I’ve had a productive day. I just finished spending the afternoon working on two pairs of pants… soaked my feet in bath salts, but had to stop short of giving myself a pedicure as I can’t find a pusher. (For the nails..) I have the living room all to myself. Before I start working on dinner, I thought I’d write.
It’s a beautiful day in New York today. Just said hello to my bestfriend, Fe. She’s off to breakfast now, though. =) (SHAMELESS PLUG: Atty. Fe Siton now writes a weekly column for Inquirer’s BANDERA, “Ibandera ang Batas” which comes out every Friday. Do watch out for her.)
Answered a couple and wrote some e-mails. I love that technology keeps us all connected, but nothing beats a phonecall or even snailmail. I love receiving letters and holding what I read in my hands. These days only Fe writes that way anymore. =) Everyone, it seems, or most everyone is just a text or an e-mail away.
Even my Globe OFW Sim has been quiet except for the occasional rave or rant from Fe. My sister texts me straight on my US phone, and most of my friends in Manila who are on Blackberry do BBM (Blackberry messenger — Reminder to self: BBM Toks.) My closest friend on my GLOBE sim is Globe itself who doesn’t let up with all the promos which I don’t think I’m qualified for anyway because I’m on “roam”. Duh.. Text me something please!
There is the occasional Facebook or Gmail chat. Still, most days, things are quiet. Maybe it’s the timeline.. maybe it’s just work. It’s Saturday here and I’m already thinking about Monday.
Meanwhile, I’m taking care of me.
After lunch with the boys in Minado, I walked over to Utrecht (Art Store) in the same strip mall and found certain shades of Sculpey Polymer Clay on sale for 77cents apiece! Take note, though, that NOT all Sculpey is on sale — only a number of shades and they were all practically gone by the time I got there. Still, 77 cents on 8 2-oz blocks is still a bargain. Other colors are priced just under $2. (Still a good buy…) I love browsing this art store even if I am no artist. I’d love to know what the different paints are for — acrylics, oil, watercolor (I work with) and pastels (which I am trying to work with..). All that paper! (Me and my thing for paper again…) I would’ve gotten some molding compound (my favorite liquid mold, OOMOO is available here but not at Michael’s) but they weren’t on sale and I still have quite a stash.
Bought myself a few tools — a flat iron for the hair because my hair is in a rather unwieldy shape because I’m growing it. Got a haircut a week ago which was great, but because the longer hair hits a wave, it looks “bulky” and funny to me. It’s still short but not quite as short or trimmed tightly as I have been used to, so the mornings find me spending a bit more time to look decent. It doesn’t help when it’s humid outside, too, because then it takes three times the effort, no thanks to my wavy hair. So I thought I’d help myself with a flat iron — a first time for me, so wish me luck. (I think I remember how the stylist used it when she fixed my hair after the cut.. Well, I think. LOL)
Found this utterly gorgeous polish I saw last week, but which I thought I’d get this week, and get it I did. It’s “LIVE YOUR LIFE” by Nicole by OPI. (Talk about message marketing..) It’s a pretty concoction of light pink glitter in various shades in a clear polish with flecks of little pink hearts. Cute, huh? (It’s the girl in me…) Sometimes bits of color like that can really perk me up even if it’s going to be on my toenails which are mostly hidden in closed shoes during the week. (Or I might take out my sandals and slippers for the commute this week if it doesn’t rain.)
And I’m finally sitting down on my workstool and creating something for myself. I’ve put the shop on vacation for now and am concentrating on creating pieces I can wear. I got a strand of beautiful mother-of-pearls the size of M&M Peanuts in very elegant shades of white, yellow and sand beige, and I was hoping to make a choker out of it but I am having a tough time stringing the pearls correctly. Stringing, if you must know, is something I’m still learning but I haven’t quite given up on it. I’m getting the hang of making the knot fall where I want it to, but I still end up messing things up every third or fourth bead. Sigh… practice, practice, practice — I tell myself.
And I’ve been writing. I even almost wrote prose again. =) Well, got a line or two out then the idea went pfffftttt…. Sigh… I haven’t written prose since I got here twelve years ago. I don’t even try anymore. Maybe I’ll start encoding my “ancient poetry” written in my younger years. (My oldest having been written in 1979…the others I had lost..) I brought them here to New York scribbled on notebooks and compilations of paper one time I came home from Manila — and I have promised I would start encoding them before I “lost” them. I just haven’t quite started because there is a ton of them. There was a time in my teens when I wrote more than one poem a day for quite a stretch. Imagine.. four liners to four stanzas long and longer .. I seem to have run out of juice after I drifted off to college.. adulthood got the best of my creative streak where poetry was concerned and seems to have put an end to it.
I’m trying to take better care of me. I’m reading more and trying to consciously spend more time doing the things I like to do a few minutes everyday — one of which is spending time here. I’ve also been good with the vitamins per my doctor’s admonition. Little things that I keep forgetting, so I finally put a reminder on the blackberry every night. I’m trying to enjoy the little things and putting them all in a small bucket of “happy”. It’s like stringing together old jokes that were once funny and are funny again when I play them over in my head.. funnier still when replayed one after another.
I just remembered there’s week-old cake in the fridge — I think I’m going to have some. (Might microwave it to make it a little moist again.)
Meanwhile, I will go back to Winterfell and King’s Landing as I try to get on with Book III of a Song of Fire and Ice, “A Storm of Swords. ” And there’s the pearl stringing to redo…
Pinay New Yorker 