Missed me? Snapshots, updates, various junk.

~ Hah! Exams over finally. Thank God. Booya! <does celebratory head-bob> Plus, got an A for Creative Side paper. Thanks Lyd, Mich and th' two Mels for being such sporting models. You are now immortalised as drunk bimbos in my photoboard. Don't drink and drive.

~ If you buy a 25 shell-worth guppy and name him 'Santa', he'll turn white and red, sing Christmas carols and give out gold bags of 20-shells each time. I can see colorful fishes swimming about when I close my eyes. Have to stop playing Insaniquarium.

~ I changed my mobile number, did you know?

~ Why do I always have dreams of retaking my SPM? And I'm woefully unprepared each time, much like it was in real life. It's like "Good grief, I haven't studied yet! Again!" Seriously- I get back-to-school dreams at least once a week. Thank God I loved school. It's actually pretty pleasant.

~ Speaking of dreams. Not a snapshot, but an observation: I've never ever had a nightmare. Unpleasant dreams maybe, but no scary ones. Y'know, showing up at school dressed in your jammies or being late playing for worship, like the service has started and you're still climbing up the staircase to Main Sanctuary. Or when Ange shows up in my dreams. LOL! Kidding, girl.

~ I've been an exceptionally good girl according to my mother. Don't really remember what I've done to warrant that, but she's really impressed. Oookay.

~ Am so hyper today. Could be the sleep deprivation and copious amounts of coffee I've had on an empty stomach. Soooo hyper and dizzy. I might have freaked people out on th' LRT- mothers clutched their little ones tighter and grown men refused to look me in the eye. Muaha.

~ 'Arrested Developement' is SOOOOO funny!

~ Mother has to stop playing so much computer games.

~ No Fear! Th' exposure trip registration form asked about phobias and I put down 'none'. My mother has never outwardly shown fear over anything when I was a kid, so I've never learnt to scream when I see a creepy crawly. She forbade the household from watching horror movies and cursed the TV to blow up if we ever watch anything demonic on it. (Literally- she actually pledged th' old TV to be horror-movie-free. Ask her) So I never watched scary stuff when I was too young to distinguish fact from fantasy, and now I just laugh when I watch Chucky bludgeon a man 10 times his size to death. How dumb.

~ Two words. Jude. Law.

~ Mid-winter Festival. Made tang yuen, mushroom chicken in wine, spinach in superior soup, mixed crustacean vegetables, steamed pomfret, ginseng soup and forgot to put the rice in until it was wayy too late. I have a funny feeling my brother is in cahoots with my mother when he says my cooking is better than hers just so I'll take over cooking duty completely. Hmph. They can't decieve me. Hah! I'll burn the mushrooms on pupose! So there.

"Dude!"
"Dude." I croak, voice husky from sleep.
"Haven't heard from you for a long time."
Four a.m.- brilliant. I squint at the call display wondering who th' heck it is.
"It's me."
"Oh." Him. "You."
"I'm drunk." I hear soft sounds of conversation and some distant laughter in the background.
"Oh."
"How're you?"
"Okay. You?"
"Okay. Drunk."
I can tell. "Yeah, I can tell."
"Well- keep it together, babe." Huh?
"Okay."
"Okay- say hi to your Mom for me."
"Okay."
"Okay, bye."
"Okay." I switch off my phone and promptly fall asleep.
~ My childhood friend from Pensacola calls after 8 years plus incommunicado. Idiot.

~ Will write about my Christmas experience in my Blogger 'cuz of th' pictures.

PS- Oh hey- I'm thinking of putting Xanga on hiatus and using Blogger. Problem is- I'm better at Xanga than Blogger, but Blogger can support my pretty pictures. Hm. Whaddya think?

PPS- The old TV blew up anyway. I think it was my brothers' fault.

Oh. Blessed Christmas.

Write about church camp? Why bother? Just go to either Lyd's, Angie's, Jamie's or any other RLCVYS person's site to find out. I lazy. Sue me. Besides, I already forgot everything. So here are some snapshots of us that I remember:

~ Believe it or not, I had not had a decent scrap of food when I was in Malacca. Thank God for junk food and chocolate, tho. And oh yeah, desserts. Good grief. It's such a bother to be so contrary. Just have to be different, don't I? Just have to take a nap during free time when everyone else is out sightseeing or on th' beach, don't I? *sigh*

~ On the bright side, I totally loved the worship and message sessions. Pastor Josh rocks! Family night was cool too. Thanks for letting me tumpang glory, Flo and Jame! It was really fun doing sound effects for you guys. Heh- yes... the off-key humming of Mission Impossible and Star Wars theme songs too. You guys were great.

~ Speaking of Fam Nite.  Why must everybody mimic our Pastors all the time? Is no one capable of original storylines? Haih. Th' Pastor Sal thing was super funny tho'. Excellent! I laughed like a loon during th' parking scene. No adult got it though... guess only th' youths have had the pleasure of sitting in her car. Thank you, Jesus.

~ <warning! mini-rant ahead> I was so tempted to tackle th' near-blasphemous characterization of Pastor Josh off the stage- I was *that* pissed. Pardon me for being so rabid, but this sort of thing really bothers me. <end rant. short, no?>

~ Board-gaming with Lyd and Partner-In-Crime was nice. We were pretty much wiped by that time, but still we soldiered on to prove that we were not getting too old for all-nighters. We've really mellowed down, I think. This camp was officially prank-free.

~ And walking on th' beach at night with Angie was cool too...  remind me never to get a beach house with her cos I don't think I can retain my sanity with her constantly going, "Whoa! Check out that sky!" everytime there's a slight flash of lightning, or everytime she looks up at the stars. "Yes, Angeline. I can see the sky." Its dark. It's all I can see at night.

~ And yes... I slept with my mother. I had to tell everyone that from the moment I signed up for camp up till today, when they asked who I bunked with and what we did.
"Wah, you must  have stayed up all night talking! You shared room with Melissa-ah?"
"No, I slept with my mother."
"Oh." A look of pity and they turn away to ask someone else the same question.
Interesting fact: If the number of people that was asked whether they 'roomed with Mel' actually roomed with Mel... number 1143 would be bursting at the seams.

~ Oh, which reminds me... Lyd, I really want that pic of Partner-In-Crime touching herself  in her white boxers with th' little red hearts on them. Can you spell 'blackmail'?

Did I miss anything?

Something's missing, but you don't know what. You can't start to verbalize what's not there. Don't even know what name to put to this feeling of bemused unease. You're on the verge of begging for it. Seems like it went away without a warning.

I simply worship til I get it back.
                    "Bring a sacrifice of praise..."

Have you ever needed to remove a particular contact from your phonebook or e-mail addy book because the person no longer exists?

I read Lydia's site about how she lost a friend recently and thought of the many losses I have had the past 4 years or so. Just a little too many friends lost to be comfortable with.

Its not everyday I get an SMS like "Did u hear about Jasper commiting suicide in Genting last week? The worst part is that he did it becos of a failed business with Andy." How do I even react to that? The natural thing to do was to ask about the funeral, or how Andy was. Andy's girlfriend Pat is a close friend of mine, so it's only logical to call her and see if she was alright. Instead, I scrolled down my phonebook to Jasper's name and stared at it. What was I gonna do? Call the number and leave a voicemail saying "Hey Jasper, I 'm sorry I never told you- but Jesus loves you."?

Do I e-mail Poi Sei and apologize for not inviting her to church after all those times we'd flooded each other's e-mail boxes with forwarded junk spam? You know what's sad about this particular loss? That I had the chance to make sure Jesus was her Saviour- we studied in the same school for twelve years and spent at least half of that in the same class.

How many blogs and online friends I communicate with weekly now lie silent? 8 online friends dead without the benefit of knowing Jesus. All it took from me was an e-mail. Or at the very least, a short comment telling them that Jesus loves them.

I don't fear death- I have eternal life... but not everyone has that yet.

If you've lost a friend and their names are still in your mobile, you might want to keep it around to remind you that all it took was an SMS.

"Look, I'm really not the kind who'd write about my daily experiences onto an online journal where stalkers of all types can get at it."

"Oh yes- we have so many," Ant snorts. She sprawls lazily on the couch, her face buried in Ovid's Metamorphosis.

Doc maintains an air of polite interest, "Daily experiences, online journals or stalkers?"

I blithely ignore the sarcastic jibe and rhetorical question, "I'm more of a 'write for other people's entertainment' kinda person. Its simple. Just so happens that most things I find amusing are quickly forgotten..." Ant snorts here again and mutters something about a sieve and goldfish.

"Or," I glare at her with little effect, "I merely do not wish to detail every last iota of information surrounding the one humorous incident."

"Or," Ant peeks up from the book, "You are incapable of writing in a manner in which your readers can understand you. <Good grief>, if I'd used your writing style my <hiney> would've been kicked out of Xanga by Savvy a long time ago!"

Doc was watching this all with detached amusement, obviously letting the two (not necessarily dominant) louder personalities get at it.

"Please. Those militant ‘Weakest Link’ days are long over. Plus, you had these approval and acceptance issues way back then," I dismissed her with a wave, "Savvy doesn't exist anymore."

"Not as Savvy, no. But Xangarelics 'never die', according to you. And Scott is happily writing and composing in several capacities now, thank you very much. Unlike us."

Doc scrunched her face in a slight look of distaste, "Did you catch the latest chapter of his novel?"

Ooh. Ew. "I try not to, thanks."

"D'you feel guilty for not propping them anymore?" Ant seemed to have finally let the original topic go at last, thank goodness. "I mean, they've always been there for us…”

“For you.” Both Doc and Tripe intoned at the same time.

Ant rolled her eyes dramatically, “Yes, for me. And sometimes I just feel like I’m abandoning them. But at the same time, we’ve been abandoned so many times by so many others. They just- leave Xanga without even leaving word.”

”Is that why we never bother writing anymore?” Doc asked.

”You really never started. Your profile was merely one for vanity’s sake. A blog to match your…”

”Shhh,” I shushed them urgently, glancing at you for the first time since you’ve joined us. “Our… guest is getting, uh- confused.” Not wanting to give too much away despite the fact that you’re much welcome.

”<Oh no>! You put this on public display? What kind of <silly person> are you? What were you <*untranslatable*> thinking?” You know what the problem is with Ant? You can never bring her anywhere.

”Language, Ant.” Doc chastised gently. Doc’s been the least cussed of all our twelve profiles.

I hop around trying to avert your attention, “Ahaha, that Ant. She’s not always like this, you know. Uh, so…” I clear my throat, “You, um, ready to go? Come on,” I gesture us to the exit. Its this big yellow door with a bright fire-engine red sign that says ‘EXIT’.

As we leave, I hear Doc remarking to Ant, “You know what the problem is with Tripe? You can never bring her anywhere.”