Sure would be nice to be Multiple Man for a day

I'm sure that at some point in everyone's lives, they have wished that they could be in 2 places at once. Right now, I am wishing I could be in 3 places at the same time on April 27: at the Matchbox Twenty concert at Araneta Coliseum, in Moscow vacationing with my family, and at my brother's college graduation.

Matchbox Twenty is my favorite band and I've been praying for them to come to Manila for ages now. So it sucks big time that 2 more important things are coinciding with it. For a while back, before we knew of the date of Bens' graduation, I actually considered not joining the Scandinavia-Russia trip for Matchbox, because my logic was, I might only get this one chance to see them in concert, and it's not like Scandinavia and Russia are going to disappear. But then I remembered that it's Pa's 60th birthday in May, and this tour, which he had suggested we join, is probably his idea of a grand celebration. So buh-bye Rob Thomas. Sob.

After I'd accepted the fact that I wouldn't be seeing Matchbox Twenty perform live, and after I'd stressed myself out gathering all the necessary documents, passport-size photos and forms to apply for our SchenGen and Russian visas, we then found out that my brother's graduation from the UP College of Business Administration is taking place on an inexplicably late date right smack in the middle of our tour of Russia. Who holds graduation rites in frickin' April?!? Government schools, sheesh.

Under normal circumstances it wouldn't even seem like a tough choice to make. In 2003 when I was studying in Beijing, I did, after all, insist on not enrolling for another semester so I could come home for Bens' high school graduation. I put a lot of value in family milestone events, and I haven't missed any major ones so far. However, Bens has assured us that it's ok with him to ditch his UP graduation, because I'm guessing he'd rather go to Europe. My parents are hedging over it; as my dad pointed out, a graduation is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I'm also having a hard time coming to terms with it because I sure as heck wouldn't have willingly missed my own graduation for anything.

For now it looks like the trip is going to prevail, unless our visas get disapproved (*knock on wood*) or something even more important comes up (as if the confluence of 3 events isn't enough). I have no problem as long as my brother's dead certain he's all right with skipping his grad. We'll just take a picture of him holding a fake diploma in front of the Kremlin, haha. But while I'm resigned to not watching the Matchbox Twenty concert, anyone who does go see it and makes the foolhardy decision to rub it in my face is going to sustain serious physical injury. I'm not kidding.