"We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?" - Grey's Anatomy

The last few days I felt how it was to be an adult, more than I ever did in the past. Somehow, dealing with health and finances just makes you age. And right now, for the time being, I'm done. I finally finished paying my income tax (Egad, that was such a pain. Imagine a line looking like a really long snake, and DJ told me some of the people who lined up actually had their food delivered to the bank. Hahaha), and worked out my condo amortizations. I'm just really so relieved. I say I did a good job. Hahaha.

Pat on the back to me.

Which is actually a code for shopping. Lovely.

Bought an outfit for our upcoming Galera trip. Our sales people here in the Philippines are really becoming more customer-friendly. I must have spent more than 30minutes in the fitting room. And they were very helpful. After all, having an, err, abundant front area is really a challenge. The search for the top-that-will-amply-cover-them was more stressful than fun. I finally settled for a tankini, but it was way over the budget I had allocated. Oh well, vanity is never cheap.

Even as I was driving to the mall, I kept telling myself, no more Havaianas. At least not yet. I do still owe myself the white Filipinas, and the Brasil Cup flip-flops. But not today. Or so I planned.

After getting my outfit together, I decided to get a new outfit for my date with Aussie in May. That's gonna be the first time I see him in almost a year. And I just want to prepare for it a bit. It's the least he deserves for all the times I cancelled on him, and for sparing me a night and a whole day in his very hectic 10-day homecoming. (Oh yeah, I've decided I'm not cancelling on him this time around. Will have to figure out how to work it out with R, if at all. I'm beginning to get bored with our dynamics, but more on that in another post).

I was still making a huge effort in steering clear from All Flip-flops up to this time. But my feet were really taking me there. At the last minute, I made a turn to Tower Records instead (which turned out to be Powerbooks on that floor. Yeah, it's been a while since I've been here) and I was momentarily disoriented when I saw books instead of CD's. After a while, I finally found the CD's and I went around to look for parting gifts for Aussie and R. Both of them work abroad so I thought of giving them OPM CD's. I ended up buying Top Suzara's first album, which I quickly loved, and a Filipino reggae collection CD, which features Cebu's very own - Junior Kilat (of which Budoy, my favorite PBB celebrity housemate, of course, is the frontman).

Since the flip-flops were literally just around the corner, I finally caved going to the store after making my music purchases.

WTF. The line extended to outside the store. I thought Rustan's might be a little better. But no, people were crowding the Havaianas wall, and it was just crazy. To make it worse, there was no more stock of my lovely Brasil Cup slippers. Waah! There were about 10 pairs left of the Havaianas Filipinas, most of them in big sizes. I found one in size 35/36 which just fits my foot, but I usually wear my flipflops with some allowance. I was sorely disappointed, I just sat on one of the stools. Tired and disappointment is not a good combination. I was this close to giving up and throwing a tantrum, when the saleslady hung back some more slippers to the wall. I immediately saw the flip-flops in my size and I sprang to my feet and grabbed them before anyone else would. Happiness.

I hurriedly left the flip-flop crazy crowd, wondering why the hell everyone is on panic-buying mode. Oh. Long weekend ahead. That must be it. Nothing to do with mind-boggling addiction.

A bag filled with goodies in tow, I made a quick stop to buy food, then headed home.

It's been an exhausting day. I have a killer headache but it's all good. Tomorrow, I can stop being a grown-up once again. Even for a while.

Besides, there's nothing that a nice pair of Havaianas can't make better =)