Sexy, Innocent Child-Woman

Of Spanish lessons and the quirks of friendship

Hola! Como estas? Estoy muy bien, gracias. (Tama ba???)

Just parted ways with my friend M about 45 minutes ago. She offered to tutor me in Spanish, and we met for our second session a little past 5PM. Our original plan was to get together at her studio. But no. When I got there at 4:55PM (she has issues with tardiness, as I found out two weeks ago), she wasn't home. I rang her buzzer, called her cellphone and got her voicemail twice till she finally answered her phone. It turned out she was in the library, printing some materials for me. Tama ba yon...so for once, na-late rin siya. Good thing I'm more flexible about stuff. I asked her if she'd rather meet in the library and she said that was fine, so I headed there ASAP.

I had thought of going to the library before heading over to M's house, just to check if she had e-mailed me any additional materials for our Spanish lesson. But I decided against it because I didn't have time. I took a nap when I got home at 330PM (I came from the library, haha. I was supposed to do my laundry pero alanganin 'yung oras because I need two hours to do laundry.) and woke up past 4PM to answer some exercises M had e-mailed me, which turned out to be rather advanced for my level. And I ended up taking a "shitbreak" so I really didn't have time. 'Yun pala, she was the one running late. Kung alam ko lang, sana naglaba na lang ako this afternoon, hehe =) Or I should have just gone to the library, anyways, without caring whether she would get upset with me for being late.

I am such an idiot. For some reason, I haven't bought a Spanish dictionary yet. Duh! I didn't realize I should have bought one till this afternoon, when most of the words in the exercise didn't make sense and I had no clue as to whether I should use "ser" or "estar" ("to be," used in different contexts) in the sentences. I just guessed my way through everything. Oh, and I forgot to make a second copy of the materials M e-mailed me this week. For some reason, I thought I didn't need to do that because she just e-mailed me a sheet with the pronunciation of letters in Spanish and the "ser" or "estar" exercise. Of course M got on my case for that. She asked me if I had forgotten to print a second copy. I didn't want to admit that it slipped my mind because that girl takes everything personally, as she admitted to me last Friday (she's a self-admitted "drama queen"), so I just told her I must have left the second copy on my desk at work. She understands I'm busy at work, so she didn't say anything. Oh, and she told me I should buy a Spanish-English dictionary. I wanted to kick myself when she said that. I don't know why. Siguro nahiya ako sa sarili ko. And I didn't want to give her another reason to get upset because apparently, she gets ticked off with some things easily.

Our lesson lasted for about an hour. We went over the Spanish alphabet and I did a spelling exercise, where I orally spelled Spanish last names. We also went over conversational expressions. The "ser" or "estar" exercise was my downfall. M checked my answers and reminded me at that point that I should get a Spanish-English dictionary to improve my vocabulary. Talk about stating the obvious. I don't know why I just got so embarrassed with my self. I couldn't even follow through with the exercise. She realized, though, that the exercise might have been too advanced for me. Hello, I think I had to answer 20 items or something and for the life of me, I don't even know a lot of Spanish words, let alone syntax and grammar rules. I got one item right but she said I got lucky. She kinda got upset with herself for giving me such an advanced exercise, so we ended the lesson shortly. She gave me an assignment: to write a dialogue using the expressions and pronouns I've learned thus far.

I was considering staying in the library, but I thought she wanted to hang out tonight or something and I guess I wanted to just be in her company and catch up with her, so I left the library with her. Well, she didn't invite me to do anything tonight, although she did say she finally bought Chilean wine and we could drink it tomorrow (oh my God, nagiging tomador na ako. I've been drinking more than once a week for the past couple of weeks. Di naman ako ganoon dati.) after our lesson. After we crossed the street, I bumped into Jackie, a student from the Pastoral Studies program whom I met at the "Calling to Justice" conference last February. I just smiled and said hello, and so did Jackie. I don't know if M got jealous (again) because I happen to know a lot of people not only on campus but also in Chicago and even in other states (kasalanan ko bang ma-PR ako?), but she said goodbye then. Hehe, at least nag-beso siya sa 'kin. She said she wasn't gonna do anything tonight, though. I told her I'd probably just do laundry and she laughed.

Jackie and I talked for a bit, then I headed back to the library. Hmp. I should have just stayed here after all. I bumped into Marguerite on my way here, and we talked about our plans for the 4th of July weekend. I wanted to kick myself again when I saw her. I meant to invite her to the Discipleship Day organized by my nun-friends here in Chicago last week, but I kept forgetting to e-mail her the details. By the time I e-mailed her, it was too late. I invited her to the Weekend Retreat of my nun-friends in Grand Rapids, MI (which has become my second home this year) in July, but she can't make it because she has to work that weekend. (Hehe, tama bang ako 'yung PR person ng mga kamadrehan? I'm in the wrong field. I should have gone into PR, not sociology...KIDDING!)

* * *
My phone just rang, but I didn't answer it because it was JP (a friend from college who now lives and studies in New York) on the other line. No offense to him, I love him to pieces, but sometimes, I wish he would pick the right time to call. We call each other just to talk about how things are going for us, and that's okay. I don't mind making telebabad with him, but I just wish he wouldn't call before 9PM because my cellphone bill just skyrocketed last month and I think I've been using up a lot of my free minutes. Duh, he can always call after 9PM naman or on the weekends and we'd both get unlimited usage that way. Hindi ako kuripot but I'm just playing it safe. I don't want to pay more than $100 for my freakin' phone bill, like I did last month. I'll just call JP back during off-peak hours.

found herself @ 8:48 PM