Traveling and Indispensable Brain Time

Dear Anna Gumamela,

I heard from an authoritative source that you are commuting, via public transportation, your way to and fro your workplace situated in Manila and your residence in Bulacan.  I wonder why entering a dormitory or boarding house has never entered your mind, or driving instead.  Why is that?  Just asking.

Yours in patronage of bootleg DVDs,

Name Withheld Upon Request

Dear Name Withheld Upon Request,

Your source is authoritative indeed, providing you with infallible information on how I manage my Monday to Saturday career activities.  It is true; I commute my way to and fro work via public transportation, the details of which I shall not disclose for security purposes.

Most people may find commuting exhausting, but for me, it is tantamount to brain exercise and finding the meaning of my existence.  You may juxtapose this claim with my write-up in our University Yearbook, Green and White 2000.  Locate my write-up under the College of Business and Economics Section, surnames beginning with the letter J.  (Mister Penguin is also there, under the College of Engineering Section, surnames beginning with T.)

I shall disclose how refreshing and rejuvenating an endeavor commuting becomes for me.  First, let us discuss the travel time.  The approximate travel time is two hours from Bulacan to Manila, multiplied by two (going to Manila and going back to Bulacan) gives me a total of four hours daily travel time, multiplied by six days, a total of twenty-four hours in a week, or 1,248 hours in a year.  Let us say the travel time is reduced by 0.5 every time Mister Penguin fetches me from work.  He fetches me at least twice a month, a reduction of twelve hours in a year.  That gives me 1,236 hours in a year, not considering leaves for absence and other catastrophes which may hinder me from going to work.  1,236 hours in a year is what we shall call my annual disposable brain time—total time which can be allotted for doing anything that requires minimal amount of physical activity but maximum, or at least at par, brain activity.

Given the concept of the annual disposable brain time, we shall now enumerate the possible activities which can be done with that.  We shall call this list the Disposable Brain Time Activity List (very creative, eh?).

1. Reading
2. Listening to music
3. Editing written materials
4. Gathering materials for blogging and/or daily journal
5. Daydreaming
6. Sleeping (yes, this is also a brain activity—brains on stealth mode for recharge)
7. Responding to short messages of friends who are having catharses

I cannot think of other pastimes which are in line with my taste.  Since Anna Gumamela loves reading (she reads an average of 1 novel/book a week), purchases original CDs that are under the 3-day or 7-day return/exchange policy if damaged at least three times a month, writes from time to time, loves to observe and constantly daydreams, has a lot of hours of sleep debt, and has a fair number of friends who are occasionally in danger zone, we shall conclude that this 1,236 annual disposable brain time is not disposable.  Hence, we shall refer to it as Anna Gumamela’s Annual Indispensable Brain Time.  Note that this amount of brain time can only be acquired through traveling via public transportation.  Do not argue that in boarding a room, I may probably gain more indispensable brain time.  It will not be the case, unless I would have to content myself with living in a virtual dump site and eating nothing for breakfast and dinner, and of course, probably, not taking a bath once in a while or neither washing my clothes nor ironing them.  It takes me an eternity to finish my chores and believe me, in my standards, doing the chores poses more burdens for me than commuting every single working day.  (Proof of this need not be disclosed for fear of contempt.)  And, given the concept of indispensable brain time, tell me, how is it possible to drive when driving will take up all of my travel time?  (Yes, driving requires brains, too.  But since most drivers do not realize this while they are gripping the wheel, the number of weekly vehicular accidents will never be equal to zero.)

Well, that is of course the main reason why I will never drive or rent a room.

The minor reason is that when I am away from home, I tend to develop paranoia.  I tried boarding a room way back in college.  Every night, I had to call home to ask how my parents were.  At times when the paranoia got worse, I left everything in the boarding house and commuted back home.  During travel, heavy traffic in McArthur hi-way (not the NLEX, mind you, since I did not know where to ride then) almost always drove me crazy pondering whether a misfortune had already befallen my family causing the traffic to slow down or whether it was something else.  I went nuts when I was away from my family, almost literally.  I feared going home with no one to go home to except a yellow tape which said, POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS whenever I spent the night at the dorm.  It was bloody sickening.  I kept saying, if I don’t go home now and my family dies a bloody death, it would be the end of me.  I would rather die with them than be left alive yet alone and traumatized.

It was an outrageous way of thinking about things, I know.  Up to now, I feel I would still be attacked by temporary insanity should I decide to rent a boarding house.  For a twenty-eight year old adult, this would be deemed not normal by probably half of the population reading this entry.

But tell me, with the daily news bombarding us with massacres and homicides, which is really sick, my attitude or the media?

Yours in awe of the wonders of Quiapo Discotheque,

Anna Gumamela