*weekend adrift*

i finally set aside some hours for 'social' time over this weekend. i'd say i was pretty *well rewarded*.

saturday was the cLaw bake off. cinnamon scrolls, half a pecan-pie (because the crust felt more like being on the floor than staying in the pie pan), butter cookies, apple and cinnamon wholemeal muffins and truly authentic biscotti. yum yum.

the afternoon started off on an *eventful* note, with me walking up three flights of concrete stairs carrying two bags of mixing bowls, cookie cutters, butter and flour - to the wrong apartment, then walking back down, only to realise that wearing thongs on a rainy day was a really really bad idea. just after the stepping off the top step, the water got the better of me and i slipped, tripped and fell, and went flying down the stairs, only to land squarely on my ass and elbow about 6 stairs down. the only thing that enforced the hilarity of the moment was the fact that there was a young boy (probably 7-8 yrs old), who was helping his mom carry in the groceries, who said, with his mouth gaping open, "are you okayyyyy????" he then proceeded to tell me a story about how he did the exact same thing last week when he was coming home from school and how he had "slid down the stairs like a water slide". he also stopped to emphasise that he had his backpack on, and that was the only thing that shielded his butt from the excruciating pain that apparently, i was experiencing. and yes, there was a reference to my butt. =.= so after a good minute of half-lying on the stairs, i gathered my things and my pride and got up to go and find the right stairwell leading to jess' apartment.

and as things would have it, i now have a massive bruise on my back to attest to my clumsiness.

lesson 1: don't wear thongs on a rainy day.

i feel an onus to point out now that here i sit, on a rainy day, in the postgrad lab at uni, with thongs on. *sigh*. at least you can be sure that i'm gonna be avoiding concrete stairwells for the rest of today!!

the *eventfulness* of the afternoon continued. as i alluded to before, annabelle was taking the pie crust out of the oven, and in just a split second when i was walking by, i saw the pan falling... so naturally i put out my hand to try and catch it. between the two of us, we were completely helpless and now, as a result of my insensitivity to heat, i've got a boil on my arm to prove my failure of catching the stupid pan.

lesson 2: heed friends' advice when they warn that just because you can't feel that something's hot, doesn't mean that you're not gonna get burnt.

then came sunday.

went out to a 21st party for a guy in my bible study group. i gotta say. the entire afternoon reminded me of home: from the masses of food to the distinct different groups of friends, the video-speech in lieu of the person not being able to make it for the party to the "speech" his mom gave... just everything.

and it ended up making me feel pretty "introvertedly" reflective. maybe that's just a synonym for lonely. that much is unclear.

i just kept thinking about friendship and the timeline across how friendship occurs, develops and grows. as i asked trish last night, how long do you think it takes for acquaintances to become friends? and how long does it take friends to become good friends? and then good friends, best?

it was probably a softer (and significantly less painful) note to end my weekend on, but at the end of the day, sunday made me think a lot and now, i still get amazed at how the ideas of "friends" and "family" are universal.

anyhow, a bruise, a burn and a couple of new friends later... my weekend was pretty complete.