Christmas, correct me if I am wrong, together with New Year, is supposed to be the merriest and noisiest season of the year. I believe you would even be excused if you terrorize your neighbourhood by obliterating their eardrums. The irony is that, it is Christmas, indeed; yet, this is the most quiet our room has ever become –this year, at least. Yup, I am left alone. I guess I mentioned this already on the entry I wrote on the 25^th of this month; however, make no mistake. I am not asking for sympathy. Truth is, I just want to write something here since I have nothing better to do as of the moment.

But wait.

I re- read what I wrote and it got me into thinking. Figuratively, or, in a way, this room only becomes silent when I am asleep. You see, the moment I wake up it’s almost involuntary for me to pick these two remote controls; one for the TV and the other for the DVD player. These two, for me, go hand in hand since there’s nothing good to watch on TV and of course the DVD player can’t stand on its own. Currently, I’m alternating The Tudors (season one) and Gilmore Girls (season 7.) When the episode gets boring, I turn on my laptop and pull up three sites: The inevitable Friendster, Multiply, and my favourite, YouTube. Apart from these, are random pages. Porn sites are of course not excluded.

When I get tired, I hit the shut down tab and lie down on my bed only to feel guilty at the sight of the dog- eared books scattered on the floor beside my bed. At this time, I’m reading two: Alternately, Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt, and my old friend, Jessica Zafra’s Twisted 8.  To ease my guilt, I flip a few pages until I get sleepy. I dog ear another page and promise myself to leave more time for reading the day after. But then again, an old saying goes: promises are made to be broken.

TV with a DVD player, the internet, and books; with these things around, apart from the entertainment I get, at the end of the day, I get a headache. As if the information they give; the characters; the stories, and everything else coming from them are meeting each other like buses, taxis and jeep (jeeps? Jeepney?), all in a halt due to heavy traffic in the little city which is my brain. With headache being the last experience in the day, my three inanimate companions have successfully made the idea of silence distant and gave me a touch of Christmas instead of Good Friday.

It’s been a fun Christmas. Next stop: New Year.