dashboard special

I commute to work everyday. And today, for lack of colorful old ladies and inspiring radio music, what fell under my scrutiny was the driver's seat. Specifically, the windshield and dashboard. All of us who take public transport look towards the front of the jeep. Do you actually see what's usually there, or do you gaze blankly until it's time to yell "Para!"?



1. The rosary. It's a staple. It hangs from the rearview mirror. Not only on jeeps, but also on cars, buses, tricycles, and trucks. In some cases there's also a tasselled plastic medallion of Our Lady of Good Voyage. My husband, though not particularly religious, plays it safe. The dangling rosary is from Jerusalem, and the medallion is from the church of Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan.

2. The sticker. Often it's related to #1, because it reinforces the prayer of everyone on the road: God bless our trip. No matter if the driver is a loud-mouthed, foul-mannered, reckless son of a bitch, the sticker right in front of him proclaims it: God bless our trip. I often whisper a P.S. at the end: Lord, let me reach my destination in one piece.

3. The other stickers. Let's recite them, shall we? Barya Lang Po Sa Umaga, on a sticker sponsored by Hotel Sogo. No Smoking. Victoria Court. 91.5 Big Radio. Yes FM. Love Radio. That's for the jeeps. For the FX and commuter vans, let's add Every Drop Counts, Universal Studios, the logo of the Playboy Bunny. And for the cars, that's where you boast Baby on Board, Lawyer on Board, Doctor on Call, and the various universities where you studied. I had to fight to have one sticker of Ateneo Graduate School of Business somewhere in my husband's van. He didn't want any sticker anywhere, aside from the ones issued by LTO and the subdivision. I won, though, but by a slight margin. He pasted it in the van's rear window, partially obscured by the wiper. And he promised to remove it as soon as I graduate, so I'm postponing my thesis.

4. The nodding, bobbing things. There's the plastic dog that bobs its head and tail. There's the gold cat that waves its paw. And there's the little flower that looks suspiciously like what you'd see in Plants vs Zombies, which waves its leaves around. You can buy them from vendors along Roxas Boulevard, along with feather dusters and windshield shades.

5. The hanging stuffed toys. They're more common in vans, FX and buses, but yes, even jeeps sport them. They're the ones that you get from Tom's World, where you drop a token in the slot and let those claws come down on one plush toy. You used to get teddy bears and little dogs and Hello Kitty. Now you get Ben 10 and Doraemon and Spongebob. The jeep I took this morning had a Dora, so grimy with dirt it's actually gray. My daughter would have a hemorrhage if she saw it; it actually looks like a voodoo doll. And the taxis? They used to have all seven of Snow White's dwarfs! Now it's-- ehem-- Angry Birds!!

6. The painted decorations. If you've ridden the long noisy jeeps that ply the routes of Antipolo, Cainta, and Tanay, you've seen them. Flashy painting on the jeep bodies, pounding music that rattles your teeth, dark interiors with eagles and dragons and tigers on the ceiling, alongside images of Mama Mary. But the ordinary jeeps and taxis have their walls and ceilings printed with the imaginative names of all their family members. Mario and Elena and Mario Jr. and Marlena and Mario III. I've ridden one Pasig-Quiapo jeep which took it one level up; it had logos of airlines in the ceiling: JAL and Thai Airways and PAL and Emirates. And you don't have to guess it: proclaimed on the side of the jeep, in bold colors, was KATAS NG OFW! Classic!

7. The witticisms. They're so commonplace you barely notice them. They hang on those little painted boards right behind the driver's head, along with the sign that says No Student ID, No Discount.

God knows Hudas not pay. (Oh, Lord, forgive us for being predominantly Catholic.)
Ang katok ay sa pinto, ang sutsot ay sa aso, ang para ay sa tao.
Forgive me my darling, kung ikaw ang aking naging ikalimang first love.

My jeep this morning had this classic invitation: Basta driver, sweet lover!
But I didn't count on the disclaimer below it:

Miss subukan mo akong ibigin, pag ika'y nagutom saka mo ako sisihin.

so how was your weekend?

They ask you that in the office on Monday morning. You grin and invariably say, "Good! I just stayed home, playing with the kids."



But, ladies and gentlemen, a real Sunday at home looks like this:

5:00 am. My 10-year-old is shaking me. She wants to jog and play badminton in the local park. I groan, tell her we’ll do it next week, and promptly fall asleep again.

6:00 am. I get up and prepare breakfast: rice topped with taba ng talangka, dried squid and fish, salted eggs, and lots of coffee. My husband has started applying glazing putty on the bare kitchen cabinets, part of the now month-long home improvement project.

8:00 am. I attack the laundry while the nanny attends to the 3-year-old who wants to jump into the soapsuds in the washing machine.

9:00 am. I go to the market with my 10-year-old while the nanny continues the laundry. The 3-year-old is now watching Dora on DVD.

11:00 am. Both kids are bathed. I am not. It’s time to prepare lunch. The 10-year-old has repeated four times that I promised we’d cook maja blanca today and has scattered Angry Birds playing cards all over the living room. I seriously consider being an Angry Bird.

1:00 pm. I sand the double deck in the children’s room, prior to repainting it. The nanny has both kids in our bedroom to get them away from the dust, where they're probably wrecking my little library.

3:00 pm. I peel and slice cassava, which I will cook in syrup and butter, for the afternoon merienda.

4:00 pm. The nanny rushes off to get a pedicure in her favorite salon while the 3-year-old is sleeping. I am applying a second coat of paint on the double deck. My husband, freshly bathed, goes into the bedroom and turns off the aircon. The 3-year-old promptly wakes and starts whining.

5:00 pm. We’re all watching Dora on DVD, and we’ve memorized the parts where Swiper the Fox appears, and we all recite “Oh, man!” so he will stop swiping. The 10-year-old, sick of Dora, hides in the bedroom with a laptop so she can download song lyrics to Korean pop songs.

6:00 pm. I prepare supper.

7:30 pm. The nanny comes back with a new haircut and purple toes, along with the ingredients for the maja blanca, which I had hoped my 10-year-old would forget.

8:00 pm. I start cooking maja blanca with my 10-year-old. We’re done in an hour, and they start eating it hot off the pan. My arms are aching.

9:00 pm. I eat my own supper while Dora (what else?) drones on and on in the background. It’s now playing in the portable DVD player so that the others could watch something else on TV. Dora and Boots get somewhat tiring after three dozen DVDs.

10:00 pm. The nanny is still returning freshly folded laundry in the closets, which means I cannot relinquish the 3-year-old to her yet. We draw lots of ABCs, count pens, and go up and down the stairs (hoping she’ll tire herself out and drop to sleep). By 11:00 pm I’m ready to drop and the kid is still bouncing around.

12:00 mn. The 3-year-old has a bad cold and cannot sleep, so I have to nebulize her. I’m only lying down on the bed when I see my 10-year-old’s PE pants that’s ripped in the crotch, which she has given me on Saturday to sew. So I bring out my sewing kit.

1:00 am. I cannot find my cellphone, which is important because I have to set the alarm for 4:45 am, so I can prepare breakfast. I realize it’s Monday already, and I remember I have not taken a bath.

elizabeth taylor's jewelry

The estate of Elizabeth Taylor is putting up her jewelry collection for auction in December. Its estimated total cost is $30 million. Among others, there's the 33.19 karat diamond known as the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, a gift from Richard Burton. It's expected to fetch $2.5 to $3.5 million.

A portion of the proceeds will go to her AIDS Foundation. Very noble.

I wonder how it feels like to wear a diamond like that, a diamond that has its own proper name.

I have a friend who keeps her jewelry in a safety deposit box in a bank. She takes out one piece to wear for a few days, gives it back to the bank for safekeeping, and takes out another one.

I have another friend who wore these nice gold ball earrings, and at P20,000 they're the cheapest thing in her collection.

Still there's another friend who asks a jewelry maker to come to the office from time to time. She checks out jewelry designs in the internet, then asks the maker to customize pieces for her, in white and yellow gold. The jewelry maker sometimes comes with finished pieces, which she allows to be bought on installment basis. The prices don't come lower than P50,000. I got tempted one time to order a piece from her, a custom-made cat pendant, in white gold.

I love accessories, but I'm not overly fond of pricey jewelry, mostly because I don't have enough money to start a collection. :-) I admire women who own beautiful jewelry, but I don't walk around carrying this hidden desire to wear Bvlgari or Cartier pieces.

The women in my family treat jewelry with reverence. I received jewelry from my mother as gifts on very special occasions, but only when I was old enough to take care of them. And the expensive ones are kept hidden, to be used only to impress relatives during weddings or old classmates during high school reunions.

I like owning things that I can use on ordinary days. In Special Things, I said that I don't have pretty dresses that I save for special occasions. I do have some nice jewelry, but they're not the kind over which I'd lose sleep if I misplaced them, and definitely not the kind over which I'd get killed if I wore them on my way to the office.

But yes, sometimes I daydream of jewelry. I'd also like to give my daughters gifts of rings and necklaces when they grow up. I'd like diamonds. They'll never go down in value, and no matter how small, they catch attention. They wink fire. I like to think a woman should be like a diamond, never insignificant or unnoticeable, and treated just as precious.

And a woman like Elizabeth Taylor? Oh, she deserves a diamond as iconic as her.