Mary Got Run Over by a Reindeer

I have been battling a horrible, dry, hacking cough and headache for a week now. My youngest son G is too. I think I got it from him and I feel horrible and so does he. FH was at the doctor’s and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I had to go yesterday and was diagnosed with sinus infection. We’re both on antibiotics but G isn’t. He only had to take a decongestant. I blame the really cold weather which makes us turn on the heater producing dry air. No amount of humidifiers in our house can battle the dry, hot air. I curse the cold weather again.

So glad I got my Christmas shopping out of the way. And I’m so glad I had the foresight to wrap the gifts early so I don’t have to while I was feeling crummy. I am still nursing a really bad headache when I had to go and run some errands. One of which was going to the post office to ship some eBay items. As I was standing in line at the P.O., I was mentally kicking myself: what the heck was I thinking? Timing the auction so that it’ll end on a high traffic holiday shipping extravaganza? I blame the meds I’ve been taking.

I haven’t cooked in days. Thank God for take-out and pre-packaged meals. My family must be feeling like we are a military barracks eating RTO rations. Oh well, they’ll live.

I’ve managed to bake up a storm prior to all these. I made food for the gods, banana nut loaf, pecan tarts and steamed some embutido (Filipino meatloaf, I guess?) which I promptly distributed to the giftees. I have yet to bake more stuff for the Christmas party which will be held here at our home. What were we thinking? Hosting a Christmas party at our home? There will be about 7 families coming over. For this, I blame no one.

And so, here I am, nursing a headache like a hungover college student on spring break in Mexico. I feel like I have been run over by a reindeer and Christmas is biting me in the a**.

New Hair, New Hairdresser

There are times in a woman’s life when she feels unattractive, too fat or just need a change. For me, it was all of the above. Aside from the fact that I gained weight after cancelling my gym membership (was paying and not going. Waste of time. Big mistake. Thunderthighs  and muffin top are a testament to the fact that I shouldn’t have canceled), my hair was as long as my bra clasps. The yummy curls I had was now reduced to pathetic bean poles hanging from my head. And so I decided to have a haircut despite protests from my boys, particularly the youngest one G. I assured him that I won’t have it really short.

I didn’t want to wait for my Korean friend Y to take me to the hairdresser. And I didn’t want to run the risk of getting a bad hair day just in case my instructions get lost in translation, I then decided to trek to the mall and get a haircut from one of those haircutting chains. My aunt and I had a good haircut from one of the hairdressers there and I was hoping she was still there. To my delight, she was. And so I specifically asked for her despite the 2 or 3 other hairdressers hovering, eyeing me as if I am a hippopotamus and they the lions waiting for the kill. R the hairdresser then sat me on the chair. She is, by the way, Asian too. I only trust my hair to fellow Asian women, nothing personal. I feel as if, sharing the same hair color and type, they understand me better. She had this very chic short hair with big dangling earrings and cool eyeglasses. Before I was able to tell her what I would like to do with my hair, she fingered my hair and tsk tsked.  With a stern look on her face, she said: “you had a perm and it was a bad perm”. What? this lady’s a genius! This is the first time I’ve been back since maybe 3 years ago and she remembered I had straight hair? But then I remembered that she does this for a living and she probably recognizes what you did to your hair at first glance. “Yes, I had a perm” I meekly replied. Feeling like a scolded child for doing something to my hair and she was not the one who did it. That I went to someone else instead of her. “How long ago was that?” peering at me through her glasses I felt like I was in the principals office instead of the hairdressers. “Four months ago”. “What? Had your perm been done the right way you wouldn’t have lost your curls like this.” I protested that this is the longest time I’ve been with a perm and that my stick straight hair is just plain stubborn but she didn’t pay attention. She then told me the correct way to perm the hair and had I taken care of it, it would have lasted a long time. So I told her it’s okay for now. All I need is a trim because I am getting tired of my hair and made a promise that if I need another perm I’d go to her. That seemed to satisfy her and so we compromised on me getting a trim.

Only after I was seated and she was chopping off layers from my hair did I know that she is in fact, an artist. (Which probably explained the temperament a little bit). She is into orchids and has a greenhouse, she does photography and goes into competitions. She said there is no money on art and so she cuts hair. That settled me right there and decided that this is going to be my regular hairdresser from now on.

I went out of there with a nice new haircut which earned a thumbs up from the boys.

And so, here it is, I present - my hair:

Told you I shouldn’t have cancelled the gym membership.

All I Want for Christmas is - An iPhone

note: this was a post that I thought I published but turns out I didn’t. pls disregard the date.   

Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet which would have signaled the beginning of the Christmas season (read:shopping) here in North America but the stores are displaying Christmas decorations. What the heck! No wonder there are a lot of consumers who are just sick of all the marketing ploy to get people to buy stuff. Well sure the sounds of Jingle Bells wafting through the air and the giant Santa Claus smack dab in the middle of the mall not to mention all the Christmas ads makes you want to puke in your mouth a little bit but it does get you wondering what to buy your aunts, cousins and relatives for the Holidays. And so it is with these impure thoughts have I been drooling over the iPhone. After seeing the commercial and all the hype, I look at the TV screen pretty much like Mowgli in the Jungle book (you know, that scene where his eyes get real big like saucers?). I am transfixed, mesmerized, hooked, stupefied. For the first time in my technophobe life I am craving a techno-gadget! Me! The same person who cannot figure out how to program the VCR or even TiVo (if we had one) would like a 21st century modern day invention. Who am I and where is the real me?

But yes, I am craving the iPhone. I even announced it one day while I was watching TV at the basement. The iPhone commercial came in and I yelled “Daddy, I want an iPhone”. To which FishermanHubs replied “yeah right”. He insists that iPhones are only for those who a)have nothing better to do with their lives  or b) have a lot of time on their hands. This from the same man who needs to have the latest electronic gadget.

Whatever, I still want an iPhone for Christmas.

image credit: www.wireless.att.com

I’m Baaaaack!

It’s been almost a month and so much has happened. Life has taken on crazy twists and turns and I have tried my best to navigate through. I have come out of it still shaken and woozy but alive nonetheless. And maybe in the course of the coming days I will be able to divulge everything, well almost everything, that transpired. Although there are some things I’d rather forget.

Christmas is almost here and I am one of the few (or the many, depends which way you look at it) who gets depressed around the holidays. But no matter how down I feel, I still make the trek to the malls and shopping outlets to snag the best deals for Christmas gifts. This year though, I am a little late. It used to be that before Black Friday even starts or immediately after, I have scratched off my gift list. Not this year. Sure I look forward to my Mom and my sister who will fly over from FL and some relatives and close friends will join us for lunch but somehow, I am not feeling the Christmas spirit. We just bought our tree - fresh because FH insists on getting a live one, ’tis the smell, he says, 2 weeks before the big day. It is standing on the side of the living room, bare except for one ornament G made. He hung it there himself, so it won’t look naked, he says. I shrug it off, feeling sorry for the tree - taken from the lot where all the fresh trees were and now thrust into the warm house where it stays naked and bare for the next 3 days. I have to wait ’til weekend to decorate it. I didn’t find the lights in the 5 red Rubbermaid bins marked “xmas”. And so will wait until the kids have gone off school and FH is off work. The tree will finally get the attention over the weekend.

I might be better off tomorrow. When the stockings are hung and the lonely wreath we have hanging in the foyer will be joined by reds and greens and golds. It has taken me a long time but it’s going to be okay.

Just wanted to say I’m back.