Delayed Gratification

Time is always of the essence, I realize. In retrospect, I've let myself believe that since I'm technically young and responsibility-free, I'm entitled to commit mistake after another mistake as I have the rest of my years to undo it. Oh, how gullible I have been.

Top: H&M | Shorts: Topshop | Shoes: Zara | Bag: Juicy Couture | Sunnies: Ray-ban | Bead bracelets: from night market in Baguio

As it has always been my escape rod (it's better to reveal your innermost thoughts through fittingly concealed images rather than offer them up voluntarily), I'm going to write about a book. Weeks ago, I finished reading a novel that somehow almost played a vital part in the grand adventure I planned for myself. I bought it last October 2013 thinking I could read it during the periods where I lazed around while my thesismates were researching facts for our thesis paper (but of course, I had to contribute parts of considerable and important weight in exchange of it). But I delayed and delayed and delayed. All because plan A and plan B didn't materialize, with both plans taking into consideration the role of the novel. I digress.

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being proved to be a most challenging read. On average, it's length is rather short but compared to other 500-page and above books, this took longer for me to finish. Stumbling upon a character who seems to be an extended version of one's self is both frightening and intoxicating. The characters in the novel all have that elusive le mot juste which I previously found in only one other novel (my favorite of all, Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray). Perhaps Anais Nin was right when she said

"Don't say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you"

Again, I digress.

This was supposedly a quick hey-I'm-still-alive post to validate the blog's existence despite my frequent intermittent breaks. (Wast that a good oxymoron or what? Hahahaha) But I got a little bit overboard. Also, if you think I look weird without really pointing out how that happens, I'll give you a clue. Something on my face, which have been on me for more than 7 years, has finally been removed. Another clue: (can I just post a photo I took seconds after they were removed instead?)