Pretend you’re anything just to be adored

Wonderful news! Annie just called me and she said that according to a very reliable source, school will start on the 7th instead of the 3rd! This is the best thing my stupid school has ever done, next to the air-conditioned classrooms of course. Well I’m really happy about the extension because it means I will have more time to tinker with my electric guitar when it arrives. Aww yeah!

Today I went to Glorietta with Glyka for the first time in weeks. She needed a shopping companion cos she had to buy school shoes and since I didn’t really had anything planned for today, I went with her. It felt good to see the Defect people again. We hung out there after we were done buying Glyka’s shoes and we dropped by 1:15 twice for a couple of minutes. Angelo told me I was getting fat, that is, my legs were. That made me feel really self-conscious but maybe he was just kidding. He can be a real pig like that.

I also met my first weirdo today. Or rather, my first weirdo met me. When Glyka and I went back to 1:15 for the second time, there was this guy with a small goatee talking to Angelo. We were both introduced to him; his name is Joe (Joseph) and after saying hi I didn’t really give him a second thought. He didn’t look like much; he looked like a taxi driver and I tend to be suspicious around people like that. It turns out that the guys at Defect don’t really like him either. He’s supposed to be a friend of Afro’s but he’s really weird and annoying. According to them, he stays there until closing time and he loves to talk about music. He know’s everything about the music industry and at first I thought that was kind of cool. I don’t really get to talk about music to the people I know.

Joe came to Defect shortly, and while I was sitting down he approached me and said that my black polished nails looked gothic. I told him I was punk and then we had a conversation about the punk bands that I liked. He does know a lot about the music industry and for the first time I finally got to talk to somebody about punk rock and people like Sid Vicious. He told me that there are some punks in the Philippines (mostly new school punks like me), and that there are punk gigs outside of Makati. But there was something weird about the way his eyes kept darting back and forth when I talked to him. And he kept asking personal stuff about me like where I lived and where I went to school. I gave him really vague answers for that; instict told me not to devulge any personal information.

I felt somewhat relieved when he said he needed to go to the bathroom. The Defect people were giving me this teasing, knowing grins while he was away–I rolled my eyes at them. But then Afro got all serious and said that Joe tends to stalk people. That creeped me out so Glyka and I left before he could come back. I had a couple of minutes left before my mom picked me up and while we were walking around the mall I kept looking behind my shoulder to see if there was anyone following us. Glyka made me feel even more nervous when she said that she saw him staring at me when we first ran into him at 1:15. While Joe and I were talking, Mirex told her that Joe gets attracted to girls like me. So how come I always attract the weirdos instead of the guys that I like?

It’s amazing what a boy can do

My cousins left for San Francisco early this morning and Caloy, my cousin who lives in Cebu will be leaving tomorrow. Already it’s becoming too quiet without my San Fran cousins in the house. I really wish they were my brothers instead because I really had lots of fun with them around. During their last day (which was yesterday) we played hide and seek all over the house, something I hadn’t done since my childhood days. And then after eating dinner at a restaurant that night, we went to this karaoke place where we could get our own room and sing without feeling shame.

The first time we realized that karaoke wasn’t corny was during Christmas day. After eating lunch at my auntie’s house and a quick game of basketball, she made us sing karaoke songs. At first we weren’t so hot about the idea. Me especially because all of the songs that were available were love songs. And you know how I hate all that sap. Besides, I’ve long ago given up trying to sing pop. My voice just isn’t powerful enough. Anyway, even though none of us were particularly talented at singing pop songs, we realized that it was fun to act gay, goof up and sing in different accents (my cousins are good at imitating accents). We ended up hogging the karaoke, and my aunties didn’t get to sing much anymore. Same thing happened at the karaoke place last night. We laughed more than we sang; I burned a lot of the calories that way.

Funny incident: there are all these framed posters of famous people in the music industry hanging on the walls of the karaoke place. On the hallway that led to the room we rented was a topless picture of Madonna. My cousin Mark likes looking at pictures of sexy girls, Filipinas in particular. The picture reminded me of him so I was like, “Hey Mark, check out the eye candy!” And then my dad, who was walking in front of us and was feeling kind of tipsy, saw it and ran forward to cover the picture up with his body! He refused to move until we all passed by him and were in the room. What’s more, he had the picture replaced with a picture of the Spice Girls. Whatever! I don’t need to look at Madonna’s boobs; I see mine everyday. But I guess he wanted to protect Mark’s virgin eyes. How long will his eyes remain a virgin, I wonder.

In honor of Caloy, who will be leaving tomorrow, we ate dinner out again today. And tomorrow my entire family is required to attend the house blessing of one of my dad’s friends. Ack! When will this eating ever stop?

Merry Christmas! Duh…

That’s it!!! I’ve had it with food of all sorts! I’ve been doing nothing except eat the past week, and I’ve completely stuffed myself today and yesterday. I don’t mind having a little flesh in my body but this is definitely going to make me gain weight. Not sexy. Well I guess Christmas is really the season for gaining weight. Well when my cousins leave in two days, at least I can starve myself until school comes. I don’t want them to leave though, it’s going to be pretty lonely without them. I have no idea what to do to make time fly by when I’m home alone. I won’t be getting my guitar till after the new year. My dad gave me this book about guitars though, there are some really cool electric guitars in there but I bet they’d cost a fortune. And my mom got me a great pair of headphones that I can attach to my amp so I don’t bother the neighbors with my noisy guitar. Yay.

My cousins and I did something cute today. I got this idea of getting my cousins from the States these anime polos for Christmas, the kind the “ghetto-boys” of the Philippines wear. My mom ended up buying polos for everyone, and then my sister and I bought anime tops from the mall. So when my cousins and I opened our presents last night, we decided to wear our anime shirts to the Christmas lunches we’d be having today. Mine was kind of like a halter, so my dad made me wear my jacket with it. I don’t see why he’s really paranoid about showing a little skin. Sure, all my cousins are guys but they’re not going to look at me in that way! Besides, I’ve been gaining weight and I don’t look so nice in that top anyway. It was a real hassle so I brought another shirt with me just in case the jacket got too hot. It didn’t take me long before I couldn’t stand looking like an idiot. I hate it when people wear jackets when it’s not even cold, so you can imagine how I felt. So I changed to my shirt, which irritated some people slightly because I stuck out like a sore thumb in the pictures. Oh well.

Oh yeah, Jeff arrived in the Philippines yesterday afternoon and we’re planning to meet each other on 7th after school. We’ll probably go to the Power Plant or something. Fuck cheerleading rehearsals; this is the first time Jeff came to the Philippines ever since he left about six years ago!

Merry Christmas everyone! This may be a bit too late, but let me give you some advice: don’t eat too much!