dammit! it has been a very long and tiring day... and i love it!

i haven't slept for the past twenty-four hours and i'm not complaining---hell no! i just finished scrubbing myself down after reaching home from a birthday gimmick-out of a friend.

i need to recharge and snuggle up and venture off to dreamland but before i do that, i'm having the itch to doodle my thoughts. here we go...

cut back to yesterday, a few minutes after lunch. i was burning phone lines with a friend, having the subtle but nagging desire to go out. incidentally, it was a friend's birthday.

markie: "birthday nya ngayon ah. wala bang nasabi na pumunta tayo sa kanila?
friend: "wala eh. gusto ko sana umalis."
markie: "oo nga eh. sana nga mag-text sya na pumunta tayo sa bahay nila. oh well..."

a few deep breaths of boredom later i received a text message: "punta daw tayo sa bahay nila. 1pm." hmm... life is beautiful.

i was in the process of preparing to ditch home when a good number of my uncle's visitors ambushed the house. effing crap! i have a situation here. i tried my best to be a little hospitable and jolly, all the while eyeing the living room clock like a hawk. the moment that the surprise guests exited our abode, i speeded to clothe up for the house party.

knowing for a fact that i was to venture inside the intestine of the pasig palengke, i wore simple clothes that would never give a hoot about the agora scenery: a loose shirt and comfy jeans.

when i got to the party i was a bit held aback by the small number of people. it was either an intimate party or my friend was on stingy mode. wow. i was one of the few who were invited and i was proudly in charge of the party favors (eg the wordfactory game and the cheap playing cards bought from divisoria). there was spaghetti on his menu of party food and i totally pigged out on it! yum yum!

while doing party stuff, there was this soft hush about a certain eastwood gimmick-out. geezers! the people were dead-set on going to that place and i was wearing mall clothes and a lazy pair of sandals! to make the long boring story short, there were some twisted arms but all of us including insecure ole' me were coerced into jumping in.

the day being the eve of christmas eve, it wasn't really a surprise to see the eating places packed with people. we spent an awful amount of time scooting around for the place to have our past midnight munching. we ended up eating at bargo. the food was nice but the service was infuriating! there we were, people exhausted from walking the eastwood streets, and we get our orders at least a stomach-rebelling hour after. no tips for them... and it had nothing to do with our emaciated wallets.

they decided to go dancing. heck, i think i've got two left elephant feet. it was a horrible thought to think about me strutting my ass but being ashamed to be tagged as the party pooper, i agreed. our group raided blue onion. the place was ok---it gave a cozy atmosphere and the crowd inside looked normal based on my head-case standards. the r&b music was nifty that it managed to incite me to subtly jerk my arms and bob my head up and down. we didn't realize that it was already four in the morning until the lights were turned up and the place was preparing to close curtain. our wasted out congregation sat our butts out in the chairs and tables fronting the place. the early morning sun was at hand. we decided to head back to the birthday boy's house to rest.

on the way to his place, we got stuck inside one of the arms of the market. it was really christmas eve. it was just a little past four but the market was teeming with busy people. it was like one vast ocean of bodies going about their business, like little oiled microgears of a behemoth. wow. it was almost astounding to watch.

we spent the time at my friend's winding down with a few friendly but competitive rounds of bridge---i know we ain't ordinary people. other people wind down by sipping coffee and lounging around in the couch but we decide to play strategy games. that's just us.

anyway, we waited for the day to completely announce itself before the whole lot of us headed home.

now, here i am---sitting in front of the pc, breaking away from the mad keyboard-thumping just to give way to a yawn or two. damn, i feel alive... and a tad sleepy.