I am on the verge of hysteria.

Being stuck in traffic for over two hours - when your destination is only less than an hour away - is really enough to make you go crazy. The rain came in smaller drops now. But it hadn’t stopped since I woke up this morning. And it had poured in buckets - no, giant buckets. For some reason, the traffic jam in Manila becomes worse than it already is whenever it rains.

Almost three hours now since we left the house. The rain is getting harder again.

Drip, drip, drip. Wipe. Drip, drip, drip. Wipe.

Everybody around me seems to be late, too. But I wonder if I’m the only one who’s late at our office. That would suck. And they might not believe me if I told them why I was late.

Some streets are submerged in water now - roads have become little rivers. It’s so stupid. It happens all the time here whenever it rains.

When my dad told me that I’d probably get to work at 9:30, I dismissed him and thought that he was being silly. It’s a quarter to ten now, and it’s just plain stupid to still be out here. Out here. Out the car window, people with umbrellas. People without umbrellas. Cars swimming along slooowly. Some cars going faster, making waves in the water, waves rolling towards our direction. I can feel them under my feet as they whoosh past.

- Just my thoughts this morning. I was very, very bored, so I typed away on the tiny keypad of my cell phone. I got to work at a quarter to eleven, pissed off and feeling quite hysterical.

I didn’t go to work for two days. I was pretty sick yesterday. I don’t know what I ate that made me sick. I went to bed feeling fine - a bit drowsy, but fine. Or so I thought. I woke up at around 1 am with my insides feeling funny - like something was trapped. Indigestion. Some hot water will help, I told myself. I’ve had this feeling before, and except for the discomfort, it really wasn’t much of a problem - it usually went away pretty soon.

Wrong. Not this time. I ended up hurling on two separate occasions - lost my dinner, and probably my breakfast and lunch, too. I threw up a lot. It wasn’t a nice feeling at all. I also had diarrhea. Ugh. Anyway. My body felt like a fricking sack of potatoes all day. I pretty much had zero energy. I just slept plenty, watched some cartoons and got through the day on rice congee, vegetarian meat floss and pickled cucumbers.

I felt better today, but still decided to stay at home as I wasn’t feeling a hundred percent. Just rested and finished two books.

My inner bookworm has been revived!! I haven’t felt this strongly for reading since high school, I think. It’s a rather nice feeling.

Last week, I was looking at my old books and suddenly missed them, so I picked one up (Heaven Can’t Wait by Cherie Bennett) and started reading it. After I finished it, I moved on to Night World by L. J. Smith. It was one of my favorite series back then. It still is!

I have only two books out of nine; my friends and I bought different ones and just borrowed from and lent to each other. But since I don’t see those friends very often anymore, I decided to search me some e-books online. That was last week. And to my pleasant surprise I found them.

I’m now on the third book, Spellbinder. I’m going through one book in two days. And though I have the e-books, I feel that something is missing. It’s true what my lit professor used to say, it’s really different leafing through the pages of an actual book, feeling its texture, smelling the parchment…

So now I’m on a mission to collect the entire series… Today after work I went to a mall and browsed through two bookstores and one secondhand book shop. Not much luck - I was able to get a copy of L. J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries Volumes I and II, but no Night World. I’m not really surprised though, the series was first published over ten years ago, and there hasn’t been any recent reprints, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve seen some Night World books for sale online, but that will be my last resort. International shipping and handling costs are a pain in the arse. For now, I’ll just paw through the local bookstores.

Hmm, relatively longer entry. I’m really reverting to my old bookworm self. And my Night World obsession is back after so many years. I’ve been thinking about the stories and the characters a lot - they give me a break from an oftentimes dull reality. So yeah, I’m determined to complete the series. Wish me luck!!