The weekend breezed through without a trace, it seems. Things tend to go by so much quicker when you're having fun, they say. I couldn't agree more. I'm happy, just so happy right now. :)


I finally have a laptop. Oh, yes, sweet victory is mine. I'm happy, but not in a material way. I've come to realize, that after the "longing phase" of this whole ordeal, that I can get what I want. I'm even more proud that I got it all on my own through hard work and a good deal of saving up and budgeting everything to the last peso. Hahaha! Most more importantly, God has given me the strength to overcome so many obstacles along the way. I'm glad of this, though. He's taught me how to be patient (as if I didn't have enough patience in me already! LOL) and he's given me numberous chances to help others out before allowing me to get what I want. After all, if I'd focused on myself and myself entirely over the past year, I would have gotten this costly gadget months ago. But He still made a way; and now I've got an early Christmas gift for myself. :) (It all worked out for the best, too! Because it's Christmas, the price of this thing dropped from Php30,000 to Php25,000. That's roughly a hundred bucks worth of savings, from $600 down to $500! Amazing!)


What am I saying? I'm saying that there's a time for all things -- however big or miniscule of an event it is. God knows your deepest desires; He may not give them all to you, but he gives the best just for you. :)


---


Last Friday night, as I got home, mother decided that I should get the laptop the following day. I grumbled and said I didn't have the exact amount of cash with me at the time, then she simply told me to withdraw the few grand I still needed from my savings account rather than wait for it. I didn't think of it that way, really. I just didn't want to touch my savings...but after a few minutes (hahaha!) of deliberation, I decided to go for it. (I originally wanted to wait for pay day on Tuesday..) Well it was a great thing that my bank was open on a Saturday. Richie and I left for SM Southmall right after lunch, but was faced with some trouble: all the ATM machines did not hold enough cash. So I couldn't withdraw at SM, obviously. I got this impulsive idea: we hopped on an FX and went to my workplace just to withdraw. Success. :)


On the way back to SM, Richie and I were coming up with various scenarios of how we would get mugged. (My wallet was so thick with cash that it won't even close. Haha!) But thank God we didn't get mugged or anything. We met Bitok at the mall, who had just come from an overnight at a friend's house. I went, then, to withdraw the missing amount from the bank. When we arrived at the computer shop, however, my "contact" was not there and I was told to come back within half an hour. So much for the excitement. So we went around the mall, applied for DSL at the phone company, got tired, and decided to go home.


We went back to the mall after about an hour (haha, it's great that the mall is three minutes away from our house!) and did a bit of Christmas shopping. We returned to the computer shop and voila! My laptop was just a few minutes away from me (as it was getting delivered) and the next thing you know, the saleswoman pops up a new Christmas sale brochure and I get an instant Php5,000 off PLUS free memory upgrade (now it runs on 2 GB DDR2) and free Vista software. :) Happiness. It's cheaper AND I get a bunch of freebies. The people, by the way, were extremely nice. (I always think it's "good omen" -- ala 'The Alchemist'-- when the people I'm surrounded with are really nice. We had to wait for a while more so my brothers and I ended up buying MORE stuff because I evidently had some extra cash on me now. Hahaha! (I knew I shouldn't have taken money out of my savings account..) We picked up and paid for the laptop after a while and headed on to grocery shopping -- wherein we ended up spending twice as much as we'd planned to. Whoops. Haha. (I must've been way too happy with the savings! LOL!) So there. I finally got a laptop, Finally. Thank you, Lord. :D


---


Yesterday we've had to bring the box and the laptop with us to church since we had to go to a different mall to get the Vista software and all that jazz. I made sure to put them in oversized bags so others wouldn't notice. I kind of don't want to let other people know I got my treat; I don't want to be a show-off! Haha! We went to the mall (with Aizel, whome we've adopted for the day LOL) straight after church and it was so painful to be separated from my laptop even for a couple of hours. Haha. We ended up having lunch at Sbarro and had some spare time to go around the mall. I was so happy to be with my laptop again afterwards. Hahaha! We went home and immediately started to play around with the camera and took loads of pictures. We were laughing till we cried all throughout! :)


I still need to install some of the more essential things like MICROSOFT OFFICE, but I think I'll get our technician at work, Albert, to go through with it for me. Hehehe..I'm also waiting/looking forward to get that internet connection installed in our house. Maybe later today, in several hours..I can't wait!!!


---


Right now I'm just really so proud of myself. This feels like an accomplishment not many people my age (and status, I suppose) are able to attain. I'm so so so grateful because this whole ordeal just proves that I can make my "dreams" (little or big) come true if I really cared enough for it. I love God for teaching me these little lessons in life. I am, indeed, getting to a much more clear path. This is just the beginning of something bigger. I think, I think..I am finally ironing out the little crumples in my life. :)