today, a stranger named ray massaged my right hand with his sweaty ones  while chatting me up about his life. i figured he was mentally challenged but he was the smarter kind, i guess. capable of following directions and initiating conversations coherent enough for someone as sleep-deprived as me to understand. nevermind that in every other line, i had to subject myself to the question, “miga na ta ha?” of which i would repeatedly answer yes simply because i have a soft heart for mentally challenged people. (i have retards for friends. that should explain enough. when i’m out with them, i immediately transform into their SPED teacher. lol.)

anyway, the thing is, it felt nice having a complete stranger massage my hand. not that i allow every stranger to do it but so far, that was the only offer i got. haha. he looked relatively harmless, though. although i kind of freaked out a bit when he described himself with his right index finger turning counter-clockwise against his right temple. for a second there, i was like, “sh*t, i’m being massaged by a psycho!” lol. but all in all, it felt nice.

just as it feels nice to get out of one’s comfort zone once in a while. talk to cab drivers on my way home. listen to their opinion about some things in life. their presumptions and assumptions on people. they’re no mind readers or FBI profilers but i gather they must be getting pretty close to it, what with having to weed out innocent passengers from the criminal-looking ones at a single glance. but of course, they don’t always hit the mark right on the coccyx. partly because he presumed i come from a rich family just because i have a rich-sounding middle name; and mainly because he deduced ram was rich because he had a rich-looking face. lol.

had i brought a car to work, it would’ve been the same routine for me. although i love my routine. mornings and breakfasts with ram give me something to look forward to at the crack of dawn. but i do appreciate a couple of external surprises every now and then.