For A Happier and Healthier New Year!

In perfectly normal circumstances I do like letters. Especially when there’s the word ‘Urusan Seri Paduka Baginda’ written on it. Isn’t it great to be referred to something or anything at all? You feel wanted - the sense of self-importance kinda attached to it. That is why, I usually welcome them.

But not this one.

Well it happened anyway. On the very morning of the last day of 2008

Now tell me how exactly should I be the least of thrilled to be receiving this; or to completely ignore the bone-rattling word ‘Pakar Bedah’ boldly printed on it? Forgive my remorseless skeptic self and not being a sport but this is simply not how I picture the New Year joy.

Gosh, I guess by now, everybody knows already, 2008 was such a bad year for me – health wise. Things were going down south since after Raya last year. Something’s terribly not right there, to the point that I sometimes think I’d be upsetting the natural balance of things if I didn’t “catch on” anything ever since.

So how did I cope with this little pickle in a butt ? Well, if you must know, I watched 30 Rock Marathon on Star World the whole New Year's morning and finished it off with Ally McBeal two seasons straight on DVD. I was in dire need of consoling. I wasn’t crying - that’s not how I roll – but there’s a sad little part in me keep asking, “Where’s your spine and chord? Stop being a whiner and RESOLUTE!!” Then suddenly I got it all figure out.

This year I am gonna take a special, no, an extra special care of myself. I WILL watch what I eat and WILL exercise a little bit more. And O NEVER forget to brush my teeth regularly.

Lord, I am gonna get through this and hopefully be able to add one more thing in my ‘I Am Awesome‘ book by the end of the year and that is all my resolution this year. Not much, I know, but I am not kidding about it.

Sigh. (I sighed a lot these days, didn't I?)

When you start your New Year this bad, things couldn’t get any worse, right?

RIGHT?

O Give me a break!

4 Days Of Christmas

I woke up from a pleasant snooze this morning to find out that it’s already December 26 2008 - end of a, supposedly, perfect Friday morning. In 5 days time, it’s gonna be 2009, and looking back; ‘philanthropy' has been an especially resonant theme in my life and ….O wait, you know what, let’s not go there yet. Save that for the New Year’s Eve’s posting. Today, let’s be a bit less uptight and just look back a little 4 days before Christmas, shall we?

Mon. Dec. 22. Din and I watched Bolt in MBO Ampang. Though we were a little behind (it’s the movie fourth week in theaters), aren’t we glad we went to see the movie anyway. What a great little movie it was. It brought a lump to my throat and made me laugh out loud, slap my knees and laugh out loud again - all the same time. I especially enjoyed the part where all the animals could talk to each other. Wait, they can really talk, can they?

Tues. Dec. 23. O my, it’s that time of the year again - appraisal time, the most awkward time of the year. Seriously, how is it you’re going to say to your boss you’re the best without actually sounding off like a teeny wee bit ‘office scum’? It’s like a gruesome battle, I tell you. The only different is the ‘enemy’ is your own past 'missteps'. Anyway, while I see a little improvement in term of the rating as compared from the last year, somehow something whispers to me, “I could have done soo much better”.

Now, let’s just see how it turns out next March – bonus time. Hmm…

Wed. Dec. 24. My Boss was on leave and you know what that means – I get to attend meetings on her behalf. Crap! O yeah, this time, it wasn’t anything like I have been to before. It’s an eight hours, one whole day of soul-crushing boredom and futility headache meeting. I think it was more than a meeting - it’s a brainstorming! I bored out of my skull.

And the worst part was I had to do a presentation on something I hadn’t been briefed about before and armed with only two pages of previous meeting’s minute. Hate it. Hate it.

Later, I phoned my boss, “My brain bleeds.”

Thurs. Dec. 25. It’s Christmas day, and more importantly to me – it’s holiday. Yeah! No Santa to bother my late morning doze, isn’t it great? I guess the best thing about Christmas, or any holiday for that matter is the holiday songs. I believe, Christmas wouldn’t be complete without Mariah Carey’s zesty, my perennial favorite, holiday number ‘All I want For Christmas Is You’. It’s probably the best holiday song – like ever! (pretty much in a mold of Aishah’s Pulanglah). Never fails to put me in the mood.

Ah, I love holidays. Holidays make me happy. Don’t we all? The only thorn in the side this time? I have to work the next day.

Bummer.