Breaking Dawn

The clock in the lower right-hand corner of my screen reads it’s 1:36 AM. Finally, I had a way to tell the time. There’s hardly any clock inside this room we are delegated into. The clock in my cell phone is utterly useless since I hadn’t set it right and it had not occurred to me to look at my wrist watch somewhere inside my hand bag. Well, at least up until now.

Ate and the kids arrived today for their two-week vacation. We had fully intended to go back to our Empress home. We have prepared for it but Ate had voiced out her concern about our having to stay away when they would be here for just a few days. And I had to agree as well. At least it will give me more time with the kids. We’ve missed them so much and two weeks is so short after all to be spent far apart from each other. We don’t know when the next visit would be.

So, for the time being we are occupying the much smaller bedroom. Well, it is very cozy. In fact, better than I had expected. I smile now, amused as I recalled Baby’s reaction earlier this evening. I was dressing him up after our shower, preparing him for bedtime. He looked around the room cautiously and asked me whether we are sleeping in this room. With a pout he told me we ought to sleep with Mama Gaga – referring to the bedroom we have been occupying. I told him we wouldn’t all fit inside the room.

Now, I’m already beginning to feel sleepy. Only a moment ago I had a hard time settling down. I was so high, after finally closing the last page to “Breaking Dawn” – the fourth and last installation of the “Twilight Saga.” It’s a “very pretty” book. (Well, the whole series was.) I reserve the description “beautiful” to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and to Ayn Rand’s “Fountain Head” and “Atlas Shrugged.” And rightfully so.

Nonetheless, this series certainly did leave me breathless just the same. Breathless and completely satisfied as how I’d always feel after reading a good book. “Breaking Dawn” has in fact been a good read. It gave a fitting ending to the beautiful tapestry woven in “Twilight” and the two other installations that followed. It was filled with enough drama, rendering a reader utterly defenseless from its charm. It had been very difficult to put the book down. The funny thing is I knew that it would have its effect on me so I deliberately avoided it, knowing full well my reports had to take the utmost priority. But I guess that’s just how this universe works – whatever you covet the most -- with most certainty -- it would come to you no matter how you may try not to seek it.

Here’s how it was in this case: I was up late, finishing the minutes of a very important meeting related to a project I’m involved with. I was also hooked to the internet. Out of habit, every now and then I would take a pause from the report I was doing to surf the net, check my mails or to chat with a friend over at YM. I know, an utterly counterproductive habit but it’s one of the things that kept me sane in spite of the several deadlines I have, as ironic as it may sound.

Anyway, I was just about to wrap things up after I’ve emailed the report when a niece came online. We casually chatted over the internet and that’s when it happened. We talked about “Twilight” and how she is reading “New Moon” at the moment. I told her “Eclipse” is so much more exciting (Of course at that time, I had not known “Breaking Dawn” would even be more so). She informed me that she’s at a café just because she can’t resist sneaking up some time to read her “e-copy” of NM. And casually, she told me she has an e-copy of all four books. That was the first mistake. The second mistake was when I agreed that she could send them over to me. The third, when I opened the e-copy of BD and told myself I would just take a peak at the first few pages.

That was around 1:30 AM. The next time I looked up from the computer, I was shocked to see the light outside of the window. I snaked a look at the clock of my computer and was totally surprised to see it was already 5:30 in the morning. I was that engrossed! Tatay, when he finally came in at around 2:30 am from an evening out, had tried to pry me away but nothing he did took me away from my reading. At around 7:00 in the morning, he took matters to his own hands and literally pulled the plug from under me. The monitor went black on me and I would have argued if not for my noticing for the first time how exhausted I felt. Immediately, I dropped on my back and slept.

After three hours, I woke up determined more than ever to borrow Jeni’s book copy of BD. I had to have it! I had to finish it! Jeni’s been holding out on me as well so I could do my reports as I intended. But eventually I know it had come to this. Last night, I did pick up the book from her. And here I am. I would have been able to finish the book much sooner if only not for Ate’s arrival. It kept me busy the whole day.

Lots of things I wanted to write about, other entries besides this one have been cooking along in my head before I started chipping away here. Because, you see, I closed the book feeling a bit “in love” with the idea of love :) So naturally, it had left me feeling pensive and well, inspired to pursue a certain line of thought. Ah well, that’s a different entry all together. For now, I would have to end this entry with that. Otherwise, another breaking dawn would be on me before I’d even noticed it. I need my sleep as well but ah I certainly want to write about it, about that certain promise of “someone else.” But ah, that would have to wait. For now, I should sleep. My body and mind needs the rest. There are, after all, reports to finish after this…