growing up, it's always just been my mom, my brother and me (my dad worked abroad for the longest time before he and my mom migrated to the US) and after my brother left home last december, i've had the entire house to myself. after a couple of days being scared of my own shadow, and another couple of days envisioning myself waking up drenched in blood like those victims in forensics shows on crime suspense (i have a flair for the melodramatic), i got used to the idea and realized that hey, it isn't so bad at all.

wait. i didn't just get used to the idea, i loved the idea of living alone so much that i'm planning a move to sta. rosa - a place where there aren't two SM malls within a five kilometer radius - come october.

anyway, i've spent the entire weekend in my aunt's house in quezon city and it's pretty cool waking up to a room with two other people in it, to come down and greet people good morning, and to hang out with kids (2nd year high school, incoming sophomore in college, and an incoming freshman who keeps reminding me that he's entering the best private university - the Ateneo) who think i rock in spite of the fact that i don't know the difference between house and lounge music. i just love it here and to use my dad's words, "parang ayaw mo nang umuwi."

i guess the forced isolation - partly resulting from the need to buckle down and study and partly resulting from the fact that i don't really like going out - has taken its toll on me. i may not have gone through as much of commercial law as i would like to (nego, after all these years is still a fucker imho) but just being around people you not only love but genuinely like as well has this way of rejuvenating you like no shopping trip can.

speaking of shopping trips (what a messy post, i know), i have pledged to cut off all shopping trips in the immediate future. 29, i realized, is too old not to have a huge stockpile of money in the bank. funny how i used to be more financially stable when i had just started working, and how, after i got spike almost three years ago, i'm just using it as an excuse why i am perennially broke. i'm making way more money than i used to (contrary to popular opinion, the salary of a teacher in that little school in the middle of ortigas is not directly proportional to the tuition fee they charge the students) but i don't seem to be getting any richer. in fact, "broke" seems to be the more appropriate term.

gaaah. i'm just channeling my aunt's mantra. she tells me, don't say you're broke, say you 'don't have the budget for it'. so okay, i haven't had the budget for anything recently. thank god i don't have a credit card. otherwise, i'd be one of those who'd be receiving regular calls from citibank asking me to pay my credit card bill.

another digression - what is it with those people who call for citibank? they're as bad as those people in white shirts and green pants in malls who stalk you and ask you if you have a credit card so they can sell you something. family first i think. gaaaaah. there's this guy who used to work for the court whose number just happened to be the number we're using right now. every single day, a telebanker would call asking for him. that's been going on for a year now, notwithstanding the fact that we've been telling them every single day for a year now too that he doesn't work there anymore. we've resorted to explaining it to them nicely, explaining it to them rudely, and recently, to threatening them, all to no avail. crazy really. next time i get to be the one to pick up the phone, i'm going to either (1) give them my ex's house number (hit two birds with one stone, he he) or (2) follow gay's advice and ask the name of their legal counsel and tell them we'll be filing an injunction to make them stop calling (not that THAT would be possible but it just sounds really impressive and lawyerly, neither of which come naturally to me).

oh well.

too long a post, with no real point. have a great monday everyone.