You'd think listening to the radio, reading books and writing's enough to keep one busy. Well, that used to be the case for me, months ago, still new to my job at FortMed, Paseo de Sta.Rosa. While waiting for patients, reading and writing occupied my time 'productively'---whereas listening to the radio was a short break that I'd take to break the monotony of straining my eyes from reading or to relax my hand from pushing pen on paper. And on occasions that my wife could afford to lend me her laptop, writing or dabbling with the computer would have me glued to the screen for the rest of the day--with the addition of the occasional 'nakaw na sandali'--stealing a few moments of nap that is, on the plush dental chair (no wonder it's said, it's the 'best seat in the house' in any dental office).

But after awhile, after months on end being coop up in the dental office, waiting for patients that hopefully would show up for their appointments, you'd be clamoring for other things and activities to do that hopefully not only rivet your attention, but have you so focused on it, you hope it'll distract you from the exasperation felt from having your shift ended without seeing a patient. I could go wandering off and have the assistant 'text' me if ever a patient calls in for a schedule, or if a walk-in patient do comes by. That'll work--if I owned my own dental office, that is. But being employed, that'll constitute 'abandonment' from one's post. So I needed something to add to my usual activities of 'occupy thee thy time' till a client comes, without leaving my post.

Had WiFi been available at FortMed, I could be 'in heaven'; using the few idle hours waiting between appointments and turning it into a more 'productive session'. But no, FortMed doesn't have WiFi. Neither do they have cable TV for that matter (unlike in my former place of work). Oh well. Maybe if the PT room had a treadmill and a gym locker, well, that would seem an alluring activity to go into--if only. But with no such 'diversion' I'm 'locked up' to my own devices; to fend for myself to keep me from going insane ;-)

Recently, my little brother bought me a portable gaming console. A Nintendo DS Lite, as a Christmas gift. And you'd think only kids would be so happy with that. But after a few hours spent on the console, I wondered myself whether I'm an adult or a kid, for this I realized that no matter how old one considers himself to be, playing games (may it be real games or video games) is for everybody ( irregardless of age or what others have to say). This, I truly found out, especially with the game Pokemon: Pearl Version. A child's game I know, but like food you'd never tried before that at first, by looking at it, you'd simply decline, given a chance of tasting it, you then find yourself saying, "where'd you been all my life" :-D As simple as the game may seem, it's really quite 'engaging'. So amusing it is, it's more than enough to provide me with more than the distraction I needed to block out the hours of waiting ;-) Thank you little bro for having me keep in touch with a part of all of us which we adults often suppress ;-)

All work and no play--and you know how the rest of the adage goes--still is an 'old time truth'.