Pack List

After a weekend in Coron, Palawan, I find myself reluctant to leave my room for days until I fly out. Here I am in the middle of the morning sitting in front of my computer and wishing the days are longer. I have tons of stuff to do, but I am in my lamest mood and up to my favorite vice: procastinating. Probably everyone has this cacophony of emotions before leaving: excitement and anxiety, mostly, churning like a tide inside the gastric antrum. Strong emotions that comes in currents, upstream and sometimes, downstream, which just leave you wanting to stand perfectly still. Stillness, before the undertow is what I am experiencing right now.

I wanted to bring most of my stuff here in my room but it also makes sense to leave it all behind and start anew. Should I bring my favorite Spanish books? My 30+ novels that I needed to leave? Most probably not. I havet thought about it for days and concluded that there are just some things I should bring with me:

1. Notebooks, journals. Yeah, I keep those. Writers do and it is supposed to be a secret. I dream of becoming one. Just like being a full-pledge doctor -- it started with a dream. It feels like it, though. Because for the past three years of underpaid hospital duties and career uncertainty, it was a nightmare.

2. My WD hard drive: my 80GB song collection is just too precious. Not to mention my 105 Broadway albums ripped and stored in it. Well, the pictures since 2004 are among the pieces of gold in that electronic black box. Without it, I'll probably go into clinical depression. I can see myself staring in space for days, trying to pin every picture to memory and inconsolably weeping for my music.

3. Badminton shoes. I am still thinking if I am going to chug my trusted old badminton racket all the way to Pennsylvania...hmmm. Those shoes are still new; my racket is already five years old. He just had his birthday last week.

4. My pinstripe suit by Julius Tarog. It will suit me until I can afford to get a new one. I support Filipino designers...so probably I'll get a new one when I go back. It also served as a guide of my ideal body weight for my height; if I can't get into it, I should start doing cardio again.

5. A sentimental sweater from this years' birthday.

6. My favorite sportshirt from someone special. People will kill me if I spill the beans on this. So, zip.

That's it. The rest of my luggage will be for pasalubong. I stacked enough clothes in NY and PA to keep my ass covered for the next few weeks, until I have money to get discounted jeans from Old Navy. I don't want to bring that much luggage; it's just a pain in the butt to carry two of them to JFK.