sori naman

"Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap."
--Robert Fulghum

while i was deep into troubleshooting an unwanted circumstance involving my latest machine, my company-issued mobile phone beeped.

unknown number: bakit ##k ang sweldo mo?
ako: hu u? bakit mo minali ang sweldo ko?

even if the sender did not get the figures right, i still found the message irritating. my initial reaction to it was really something to the effect of "anong pakialam mo sa sweldo ko?"

i thought something slipped from the HR which got someone thinking and which resulted to that message.

unknown number: ay, na-wrong send lang po.
ako: hindi ka dapat nakikialam sa sweldo ng ibang tao, kahit kaano ano mo pa yan.

i know i should have let things go when the sender offered the information that the message was not intended for me. however, something in my boiling head (what's up, temper? hehe) pushed me to key in an unsolicited advice. i am not one to discuss about salaries -- whether mine or other people's. the least i know about how much the people around me are actually earning, the better for my peace of mind (and, maybe, for my level of confidence).

the reply i got after that was something to the effect of... (i cannot write down the exact text message i received because i already deleted it but i'll share what i can remember)

unknown number: alam mo ba sinasabi mo? asawa ako ni ____ _____ ka-trabaho mo ngaun ako nagb-budget para sa pamilya namin at ako din naglalabas nun sa ATM di ko kelangan ang unsolicited advice. WAG MO KO 22RUAN KUNG ANO DAPAT KO GAWIN. I KNOW MY RYT AS A WIFE (a lot of words here which i cannot recall anymore because i did not really read this part of the message which was keyed in using capital letters) NAIINTINDIHAN MO BA AKO KUNG GUSTO MO, PWD MO AKO TAWAGAN.

i did not make the call. i know how some wives can get praning when they get to find out that their husbands' colleagues at work are female -- regardless of physical appearance or whatever. i figured there was no need to disclose my identity nor my gender. my officemate's wife does not know who i am because the company number assigned to me was registered in her phone as her husband's. sometime after i got back from korea, my officemate had to bring my company line to his trip to japan -- hence, the reason why her wife mistakenly sent a message to me.

ako: sori naman. peace na tayo.

deadma. that's what i got.

what happened had me laughing. i was really able to sense the difference in my mood levels right after i received the first message and when i got that super-long reply. one moment i was so irritated, the next moment i was sincerely apologetic.

after sharing the incident with the rest of the team (which included the sender's husband) and after us sharing amused laughter over the consequences of my 'yet-another-temper-driven-judgment lapse,' i keyed in another message.

ako: i'm really sorry for what transpired earlier. i learned a good insight from you today. peace.

today, after giving in to the ill dictates of my temper, i was suddenly being unusually so kind.

i come from a household where my father does the budgeting -- as the family's breadwinner, he's the one who allocates the financial resources -- and my mother does second-degree/second-level budgeting of the allowance she gets from my father for her and their kids' emergency expenses.

i understand that for other households, the wives are the ones who get to hold the ATM card and that they are the ones who guard the family's finances.

doon pa rin ako sa walang pakialamanan ng sweldo (lalo na pagdating sa sweldo ko).