some things never change

"One of the boys" photo by Feliciano B. Villanueva

January 17, 2014 question is: "What is the oldest thing you wear today?"

Having went to the United States just recently and having not brought a lot with me in terms of clothing but summer clothes and now being winter, most of the stuff I wear these days are fairly new. So it is just a matter of which ones I bought more recently than the other and it is a bit confusing to track which was first or last.

So the safest thing to answer this question with is the oldest thing I wear today is myself. The good old fashioned me I have always known for years.

This brings me to think about the old things about me that did not change with time. They are the oldest things I've been "wearing" up to now.

For one, I still love my mom's spaghetti and when she died I cook the same recipe.

And then I love Astrud Gilberto's songs as a child and I still do up to now.

I hum a lot as a child and as an adult, also. At first it has a melody of a song and as my mind gets more busy just a steady note which I don't even notice that I was doing. There were even instances when my siblings got frightened when they thought they were alone in the room and heard that when we were all kids. Even classmates who often sat beside me noticed that, too and also co-workers. And just recently my newlywed husband and sister-in-law, too!

As a girl I have never been comfortable wearing mini skirts or shorts, even if my mother always made wear those when I was a child. I just thought my legs are not nicely shaped enough. And up to now I still do!

Another thing is when I was a kid, I prefer playing with boys. It is just that with boys there are not much fuzz and intrigues, and no cliques! Now, I still find it a lot easier dealing with men than with women.

As a kid I also love wearing boots and now when the opportunity of wearing one came, here being extremely cold, I just discovered I still love that kind of thing.

One of the most recent oldest things I thought I no longer "wear" and has outgrown already is my being like a "girlish minx".

One of the happiest part of my life was when I was still a child and my father still doing good in his bag manufacturing business and him being indulgent most of the time. He used to make me tag along in all his business dealings because he believed it kind of gave him luck. And after that we will go out to eat or buy stuff  that I like. And it always happen that I extended his set limit for spending on that day. It can be food or clothes or toys or even just extending time on the playground. Me haggling and cajoling for a little bit more and him capitulating most of the time not because he can be easily sweet-talked or him not being firm, he just makes it a point to make me know he loved me too much not to. For all I know he already set a budget for haggled stuff but I just felt loved and indulged.

I have not done any haggling for a long time now. It stopped after my father lost his business and I thought I already outgrew it until recently. Sometimes, when I shop with my husband, that cheeky, minx girl just came out of the blue without me meaning it and even if I know it is not appropriate for my age already.

Some things never change, one just have to know better enough to take things graciously, see life in a more mature way and even learn to accept frustrations.