Girl Anachronicles

Well, it’s almost Day Zero (in which my closest friends and I lift off to the Pacific zone), and I just had a pretty interesting weekend.

Eze and Pepe twisted the planned schedule for Saturday upside down, and we ended up handing in a pre-recorded program of Frecuencias Alternas in exchange for the freedom to spend the rest of the evening at Rebeca’s and Tatiana’s birthday. It was one of those huge, folkloric affairs, with two birthday cakes (more than enough to pass around twice and then serve in doggy bags for family and friends), confetti strewn all over the floor and a random mix of merengue, reggaetón and (gulp!) Gunther. We (Eze, Pepe, Maricarmen and I) spent most of the time sitting on a huge metal box perilously perched on the parking curb (and identified by graffiti as the “Skate Box”). We talked a lot, planned some more details of our upcoming trip, and had the kind of easy-going fun you only get to have with tried-and-true friends. We’re the Clerks (see: Kevin Smith) generation, and we love it!

Sunday kicked off with rain and thunder, but we carried on with our plan anyway: to spend the afternoon with my Mom and brother. We picked them up and went to lunch at El Hipopótamo (a small, old Spanish-style restaurant, or tasca, as we like to call it ‘cuz then we feel a bit more cosmopolitan when we go there). After a nice, thorough lunch (serrano ham was to be had, as well as milhojas, and that makes me very happy), we went to JC Penney in Plaza Carolina (so as to avoid Plaza las Américas, which gets hellishly crowded on weekends). I had spotted a few covetable items in the JC Penney shopper, and for the first time in a long while, I acted on the whim. Most of said covetable items were not so pretty up close, or were not available, but I got away from it all with a new pair of (gasp!) Mary Janes. How odd of me ¬_¬ …

Later on we had dinner with Pepe at Dennys, and after another brief visit to Mom’s (to help move a futon outside, where it will probably be carried off by someone desperate and very strong), we capped off the evening by watching Bridge to Terabithia. It was much better than I thought it would be and affected me more than I predicted. It’s fully recommendable, but be prepared for the unexpected.

Oh! Eze also bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for me, and I just started reading it. NO FUCKING SPOILERS, you read me!?

So, it’s nearly 5PM, a bit over an hour to go before quitting time, and tomorrow we depart at 4:52PM. In 24 hours I’ll most likely be strapped to a plane seat, looking out of the nearest window and bracing myself for the emotional orgasm liftoff always brings. I’ll keep posting as much as our daily activities let me, and I’ll definitely take as many pictures as I can.

I’m giddy! I can hardly wait!

Yesterday I went shopping by myself after work. My sister told me there were Rocket Dog shoes on sale at Montehiedra’s Marshalls store, so I had to go and check that out (I’m a hardset fan of Rocket Dogs, they’re so comfy! ^_^).

But no luck was to be had on that mission. There were Rocket Dogs alright: ugly, ill-fitting affairs (are they really Rocket Dogs?), or not in my size. So I started browsing around and headed for the purse area. A few weeks ago my messenger bag purse suffered its “demise” along with a shirt I held as a favorite (they were both drenched in earthy water that sprayed out of the A/C console of the office’s trolley van. I looked like a ladybug for the rest of the day).

The bags I liked right off the bat surprised me with very steep price tags ($100+, damned be leather and it’s powerful, attractive smell and feel!!!). I took my very sweet time shopping around, comparing, sweating it out. My brother called me in the middle of it all, and I realized I was shopping like my mother shops, with the only difference that I wasn’t inflicting anybody else with the pain of it. I’m definitely a slow shopper. I finally decided myself on a red, crocheted bag from The Sak (It even has a metal tag that assures me that it is “The Original” … how comforting! 8-D )

After that, I decided, halfway to the register counter, that I might as well change my wallet too. It had been years since I had last bought a new wallet. ‘Kitty wallet’ (a small, black wallet with Emily Strange’s black cat patched on top) was running small on me, I don’t know why. It’s not like I applied for a thousand new credit cards all of a sudden, but it wasn’t buttoning up as well as it should have. So I got an indigo-colored, leather Tignanello wallet (damned be leather!).

The whole purchase amounted up to a bit over $50. I’m still a bit weirded out at myself. My brother kept telling me it was weird seeing me with a purse. And so it is! I’ve been holding onto my college buying-and-wearing habits, I think out of fear of turning into a corporate, suit-wearing zombie lady. Yeah, the one that buys The Sak handbags and Tignanello wallets, I think. But I feel strangely fine about all this, because what I thought it represented is not gonna happen anyway.

Yesterday I ran into an old college aqcuaintance, and I realized that in spite of the 8 years past, I am still the same garbled mess of a person I was back then (albeit fatter … or more pregnant-looking, thank you ¬_¬). And I like it that way, but at the same time my instincts tell me that it’s time to grow up into the woman my mother and stepmother have been nudging me to be. I suspect I might turn out to be a garbled, messy version of that, but I’m fine with that too.

I’m beginning to feel a bit more comfortable in my own skin (sagginess and cellulitis included), and oddly enough the crocheted, red handbag that now hangs from my shoulder, with the indigo, leather wallet inside it are proof to myself that … precisely … I don’t need to prove anything to anyone other than myself. And that I can give myself permission to be as “adult” as I’ve always feared to be (lest I start growing old, god forbid!) … of course, in my own, particular … idiom. (thank you, sweet Concorde! )

I remember making wishlists on a regular basis in my different blogs. I barely ever go shopping, and when I do, most of the times it has to do with something I need, not something I want. But I also “fall in love” and wish for clothes, kitchen appliances, books and shoes like any other girl, with the difference that as soon as I say or express my wish, I forget about it.

I don’t usually shop around for things in my wishlists. I think it mainly has to do with the fact that I have forgotten what it is that I wanted. Yesterday, while I was fooling around with my profile, I saw there was a space for a “wishlist”, managed by Froogle.

I fiddled with it a bit until I understood how it worked, and voilá! I have a wishlist!!! Completely updatable, it keeps things in one place, and I can add whichever type of product that comes into mind (not books & CDs only, like in Amazon… or even “books only” like in Half.com — which is awesome, of course!).

So there it is (wink wink, nudge nudge! Wanna make a gift? ^_^ j/k!)