the fourteenth of next month is already swelling despite the page of january still resting over it

and yet istill haven’t given my bestest friends their shares of my Christmas generosities

they don’t seem to mind, fortunately, but i unfortunately do





we cancelled our annual december material sweetnesses last year (thus, technically, iam clear), but the thought still nags



richmond inparticular bothers me the most

we met during the last days of the recent xmas break to unwind and see what luxuries we could indulge ourselves in with our meager finances

‘meager’ apparently wasnt the word for my friend

iwatched richmond exit the LRT station in recto, approach me with apologies for being late, and with a shy smile hand me a small plastic bag

itook the bag as he hit me a gosh-i-hope-youll-be-happy-even-though-its-just-that-pal!

inside was a black Randy Orton™ baller

ilooked up to his face to see it displaying that don’t-worry-friend-its-alright-i-really-just-wanted-to-give-you-something-i-swear look

how iwanted to rearrange that face of his



that piece of rubber costs just a few Osmenas shy of a glittering five hundred peso bill

and the worst of it is that, until now, my wallet’s enjoying a famine

(ibarely had the money to buy a ticket for that first semifinal game of Ginebra. ONE-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY-PESOS for the semi-faraway seat. iwould have cried had the sonsofbitches lost)



itexted him later that afternoon, imploring him to wait until ican acquire atleast a quarter of the price of that asian treasure he got me. iwarned him that it could even take till valentines. ipromised him that ill get him something smile-inducing

his reply would have been fitting for an Oscar had atleast a peso been present in his phone


itried that WWE slam card collection 7-11’s tried to promote. iheard that the entire book costs about 150, an unbelievable sum considering that a single card required a victim’s receipt to register 60 something pesos

then iwas informed that the P150 thing was only for the ALBUM itself

“youll have to collect all the cards by yourself, sir” which of course meant buying more shits from their store

the kuya then gave me that oh-so-understanding smile. iwanted to erase it with my fist


next, ithought of a PBA jersey. a JAMES YAP jersey. atleast with it he’ll probably realize how sincere ihad been, daring to walk his gift to the cashier and having the entire SM public think of me as another james yap fanatic

and then iremembered ihad shopped for gifts once already. iremembered seeing a beautiful DONDON HONTIVEROS sports shirt, instantly springing ana in my mind. and that when iapproached it, my hands quickly recoiled after noticing the tag

the price catered to PBA players themselves

iremembered bidding goodbye to the Mark Caguioa jersey beside dondon’s


the problem though, is that richmond had already given me something that had professional wrestlers as main buyers

deimn

richmond’s happily living his life right now, complacent and with an occasional toddler mood, without realizing that im in a guilt train because of his Christmas spirit


aura had been the same too, her sweetness taking the form of a spongebob mini-notebook. though richmond’s gift was superiorly more insane, the idea with the gift still pesters:
“aint i a thoughtful? hehehe”

too bad, not even sweet little punky aura could find her way into my budget list. that’s why ihad been extra sugary with her lately, hoping she’ll figure out that her spongebob had possessed me

boom though was empty-handed, like me, and like me, (again, fuk, what an ugly sentence) was kind of unnerved with the selfless offerings we had received by the first classdays of 2007. so still, theres an example in our row where icould emotionally cushion myself in everytime guilt engineer comes around




maybe its Purefoods ishould have prayed for Ginebra to face in the semis instead of TalkNText. atleast when i get to invite for a free araneta game (courtesy of me), it wouldn’t seem like an only-because-you-would-watch-friend on richmond’s part






inoticed that igot carried away, using a lot of the nonsense-phrases-and-words-clustered-to-make-sense chuva. tsk, goes on to show how untimely and uninspired this update had been. sigh, if it weren’t for you, miss P…