Creating the couchwife

immediately prior to and after the wedding, i would inevitably get asked whether or not i was going to be a housewife in singapore. and i would inevitably bristle. while on a conceptual level i knew that there's nothing wrong with being a housewife, and that a housewife, in effect is what i'm going to be until i get a steady job here in lah-lah land, the pouty, stubborn and prickly part of me still put its foot down on the term.

that is, until i moved into the conjugal digs on cactus drive, plunked down in front of the samsung lcd tv (marlon's most prized and joyous home purchase), and discovered the wonders of digital hd tv.

lulled into surrender by the comforting weight of my husband's arm, a comforting meal of spam, rice and pokka iced tea, and a deliciously long tv playlist (miami ink, a model life with petra nemcova, kinky boots, gladiator and many more), i gleefully acquiesced to the existence of a sedentary spouse, albeit temporarily and with my own little twist.

"magiging couchwife na lang ako!"

today is day one of the couchwife life, and it ain't so bad. the morning was spent fulfilling the "-wife" half of the equation: i woke up bright and early to cook breakfast for marlon on his first day back on the job.

my sunny side-up eggs over easy (marlon taught me to do the "over easy" part the night before) were quite... aethestically challenged. luckily, marlon loves eggs far too much to be picky. "any egg is a good egg!" he declared, chomping down his morning cholesterol. still, i'm determined to pull off perfectly plump, round yolks in future breakfasts. i know, i know, i'm adding way too much significance to eggs.

after going back to sleep for a good four hours, i rolled out of bed at lunchtime to do more wife stuff. i took dry clothes off the wire drying rack we've temporarily set up on the balcony (a.k.a. future painting and coffee nook). i stuffed another installment of the neverending honeymoon laundry into our tiny washing machine. i swept our bare marble floors and cleared the living room by stuffing the last of the honeymoon clutter into my pink suitcase for future sorting.

and now, to balance things out, is couch time. surfing the net, reading, and making up for lost tv time (i must have been the only tv network employee who never watched tv) with my beloved discovery travel and living channel. all this while waiting for 4.5 cubic meters of stuff to arrive from manila -- my clothes, books, abubots plus our daybed and wedding gifts are supposed to be delivered before 6pm.

i have wedding kwento to spill, honeymoon photos to sort and upload, and a new life to map out and create. but for now, being a couchwife is my easy access to settling in just fine.

This is it

the past two weeks have been something else. sometimes a crazy looping roller coaster, sometimes an easy coast, sometimes a slow trudge, sometimes a frenzied skitter, sometimes a happy and joyful dance.

yet i know tomorrow will be nothing like the past two weeks. it will be nothing like the past, period.

so what will tomorrow be?

a smooth glide, a light step, and a leap into a future that was totally not going to happen.

wish me luck.

Send to all

Subject: Goodbye and thanks :-)

Dear all,

Today is my last day at GMA. As many of you already know, I will be married next Saturday, December 29. Post-wedding, I will begin my new life as a married woman (eeek!) in Singapore, where my husband-to-be Marlon has been based for the past four years.

While I'm excited and raring to go, it's difficult for me to leave the network. There are really no words for everything that I've come to love and appreciate about working with all of you.

Thank you for the unique contribution each and every one of you has been to my life. I haven't found a job in Singapore yet, but I can only hope to find one that I can love as much as this. This will be my benchmark for a workplace to have fun and grow in, be passionate about and be inspired by.

Please keep in touch and look me up if you do plan to go to Singapore. Mahal ang accommodations doon ha, sa amin na lang kayo tumira para mas marami kayong pang-shopping ;-)

Deepa