Holidays '06

For the first time ever in my life, at 21 years old, I have a roommate.

How the story goes is, ever since I moved to Manila for college my bedroom at our house in Batangas has remained untouched, like a time capsule of sorts for my high school life. I had everything in there - palanca letters from numerous recollections and retreats, a poster or two, stacks of cassette tapes, old journals and notebooks with poems and stories, even my matching bubble gum pink bed and desk, and glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.

This Christmas season it seems my parents thought it a splendid idea to give my 11 year-old brother a room of his own as a present. And as there are only two rooms in our house, the room to be given was mine.

So I come home a few days before Christmas to find my room turned into a male tweener's dream: a large TV (which, incidentally, they lovingly took from my flat in Manila), the Playstation 2 transferred from the living room downstairs (no chance in hell I'd be able to play NFS:MW in the middle of the night anymore), a shelf with weird-looking action figures (read: Friday the 13th and Resident Evil monster dolls), and movie posters plastered everywhere.

And what happened to my time capsule of a room, you ask? Most of it has been unceremoniously transferred to the stock room along with most of my belongings from my old dorm (save for my lava lamp which my brother thought would be cool to put in his new room). How lovely.

I really am growing up it seems, and my family has noticed - they're silently throwing me out of the house to find my own way. And to that I say I guess it's about time. Hello world, here I come. How very Reality Bites.

They have been, however, kind enough to still allow me bedspace at our house. They bought a double deck for my brother's new room, so now, I'm roommates with my 11 year-old brother. And to that I say, he better watch out. I've been running plans in my head on how to sabotage the little dude, kind of like in the Mighty Ducks and 3 Ninjas movies. I just can't decide if I should use whipped cream or black marker - any ideas you guys?

Yup, I really am growing up.

Oh, and about the holidays (which was initially what this post was really about), Christmas day was a lot of fun. Surprise surprise, my cousins and I went drinking. I thought I was going to be able to recover from all the drinking of the past few weeks but what can I say, alcohol just follows me wherever I go. It wasn't like we got dead drunk anyway. It was just a couple of drinks and I didn't make a fool of myself in front of relatives. Thank goodness.

Seriously, how ready for the real world am I?