“Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake.”
Korean Ramen
I see her standing next to me in this line of crowded applicants. All 5’5”, 160 lbs of her. Easily noticeable out of this pack of hungry vultures waiting for their fate in what we call as job-hunting. It has been 6 hours and I’m craving for anything to devour my gustatory senses. But even before I start to complain dying from starvation, I couldn’t help but wonder, if I’m extremely famish, how the hell is this girl holding up?
She’s like the queen of the ramen – Korean Ramen. Bland but tangy, I suppose. I don’t know but there’s something that wants to come out from her simplicity. How it would be easier if I just ask, but I’m not the kind of person who approach.
Until she said “Do you have a light?”, her eyes pointing at me.
I don’t consider myself as the typical chain smoker. In fact, I don’t consider myself a smoker at all. But you just couldn’t prevent those thought-provoking situations where you’re all alone and a 2½ inch cigarette stick is the only thing to accompany you on your moments of solidarity. Point is, I always have a lighter with me. This time, I’m puffing smoke with somebody else.
Everyone has their own excess baggage. But nothing can compare to this girl. When she started talking, I really didn’t even notice the details. At first, all I hear is blah-blah. But she is making sense. She gossiped about how she found about the job opening, how the interview went this morning, so on and so forth. She even went far from the sale in the nearest mall, how traffic sucks in Edsa and, when was the last time she met a celebrity.
Ordinarily, one can easily get annoyed to her type. When I was about to, she seems to posses this magical aura to change your disliking. She knows how to sugar-coat a junk. Exactly like a potato-chip chocolate, she can be addictive.
Paella Valenciana
To be honest, I am not a glutton. God, I barely weigh 120 lbs. I’d like to think observing satisfying cuisine is my way of devouring to all I dreamed of eating. Haven’t we all experienced desiring for a specific food at a certain point in time? What’s unexplainable is we just crave for it on a limited amount of time and when that time passes by, we crave no more.
Just when I thought I would never be surprised, this girl is a lot to handle. It has been hardly 10 minutes that we started chatting and she is opening about her family background. Quite unusual to ordinary people, her story is very typical to teleserye audience. Her dad left them for a mistress. Her mother, scorned as ever, wasn’t able to handle her 4 kids’ basic necessities. Some were given to relatives, others stayed with their mom. And this girl I’m talking with, left for Manila.
Despite all that, she remains family-oriented, much like the all-time Filipino winner Paella Valenciana. She went on and on how much she loves her mother. How she would do everything to her siblings. How everything doesn’t matter except family.
Her eyes now somewhat teary and voice a bit raspy. I must admit, her big built conveys strength.
French Parfait
More like the must-love French Parfait, she loves with no boundaries. As exaggeratingly as it sounds, she’s no holds-barred. Hearing her love story, it almost seems that guys are so disposable. She was heartbroken by many, lived in with two and, almost got married with one.
I, for one second, wondered if she gave up on love but no, she continues to be a hopeless-romantic. She still believes there’s one man destined to be with her no matter what. She could care less if she’s already in mid-thirties. Fate hits every age.
Twenty-minutes is all we've got before the next interview so we wasted it chatting. I came to love her, err not romantically but in pure platonic essence. I realized there's more to people than judging their appearance. Yes, her weight is as enormous as her personality but so what, I call it Flabulous.
Post-script
After the one-day process application, the results were shown. She got in, I did not. After all her rowdy noise, amidst her loud-color dress and, her irritatingly boisterous laugh, maybe it’s her vulnerability that struck the HR. Or probably it’s just the fats. Then I started to ponder, the next time I order a Mcdonalds meal, maybe I should “Go Big Time”.
Bitter, much?
