TRASH: All I know is that this not knowing hurts. I don't get where do you put the pain. Answer me that. Where do you put the pain? Cream, please.

It is 5 days post-Typhoon Milenyo (internationl name: Xangsane). In my neighborhood, that simply means having survived the dark and the heat for the past 120 hours, with no regular water supply, and not a single reliable report as to when the power would come back on. I am actually writing this at an internet cafe at the mall. Good thing Alabang Town Center is already a second home!

In my sister Miren's words, it's been Hell Week. I've been valiantly trying to conserve the last 2 bars of my celfone for several days. We've had to clean out our dank, defrosted fridge and throw every bit of food out. With nothing substantially edible left in the house, we've had to eat out (if there was a food place open at all) or crash at our respective parents' houses. All ATMs have been down and so the last fifty or so pesos in our wallets are like gold to us.

Of course, I can't even begin to imagine what the families of those crushed by fallen billboards are going through. Or of those whose homes were ripped apart by Milenyo's killer winds. Or of those like this one client of ours whose brand new Jaguar and BMW were found completely submerged in murky rainwater. Alright--maybe that last one isn't exactly in the same calamitous league as the other two, but hey, it's still a bummer, right? No, I can't say I am suffering as those people are. But I am suffering, nonetheless, from my own little frustrations and discomforts. Of not being able to work, or enjoy the little day-to-day conveniences we so take for granted. Ok, so the most major clean-up effort Rein and I (ok, just Rein) had to do was to rake the heavy carpet of leaves off our front yard. But still, I had to wake up each morning knowing that as soon as Rein left for work, I'd have to face a day of. . .no music, no lights, no aircon, no celfone, no YM, no YouTube, and no America's Top Model!

Sigh.

But the storm and this inconvenient blackout did usher in some good things. For one thing, I got to read again! My sister Miren has recently been emailing us about how her hectic life as a homemaker, mom to 4 kids, and non-stop family duties had nearly put an end to her voracious appetite for reading. As you know, it is a sad, sad day whenever a Nuyda puts a good book down for other more important activities, great lovers as we are of the written word. It was almost the same way with me. I hadn't really been reading reading the last couple of years. Can't remember the last good book I read cover to cover. But since Milenyo hit, I have rediscovered my passion for reading. I am now into the third story in a collection of plays by women playwrights, one of whose characters is quoted above. 6 plays, by such a diverse range of subject matter and talent! Love it. And so goes the silver lining in the cloud.

And then, even greater news. . .the day Milenyo hit, my newest inaanak (godchild) was born. Good friends Peachy and Allan's second child, and first daughter--Kirsten Soleil Consing Marasigan, better known as "Keira"--was born 7lbs. 10oz. at 3:54am of September 28. Just as her entry into the world was hailed by such powerful, high winds, I believe that this beautiful, perfect little girl will grow up to be high-spirited, passionate, and endowed with gifts that have the power to move mountains (and even billboards!). Welcome Baby Keira! The world is a more wonderful place because you are now in it.