Home Alone Deluxe Edition...

And so it would seem that I was not destined to be with my family for a week's worth of kicking back and enjoying. But that's okay. I'm not bitter. Oh, no.

I have managed to keep myself busy for the duration of the seven days in my family's absence. It's not that I have never been alone before. I have. But just not in that big a house and not that long a period. Mom had insisted that I head to Nanny's when night fell and our estate became dark and quiet. I resisted. Not because I don't love my grandmother and never cherish the moments I have with her. For one, I had schoolwork to complete and I didn't want to impose on her sleeping hours when I am up all night working Dean. Plus, I had to watch my football. Yeah, that one was at the top of my most important to-do list besides cracking my head doing essays.

I learnt that being alone can be liberating. I guess it's because I am not clingy by nature. I don't need to go everywhere with homo sapiens surrounding me. I don't even need one homo sapien to be with me. I think when I am with others, it's because I choose to do so. It is perfectly fine if it happens otherwise and I am capable of just being by myself.

The downside of being alone is that it can get pretty quiet. The one thing I can't stand is the sound of nothingness ringing in my ears. Hence I have the tendency to blast the music from inside Bumblebee that can be heard from outside and amp up the volume of my wide-screen to acquire the desired deafening roar of the crowd.

Being alone meant I could do so many things by myself. I took the liberation of dedicating just one day to domestication just to prove that I could. It was a Thursday and I began my day of domesticated bliss by doing my laundry. I had already scheduled timeslots for when I would toss my clothes into the machine. For just one person, I kinda used up a lot of my clothes and it was especially so during days reserved for gym.

So I started with the laundry and while that was happily spinning, I lugged out the vacuum and sucked up whatever was in my path from the kitchen to my front door. I finished just in time to hang my clothes and plugged the vacuum into an outlet at the porch. Flinging out all the mats and rugs inside Bumblebee, I viciously beat the heck out of the grey upholsteries against his little wheels and dirt flew everywhere. Grimacing slightly as I sucked particles from the rubber curls of the mat, I vowed to slap the next person who sits in the car and leaves dirt and residue behind with the pipe of my vacuum. You know, like crumbs and whathaveyounots. Lint, sand. Whatever.

What?? I love my car and I'm not sorry I'm being anal about it. You want to sit?? Sure. Just make sure to watch yourself and be careful with Bumblebee just like how you would your own car. AND DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THE SCREEN OF MY DIGITAL SOUND SYSTEM!!

Anywazoo, Bumblebee is fairly easy to clean because he's smaller than Optimus and I just need to tiptoe a little to reach his roof. Donning on my Ruud van Nistelrooy baseball cap --lest I look like a crazed female with wild hair blowing away in more directions than one-- I welcomed the coolness of the spritzing water under the scorch of the sun as I gave Bumblebee his bath. He needed it, man.

Of course washing Bumblebee would not be complete if I neglected the leaf-strewn porch. Five minutes into the back-breaking motions of sweeping and scrubbing off black residue and I realized that it wasn't a wonder we always washed the porch as five sisters and not one. Ahh, fuck. Where were the brats when you needed them, eyy??

Mom knows that I would have never done so if people were around because I am a spoilt child who takes for granted the things in life with people around. I guess she trusts that I would accomplish whatever household chores she has been in charge of when I am alone because duhh, there's nobody else to do it. And she'd be damned if she came back to a pigsty of a house with a mountain of laundry awaiting her. Yeesh, even I can't stand the thought of it.

And while we were at it, I loved doing the laundry because I had the fabric softener at my utmost disposal. I love fabric softeners. Even when I was away from home and had to handwash my clothes, fabric softener was my best friend. When I went grocery shopping in rural Surin, Thailand, fabric softener was at the top of my shopping list and I would usually buy those in eco-friendly packs because Mom did so. Melbourne, Australia was no different. So off I went hunting for Mom's softener and as I chanced upon it, a big grin split across my face as I held it up. Yeah, baby!!

I realized minutes after the family left that it is definitely harder when someone leaves you rather than when you leave someone. When Fartz and I left for Melbourne, no tears were shed because we were on rockstar mode and living the high life. We were leaving people behind. But that moment as I drove away in Bumblebee to the gym, I thought, damn this is harder than I initially imagined. It's one thing when you say goodbye to your mother but it's whole other issue when Mom says goodbye to you.

Bunny insisted on being my week's accompaniment and as much as I knew she was dead tired on her feet with work, the girl stubbornly insisted she stuck with me. It was late nights galore for me but I think it was more of a sleep-deprived period for her. Yeah, I am such a pain in the neck, I know.

So the family's back now and gone are the nights where I had trouble falling asleep at night in an empty house. Yeah, I have a deep-rooted fear of the dark. I am a loser that way. Gone are also the days when silence reigned free.

Oh, yay!! I don't need to do the dirty laundry anymore!!

Laterz...
Lenny