We never did get to take you to Lobster Shack.
And, the other night, when you kept saying you wanted to see “Inglourious Basterds,” self made you watch “The Painted Veil” with her instead.
There are three big, fat juicy rib-eye steaks in the refrigerator, for self expected you home last night.
There are breakfast pastries from Whole Foods on the kitchen counter. Self bought those for you as well.
Self never did get to give you her presents for your daughter: the copy of Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francais, the books by Alexander McCall Smith and Sarah Vowell.
Most important of all, self never got to give you the x-rays from her dentist here, to give to the dentist in Manila who self is going to see, when she goes to Manila this December.
For some reason, self got all confused and thought you were coming back from LA last night. She didn’t know you were planning to stay there until Saturday, when you return to San Francisco for a brief stop-over before going home to Manila. After checking son’s room (where you slept, this past week), she saw it was so clean. All the toys you brought for your kids were gone, and if self hadn’t been so distracted (by being finalist for Donald Barthelme Prize and then not being a finalist) she would have noticed and thought it was strange that you brought everything down with you to LA.
Self even left the key out — but, sometime during Craig Ferguson’s monologue, she realized you wouldn’t be coming and took the key back.
Self slept four hours. Which she supposes is not that bad, considering how many nights she’s had less sleep than that, lately. Just before she went to bed, she decided not to finish reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s much-touted Eat, Pray, Love (because all the talk about God and self-fulfillment and following your bliss was making her queasy) and go on to a Ruth Rendell mystery.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.
Kanlaon 
7 responses to “Regrets, Dear Bro”
Oh…can you catch him on his way through SFO?
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Eat Pray Love annoyed me too. I also didn’t finish it.
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Kathleen,
As always life is so complicated. Dear Bro already made plans to have lunch w/ an uncle during his brief stop-over. Then, I promised to attend a reading in the City by 2 p.m. Naturally, that’s the same time Dear Bro is arriving in SFO. AND, I was only taking the BART to the city, because my car is kaput. So, I have to figure out how to do the reading AND meet up Dear Bro on the BART.
Then, he doesn’t even know where he’s meeting my uncle for lunch. So I thought of dropping the X-rays off with that uncle. But that uncle is bi-polar and forgets everything. So there’s a very good chance he’d misplace my x-rays anyway? Oh Lord, why is life so complicated?
I don’t know why, but EAT PRAY LOVE reminded me so much of the book I just finished reading, LOVE AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE PURSUITS. And I couldn’t, just couldn’t go through two similar-sounding books again (I started pretending EAT PRAY LOVE was a novel, and I managed to read the first 60 pages that way, by pretending it was a novel. At some point, maybe 2 a.m., I said to myself: Why am I going through all this complicated head stuff, just to finish this book? Life’s too short!)
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Ay! US Global Priority mail your xrays. It will get there. That’s how I send things, or LBC it.
That’s the most important thing. But yes, life is always so complicated with relatives. 🙂
Take it easy!
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You’re so right. I’m calling LBC right now.
Life doesn’t have to be that complicated!
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I called LBC! They have an office pala in San Mateo. IT’s just $25 to send the dental x-rays to Makati, and it will take 10 business days, which would mean the dentist there will get it by the latest, end of October. Problem solved! Thank you Kathleen!
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You are welcome! 🙂
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