What I Did On My Birthday

I turned 23 last October 18. Since that day, people have been asking me what productive activity I did during my birthday. I guess they were expecting me to give an answer like, "I spent the day with friends and loved ones by my side, as I looked back on the past 365 days of my life with them. After which, I had a sumptuous dinner with my family to put a cap on a very special and memorable day." When I tell them that I hid from the world on my birthday, and that it was by choice, they get worried, even to the point of asking if i'm depressed.

Well no, I'm not depressed at all. In fact, I feel positively rejuvenated. I guess taking a 1-day sabbatical (if you can call it that) from society, especially on your birthday can do wonders for one's soul. Although I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Being alone during one's birthday requires strong resolve.

So yes, I was alone on my "special" day for most of the day, and the only form of communication I had with the people I know consisted of texting the phrase "Thanks ____(your name here)!" whenever someone sent a greeting. But that didn't mean my day wasn't productive. I'm going to answer the question people have been asking me for the past couple of days. Here's what I did on my birthday.

1. I was able to renew my driver's license - I spent my morning at the nearest LTO office going through the motions of having my driver's license renewed. I don't know who's bright idea it was from the LTO to have the expiry date of your license to fall on the date of your birth. This errand forced me to put my self-imposed exile on hold for about 2 hours as I filled out forms, peed into a cup, posed for a headshot, and parted with my cash, all for the sake of being allowed to drive on the streets of Manila.

2. I practiced my cooking - I had the nerve to tell my mom that I would take care of fixing my own lunch and not bother the household help. Already being an expert in preparing my favorite dish - beef salpicao, I sucked up the courage to experiment in the kitchen and apply the same recipe to a more delicate meat...fish. I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome of my cooking efforts. My bangus salpicao actually tasted good! Although I had a minor mishap early on while sauteing garlic. My adventurous side got the better of me as I decided to pour a dollop of honey over frying garlic. Man, i've never seen garlic burn, turn black, and make smoke that fast.

3. I caught up with my DVD-Watching - I was able to watch a couple of movies as well as a number of episodes of the TV series i'm currently addicted to. I saw Black Hawk Down, a number of episodes of the Office, and (Gasp!) The Little Mermaid on DVD. Reminds me of the days when I didn't have to worry about going to work...simply because I had none.

4. Was able to start reading again - I started browsing up on one of my favorite books, for the simple reason that I'm planning to try it out in the office sometime and see if it actually works. The title? 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. A must for would-be future power-grabbers and power-hungry individuals.

So you see, my birthday wasn't all that bad. In fact, I think I spent it wisely. Depending on the type of social creature you are, spending your birthday this way may either depress or rejuvenate you. I'm glad the latter happened to me. I hope this answered the questions people have been asking me all week. And no, I'm not depressed.

23 Things I Want Now That I'm 23

1. Visit another country with my own money
2. Take up cooking and see if I have the passion for it
3. Become fit and take boxing classes
4. Learn to play the guitar on my own (I already bought the book)
5. Establish a business, no matter how small it is
6. Travel alone for the first time
7. Begin playing the "game" in the workplace
8. Become promiscuous and play around
9. Increase the investments in my UITF account
10. Get into investing in stocks
11. Become a foodie / gourmand
12. Overcome my fear of dating
13. Test the waters
14. Become famous... ok, semi-famous will do
15. Do something extreme, like jumping off a building
16. Sing in a band or a choir
17. Begin showing people the full extent of my potential
18. Work on my socializing skills, and become a social butterfly
19. Look into the possibility of living on my own
20. Give the oldest profession a try :)
21. Explore other opportunities for work
22. Try an illegal substance
23. Live long enough to make another list

On Footsies and Being "Sucked"

As I mentioned in my previous post, I came back a week ago from a business trip to China, Xiamen in particular. This was a very memorable trip for me, partly because I got to experience many different things for the first time in my life. In this instance, it was my first time to have a foot massage, a pedicure, and a ventosa massage - all in a single night!

We had just arrived in Shuitou, which is about 45 minutes away from Xiamen, and were having dinner with our hosts. One of our hosts informed us that Shuitou is an area known for their foot massages and that they were going to treat us to a foot massage session after dinner. I nearly hurled at the prospect of subjecting myself to a foot massage. Me - getting a foot massage?! Being the uptight person that I am, I am notoriously known for being conscious with my feet. I don't even want anybody staring at my feet, and now someone's actually going to be touching and prodding it! Bullets of sweat began developing in my body as my stress level reached an all-time high. What made this worse was that we had been travelling the whole day and I was pretty sure that my foot would be pretty funky at that time. So I half-dragged myself to the foot massage place which was just across our hotel and expected the worst.

As we entered the foot massage place, warning signs began flashing in my head saying that I shouldn't be here. The place was dimly lit and it wasn't really the cleanest of places. I still had the chance to fake a migraine and escape, but decided in the end to find my balls and subject myself to the experience. They made us all sit in these lounge chairs and served us orange juice (to calm the nerves, perhaps?). As I was waiting for the "therapists" to arrive, a flurry of thoughts came to my mind - "would they be dressed in an attire that would give away the seedy nature of the place?", "would they even have complete set of teeth?", "are they going to offer me anything other than a foot massage, that I wouldn't know how to respond to?" When the girls arrived, I was pleasantly surprised - they didn't look bad at all! Most of them were my age, some were even younger than I was (I'm 22 by the way), and they didn't look slutty at all. They were dressed in a uniform, athletic attire (shirt and jogging pants), looking as if they did jogging for a living, rather than the excuisite art of foot manipulation. My therapist looked like a healthier, better-fed version of Lucy Liu, I would have posted pictures of my therapist with this entry, but I haven't had the time to upload them yet, another time then.

Being the social animal that I was, I was naturally out of my element once again. I was pretty sure that all color had left me from the embarassment I was about to subject myself to, thank heavens that the light was already dim to begin with so I was spared the shame of the therapist seeing the fear in my face. Her being Chinese and me being the ignorant foreigner who didn't bother to learn a shred of her language, this would pose the problem with communication. And it manifested early on when she was pointing to something at my feet, only to realize that I was still wearing my shoes when she was about to start the therapy. God help me through this.

My shoes and my socks are finally off and I don't smell anything cheesy. Its funny when you think hard to will something not to happen, and it doesn't. At this point, i'm like a fish out of water waiting for whats going to happen next, as she brings a big basin of what appears to be a colored liquid. 5 seconds later, as she gestures me to soak my feet in the concoction, I find out that this turns out to be newly boiled water infused with tea. Damn, was the water hot!! Have you ever had feeling of so much heat, that you begin to feel cold at the same time? Thats what I felt. As I was mouthing the words "Hot, hot, hot" to my tormentor (therapist), all she could do was giggle at my predicament. After a few moments of pain, she started working her magic on me. She began a series of massages on my back, arms, hands, and neck that took away all the stress from the day's travels. After a few minutes, the heat of the water gradually decreased that resulted in one of the most relaxing sensations i've ever felt on my feet. After what was probably 10-15 minutes of foot soaking and upper body massages, my therapist finally set out to do what she had been trained for...the foot massage.

She told me in Chinese (not that I would understand it) to sit back and relax, as she left for a moment to retrieve her tools of the trade, which looked like something a sculptor would have used (chisels and sand paper). Shortly afterwards, she began the meticulous task of kneading my feet and subjecting it to sensations I have never felt before. As she was doing her thing, sand-papering my callouses, rubbing what seemed to be lotion while at the same time massaging my ankles, she must have noticed that I had problem with my feet (they were ugly). She called another one of the therapists to come over, a man this time. Oh no, what did I get myself into?! This man comes, along with his own tools, consisting of hooks and tweezers this time, and proceeded to work on my feet as well. I was tag-teamed!! I've heard of tandem massages before, but i've never heard of tandem foot massages! One person ( Lucy Liu) was giving my feet a massage, while the man was giving me a pedicure! I was past feeling shame at this point seeing the man remove all of my ingrown toenails in front of everybody, so I just swallowed my embarrasment and tried to salvage what dignity I had left by just enjoying myself. And enjoy the experience I did!

But the night was not to end with just a simple massage and pedicure. At this point, I would have charged everything to experience and be happy just to have a chance to experience two new activities for the first time. The man must have noticed that I really did have a problem with something, as he was talking to our hosts regarding what he wants to do to me. As I didn't understand anything, I was fearful of what could happen. When the man had the blessing of my hosts, he literally pulled me from the group and led to me to a long dark hallway, into a small, windowless room with a bed. "Mommy, please help me!!" As if this was not scary enough, he gestured for me to take off my clothes, my pants in particular! I was praying hard that I don't get raped tonight. I'm all for new experiences, but i'm not about ready to get raped by man in any circumstance. Sensing the fear in my eyes, the man took pity on me and showed me what he was going to do. He lifted up his shirt and showed me his back, and I was part-disgusted, part-amazed, and part-"wet-my-pants" fearful of what I saw: 10 huge, dark-red circles placed side by side across the whole of his back. This is what they call a Ventosa Massage. I don't know exactly what it does for the body, but from what I heard, its purpose is to "suck" out the cold air from inside the body, which causes the aches, pains, and other distresses in a person. This is done by lighting cups with fire then pressing it against the body. This would cause the skin to welt up and produce blood clots. Now that I knew the purpose of his actions, I reluctantly removed my pants (he was going to put cups on my legs as well) and lied down on the bed, in anticipation of the event.

As he placed the cup near my legs, he lit the inside with a torch, then immediately pressed it against my legs. He did this about 6 times in different locations on my leg. What I saw happening to me, took me in disbelief. My skin was literally being sucked by the cup! As the cup was clear glass, I could see the skin on my leg almost filling up the entirec up, while it was slowly turning blood red. There wasn't really any pain, it was more like your skin being pulled, stretched, pinched. He asked me to lie still and left the cups on my legs for about 15 minutes. Upon removing it, you could literally hear the pressure (imagine the sound of someone hitting a tennis ball with a racket, thats what it sounded like) come off. At this point, I thought it was over. Then he gestured that I take off my shirt as well! Oh no, he's not planning on turning my back into a human chessboard like his, isn't he? Apparently, that was his plan, as he made me lie face down on the bed and he brought out more cups for my back. He repeated the same process as he did to my legs, but this time, I felt pain. And it was painful I tell you. My theory is that since my back is closer to the spine, you have more pain receptors in the back area. To cut things short, he placed about 12 cups on my back, and I could feel my skin being pulled to its limits. I had imaginations of my skin actually bursting and all of my guts spilling out. Thankfully, nothing like that ever happened. After all was done, the man gestured to me that what he did would actually make me strong (he was flexing in front of me). And I honestly believed him, as faith was all I had at that point, dignity had left 10 minutes into the session.

And so, after my experience, the circles had turned to ugly bruises which by now have not yet disappeared (its been more than a week since). I took a picture of my back to prove to people that I really did go through it. I'm now wiser and more experienced. I'm happy to have been subjected to things I wouldn't normally have thought of doing. On a single night, i've been prodded, experienced a footsie, and "sucked". Life can't get any better than that.

Power Failure

Just got back from a business trip in Xiamen, China last week. While I could say that my first trip to the mainland followed by a one night lay-over in Hong Kong was memorable, I could also say that the scene that greeted me upon my return to the home country was memorable, in a "I wish I could skip this part of my life" kind of way.

I came back to the Philippines following the aftermath of the worst typhoon to hit the country in 11 years. 11 frickin' years, for chrissake! This typhoon could not have picked a better time to arrive and ravage the country than when I was set to return. I was excited to come back home, bringing with me Royce Nama chocolates and an assortment of DVDs I was looking forward to devouring. Upon touching down at the airport and stepping off onto the arrival area, my worst fears were realized...there was no electricity. I began to fear for my chocolates, felt sick at the prospect of not being able to watch my new DVDs, and yearning to get back on the plane and tell the pilot to jet me back to Hong Kong.

Despite the lack of electricity and the sweltering heat I expected to face when I got home, I kept my hopes up that everything will be back to normal in no time. I managed to even cheer myself up by keeping myself amused at the destruction the storm left in its wake and the thought that power will be back once I get home. Boy, was I wrong. 4 nights have passed since I came back from my trip, and we don't have electricity yet! 4 sleepless nights of utter darkness with nothing to do! I'm going crazy. The first night passed, and it was ok at the time. The 2nd night was still tolerable. The 3rd night came, and I was beginning to lose my sanity. The 4th night was just complete hell! I'm already beginning to develop fantasies of throwing Molotov bombs at the nearest power company office. What did I do to the chocolates and DVDs I brought back from my trip? I nearly made myself sick finishing off 2 boxes of chocolate in a day, and my DVDs have began to gather dust in my shelf - unappreciated and unwatched.

What did I ever do to deserve to be thrown back to an age where the light bulb didn't exist yet and the electric fan was stuff of science fiction? The romaticism of eating dinner by candlelight has already left me days ago. I'm already tired of going to bed at 8 PM. Will somebody just bring back the power?