Thursday, May 15, 2008

I on “will”

May 11, 2008 12:50 pm; May 12, 2008 1:34 pm; May 13, 2008 12:28 pm



Friday, Elena laughed, “Oy, updated na ba will mo? Kanino mapupunta each libro? Baka magkagulo.”

I laughed, “Kaya nga pinapasoli ko yun mga libro eh. I’m updating it.”

On someone else’s will, I’m supposed to be informed the moment he’s fallen terminally ill and I have to be there on his last day to hold his hand and watch him die so that he won’t be alone. This stands even if ever we didn’t talk or see each other anymore.

Recently he asked me, “What does intestate mean? I know it’s a legal term.”

I had an idea what it meant but I asked Easy to be sure and he said, “Died without a will.”

I relayed it and he asked what was going to happen if that happened.

I said, “Dude, you need a lawyer to answer that. I have yet to hit the law books again. Rusty. But I’m sure it would be messy.”

He laughed.

I went to law school with Dad and Ma when I was in Grade 5 until Dad graduated four years later.

After, I said to myself that I don’t want to be a lawyer.

For an adult to become a lawyer, a child can’t make any noise, the adult is plagued by constant anxiety and frustrations, and both become very angry or fucked up people. The child can also pretend to ask the adult all these questions like “What’s quo warranto?” even if the child knew the answer, just for the heck of it, to help the adult review for a test.

Once I exercised my wiles on Howard Roark to give him a break from the tedium of lawyering for this (term the Estradas use) President and so that we could watch a movie in Galleria. I was smoking while waiting for him to finish eating his pita when Andrew (a classmate from Comm 2 under Wendell Capili) passed by, saw me, stopped, and chatted.

I didn’t introduce him to Howard Roark because I was trying to remember his name though I remembered that Tet-my-blockmate had a crush on him, that he’s in UP Law School, and that he worked before that selling Viagra to Igorots.

(No kidding, he said, Viagra in the North sells better and faster than pot.)

We were chatting about law school and how he wanted to be a lawyer. Howard Roark laughed at him, “You want to be a lawyer? Why?”

Andrew couldn’t give him a straight answer and I gave Howard Roark a smiling dirty look.

Howard Roark once laughed when I berated him for running a red light, “What’s the use of my being a lawyer if I can’t get us out of a traffic ticket?”

And you definitely don’t want to be in the management and mess with this lawyer when he’s in some bar like Moomba and you give him and his little-chimney-friend-me a non-smoking table when this lawyer really needs a smoke.

He’s snappy when he needs a smoke or when he’s hungry.

I gave him my first copy of Russell’s “The Sparrow”.

I also made him a journal for his 33rd and as of last October it was still blank.

This lawyer used to be a long-haired dude and drank Red Horse but remained quirky.

When Linkin Park was here, he sent me a message, “You should have been here!”

I was with Basha and Aoux busy drinking and bitching about teaching at that time. Basha was teasing me, “Someone’s got the teaching bug!” Basha also said when he asked and I told him who sent a message, affronted, “He likes Linkin Park?!” and then he guffawed.

Basha met Howard Roark years before that when Howard Roark suddenly showed up in City Jam and stayed for a couple of drinks with us. I think Protein Shake or Tootsie-something (the drummer is now in 6cyclemind) was playing that night.

Before he left, he asked, “Want me to take you home?”

I was about to say “yes” when Basha said, “No, man, it’s okay. I’m taking her home.”

I asked Basha when he left, “Dude, what was that all about?”

He answered, “I can’t let you go home with a guy whom I only just met.”

After that, he and Howard Roark never saw each other again.

Here’s another one of Basha’s rules: you leave with the person you came with.

Rules can be bent by finding the loopholes in the system and you get to do whatever you want to do or needs to be done.

Rules are also broken sometimes then you clean up the mess.

Hey, I love Linkin Park because they scream their love songs.

So, if you want to be an official lawyer: why?

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