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Netnet Camomot

“RAINY days and Mondays…”

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Well, it was a rainy Wednesday, no thanks to Urduja, but the typhoon gave us an excuse to avoid Christmas shopping at least for that day.

Christmas gifts are tricky. Here I am still stuck with spring cleaning, and then, buying gifts for family and friends who hopefully will find some use for the items I give them.

Decors should be a big no as gifts—they’ll simply end up as clutter in the recipient’s house.

Despite the big no that has also been heaped on mugs, I still welcome one more since they can break into pieces if the house help is multitasking—Facebooking, calling, texting—while washing dishes.

Shawls are also always welcome especially by the senior-moment senior who watches movies at the Limketkai Cinemas. Or a portable rechargeable fan like the one Sharon Cuneta uses in “Unexpectedly Yours.” For extreme weather conditions. Haha!

Food must be the best gift ever, unless it’s expired or overripe, or the recipient is on a strict diet. Food is usually appreciated since it’s eventually eaten and, therefore, doesn’t occupy precious space for a long time.

Food may end up as clutter only if the recipient is a hoarder that buys in bulk and now has a garage filled with boxes of Spam.

Other things, however, are simply clutter. So, before buying a gift, think of the space it will occupy, the space that can be used for more important items like food.

Christmas is now too commercialized, some people look forward to it the same way they look forward to the additional taxes for cars once TRAIN is approved.

Yay! Mindanao will finally have rail transport! But TRAIN is not about trains and railways. It’s the acronym for Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion.

Some Pinoys have been panic-buying cars, the way the madlang pehpohl go panic-buying when Pag-asa releases the worst warning for the strongest typhoon ever.

There are contractors who can also cause panic when they tell a potential client to have that skyscraper or house built already otherwise he will be hit by another increase in cement price.

Prices will always increase—that’s the circle of life. But before panic-buying or panic-building anything, find out first if you have enough funds to cover the repercussions of your panic.

Christmas shopping may also reach that point of panic when it’s already Christmas Eve and you have not bought any gift, not even that one special gift for the love of your life.

National Book Store had this raffle promo where it gave free books to the lucky winners. But with one condition: each winner had only 75 seconds to choose and put the books in a cart. That may also happen for your last-minute Christmas shopping. Er, not last minute. Last 75 seconds. And you have to pay for the items in your cart since you haven’t won any raffle whatever.

Wisdom is not only for the Three Kings a.k.a. the Wise Men. Some Christmas shoppers are now wise, too. Oh, they won’t buy gold, frankincense, and myrrh unless they have leftover funds after buying cars and cement.

Online shopping is now preferred by many wise shoppers, but will Amazon and Lazada deliver on Christmas Eve? Seconds before midnight? While Santa Claus is still at the highest point of the North Pole, asking his reindeers to please help him understand Waze?

If the Internet is too complicated, there’s the option to order 500 boxes of, say, puto from your suki. A drastically reduced Christmas list, thanks to lost relationships and friendships, may drastically reduce that order to five boxes for the five loyal friends who have chosen you. Hey, friendships also require spring cleaning.

You may skip Christmas, and instead give gifts on Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day, but then, where’s the thrill in that? If you’re not hopping from one mall to another on Christmas Eve, it will be as boring as having your gifts wrapped by a store’s wrapping section.

Long lines at the cashier and traffic on the streets are the usual Christmas obstacle course. A friend, who lives and works in uptown Cagayan de Oro, said she has not been to downtown CDO for a month now. Yes, a month. And that has saved her from a lot of stress.

A rainy Friday afternoon days before Christmas in downtown CDO. Define nerveacking!

And I think the forecast for today is rainy. Hmmm. Good luck na lang.

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