An entry with lots of 'library' in it

The 'compromised ray of sunlight' --to borrow from my favorite line in The Hours by Michael Cunningham--that managed to peek through the dusty,huge, open windows in the Main Library assaulted me with a wave of nostalgia. It conjured up a gymnastics of blissful, yet horrible, memories of preparing for impossible exams i had to take before in the mighty UP College of Engineering. The Main Library always appealed to me more despite having a full-blast airconditioning system in the Engineering Library - yes, the Main Library in UP Diliman maintains an atmosphere just natural for the naturally, albeit poor, intellectual.

Yesterday afternoon, i decided to study for my Microeconomics midterms in the Main Library. I realized our apartment offered too much comfort that i might not be able to resist the inviting promise of my bed. I found myself later in the Social Science section poring over Nicholson's unfriendly discussion of the the better effects of taxing income rather than taxing goods and services. Leafing through my notes, i felt a disturbing presence - that stubborn itch to divert my attention to gaze at the imposing cabinets of books that stood witness to my struggles during my undergrad years; wander at the well-polished narra tables and seats perfectly ergonomic to relieve a breaking spine; and listen to the delicate rustling of bamboo leaves that seemed to gossip over the carefree lovers dating in mossy benches along the pathway.

Barely two chapters in my reading, i heard an incessant clanking of a bell - a commanding sound to alarm us that the library was closing. Walking past the usual inspection of bags and books by familiar librarians and Ilonggo security guards, i left the library with a load of convoluted emotions only later appeased by the realization that it was indeed, really nice to be back - for today, I will study again at McDonald's.

Wanderings

It is an unfortunate fact that taking a Jeepney to get to your destination brings with the sentimental journey a package of lingering realizations;too many, in fact, that a semicolon was necessary to add to this already long sentence a bulletin to usher you to my second paragraph.

Save for Thursday nights when i take a cab to get to my class in UP, I usually join the mob of sweating laborers and struggling yuppies commute to lowly Cubao from Eastwood City. The setting is interestingly egalitarian: the educated and the tired construction worker seated next to each other, indifferent to a wave of exhausted breathing. But I find it rather unusual that it is during this time of discomfort that i manage to pause and contemplate on the day's events. I feel contained in a moving piece of metal that absorbs not only the exhumed heat of the earth but also the string of unwanted incidents that transpired in the office. I go through the process of recalling them from memory and then rationalizing each mistake or misjudgment along the glorious thumping of the speaker box under my seat---the jolt in my butt signaling to end my exaggerated wanderings.

I have been working in Eastwood City for a Research and Development Facility of a Japanese company for almost two years now. The excitement grows as the days crawl to my second year in the office; the day i plan to resign. Unfortunately, i did not like my job in this Company, and i cannot be more honest than that. However, i cannot discount the many lessons i learned that merit sincere gratefulness from my part.

I'm writing this because tonight i did not ride a jeepney on my way home. What i wrote in the previous paragraph was constructed in my memory while i was comfortably sitting inside a taxi. I feel contained in a moving piece of metal that absorbs not only the exhumed heat of my body but also the string of unwanted incidents that transpired in the office in the last two years. I go through the process of recalling them from memory and then rationalizing each mistake or misjudgment along the glorious thumping of the poorly upholstered seat--the jolt in my butt signaling to end my exaggerated and redundant wanderings.