Appreciation
on my way to KLCC to watch V for Vendetta (very good show, btw) today, i was just looking out the window at all the people walking to their destinations on foot. they may have been just strolling down to the 7-11 down the road, or they may have been walking to the bus stand some 500 metres away, i really wouldnt know. it was a fairly hot day, the sun was unrelenting as usual, and the haze problem seemed to be making an unwelcome return. all of a sudden i felt very grateful for being in a car, with air conditioning and nice leather seats. i even had company. and the air i was breathing was lemon-scented, for goodness’ sake.
in an abrupt burst of guilt, i found myself wanting to invite the whole walking world into the car with me. come share my little God-given gift, i wanted to say. or beg. i’m only 17. it suddenly felt very wrong to be sitting down when people much elder than me were standing up. i’m not taking cars for granted again.
10 Things I Take For Granted
1. Tissue
Greenpeace or any pro-activism environmental organization out there, please dont come after me upon reading my very honest yet tree-unfriendly confession. truth is, i love tissues and i absolutely cannot live without them. i plough through a box of tissues (i use PREMIER!) faster than my dad does with a pack of cigarettes (Marlboros for him) and it’s not a habit i am about to quit anytime soon. in my house there are always boxes of tissue available, lest we run out and Queen Su Ann throws a storming fit a la WHY THE FCK IS THERE NO TISSUE AND WHO THE HELL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!!!!! so yes, tissues are something i take too much for granted cos there never seems to be a threat of them not being available. this is number one on the list cos i kinda suffered a momentary stomach-drop a few minutes ago when i reached into the tissue holder and my fingers scraped against the bottom of the cardboard box. wahlaneh, really no tissue meh??? but thankfully a swift glance to the right yielded Godsent reinforcements in the shape of a green box of PREMIER tissues!!!!! i feel so indebted right now that i want to write a letter of commendation to the Premier company. in fact, i think i will get right to it after i finish this post.
2. The Fact That I Have No Allergies
whenever i look at my friends who have allergies, i feel quite sorry for them in ways i cannot explain. it’s so inconvenient for them that sometimes i wish i could carve a whole new world for them that is completely devoid of the things they are allergic to. like pollen, for example. it’s so shitty to be allergic to be something that seemingly insignificant — i mean it’s fucking botanical sperm — especially when you start coughing out your esophagus upon being a mere 2 metres away from an ejaculating flower. and let’s not even go to the people with food allergies!!! okay let’s, because they are so martyrized in today’s world of culinary delectations that i feel a need to highlight their plight to the more ignorantly fortunate.
people with seafood allergies, i’m sorry but your life sucks. people with peanut allergies, apologies in advance, but your life sucks even more. and to Puan Jamaliah, my ex-biology teacher, a.k.a the only person i know who is ill-fated enough to have a freaking chocolate allergy … i feel so bad for you that i almost want to start a donation fund in your name.
it’s so crappy to have food allergies, i shudder just thinking about being in their shoes for a day. lactose intolerants will never be able to eat bread and butter pudding without puking their guts out. people with peanut allergies cant kiss their PB&J-eating boyfriends without losing their lives. and even when you travel you cant have fun cos you have to demand to see the chef for every restaurant you enter, or you’re forced to annoy all the waiting staff by asking them to rattle off every specific ingredient in every single dish. i bet they take turns spitting in your food after that.
thank God i dont have any dietary restrictions!!!! i love my food too much to give up any of them. which brings me to …
3. My Metabolism
i wanna quote Hock Chuan cos he says the funniest things, though it didnt seem very funny at that time. he said, to me, “oh shit you eat like a MAN!!!”. granted, it’s not very nice to hear your appetite being likened to that of the opposite sex no matter which sex you are unless you are Dennis Quaid (manorexic, FYI), but i must admit that it’s one of the truer things that have been said about me. i eat so freaking much, i sometimes wonder where i put it all. my weight never goes up unless i go through a period of stress, and that’s really cool cos i eat so much i would probably scare my mother if i showed her a log of all the high calorie food i consume on a daily basis!
my metabolism is most definitely something i take for granted cos i keep forgetting that i’m getting old and thus my metabolism is going to slow down eventually. i’m like, nooooooooooo, but damn, shitadilly, and Harry Potter’s broken glasses, shit happens. i’m going to have to get off my lazy ass and attempt some regular physical activity if i still want to be able to brag about my super efficient metabolism when i’m old and 37.
4. My Complexion
one of the better things i inherited from my mother. i almost never get pimples, and i’ve got naturally fair skin that most asians pay like gobwads of cash to obtain. i used to never really think much of it, but nowadays i think clear skin is fast becoming a commodity in girl-world. some more i get to save like lots of money on acne prevention cream or zit-zappers or whatever stuff people put on their face these days. hell, i dont even use a cleanser (omg women dont shoot me) cos i dont need one. so assuming i’d use a Chanel cleanser like JOVANN does cos i’m just as bratty as he is when it comes to cosmetic products, i save myself like rm200 every month. how cool is that? thank you, ma! i forgive you for saying i wouldnt get more than 7A’s in SPM!
5. The Fact That I’ve Never Had My Heart Broken
this sounds very odd but sometimes i look at my friends who have had their hearts broken in the pursuit of or in the process of romance, and i just want to wrap them up in big wooly pink blankets until they recover fully. some of them trudge through life like it no longer has any meaning once they lose that particular guy/girl, or they just become so cynical about love after having their trust betrayed one too many times. i feel for them on so many levels, yet at the same time not really, cos i’ve never been through anything remotely like that. and i think sometimes, that is something that i should be very, very very very very very very thankful for.
6. Radio Cabs
oh man i love this shit. anywhere i am, i just dial those 8 lovely digits and a nice green man in a nice green cab rolls by to send me wherever i want. it’s so convenient that i want to marry the person who thought of this call-a-cab concept. almost every day i page for a cab but i never really appreciate the fact that the service is there to help make the lives of non-driving people like me so much easier. i think it’s about time i did. tomorrow i’m gonna call up Radio Cab, and instead of paging for a cab i’m gonna tell them how much i love them. then i’m gonna tip the first cabbie i see a full 200%. yeah.
7. Google.com and TABBED BROWSING
ENOUGH SAID!!!! if you dont know what tabbed browsing is, you dont deserve to be using the Internet. and if you’re using any search engine besides Google, i would like to curse you to the fiery depths of the hell that is dialup. cos Google is to broadband as Any Other Lesser Search Engine is to dialup. go away, you plebeian folk.
8. My lovely housemaid, NUR!
i LOVE her. i really really do. when she went back to Indonesia last November for a month long holiday, i almost died. without her, i am nothing but an empty shell who has to clean up after herself, make her own bed and buy her own tissues every day. yes i know i am so damn spoilt. but hey. okay i have no excuse for being spoilt. so i just want to say that i love the fact that i can turn my whole wardrobe upside down just to find one tubetop, only to come home and find all my clothes in perfect order and colour-sorted too. i know you wish you had my housemaid. but you aint having her cos SHE LOVES ME!
9. Fingertips
you know how people always say they love their eyes, they love their hair, they love the toenail on the 4th toe of their right foot? well yeah i love my fingertips, all 10 of them. whenever i can, i like to just close my eyes and touch all the things around me. just cos i can. and cos it feels so nice to just touch. that tingly feeling that massages the back of your neck in a pixie-like manner, i absolutely love it. tracing your fingers along the most common and the most everyday items becomes almost like a sensual escapade into a separate reality, for the brief moments that you allow yourself to be a slave to your sense of touch. it’s like a free vacation that does not rudely interrupt your schedule or leave lots of unfinished business in its wake.
and touching the face of a loved one, not with your hands but with your fingers. tickling their lips, and pressing your fingertips into the crevices of their face, brushing your fingertips against theirs, tucking their hair behind their ears and then trailing down to lightly touch their earlobe.. it’s like a whole new quiet haven in a secret garden that would rival the one that Frances Hodgson Burnett has in her mind’s eye.
10. Breakfast
how many times in the past year have you woken up to hot french toast, or scrumptious bacon n eggs, or the coconuty familiarity of nasi lemak, or crispy cereal with refreshingly cold milk .. and went through it without thinking twice about the fact that you’re actually having a fucking good breakfast? i know you do it. cos i do it too. man, i think it is SO pitiful that we are now this sad generation of worriers and hurriers and snoozebutton-slammers who have over the centuries become so desensitized to the simple pleasure that is breakfast!!! i honestly believe we need to return to the core of our beings, and find in ourselves this little rotating ball of glowing light that is simply screaming for a nice, good, unhurried, relaxed, enjoyed BREAKFAST. breakfast rocks. you need to know that.
21 comments March 17th, 2006
