kung hei, whatever....

quite an anticlimactic new year's celebrations we are having this year. it's sunday afternoon and so far, besides church, the only other activity i have done today to commemorate the last day of the lunar year was nap. celebration, indeed.

got up this morning on the wrong side of the bed again. funny that expression, the wrong side, since i ALWAYS get up from the same side. hmmm, anyway. despite again falling asleep quite late last night for reasons i will no longer explain (insomnia, texting a friend, deleting 500 read messages so i can continue receiving messages from that friend), i woke up surprisingly early today. it was not the usual smooth slide to wakefulness that i so enjoy really but more like an explosive kick out of my peaceful slumber. i looked at my phone and it was 7am. no point trying to sleep now since mom will surely come in by 8 to wake me up for church anyway. so i got up and proceeded to do my morning rituals.

now understand this. i am a rather chatty person (no.... i never noticed), but my mornings are done, as much as possible, in complete silence. i would wake up, check myself at the mirror while i turn off my night light (i do coz its always dark in my room, even in the middle of noon). i then proceed out to our living area, take my morning meds and sit by my PC and check my emails, my blog and other stuff i can do while online. all of this i do without uttering a single word. owing also probably to my past life as a master NINJA, i also move about in total silence. there has been many a time wherein my mom would get a jolt of surprise for not seeing me seated by the PC after she had already passed it a couple of times. she would then berate me for not even bother greeting her or even say something since she doesn't like being surprised like that (kasalanan ko pa!). kuya would also have similar experiences when he comes home early in the morning from work and would find me standing at my doorway, as i am about to carry on my morning routine. maybe he thought me as a ghost. i am pale as snow and against the dark interiors of my room, with a little imagination, would surely scare the bejeesus out of many unsuspecting ppl, that or i just looked like a hag from having a really bad bedhead. there, i lost my train of thought.. o yes. mornings in silence.

so there i was, at my PC, relishing the special morning quiet only sundays can bring when mother dearest comes along and starts talking to me, asking me questions about things i honestly have no answers for anyway. now, partly the reason why i am silent after i wake is that my brain is still warming up. you can't really expect the poor thing to be in it's peak level of performance right after you turn it on, right? but alas, mom never really caught on with the idea despite me telling her this. so there i sat, a tic slowly forming on my right brow as i hear her voice echo in my vacant but slowly simmering skull. "what time are we leaving?" "what time did kuya come home?" "who waited up for him?" "aren't you getting ready yet?" "you think the traffic is bad today at ongpin?" "should we wake up you brother already?"... needless to say, it took all my reserved will power to remain stoic until mom finally got it that i have no answers for her, yet. just when i though i could not hold it in any longer as i have exhausted the last dribble of zen in my system, the phone rings. it was my lola. precious lola, she became the willing distraction i needed to get my mom off my back. as mom and lola chatted away, i went back to my routine and quickly finished what i needed to do. it was getting late already and i had to get dressed for church. today was surely going to be a harrowing drive since church this week will be at our main meeting hall at ongpin. today coincidentally is also the last day of the year of the rat so ongpin would be packed with people getting ready to prepare for tonight's festivities.

by 9:30, we were all out of the house, much to my mom's panic. we were obviously late and she made sure we (kuya, the late waker-upper, and me, the driver who had problems taming his wild hair) knew how bad she felt. kuya was used to it, i on the other hand, after this mornings ordeal, had no more strength in me to ward off the bad vibes emanating from the seat behind me. her panic quickly transferred to me and i noticed it very well with how i drove us all to church. thankfully so, traffic was on our side and the streets were still empty of people. i guess 9:30 was still pretty early for most on a sunday.

church was great as always. my good friend geoff gave a message on God being good for food and that we should pattern ourselves to the likes of Daniel and his friends who did not partake of the Babylonian enjoyments and were thus greatly used by God for His work at that time.

after church, as we got ready to go home, i was greeted with the most delightful sight outside our meeting hall. the streets were packed with people now. it was 12 noon and the stretch of ongpin looked as if it was bleeding. people filled the streets, most in red, walking in and out of shops, buying this and that. what made the sight even more amusing was that probably 80 percent of these people were not even chinese... they were PINOYS!!! they were buying mandarin oranges, ribboned gabi and tikoy. they were choosing lucky charms from the knick-knack stores and were filling in the chinese eateries. chinatown was OVERRUN by pinoys and i could not help it but smile with glee. i don't really know why i was. maybe the idea of having another people observe a foreign tradition was just tickling! almost like when i was relishing indian food, inside an indian restaurant, eating with my hands and getting these stares as well as smiles from indians who were eating beside me while i was in dubai :)

we ordered take out and met up with my dad at home and had our official lunar year end lunch.... steamed broccoli and steamed fish. a few mandarin oranges and a slice of jello (i just LOVE jello) later, and i found myself conked out, napping.

which now brings me back to the first paragraph of this post.

sigh. i hope the remaining hours of the day will have a bit more action. i seriously don't think it's right that a chinese family sees lesser action on OUR own new year... diba?!!!!!