm, the time our flight was supposed to take off. All the passengers are already on board, and the P. A. system incessantly asks us to board the plane already, as if the airline were not aware of the catastrophe they had gotten us into.
How could we possibly board the plane, when one ticket which our group paid for was to suddenly not be accommodated on the flight?
Oh, the injustice of it all.
With any luck, we were going to get through this mess, but not until those airplane guys found our friend’s luggage, so he could at least spend a decent night in Manila waiting for the next flight to Davao (which was, gasp, at dawn).
Wait and wait and wait we must. And as we inadvertently become the plane’s ultimate cause of delay (and this not by our own faults, hence the injustice of it all), we already know, as we pace around the check-in counter, that the other passengers are already seething inside and quietly hating us.
When we finally board the plane, they were going to be shooting invisible daggers at us, I just knew it.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
Man in Green Shirt
When I get up to leave
(The real world calls and I must forget my thoughts),
I notice this one man sitting atop a brightly-lit, granite bench, about 5 meters from where I had been sitting.
He is dressed in a green shirt, his hair, threatening to go this way and that,
Grows a few centimeters past his ears,
and there are white streaks all threatening to come askew.
It’s obvious he has made a haphazard attempt at taming his mane.
He does not really look particularly sad, only he does not look happy either. He has skin the color of dark brown eyes on a very very sunny day, and his face looks weathered and wizened. The waiting man has a big belly, and I don’t really know what exactly he is doing so late on a Monday night, sitting on a brightly-lit granite bench, with a small white plastic bag beside him (it has something square and rectangular inside it, and the handles are tied together in a knot). I don't really know what he's doing so late on a Monday night,
No, I just don’t.
(The real world calls and I must forget my thoughts),
I notice this one man sitting atop a brightly-lit, granite bench, about 5 meters from where I had been sitting.
He is dressed in a green shirt, his hair, threatening to go this way and that,
Grows a few centimeters past his ears,
and there are white streaks all threatening to come askew.
It’s obvious he has made a haphazard attempt at taming his mane.
He does not really look particularly sad, only he does not look happy either. He has skin the color of dark brown eyes on a very very sunny day, and his face looks weathered and wizened. The waiting man has a big belly, and I don’t really know what exactly he is doing so late on a Monday night, sitting on a brightly-lit granite bench, with a small white plastic bag beside him (it has something square and rectangular inside it, and the handles are tied together in a knot). I don't really know what he's doing so late on a Monday night,
No, I just don’t.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Lasik Surgery: Wading Through The Haziness
Yesterday this girl underwent Lasik Surgery. Early on in the day, while waiting amongst maybe thirty other candidates for the same surgery that day, I went through a small bout of fright when another patient and I were ushered into the laser suite to have photos of our eyes taken by a very high-tech looking machine.
It just so happened that there was a lady currently getting surgery as we waited for our turn, and what was going on was being projected onto a large computer screen, so we could see a gigantic version of the eye and what the operation actually looked like from the surgeon’s point of view: a complete terror to myself and the other patient, as we gave each other frightful glances and unsure shrugs.
Perhaps it is just was well that I had to go through several hours of waiting after that, in order for the fear to abate, and a little impatience to kick in. Some time prior to my turn in the “laser suite,” some nurses began to apply eye drops that would cause my pupils to dilate. After awhile, as I had been warned, my vision began to blur, and I found that even if I tried to focus on my pupils to see just how dilated they were in the mirror, I couldn’t focus my eyes on anything! It was such a trip!!! Soon, once enough of these dilating eye drops had been administered, a mild anesthetic topical solution was also applied to my eyes. This was also a strange sensation, as my eyes, beginning to feel numb, began to feel as if they didn’t belong under my eyelids, like thick contact lenses or something to that effect. Highly recommended for those who enjoy mind-altering substances … in this case, it will be sensation-altering.
The most frightful of all was the actual surgery, which, as they had promised, would not be painful at all, only mildly discomforting. But just the thought that your eyelids have been plastered to stay open, even in the face of bright lights, and to experience a suctioning and know that they are cutting open one cornea and then another, well, that is a really frightful thing and will turn anybody’s hands and knees into a puddle of Jello.
If you saw Mel Gibson in the film Conspiracy Theory, you will have an idea as to how a patient might look like while under the mercy of her surgeon and laser beam. As for the patient, well, your main instruction and task throughout the (thankfully) short procedure is to look at the little red light. It will cause you some alarm when during a time a little ring is used to hold down your eye, you will lose just about all vision in the eye that is being operated on, thank goodness the doctor kindly warns you in a soothing voice that you will lose the red light for a short period, and then it’s back. And now, what with your bad vision and all, you still have a particular sense of how clear the red light is to you. Suddenly, with all the rubbing and suctioning and who knows what else kind of slicing going on, your little red light becomes two (when you know there is really only one), and soon after, all the lights become a far more intense blur, as if a veil were placed over your eyes. If I understand correctly, this is the time when the corneal flap is lifted in order for the laser process to begin.
I think I must have been moaning in weakness once my eyes had been bandaged and I was seated in the low lit and cool recovery room, trying to shrink away from the pain my eyes were causing me, but of course, not succeeding because they are my eyes.
All that followed were lots and lots of tears, brief attempts to open my eyes to see where I was going, and sleep, sleep, lots of it, with interruptions made for anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory eye drops to be administered every now and then.
It was not until waking this morning that I just had to amaze at the new world my surgery had given me: never in all my life had my vision been as clear (unaided by contact lenses or eyeglasses) since I was eight years old maybe. It is life-changing. And if yesterday I was wondering why on earth I went through something so risqué when all I could feel was pain; today I realize why so many people get it done. It is a completely different world for someone who has had to live with bad vision to be able to wake up and see everything perfectly. I cannot stress enough how life-changing Lasik surgery can be, but for someone who has had bad vision more than half her life, I am just astounded by the new lease on vision my eyes have been given, what a gift that God gave man the ability to hone science into something that will give old eyes a second chance. My new vision amazes and astounds me!
It just so happened that there was a lady currently getting surgery as we waited for our turn, and what was going on was being projected onto a large computer screen, so we could see a gigantic version of the eye and what the operation actually looked like from the surgeon’s point of view: a complete terror to myself and the other patient, as we gave each other frightful glances and unsure shrugs.
Perhaps it is just was well that I had to go through several hours of waiting after that, in order for the fear to abate, and a little impatience to kick in. Some time prior to my turn in the “laser suite,” some nurses began to apply eye drops that would cause my pupils to dilate. After awhile, as I had been warned, my vision began to blur, and I found that even if I tried to focus on my pupils to see just how dilated they were in the mirror, I couldn’t focus my eyes on anything! It was such a trip!!! Soon, once enough of these dilating eye drops had been administered, a mild anesthetic topical solution was also applied to my eyes. This was also a strange sensation, as my eyes, beginning to feel numb, began to feel as if they didn’t belong under my eyelids, like thick contact lenses or something to that effect. Highly recommended for those who enjoy mind-altering substances … in this case, it will be sensation-altering.
The most frightful of all was the actual surgery, which, as they had promised, would not be painful at all, only mildly discomforting. But just the thought that your eyelids have been plastered to stay open, even in the face of bright lights, and to experience a suctioning and know that they are cutting open one cornea and then another, well, that is a really frightful thing and will turn anybody’s hands and knees into a puddle of Jello.
If you saw Mel Gibson in the film Conspiracy Theory, you will have an idea as to how a patient might look like while under the mercy of her surgeon and laser beam. As for the patient, well, your main instruction and task throughout the (thankfully) short procedure is to look at the little red light. It will cause you some alarm when during a time a little ring is used to hold down your eye, you will lose just about all vision in the eye that is being operated on, thank goodness the doctor kindly warns you in a soothing voice that you will lose the red light for a short period, and then it’s back. And now, what with your bad vision and all, you still have a particular sense of how clear the red light is to you. Suddenly, with all the rubbing and suctioning and who knows what else kind of slicing going on, your little red light becomes two (when you know there is really only one), and soon after, all the lights become a far more intense blur, as if a veil were placed over your eyes. If I understand correctly, this is the time when the corneal flap is lifted in order for the laser process to begin.
I think I must have been moaning in weakness once my eyes had been bandaged and I was seated in the low lit and cool recovery room, trying to shrink away from the pain my eyes were causing me, but of course, not succeeding because they are my eyes.
All that followed were lots and lots of tears, brief attempts to open my eyes to see where I was going, and sleep, sleep, lots of it, with interruptions made for anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory eye drops to be administered every now and then.
It was not until waking this morning that I just had to amaze at the new world my surgery had given me: never in all my life had my vision been as clear (unaided by contact lenses or eyeglasses) since I was eight years old maybe. It is life-changing. And if yesterday I was wondering why on earth I went through something so risqué when all I could feel was pain; today I realize why so many people get it done. It is a completely different world for someone who has had to live with bad vision to be able to wake up and see everything perfectly. I cannot stress enough how life-changing Lasik surgery can be, but for someone who has had bad vision more than half her life, I am just astounded by the new lease on vision my eyes have been given, what a gift that God gave man the ability to hone science into something that will give old eyes a second chance. My new vision amazes and astounds me!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
A tale of temporary alliances and the beauty of the islands.
What a fine way to stumble into the day. I feel many bouts of wishing my sister were with me today, as we coast off towards the famed Balicasag Island, but I keep reminding myself that it was my choice to go off alone, so I suppose I must open myself up to the beauty that solitude can bring you.
All these temporary alliances keep being formed. For example, today, it is with Mang Junie, who I have commissioned to be my boatman for the day, as I swim with the amazingly beautiful fish off Balicasag. It took us forty-five minutes to get from Panglao Island to here, and on the way our boat caught sight of two other smaller islands: Puntod and Virgin Islands. Astounding.
My phone is picking up no signal here, it is as if Nature herself insists that I simply enjoy the island for what she is, without the minor stresses like wondering who will greet me for my birthday.
All these temporary alliances keep being formed. For example, today, it is with Mang Junie, who I have commissioned to be my boatman for the day, as I swim with the amazingly beautiful fish off Balicasag. It took us forty-five minutes to get from Panglao Island to here, and on the way our boat caught sight of two other smaller islands: Puntod and Virgin Islands. Astounding.
My phone is picking up no signal here, it is as if Nature herself insists that I simply enjoy the island for what she is, without the minor stresses like wondering who will greet me for my birthday.
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