Happiness

Last night, I stood up the company’s Iftar Party. Iftar is the breaking of the fast among Muslims and an Iftar Party is being held to observe a Muslim culture where fasting is not only abstaining from food, water and sex from dawn to dusk but also as one of the pillars of a religion.

Sadly, I preferred to get a good sleep than feast on the food, which my doctor advised me to refrain from.

Before I fell into my slumber, I got my favorite blogger’s tweet wishing me for “happiness.” That made my first smile of the day.

Today, work was again up to the neck. I had to rush and finish the backlogs, such as the awards for the Top Three Call Center Agents of the month, payroll for contractual workers, pending insurance enrollments, applicants’ interview, administering applicants’ test, manpower budget review and after the time clocked at 3PM, my boss dropped the last task.

Ramadan Bonus for the Contractual Workers.

I rushed to do the thing. I saw the CEO and my boss signatures already on the papers.

Went to the figures after figuring that my name was there. Saw some figures higher than the figure parallel my name.

Went over it again. Five names had higher figures. It just one month basic salary and since I had been doing the payroll for the passed three years I should know better.

I conferred to my boss the observation I had before I left to escort his guest waiting at the lobby.

When his guest arrived, my boss agreed with me asking where the hell he got the figures.

Whew, I had to call the Finance Department in order for them to do some overtime work in order to have the printing of extra checks aside from the September salary.

I thought the Ramadan bonus was the only happiness that came into my life today.

When I arrived home, I rushed to grab a bite of the pansit and lumpia left over I had for breakfast. It is really so starving after a day of fast at work.

While eating, I boot up my laptop and when I saw an offline message, it was Beh.

He got a new cheap cell phone from the 11K pesos that ATS gave to him after jumping more than 40 feet from the ship to the dark blue sea and floated more than five hours in the Zamboanga Peninsula waters before he was fished out by a cargo ship while his cousin that was separated from him was plucked from the Malaysian waters.

“My SIM card is still working, please call me,” the message.

I rushed to call. I don’t know how many minutes it was but happiness brought tears into my eye talking to my baby. He is really alive and he still remembers and loves me.

"I nearly died but am still alive and I do love you," my partner said. I love him more than ever.