Shop Me Not

I got off work today somewhat hurriedly. I even forgot to turn off our servers, tsk tsk. Darn that energy reduction scheme. I wish I had a good excuse but instead I have a lame one: I needed to shop.

Don't mistake me for a shopoholic. Heaven forbid. I'm one of the most unskilled shopper you'll ever meet. It takes me hours to shop for gifts and even longer to shop clothes or shoes for myself. It took me longer to buy my most recent Sunday clothes than my computer. No kidding. I have no sense of style, I am not "kikay", and I don't have the first clue on what it takes to be fashionable. (That's the least of my problems. I still have to perfect being 'presentable'.)

But Christmas is not just the season of love and celebration. It's a challenge to overcome my shopping shortcomings. First order of business is the company Christmas party. The theme is retro, which appears to be a popular theme of other companies, too.

Liz and I actually started to look for clothes yesterday. With three guys tagging along: Paul, Jerome, and Paulo. It took us a good two hours wandering through Megamall, filing through clothes racks, marking an item or two. No purchase, though. I think Liz got a little frustrated with me when I declined her choices one after the other: too bright, too loud, too COC-able. I wanted something subdued. In the end, she was reciting my criteria with every suggestion she put up: "Something black. Or white. Something tailored." Anyway, we decided to put it off for the next day.

But Liz was late in coming to work today. And they had dance practice. So it was Paulo and EJ who volunteered to wait a whole hour for my logout time to accompany me to this retail clothes store in Escriva Ryan suggested to us. That's why I was in a hurry to log off; I didn't want the guys to wait any more than what was necessary. Anyway, we walked the few blocks towards the Escriva store. EJ and Pau are two of my favorite guys in the office; it's so easy to be with them. When we got there, we browsed for a while. Paulo found a sweater which fit the costume he was planning to wear. He tried it on, paid for it, and we were out in no time. Like a SWAT team. The walk to and from took longer.

On our way back to Pearl Drive, we passed by a group of men drinking in the sidewalk, I asked them how would they react if they were asked to take a shot. I found it so amusing that both had their own ready reply that I wondered whether they always had to use it when they were studying in UST, hehe.

"Sige po, boss, pass po muna."

"Next time na, pare, pagbalik ko na lang."

We all parted ways in the corner of PSE. I briskly headed to Megamall where I met my mother and sister who came from Makati that evening. I am so amazed at their shopping stamina. Every time I turn around, they've gone somewhere else and I had to look around which shelf or rack they've zoomed in on. But they were easy enough to spot when I had to pay for their purchases, haha. Tireless, tireless - I tell you. Am I adopted? I have a missing shopping gene!

There wasn't much traffic when we headed home. It was a very long and tiring day, but at least I don't have to worry about what to wear on our company Christmas party. The very least, I hope I don't look like a total schmuck on Saturday.