The problem with people with repressed childhoods (like me) is that we tend to overcompensate when we finally gain some independence and get some spare change from our wee salaries. I guess it runs in the family too. I remember my dad buying me an airsoft pistol only for him to play with it more than I had. (Oh yeah, he’ll be dead for eight years now in a few days.)

Anyway, people have been overly critical of my extreme miserliness. I rarely buy stuff and never spend a cent I wouldn’t earn back immediately or in a bad investment (not that I haven’t made a few, and surely, these drove me to wits’ end). Spending, for me, is a sin. My greatest luxury has always been treating my Dearest to something. I rarely buy clothes, gadgets, other effects and doohickeys for myself.

I have been saving up since late December for this time of the year since my Dearest and I will be celebrating our third year together. Figured it’s about time I don’t get her something dirt cheap this time around. I’ve been snooping and scouting out some possible gift items. After some covert interrogation (sometimes, I just love being a discourse analyst), found out she wants a phone or some hand-held game console or a Nintendo Wii. Good thing my savings were enough to cover any purchase. So I decided to take her to Greenhills just to “look around.”

Honestly, I haven’t been to Greenhills for ages. For a closeted techie like me, showing me so many pieces of plastic and silica can start a massive nosebleed. Death by exsanguination. Call me manipulative but that also had her riled up getting something. I was really considering that we get her a phone but she somewhere she dropped that she’d rather get one through her mobile service provider plan. And she’s always been the Nintendo fan so that would strike out the PSP. She could’ve opted for the Wii but preferred the mobility of a hand-held. She was already ranting about must-give-my-mom-a-proposal-to-get-me-a-phone-and-a-DS-lite when I surprised her with, “O pili ka ng kulay na gusto mo.” Cheeseballs. Hehehe. So we got her a DS Lite.

It was also a good thing when we bumped into our resident Sugoi couple who helped us with the purchase process. I’m such a noob with gadgets. Computers and Web technologies, I can handle, but game consoles. Bah! I’m a philistine when it comes to such things. So we got a package deal that included the console, some protective gear, spare stuff, EDGE, and a 2 GB SD card.

Heck, I have to admit that it was hell-a cheap for me to get her something half the allocated budget (I was prepared to spend for a smartphone or a Wii) but that left me with cash to spare. After much goading from Kyam (and Mastah), I decided to get one for myself too. And oh, Kyam got herself one too.

Just to pass the afternoon (Kyam and Mastah were going to see a movie but the screen time was still 3 hours away), we fired up our Lites (Kyam had an extra DS for Mastah to use) at Figaro and had a Bomberman tourney. Call me childish, but that multiplayer thing is way cooler than any other multiplayer thing I’ve done (Quake, Starcraft, Counterstrike, Call of Duty…). I hope we didn’t piss off a lot of people since that had us blurting “You killed me!”, “Oh shit!”, and “I killed myself!” out loud. That got us planning for a Sugoi DS party one of these days.

It has been years since I mashed buttons. I’ve been a gamer but the PC has always been my “console” of choice. Somehow, having one again, even just a hand-held, had me all giddy as a schoolboy. I spent last night charging the DS Lite. I woke up grabbing and firing it up for some early morning action. I’m now clogging up the DSL line getting some goodies to fiddle around with.

I’ll be checking my usage for the day. If I get more playing done than work, then I am god-forsakenly hooked. *Tan-dan-dan!*

For some reason, I don’t feel guilty spending at all for myself. It has me scared, actually. I better track my spending over the next couple of weeks. If I spend more than Php 2,000 (with the exception of utility bills payments and yes, that’s how miserly I am. I know some college kids who find that an allowance of Php 2,000 a week is not enough), I’m f*cked!

Twenty-four and still fiddling with toys fit for grade school kids. And giving one out for an anniversary gift for that matter.

Shout out to Elsie and Belle of Celtex Greenhills for being the best Greenhills stall attendants I’ve ever encountered.

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1. If my phone represents who I am then I’d be obsolete