Alone Again, Naturally

Technically, today is the last day of sem break. Tomorrow, I'm off to Baguio 'till Sunday for the Ad Congress and Monday, I'm back in the grind.

That was a beautiful, relaxing, stress-free, people-free 3 weeks and they seem to have gone by so fast. Yesterday was my last day for bumming as I had errands to do today. So I squeezed in all the things I had to do for the sem break in one day.

I drained my phone's inbox of old messages, I drained my e-mail inbox of old messages, I TRIED to clean my room of last sem's junk and I replied to Friendster messages. Then I baked in front of the TV for hours (and was terribly annoyed that I didn't catch Starstruck...)

Today seemed like the perfect culmination of my "alone-ness". I spent the day downtown all alone. The one thing I realized is that I can actually occupy myself and keep myself entertained the whole day.

I spent the morning at Toyota Manila Bay. For 2 years now, driving has been nothing short of hazardous because of really bad headlights. Thus, I brought the car to the shop to get Corolla a pair of shiny, new headlights.

I only realized how the old headlights were tonight. The low beams of the new lights shone farther and brighter than the high beams of the old lights. And I couldn't help but stare at the car every chance I got-- having new headlights fitted gave the car's appearance a new life.

The whole service took 4 hours and I couldn't leave. This had me spending 4 hours in a very nicely equipped customer lounge. It had movies, newspapers and very nice bunchy sofas that I fell asleep on. In fact, one lady even had the gall to spread herself across the sofas. I also had my book to keep me occupied. I was set.

Thankfully, Toyota Manila Bay has terrific service and they were assisting me from beginning to end. It also helps that my mom's former student assistant works there and took care of the car.

Right after that, I had lunch all by my lonesome in KFC Manila Bay and then I proceeded to Glorietta to do some last minute shopping.

Nothing big-- shampoo, soap, had my sandal fixed and just basically straightening out loose ends.

This is my first big trip in a long time. I'm terribly used to overnights, but not to trips which spell being away for several days. Thus, my bags are bursting at the seams and I'm not yet done packing.

In any case, I've had my fill of being alone. For the next few days, I'll be surrounded by people at almost all hours of the day.

IMC does Baguio. Let the socials begin!

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Packing for Baguio is a veritable nightmare, especially for an O/C packer like me.

My packing is notorious because I pack for a week everytime I pack for a night. So you can imagine what it must be like packing for 5 days.

It doesn't help that I'm not too familiar with what to expect from the weather in Baguio, and the fact that we don't know if the congress is going to be casual or semi-formal. Thus, I'm bringing both casual and semi-formal for the 5 days and it's not amusing.

Usually, I pack for myself but since I needed a miracle worker to get all my stuff squeezed in the bag, I had to seek the services of my mom.

The one thing I don't like when my mom packs for me is that I get a running commentary of the things I'm bringing. For instance,

"Why one Earth do you need to bring 4 pairs of jeans????"

Of course, I had to reason out with her that one, I don't want to be limited. Two, the jeans have to match the shoes I'm bringing.

I am rather notorious for my "just in case" clothes.

It's a bit exaggerated of me but I'm also bringing 3 pairs of shoes. Also because I don't want to be limited. The problem this time is squeezing 3 pairs of size 10 and 1/2 shoes into a bag. I dare not bring a maleta.

In any case, my packing's almost done. Baggage check as of now is 1 big backpack and 1 big bag.

I'm hoping I brought everything. I don't want to be what Habanapz would call a "Fashion Emergency", especially not in the conference.

Hoo boy. 5 days away from home.

The joke is that the Ad COngress is just an excuse for classes to be delayed a week and for everyone to get out of town together.

That joke is half-meant. It's going to be 5 days of UA&P Comm students inflicting themselves on the unsuspecting town of Baguio. The poor natives won't know what hit them.

It's also generally our last hurrah. Many will be graduating in March. Others will be off to 5th Year. Then there are others who are unfortunate enough to be delayed by a year.

In any case, I'm all set... or I'm hoping that I am. I am the designated driver and we're leaving at 3 AM tomorrow to avoid the traffic. Which means I'll be leaving the house at 2:15... which means I'll be getting up at 1:30... (ugh!)

I have no idea what's going to happen there, but all I know is that I'm looking forward to it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this trip, if anything, turns out to be a real blast.

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MORE Confessions of a Shopaholic

Dressing up may not be my thing, but if there's one thing I get finicky about, it is shoes.

Because of this, I don't buy shoes all that often and when the time comes that I do need shoes, looking for them is a veritable nightmare. Not only for myself but for my family as well.

In search of the perfect shoe, I can tirelessly scour mall after mall after mall until I actually come across the shoe that literally calls out to me. I don't settle for anything less than.

The one thing about shoes is that they tend to make the outfit. You have to see if the shoe flies with the pants, and if it goes with the shirt. Buying shoes means doing an instant recall of all my shirts and jeans and whether the shoe would go with more than half.

Habanapz talks about guys and their gwapo shoes. I, as well, am in constant search for a shoe that will fall under the category of gwapo shoes.

And yes, guys are actually capable of that. And the first thing I do notice about a guy are his shoes.

Because of this, I am more open-minded about shoe prices than I am about clothes. Shoes, I believe, are an investment-- especially with my shoe size. At least shoe hunting is easier now that my feet don't grow as much anymore.

When I was younger, shoe hunting was such a headache, let me tell you.

But I don't know if there is anything in my horoscope that says 2003 is a year for shoe buying. It certainly seems that way.

Like I said, I can go for long periods of time without buying shoes. There is a saying that something is as comfortable as an old shoe and I am wont to agree.

Old shoes mean your whole wardrobe is already built around them. Old shoes are easier to drive with. You don't have to protect them from the rain, and they're just so damn cozy.

However, as 2003 comes to a close, I realized that in the 2nd half of the year, I have acquired 4 pairs of shoes! If this keeps up, I might be ready to wrest that shoe title from Imelda.

My latest shoe acquisition was today. After lunch with a family friend, what was supposed to be a trip to search for furniture ended up a flop.

Well... not entirely, since I was able to buy a pair of *ahem!* "Prada" leather shoes from a tiangge stall in Greenhills.

Like I was telling my sister, I think the "Prada" would go very well with my 2-year old *ahem!* "Ferragamo" sandals that I bought in a tiangge as well.

It's becoming uncanny. Aside from my sandals (which look really great, by the way), I was never really open to buying fake shoe brands from Greenhills. Hell, my Marikina-made Mr. Mark R. leather shoes would've been a better brand.

It seems though that the Greenhills Miracle is not confined to pants. I have been searching malls for a decent pair of leather shoes and I never found a pair that looked halfway decent. And then I went to Greenhills. And lo and behold, there was the pair screaming out my name like anything. And only for Php 550! Within 5 minutes, I was otta there with my new pair of Pradas.

They're not comfy, they're fake, but they sure looks good. It also looks like they'll be making a trip to Baguio soon. And once again, I guess they fall under the same end goal for buying clothes: to look good... or halfway decent in my case. As they say, if the shoe fits...

Php 550 shoes. They do the job well.

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The Friendster dilemma:

Friendster makes the whole world smaller.

Making the world smaller means bringing my somewhat spotty and selective memory to light. For some people, I have had to look at their pictures and how they are connected to me in order for me to place them.

For others, I have had to use my yearbook as reference material, thus its place right next to the computer.

One person who I'm not really on a hi-and-hello basis added me to her list of friends. We've only been introduced once. We haven't said more than 2 words to each other.

Yesterday, I was in a quandary. We were in line for enlistment, I had no idea whether to actually start being chummy and chatty considering that we were now each other's "friendsters"...

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