Nap Time Rocks!

#059

things I’ve learned looking back at the past year:

how time flies. And it seems to tick by even faster every year.

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it gets busier year after year, no matter how hard you get into the Christmas spirit. Your inaanak/favorite niece or nephew list grows longer every year, and you really don’t have a choice.

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how do people celebrate Christmas? is it still the same as last year?

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I know now how it feels to sacrifice something for someone and realize that person has the complete freedom to either appreciate your gift, reject it, be thankful, or return the one thing that you ask. I have the slightest idea now how God must feel about his sacrifice.

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a glimpse of what real love means. and it hurt most of the time. kinda like nails being hammered through your hands.

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everything I’ve gone through this year have not been coincidences. to learn from the mistakes and build on the successes is my next big challenge this new year.

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you can gain friends as fast as losing them.

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alcohol is the biggest traitor.

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you can always be successful just as long as you are faithful to Him. but even then, when we are infidels, he cannot deny himself and be one among us. I can never get this thing about grace and mercy, but he shows it best. This hasn’t been my best year but I guess he has his reasons why im still standing up.

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getting what you want or need is a matter of financial management. I am no guru in the area but my secret? microsoft excel.

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some good things never last, but some do. It’s all a matter of sifting through the ones that do and doing away with those that don’t. I just have to learn how to be thankful for them and move on.

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to be continued…

#058

parang kailan lang, nagtatayo at nagtatanggal kami ng christmas tree.

snapshots of sceneries of the past year or so.

passing through edsa or slex nowadays is like watching tv with only one program: ads.

#057 rehashing my christmas wish list

#001 pilot g-tech pen, .04

walang kokontra. wish list ko to. –>kokontra na ako ngayon, i already have my pilot g-tech pen, .04

#002 016 il mare, my sassy girl, windstruck dvds –>yep, still as is but this will probably go down the list

#003002 nike shox/air unify –>oh yeah
#004 the devil wears prada book –>got this already
#005 nike watch–>this one too, but not from nike, though
#006 nokia 7610 6270/6280
#007 nokia hands-free set –>got this one along with my phone last year
#008 Gokab Puto Special
#009 any graphic novel book
#010 any gaiman book (except american gods)
#011 coleman lunch box
#012 someone to sing me a nice song –>hehe
#013 someone to hug for Christmas
#014 nice new speakers for my pc
#015 a cd of the shorts that i helped/starred in (*hint hint*) –>paging ruthie and wawel…

and for this year’s new list…
#017 world peace (i can’t be entirely selfish can i?)
#018 the postman (il postino) soundtrack –>thanks to one good being

bah humbug?

driving to work this morning, I was confronted by an inescapable fact that Christmas is just around the corner. I wasn’t reminded by the alternating parols hanging quietly on the lamp posts, nor by the festive invitation of several bazaars and malls to come to their last-minute Christmas sale. I wasn’t prompted by the Christmas songs played every now and then on the radio; in fact I was just a little annoyed that they didn’t play “just regular music”. It wasn’t the glitter and Christmas trees nor the many variations of Santa and his reindeers imprinted on every household décor.

I’m not playing the old scrooge role though. Every year I get older it seems that i would lose a thread of my “Christmas spirit”. I used to get excited 2 weeks before the big event, and would anticipate every trip to the mall for the annual Christmas present shopping. Now, I would dread having to squeeze my way through the militia of bargain-hunting people, even throwing one or two threatening looks to those who would dare invade my personal space (which, by the way, has been limited to a very tiny area).

I was reminded by the people who would annoy me one way or another; those jeepney drivers, in particular, who would cut you and stop in the middle of the road to let passengers get on and off. drivers who might have also lost their sense of giving, and pedestrians who have no concept of stop and go. Even the men in blue — those MMDA guys who seem to have found every corner of the street a comfortable watch post. I watched myself go from happy-go-lucky to road-raging driver. I was close to saying ‘bah, humbug to you too.’

I was reminded because they reflected how I dealt with them. if there’s anything more methodical than Santa Clause this time of the year, then it would be that Christmas is synonymous with love or charity. It’s plastered on all hallmark cards, printed on billboards, and advertised so much on tv. I was not anywhere near obeying that credo when it came to these people. It was so much easier to be nicer to people of value to you, why bother?

But then it isn’t easy for them either. Having nothing for Christmas eve is no comfortable idea, nor faking to celebrate prosperity when we all know that food and gasoline prices are increasing making it so much harder to go by these days. (I would sarcastically wear my seatbelt lately dahil malapit na ang Pasko, kailangan ng pambili ng pang-Noche Buena).

By now you’d expect me to retract and say that ‘tis the season for forgiveness anyway, so what the heck. I’m not changing the way I think about the undisciplined drivers of metro manila, but im resolving to alter my fixed response to negative stimuli. Haha. Which means I will try to avoid hurling profanities and ruin my day by going nuts over people I have mentioned earlier. I would be doing them and myself a favor wouldn’t i?

‘Tis the season for realizing the bad things I’ve done for the past year. ‘Tis the season to change how I live my life, start and end my day. ‘Tis the season to do something nice to other people for a change. ‘Tis the season to eliminate stress in my life and the things that make it stressful. (I wish there were no more jeepneys around. Just kidding.)

#055 kape, native style

like if you wanna have kape, like, you know, native style! (haha)