Rollercoaster Ride

When Gia asked me tonight to describe the guy we were talking about, the first word that came to mind and mouth was this: Flaky.

"What’s that?" she asked

I answered, "Unreliable. Does not keep his word."

I always knew that the words ‘flake’ and ‘flaky’ only entered my vocabulary and understanding when I came to New York. This social practice and reality was not at all present in in the Philippines. In our interactions in the first 21 years of my life, people don’t usually back out. They show up. Palabra de honor. Thinking back, I realize that a lot of the guys I know, or we know here, are flakes. Some of them are even Pinoy. Flakiness probably showers every newcomer at their first New York winter.

So yesterday, I called my friends up and asked, "Hey, can I flake out tonight? Can I be the flaky one this time?"

They didn’t ask why. I just didn’t show up. And it was actually liberating.

PS

Another New York word? ‘Shady.’

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.