Loong weekends

THE long weekend is still ongoing. How nice, eh? It’s Monday and you’re not waking up at 5 am, not preparing for school or work, not getting dressed, not driving through traffic, no business calls, no annoying calls from the boss, no complaints from clients. It’s almost like Sunday but with the perk of knowing it’s Monday and you’re doing nothing.

Malls, retail stores, restos, cafes, and fast food outlets, however, are open and always ready to serve you. But if you’re still at the beach where you’ve been staying since Friday night, nothing beats grilled pork belly, kinilaw, and diet soda for the most delish brunch.

The holidays have somehow fallen into the right days to make the long weekends possible, just in time for the arrival of the hot weather which requires more time to chill.

And there are various ways to chill. The beach is the usual destination for summer. But higher ground—Claveria, Tagaytay, Baguio—is the better choice for its cool weather. At least cooler than that of lower ground.

There’s one challenge with higher ground, though: where to wear the two-piece bikini? Summer is the time to flaunt the achieved body weight after several months of dieting, then, top that with a crystal kayak photo shoot.

If you don’t want to travel far, hibernate in the most accessible malls. They’re everywhere and their air-conditioning is free, that is, if you’re not buying anything, not even food. Fasting while malling.

Malls can be challenging, too—they can convince money to switch allegiance from essentials to non-essentials. Because once I see a cute piggy, my common sense immediately flees to Siberia.

A mall in downtown Cagayan de Oro has this store that I thought was Japanese but recently it revealed it’s Chinese. Anyway, I almost bought a family of piggies there. Papa Piggy, Mama Piggy, several piglets. I took deep breaths, meditated, prayed, and brainwashed myself: Nope, I’m not buying. I took photos instead and used one of them as my Facebook profile photo. Now you know. You’re welcome.

That’s what I usually do now: taking photos of piggies that I want to buy instead of actually buying them. And here’s the reason. A friend has a jewelry collection—gold, diamonds, pearls, etc. Her major dilemma is, even her granddaughters don’t want them. They prefer fashion jewelry. If the younger generation is saying no to authentic and expensive jewelry, perhaps they’d rather inherit piggies? Before I hear their resounding “No!”, I’ve decided to stop buying more.

I’m afraid that if I give away some of these piggies, they’ll encourage the recipients to start their own collection, which can be cute, but not advisable. A collection always ends up as clutter. So, please don’t start collecting anything, even if it sparks joy. Still, I do have my most loved and cherished piggies which I’m never giving away—they know who they are.

That reminds me. My collection doesn’t have this yet: Miss Piggy in a two-piece bikini.