xmas on the road

After midnight tonight, on the first hours of Christmas, just as when everybody’s burping from the noche buena, I will be on the road. Specifically, inside a Baliwag bus on its lonely way to Nueva Ecija. I will be without company except maybe for Tom Waits on my MP3 player, the late Norman Mailer in my pocket, and the expected hangover.

The itinerary: leave Antipolo not later than 1:30am, arrive in Cubao before 2am (possible without heavy traffic), and board the bus hoping there’s a window seat available -- for I enjoy watching the countryside rolling past me; makes me think of life -- by 2:30am. By sunrise I expect to be in Zaragosa for my wife’s family reunion.

I am both excited and nervous: Excited because this is going to be my first solitary long-distance travel in a long time, nervous because of the unholy hour. Regardless, I expect an adventure. It's what I live for.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Ad astra per aspera.