Christmas Eve and Day usually see people

a. hopping from house to house in search of gifts or any other holiday blessing that the generous relative may bestow upon them
b. going to church. A lot.
c. attending countless family reunions
d. having loads of parties and stuffing themselves silly

So what did I do during the holidays? Nothing, although right now, I'm attempting to work on a few things just so I can finally be nice and lazy next week, which is a three-day workweek, heehaw!

The other day, my parents and I put to good use the Gerry's Grill gift certificates from my sister. We've still got P500 left over, so we can use that with the GCs my other sister sent us. Later in the afternoon, I decided to use up my salon gift certificate and got a really spiffy haircut for the first time in six months.

The 25th was a killer. TJ invited me to lunch at his house and I said I'll be there between 12 to 12:30. Sure I ran into a lot of traffic along Commonwealth Avenue, but I did not expect to get stuck for two hours in front of SM Fairview, thanks ever so much to the unusually-situated bus terminal and the jeepneys that should have been in the leftmost lane in the first place but instead were crossing all the way from the rightmost lane. I was nearly hysterical during the whole ordeal but happily TJ walked from his house and found me amidst the traffic jam.

I had to pick up some food on the way home, so I stopped by a certain stall selling roast chicken. The guys were initially annoying, asking me where I'm from, what my name is, if I know anyone with this or that surname, and telling me I looked familiar. To which the only appropriate reaction was, "He-he." One of them eventually popped the question: "I see you have a cellphone there. What's your cellphone number?" To which the only appropriate reaction was, "Hrmm." I paid for the chicken and took a few steps away from the stall when I decided I wouldn't take that sort of shit on such a fine holiday. So I walked back, slammed my fist down on the counter and said, "Ako, nagpunta 'ko dito para bumili ng pagkain, hindi para pagsalitaan nang ganyan. Pasko ngayon, ano ba."* which caused the guy to mumble an apology.**

Hah.

When I got home, my relatives were around, so I hung around for a few minutes before going upstairs to change into comfy clothing. Whereupon I fell asleep and woke up a couple of hours later.

* I came here to buy food, not to get picked up. It's Christmas, for heaven's sake.