EASTERTIDE

Dear Auntie Patti Koh,

I just arrived from work, it is now Easter Sunday here in my place and it is now 3:00Am. There is rain outside and the temperature is a little nippy. I cannot complain, 'cuz spring is always rain which is good for the plants.

Work is a little hectic today, but not as hectic as the past few days. Maybe people are trying to calm themselves from calling the telephone and filing a complaint about their bags and other problems that they have encountered when they boarded the airlines that I work for.

This particular man called and I got the call. Very rude on the phone, telling me that his wife's bag has been opened up and some of her wife's clothes are missing. The passenger is 62 years and I can hear her screaming in the background. While the woman is screaming to the husband in the background, the husband is taking it on me. I waited to get a gap in this man's outrage and when I was able to get a chance, I told him that if he will not practice proper decorum on the phone I will terminate the call. I even said to this passenger that it is the days of Lent and he should not be screaming like anything on the phone. Pax said he is not a Christian and it does not bother him to yell and scream if he wants to. Advise this assenine person, if he is not a Christian and does not want to stop yelling, I told him he will be talking to a dial tone. So -- I released the call. The pax is from another religion and I will not say from which part of another religion he came from. As far as I know, his religion is the reason we have this kind of Lent.

After five minutes, I got the same pax again, this time more loud and more beligerant on the phone. He was asking me if he is talking to India, and I told him I am in Chicago. Insults was lashed at me --- I will still take it. But when this mother *@#*@* told me to GO BACK WHERE I CAME FROM! I gave him what he wants to hear from me.

I told this mother *@#*@* that I am an American like him, and if he wants I will fax him my American passport. I told him that I don't care even if the call is being recorded, I will still gave him a piece of my mind. I was asking this man, how many members of his family died fighting the war for this country. I did not give him the chance to answer. I told him five male members of my family died for America fighting the war, I told him two in Vietnam, one in Korea and three in Manila and not to mention my father being incarcerated at Capaz, and was tortured by the Japanese because he did something wrong. I told this man, that my father is still alive at the age of 84, still carrying the wounds that he got from the Japanese.

I told this man, for lousy F-------ng bag he will tell me to go back where I came from. I told him you are telling the wrong person that kind of statement.

The he started again. I told him to go back where he came from too!

So, Auntie Patti Koh -- that is how I spent my daily routine at work and my Lent. I tell you, nobody ----- NOBODY can tell me to go back where I came from. This man on the phone, if he tells me to go back where I came from face to face --- I assure you, if said that to me face I will see to it that he sees the face of the earth on the wrong direction!

Happy Easter!!