Solstice

This past week, I've been amazed at how early the sun has been rising and how late it has been setting. Solstice. The day is literally getting longer and longer, and this has been making me miserable for a variety of reasons.

For some reason, daytime has never held a soft spot in my heart. My mind seems to always be in disarray while the sun is up. Back in school, I've never been able to concentrate, most of my studying is done at night when no one else is awake. This is also the best time to be alone with my thoughts, such as a chess game or a good book. So imagine how distressed the longer days have been making me as of late. I also do best at work when preparing my reports in the wee hours of the early morning. By the time I get to the office, I'm reduced to the more mechanical aspects such as signing papers, getting people on the phone or stamping stuff.

In a way, the solstice is an excuse I have been making to justify why my mind is in such a boggle these days.

I imagine this is also a rotten time for vampires, werewolves, bats and other creatures of the night. They get less time to play, forage for food (Yes, I would imagine vampires are capable of foraging as well) and the prospect of staying out too late to face their doom is a very real possibility.

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Been playing a lot of scrabble lately, one of my latest fun discoveries on facebook. There's just something addictive about this game since I was a little kid, then again I also found chess to be a grand time, until the time that I knew Bernard.

Bernard is a smart kid who happens to be one of my closest friends back in high school. He liked chess as well and we'd spend many hours just playing with the old chessboard that we had back at home. Of course, him being the smarter of us (a LOT smarter, I might add), I don't think I ever won a game against him. That didn't stop me from playing though, up to the point when I'd curse and threaten him and throw the pieces all over the place.

Fortunately, this frustration of mine in chess didn't stop me from playing, and with that, losing as well. I soon realized that though I loved playing chess, I could never win against someone who had a more in depth knowledge of the science of chess. You see, I never bothered to memorize openings, much less know their names. That was the boring part. The fun that I experienced in chess is thinking, losing yourself in thought of the next 3 moves or so, the almost infinite possibilities. On computer chess, I'd pore hours on end just trying to predict the next moves. However, the competitive spirit just isn't in me, and I'd just as happily lose as long as I got to spend the better part of the game lost in my own thoughts.

Going back to scrabble, the same process is involved, only there are a much limited array of options available depending on the quality of the tiles that you have to play with. Probably the reason why I spend more and more hours at the gas station just thinking up the different possibilities for 7 vowels or 7 consonants that I happen to be stuck with.

I never bothered to publish the results of my games until today, yes I published at last. The reason? 404 points coming from back to back 'scrabbles'. Hmm, thinking about it, for 2 'scrabbles' 404 isn't really such a high score. But it was a real fun game that I played and I wanted to somehow 'immortalize' it by publishing it on my wall. (Oh yeah, like that's going to last)

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Bought a cookbook, a concise guide to cooking Filipino food. Though I do know how to cook I can't really say that I can whip up any of the traditional Filipino foods to the letter. To help me with this, I figured finally getting that cookbook and trying some of the recipes out should go a long way.

The problem now is when could I cook? Lately, between hanging out at gas stations, cleaning up after myself and getting myself to the office, I don't think I have time to prepare, saute, cook, simmer and eat any of these traditional fare. Filipino foods usually take a long time to prepare and cook. A good 2 hours is not that uncommon for a single dish. And to make matters even more complicated, local fare is best matched with steamed rice, which thanks to my no-carb diet is a no-no. So I'll either be paring down on the spices and taste or just substitute tofu for the rice.

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Hmm, thinking back to the current contents of my refrigerator, I haven't visited the local supermarket in quite a while. All that I have in the fridge are candies, mayonnaise, lots of water and juice. Seriously, there is hardly a morsel to eat at home. This explains my current diet of fried chicken from the nearby fastfood joint. Should I attempt to try out any of the dishes from my spanking new cookbook, I would need a visit to the grocer. Who has time for that?

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Finally, I've been seeing a reduction in my credit card bills. Have intentionally been avoiding paying with plastic for a good 3 months now and it's paying off. Though still a sizable sum by any standard, it has been cut in half almost, and I should be free from debt by the end of the year. Wait, funny I seem to remember having those same thoughts last year. What happened then? Oh right, I remember now. I still brought all my plastic and unavoidably used them for everything from gas to groceries. Even my coffee had to be charged. Surely not a very good idea when you want to rid yourself of all those pesky bills.