Yesterday was my paternal grandmother's 79th birthday.

I watched my 23-year old cousin draw using a software similar to Photoshop. It was really cool since there were different brush strokes and blenders. He was drawing a rat and I asked him if rats had square teeth and he said "No, I have a rat's skull and it has pointy teeth. Do you want to see it? It's in my room."

My sister and I followed him into his room which greeted us with interesting clutter. We didn't mind the clutter, really. We were amused by it. He showed us a cabinet - all his empty cigarette packs and there were more than a two hundred in there, I tell you. There were also a couple tall cans with cigarette packs flattened and stuffed inside. He quit last year because he got a real bad throat infection which affected his eyes, nose and ears. He also showed us two of his cat skulls and one rat skull. Yes, a rat skull does have pointy teeth. We were told about his Ragnarok addiction and how he spent a fortune on the game. There were so many prepaid cards I had to volunteer to sort them. I also saw the human skull of I-don't-know-whose in his room. Since there were two doctors in the family, he found it just lying around and decided to keep it. I remembered when I was in third grade and I brought the skull to school in my Barbie lunch box.

My sister opened a cabinet and saw many, many magazines. She asked "So you don't buy any FHM?" (she didn't know, really)

And he said "Oh, these are all FHM and I have one Singapore issue!" (with pride)

So, what did I learn about cigarette packs? They smell really nice. Why smoke cigarettes when you can spend all day just sniffing them? I didn't even know there was a cinnamon kind!

I wanted to go to Starbucks to get a drink after the little gathering but then the closest outlet near our house is currently undergoing renovation. Many people are now deprived of nice coffee. Never mind, I'll just go somewhere else.

I'm going to Baguio on Friday and I'll be back on Sunday.

boombox generation: