a pre-season phase

Oh me and my face. This mug of mine needed some supposed pampering. But how can you say having a facial is pampering when after some obligatory facial massage, pain engulfs your being.

Well it has been at least three months since I saw my dermatologist for some scrubbing and pricking. So I decided to see my doctor at the mall yesterday. Big time error. I should have done it last Thursday instead. I knew it was Eid’l Fitr, marking the end of our Moslem Brother and Sister’s Ramadan, but I did not expect troops upon troops of people cramming the whole area, as if the mall had turned into a celebratory spot for the holiday. Because of the long queues at the ATM machines for some weekend cash, I decided that I needed to pay my derma service thru credit card instead.

I got to the clinic, and behold the whole place was gushing with Christmas ornaments – like every corner was just wanting to be decorated with some Santa Claus plastic board and fake fir trunk. Not to be missed are blue and yellow parols on the ceilings. “Paskong pasko na,” a remark that just needed to be blurted out to the waiting attendants.

My attendant and I went to the initial stage of the facial - lathering my face with soap and massaging the facial tissues (ok, this is the pampering side of the visit). While the attendant kneaded that area of the eyeballs (I said “eyeballs” alright, and her name is not Kris’s James’s Hope either), there was this large and long scary howl.

“Hay naku ganyan talaga tuwing hapon, mga nakakatakot na tunog na pang Halloween. Galing yan sa baba kung saan may kunwaring haunted house. Tapos sa umaga naman, puro kanta ng pasko naman. Nakakainis. Ang aga-aga pa.”

Exactly my sentiments, why are we rushing to celebrate holidays? It freaks me out that Christmas songs are sung as early as September 1 (although our tree goes up November 1). And to have mock up haunted houses two weeks before Halloween is disconcerting. If it is up to me, Halloween should be marketed (by malls specially) a week before. And since we so love the season, Christmas ornaments should be up after November 1. (Thus I contradict my own decree with merely one day. And what’s one day?)

So there I was lying down inside the chamber of pain for the second portion of the facial. The dermatologist pricked and needled my face although she had less zits and blackheads to work on. Still, it was no less painful, and some blood oozed from this face. “Ok just come back,” the derma urged as usual. But if things go right, I thought that maybe next year perhaps, after the holiday season?

Now out of the clinic, I ambled myself towards my car. Then I realized I was near the freaking haunted house. As I peeped at the window to see the activity inside, I saw some four and five year olds peeped back at me. Their look on their face were not as perturbed as expected. But who knows - they might be in shock. With some blood on my face, that house could have been a lot more terrifying.