Vignettes

'How are you?' texted a high school crush the day after Christmas. This after I sent him one of those funny messages about the holiday season forwarded by a couple of friends. Not knowing what to say, I texted back 'Fine. Happy Holidays to you and your family!'.

Yep, I chickened out asking whether he was still with our classmate whom he courted after college. Or whether he was getting married soon. Or even if he was still working at the company I knew he applied to just after graduation.

Basically, I get tongue-tied -- even when the medium is a cellphone -- whenever a cute guy whom I like asks simple, garden-variety questions.

Which brings me to why I spent my Christmas reading Neil Gaiman yet having this nagging feeling that I should have been friendlier via text to my crush. At my age, you'd think I would have gotten over my shyness, especially in front of cute guys.

I nonetheless enjoyed 'American Gods', if only because it offered me a chance to get lost in a world other mine at the moment. Generally a fantasy with lapses of folklore and mythology thrown in the mix, this book kept my mind off wandering to 'what ifs' and 'what will I do with all this time at home'.

Post-Christmas Day is a difficult time to fill, given that one is usually too tired to go out especially if your home was invaded with the whole clan on the 25th, and finances are generally low. So I picked up 'American Gods' which I've been meaning to finish for the longest time, and occupied my mind with Loki, Odin, and the rest of the mythical gods that lived in current-day America while battling modern gods like Media, Mr. World and what-have-you.

My only gripe with this book is that it always interspersed the engaging plot with myths that seem not to belong anywhere. The momentum is often ruined with short subplots that 'American Gods' could do without.

I could say the same with my holiday which, although generally restful, was replete with thanks-but-no-thanks vignettes among which is the text conversation with my high school friend. I would like to include among these vignettes my weird dream about not getting our exercise machine to work, wrapping presents post-December 25 for my sister who did not come to the reunion, and getting angry at my brother for feeding a kitten in our front lawn which caused said kitten to come back and get bitten by Gordo, our dog.

Here's to pointless experiences which hopefully, do not multiply in the year 2005!