This weekend I….

… read my diary from 11 years before. It was good to reminisce about the past when I was still single and carefree especially the part about living alone, working abroad and having a terrible crush on my single, Oxford-educated professor (the entries came complete with dialogue pa). Going through my previous angst and foibles is a good exercise in regression and makes me think if I am all the wiser.

Fast forward to 2004. I am 35 and I am still nurturing a crush on somebody. He is sending positive signals but unfortunately, am no longer as impressionable. Time does teach us a way of behaving.

… cleaned my junk. I am determined to greet the New Year with none of the garbage of the previous year. So I started by exterminating my Good Housekeeping editions of five years back. I didn’t really throw them en masse, I just got the recipe pages I was interested in. I was quite determined to follow what proponents of minimalism preach too often: don’t be attached to those mementoes or possessions or you will keep them forever. And so this Christmas, some poor fella will get my old clothes, kids’ toys and all those left-over household things.

… finished adorning my Christmas tree. This time around, I will let the Christmas spirit seep in my humble abode. I have actually bought Christmas design- curtains, throw pillows, table cover and even Christmas-themed ref towels. How much more Christmas-y can you get? I just thought, if you can’t be rich, you might as well be rich in the Christmas spirit. My kids aren’t complaining.

… shopped for Christmas gifts. Shopping at the last minute is a nightmare so I might as well get my gifts now while the crowds are just beginning to swell. Two weekends of shopping and I am not even halfway through my list of recipients yet. Inspired by what Toni said, I will definitely be religious in sending out Christmas cards to my friends and relatives from far away. I’ve had enough of those e-cards, my friends.

… got lost in Manila’s Chinatown. I was supposed to go to Divisoria but the rains and the crowd on this Saturday only got me as far as Binondo. Suffice it to say, it is one of my favorite places in the city. I like going to the groceries and looking at their noodles, seasonings and other stuff inscribed with Chinese characters. I like hanging out in the coffee shops filled with the cacophony of foreign-sounding voices. The Chinese shops have a character all their own; I always imagine this must be how it is in China, one of those places I’d like to visit someday.

… watched Sex and the City. It has been a long time since I kept an eye on my favorite TV show. My routine has changed and it doesn’t include watching the boob tube (anyway, when did I ever?) In this episode, Miranda gets married and Samantha ever so casually announces she has breast cancer. It just got me thinking: why do these hip SATC women all have men (or don’t have trouble finding men) when the rest of us thirtysomething’s don’t have ??

… will be baking cookies because my son has been asking it for the longest time. Also, I will be participating in the cookie swap of The Domestic Goddess so this will be a good chance of hobnobbing with some laid-back Californians.

Hope your weekend was event-filled too!