Life is devoted to sucking the marrow out of the human heart.


you cannot hide in a permanent emotional dump and take on every dammit trouble-maker who stumbles to it and pukes their messy problems, soon to become yours, into your lap. or strolls purposefully and aims deliberately and calmly for your upturned face, as the case may be.
so you get out and go poor girls shopping.


angie and i hit the salvation army today, after discovering a shared passion for thrift and junk a week or so before.

i've been to the branch in bukit merah before, and was sorely disappointed by the lacklustre things there. like, whoopee, records. and ol' tee shirts i could have sworn were used for jogging in and for wiping off nosedung with. old toys that tiredly play the bloodysame melody that we ALL recognise, since all cheap toys in singapore seem to have the same one, straw farmer's hats, lousy bags and clothes, some display trinkets and dishes. urgh. at that branch, i spent 45 minutes digging through piles of chinese karaoke records, malay records, boring records, and found a GREASE ALBUM, which made it worth it and my shopping kaki scream and beg for it. so yeah. i bought that, 2 other records to destroy, and a couple pieces of clothes that haven't seen the light of day since. i was disgusted, i tell you.

and then today we found the huge main branch at bukit timah. we were happy and we were cool. (struggled in vain to add angie's photo here. grr. )

EDITED: here it is! angie and i, decked out in salvation armani style! so ok, somewhat fugly...

whoa. it was sooo fun i tell you! scores of fugly wedding dresses that we near died laughing at, next to a bunch of really, really old, hideous bridesmaid-ish dresses in gaudy colours. remember cinderella? well, her stepsisters and stepmother were outfitted in the salvation army for their ball. someone i know once wore a somewhat tamer version of those to the prom. it was from a costume shop.

violins, diving flippers, a faux maroon mock croc mini skirt, a new scarlet chinese boxing dressing gown with a snarling tiger on the back (which i promptly put on and posed with, taking a picture with the previously mentioned crap hp that doesn't export pictures), countless golf clubs and pool sticks, cheap books, greeting cards, costume jewellery, jeans from versace and armani (which were dreadfully cut. sigh. no really, high waists, tapered and all.), cheap graphic tees at 2 to 3 buckaroos... and paintings! and mechanical train sets! and prints! and... etc lah.

there were endlessly quirky and unexpected things there! yeah, there was the requisite records, but it wasn't the main attraction like before! angie got adorable huge sweater tees to wear belted, a-la-retro-ness. totally suits her! after she removes the eky shoulder pads of course.

i found books, books, gloriously cheap books. i bought some for a grand total of 8 buckaroos, two shades that angie and i will be compulsively sharing, ten loud ties for $1o(crazy, but you'd see the brillance soon enough), and sighed over maroon suede fugly shoes from hush puppie at 2o bucks, the scarlet boxing dressing gown at 2-something, and the FIVE DOLLARS BUT SIZE XS red mock croc skirt. huh all red. wahh, obsessive compulsive.

i was dragging myself away from the bookshelves after picking three books, citing damage control, when my eyes lilted upon a book protectively wrapped with victorian style flower paper. it was romeo and juliet, a secondary literature class copy. edited, i saw, so i was about to replace it on the shelf, when i caught sight of something written in a girlish hand in the corner.

now, i happen to adore old books and old-style bookstores. old books have character, something left behind by their previous owners, that triumphs the giddy joy i get from actually buying retail.

carolyn long wrote,

"life is devoted to sucking the marrow out of the human heart."

this she told me, unknowingly. and it rocked me violently, for something that sounded like so much teenager's desperate angst.

it sucks that i can relate, at the point of events that i am in now. (i learnt something in school. that is no details here. sorta, but in much better and mind-numbing words. )

and this line is what i'd leave you with to ponder unhappily.


good night, and i hope all is well. relatively. i will be sneaking into MOS tommorrow a few hours before i'm legal cos i'm broke and its ladies night, and meeting dear thevvy for walk the line before that. $4 dollars tix, mwahaha. dont' cha wanna know how i did it? the broke girl rules balls.


relatively.

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there is someone on my tag board. either he is teasing me with his brief salutation, or someone out there is teasing me with an impersonation. sadly, sneaking suspicion wagers it's the later. still, it did its purpose then..