I'm typing this in the relatively early morning, which feels very odd, as if I'm getting over a jetlag. There is an unusual quality to the 6am-kind of morning - dark, strange and full of airy possibility. I've been missing it, not having to wake up before 9 for a whole month now. I ate breakfast at the market, which is a place I first met in aural-exam pictures. I smell grapes, juice, fish, cats.
I still can't get used to ticking 'unemployed' and not 'student' on survey/application forms. It again puts your life in limbo. I think that if I was employed, I would have nothing to tick. There is nothing invigorating about lolling about. Despite the fact that it's only been a month, a break is no longer a break because it is no longer enjoyable. A couple of nights ago my parents threw one of their gatherings and dismayed us all by deciding to try out their tentative yoga moves together. A roomful of adults contorting themselves in strange positions, punctuated by shrieks of laughter, reminded me strongly of Finding Cassie Crazy. So never think your parents aren't crazy enough.
I'm also itchy with sunburn because the rain has decided to go on its own Christmas vacation. Went to Escape on such a day and only truly enjoyed the water ride if it meant being soaked through. It's LOVELY being so wet. I only wonder if anyone has died from rollercoaster-shock yet. Perhaps not; I realize I have below-average stomach for such rides and it sucks, especially with Huiqian and Clara dashing happily for every upside-downer. But at least I have lost that fear of Viking ships.
I also never want to go to town during the holiday season ever again, especially all the people on the street have decided to smoke like chimnies every time they walk out of an air-conditioned building. Plus it's so stuffed it's like being packed into a jam jar with a too-small opening. And one of those taglines really piss me off - "Give and it will be given to you" has to be the nastiest usage of a biblical quote in a departmental store, it's so ridiculously in-your-face.
I miss last year because it was a busy in an all-purpose sort of way, and now... independence. And whether I am making use of it. Please do. Merry Christmas.