(I don’t know where to start. 0_0 )
First of all, to the March graduates of Batch 2009, my hat’s off to you guys! 😀
Honestly I have lost track of whoever dear friends of mine are shedding on their togas because of the discrepancies of programs and (dis)communication. (So as of now, a special mention to Anni, Ozy and Nats!) I am especially glad that you did your degrees with dignity, primed to be unleashed into the Big World. My entire ouverture into CPA-hood is not until next summer — I’d love to
break free from these shackles and smell that glorious smell of freeeeeedom! 🙂 Right now I just want to stay put and savor my three-week break (only 18 days remaining), forget about grades and start worrying (a little) about life.
It’s funny that when you’re smogged with books and problem solving, all you ever think of is a big vacation replete with plans of mall-touring and ‘exciting’ activities; but when you’re already in it, you wonder why there’s nothing much to do and you get bored all of a sudden. (I guess that’s me every freakin’ summer.) Somehow the weather gets in the way of fun — I hate the 35-celsius heat so much I just want to stay indoors, put the cooling machine in front of me and transform into a sedentary slob. (I am so not a beach gal, so swimming is out of the question… unless you drag me there.) Just awhile ago I de-frosted the fridge and found a temporary refuge inside the freezer, sticking my head in … but the ice, thick as it was, melted completely before my eyes in the span of half an hour that cleaning was a messy, long-winded afterthought.
In times like these, I usually do what I’ve been doing the past several summers — read, write, relax. (Well, I’ve always been relaxing, but not extendedly!) Like what I alluded to before, I’m at the tailend of my freewheeling schoolgirl era… before I know it, I’ll be straitjacketed into burrowing mounds of financial documents. Work is almost a knock away, so I’ll just have to enjoy the few precious moments when being a bum is still excusable.
I.) Read
There’s nothing like a good book to curl up with on a simmering afternoon. I still have 500+ pages of Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” to finish (if I do finish it, I’ll let you know… I really find this a gargantuan task. It’s like my reading pace / comprehension has devolved to that of a kindergartener’s.) … And I had a bookworm’s surprise on a bargain sale last Sunday when I found a hardbound secondhand copy of Elizabeth Kostova’s “The Historian” at the cost of 49.50Php,
roughly the equivalent of just $1! I remember that some three years back (when it was still hot), I seriously contemplated on buying a paperback version of the same book that retailed at 315Php… well, it was worth the wait. 🙂
Several more on my reading list: to reread Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” because it’s imperative that I do before I see the movie; Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes” which I’ve neglected for so long; and muster the eyestrain to finish Ian McEwan’s “Saturday” and/or “Atonement” on my mobile phone. No “Twilight” for anyone curious — I didn’t even bother downloading the sequels. (I have nothing against it really, it’s just that seeing 5-year olds agog about it makes me allergic to it, akin to the Miley Cyrus / Jonas Brothers mania — in short, an entitlement to feel “old”.)
Plus, I have something like Php1000 worth of GCs left to buy “my favorite books”. I don’t want to spend it on something trivial, so I’ve been saving it up to buy the last 2 Harry Potters (I hope the paperback of “Deathly Hallows” comes sooner — GCs expire on May!) and John Grisham’s “The Appeal”. (Or “The Associate”. Can’t have it both ways.) Or maybe something entirely different that catches my eye. (We can always pay money for the things we really love. Unreachable things are better off taken as free so the guilt isn’t there.) I’ve always wanted to buy McEwan’s “Amsterdam” — read the excerpt and I’ve been clamoring madly, but my friendly neighborhood bookstore branch doesn’t have one. Besides, his books are too expensive for my taste — I classify books beyond Php400 as “luxury items”, but I always wander around that corner of the store, where titles by A.S. Byatt, Iris Murdoch, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Updike, Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon et al, just sit idly. If a library was bequeathed to me, I’d love to fill the shelves with these crazy tomes and pore over each one, day by day.
II.) Write
Reading has always been a pedagogical precedent to writing, and the stuff I read or the things I hear most certainly manifests itself (or caricatures of it) into the stuff I’m writing. Oh, the company you keep. The one huge compliment I got about my writing this past half-year or so came from my Sociology professor, who tasked the students as an exam, to write a letter to a friend detailing how letter-sender spent his/her 50th wedding anniversary (future-oriented, think I’m 81 and I got married when I was 30). He read my work and was so effusive in his praise that I wished I wrote a simpler one (He mentioned me to the class in three separate occasions! But I liked the attention. Ha. XD) … I just had to be so exaggerated with my fantasies! The prof took me aside and said that when he read it, he thought he was reading the work of “an American writer”… that “I seem to live and breathe English” and had a totally different frame of mind. I wondered if that was a good thing, because I don’t want to be derided as some “poseur”. I explained that much of what I write is mainly influenced by American novels, periodicals and television. Besides, this letter was my first time to venture outside of the whimsical world of essay-churning. If I did want to go on with creative writing, then I’d have to get good role models. The prof then told me to seriously pursue writing, because with such talent “I’d put to shame a lot of Journalism and Communication majors in this country.” Coming from someone who’s had a lot of experience in the media and public speaking, that comment really sent me to high heavens. It means I have the “powerrr”! 😀 So to Sir Quinabo, if ever you come across this, I’m definitely keeping my options open. 🙂
If I haven’t mustered enough curiosity with whatever scandalous dalliances I conjured in my ‘letter’, I’ll have the thing up shortly by next week. I can’t even get to Blogger these days because of the homicidal internet in the house)
Wait, that’s not all! I have yet to create something for the contests I’m keen to join, like the annual Palancas (calling Miguel S. to give me grace!) and a Nescafe ad I’ve seen about why coffee is essential to my life. (This could be it! I’m in need of a notebook! Channel positivity =D) … I have a ‘photoshoot’ to do for another NBS contestI am also particularly inspired to write a piece about religion, maybe because of Lenten recollections, or certain self-worth issues. To set things in motion, I’d better type the first words…
III.) Relax
Whether it’s my fascination over all things retro or that I’m a baby boomer pre-reincarnated, I am simply in love with the television series “Mad Men”. I dig the sets, the styles, the hair they have. Never mind if there has to be smoking within a one-mile radius or sexism or frisky acts of adultery per episode… they make everything else interesting. Though I think the pacing can sometimes go too slow, there has a sense of stark authenticity to the 1960s culture that gives it a very ‘time capsule’ feel. Don Draper / Jon Hamm is the epitome of Brylcreem hotness. Roger Sterling / John Slattery gives the scene a tickle everytime he’s around. I can even take a spin at the other men (like Harry Crane or Ken Cosgrove), notwithstanding the nasty Pete Campbell… he’s like the revulsive sapsucker little brother (which means he’s good at what he does). And Betty Draper / January Jones is a
Barbie Doll! I can’t imagine women looking that pretty these days.
I have finished Season One, and onto the next. If there’s anyone who shares my “Mad Men” semi-obsession, you’d better check out (if you’ve haven’t heard of it yet) the delicious artworks of a certain Dyna Moe, who’s burning up Flickr with her tasteful “Mad Men”-inspired illustrated renditions. Amazing talent! I’ve saved a bunch and turned ’em into my wallpaper and screensaver! 🙂
Onto the audio scene, my latest musical discovery is Ladyhawke, whose songs I got acquainted with because of reading some socialite’s playlist. Pretty cool electronica / dance gal, most popularly known (according to Last.fm) for “Paris is Burning”, a song she said was written after a sojourn in the City of Lights. (I kinda got addicted to the tune just when I about to enter Hell Week then.) My favorite Ladyhawke song (after downloading at least 8 mp3s) is “Magic” because it suits a fashion runway romance kinda mood, and “Morning Dreams”.
(And to Aline: Can’t get “I Can’t Make You” out of my head! It’s an awesome melody :D) … My favorite get-up-and-go anthem nowadays is MGMT’s “Electric Feel”. I am also partial to another lady… Lady Gaga. (Must be due to watching “Dirty Sexy Money”.) What is with me and dance music? I’m still available for any trip-hop/downtempo recommendations 🙂
The first and only movie I’ve seen in the theatre this 2009 was “The International”, just last Sunday. (The inner masochist in me loves bloodshed.) What got me worked up happened when the credits rolled — I didn’t catch it fully, but apparently there was some score/theme in the movie composed by Tom Tykwer (the director) and a certain Matthew Bellamy. Of Muse, you mean? I’m still verifying it. I watched an old episode of “Live From Abbey Road” featuring a segment with Muse, with my dad. While they played “Map of the Problematique” accompanied by the riffs and kerrangs, Dad remarked, “Incredible rock music! But they look so decent.” Deep inside I couldn’t help feeling giddy, but instead I let out a weird snort. :p I wonder when the band will release their next album… hopefully the “Twilight” exposure hasn’t been a distraction 🙂
===
Whatever else is new? Oh, my hair. With nary an elegy to the ‘mermaid curls’ I’ve worn for nearly two years, I’ve shorn them off yesterday and did a total revamping. It’s now dead straight, shoulder-length, with bangs. You’ll never imagine the great lengths and pains it took for the ‘new hair’ to glow — 5 1/2 hours!!! I was in the salon from 1330hrs to 1900hrs and it was ‘cathartic’! The biggest pain of all was the ironing part, where locks of my hair has to be perfectly straightened out from root to tip — the nerves in my scalp were teetering on the brink of spewing blood from my brains! I am just happy to have survived two hours of ‘hair torture’ — the iron was hot and it did scald parts of my head (I can still feel it). The sacrifices you make to look beautiful presentable…
(Postscript: I My hair can never be too high-maintenance. I just wanted to cut it off because my ‘before’ look resembled a ridiculously mossy forest, and because it was summer and I didn’t want to waste any more shampoo and sweat! My ‘after’ look? Well, think of it as a neo-Japanese doll. Or Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka minus the Anna Wintour shades. See for yourself. 0_0)
===
As you can see, I haven’t blogged for so long that when I return, it’s something of a 10-minute opera. The certainty of posting another may not be as soon. I missed you, and will miss you again.
The Casual Observer 