Now, now, now. This is what I anticipated – being tagged. LOL!

For the past weeks, I have been moving about from one site to another. Two of my favorite fellow bloggers that I have been visiting often are: Señor Enrique and Niceheart. The first I love to “stalk” not only because of the artistry of the Señor’s photos, but of his “intricately” woven articles as well. The second I frequently go to because Niceheart and I are both moms, and our thoughts, ideas and experiences do blend well. Incidentally, I discovered lately another mom blogger, AnnaManila whose literary style I truly dig.

Tagging, it seems, is a fun way of connecting with other bloggers. Whenever I read tags before, I secretly wished to join in. But it appeared to me these bloggers tagging one another were already well acquainted, and I had the impression that they had a clique in which I was an outsider. I felt like a little girl sitting by the window, watching other children play outside…. “Puwede bang sumali?”…to which I would get a sneer, “Beh, di ka kasali dito!”

Anyhow, now that I am in (”it”), I’m getting chicken, especially so because Anna Manila tagged me for “Five Well Kept Secrets”. (Oh my God! Which secrets? I have lots of ‘em. LOL!)

Yeah, which secrets? Well, I can play safe and just list down some amusing secrets of mine. I have actually similar secrets with Anna Manila’s such as: keeping chocolates from my children so I could have more, reading my daughter’s diary and my sons’ love letters. Hehehe. But thinking again, I decided to reveal some things about me which I have not really shared with anyone save my husband. I know one or two of these “skeletons in my closet” may make the readers (particularly those who know me personally) uncomfortable or exclaim a “Whaaaat???” in surprise or disgust, and one of the following (#1) is very embarrasing on my part – but I’m sure it would do no harm bringing them out in the open.

Okay, here we go. (Mga anak, huwag ninyong babasahin ito, ha?)

I title this meme:

Unlocking my closet:

1. I took Math 11 (College Algebra) five times! OMG! Now, I am betraying myself here. Don’t get the wrong impression, though. I was not poor in Math. Actually, Math was one of my favorite subjects in Elementary and High School. I come from a family where each of my siblings finished a Math related course.

My father always imbibed in us the importance of this subject. He always said, “Be good in Math and English, and you can excel in everything.”

But what happened to me? Well, when I enrolled at UP, I got culturally shocked. At first, Math 11 was easy enough for me, with some review of Modern Math on sets, subsets, elements and venn diagrams. Interpreted in graphs, I found it quite enjoyable. But when the lessons got deeper, they became more and more complicated for me as they infused Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus in this same subject. I was confused because I graduated from a general high school, so while some of my classmates who came from either Philippine Science High School or UP Prep High School were just breezing through the exercises, I writhed in agony, and I often found myself dropping the subject in the middle of it then retaking it the next term. (Pero talagang napakahirap ng Math sa UP. Ask any UPian and they can attest to it.)

2. I was once a manic carrot eater. (Occasionally at present, I still am). This occurred when I suspected I was inflicted with some form of cancer. At first, I peeled and sliced about 3 or 4 carrots and consumed them in a day. Then my jaws started to hurt. I bought a blender. But the pulp often lodged in my throat, so I bought a juicer. The juicer seemed to have made it easier for me to take in as many as 4-6 carrots a day. Incidentally, I think there is nothing objectionable about this, except for my being manic about it that I would fret on days when I failed to have my daily dose of beta carotene.

3. I threw my wedding ring away. Who could blame me? I was 26, and outrageously jealous! It happened when, one time, I dropped by a radio station to pick up a voice clip tape. (I was working then as production chief in a local radio station.) Of all people that I would see there – was my husband! I entered their office, and was taken aback with this sight: My husband was sitting face to face with a…. sexy girl, (apparently a DJ in that FM station) – with only a narrow desk, no more than 1 and 1/2 foot in width, between them. Well, she may be sexier, but knew pretty well I was lovelier. LOL! It could have been alright, if he stood up, escorted me to the table and introduced me as his wife. But none of these happened. Enraged, I stormed out of the office and went home. He didn’t follow me! So I called up that station and I asked to talk to him. Sensing I was angry, he went home immediately and the confrontation was so intense that I threatened him with separation. To show him I was serious about it, I threw my ring outside the window, to a vacant lot. Next day when things were cleared and my anger subsided, I went to the vacant lot to look for the ring. I never found it.
4. I once (several times, actually) wore my husband’s underwears. Oh, please read on! Don’t scorn or laugh at me! But then again, I was a young newly wed, and a pampered youngest child, I couldn’t even wash my hankies! Aside from doing errands for my siblings, I was not given major tasks in the house. So when I got married, I knew nothing of household work except perhaps housecleaning. And there was a time when my mother’s househelp was sick and failed to fetch my and my husband’s laundry. You may think I was just too lazy to wash even our undies, but believe me – for me at that time, it was an arduous, impossible work to do.

5. I was sexually harassed at work by my superiors. Well, who doesn’t have this experience one way or another? You may say – “Why talk about it only now? Why didn’t you file complaints?” But I have my own reasons why I chose to keep silent about it. One, I was not bodily molested, although on two occasions, those perpetrators attempted at it, but failed. Two, I was smart enough not to let them have their base. Not that I knew martial arts. I was just wise to be able to get away from their ogling and dirty side comments. Three, I didn’t want scandals. As long as I came clean, those guys could just go to hell. By the way, these unpleasant experiences happened to me in two different stints: 1) when I worked as production chief in a radio station 2) when I taught in a local high school as an English teacher.

I have one concern with regards to my fifth secret. On these present times, men harassing women have become bolder. So if some lady would come to me for advice on what to do when faced with similar situation, I would suggest they do not follow as I did by keeping silent too, for they may not have the same luck as I did. They should address the problem immediately, nip it in the bud, so to speak – and not let these evil-intentioned men have their edge and possibly go offway.

There you go – I have unlocked my closet. Now, who should I want to unlock theirs? I only hope they haven’t been tagged yet.
Kathy

a1225

manilenya

Go for it!