My desk is too cluttered at home. Books, papers, accessories, an obsolete desktop computer. Everything I don’t need in my life (but I can’t ever part with) gets demoted to the desk.

Which leaves me nowhere to work. So I work on the bed, facedown lying on my stomach, my upper torso supported by my elbows. You can imagine the strain on my elbows. But you don’t have to to. You can see it here:

Doesn’t it look like I am totally neglectful of skin care? It doesn’t look so in the picture, but aside from the dry and flaky skin, my elbows are colored darker than the rest of my body! Ugh!

I’m the last person you can ask for any creams or lotions or whatever – because I have nada. It’s not that I don’t care, I am just afraid to put anything on my skin for fear it will break out. (Chalk this up to a high school trauma regarding an aloe vera mix and my best friend’s face.)

So anyway, having nothing on my plate, I rummaged around my mother’s things. She had an assortment of little creams, and I just plucked this out, because I like the word “exfoliant”.

I think it’s supposed to go on the face, but I bet my elbow can benefit from that too! So I’ve been applying it every night. It feels a bit grainy. I don’t know if that’s how it supposed to feel or if it’s expired. But, eh, I don’t think my elbow will get worse either way.

Crossed fingers! And tell me if you have better advice because I am clueless!

Check out these outrageously funny condom advertisements from Coloribus! I especially like this one of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Erm, I never really knew how much Snow White liked her small companions.

This reminds me of the first time I encountered a condom — during high school. And no, it’s not what you think! It was really for my friend’s birthday. She was the first to have a boyfriend among us, her barkada. So we decided, being the very concerned friends that we were, that if ever she was to come to a point where she would be a “woman of the world”, that she should better be “safe”.

So we took it upon ourselves to hunt for a condom. Trust, no less. We went into this beauty shop called “Health and Beauty” and nonchalantly browsed through the shelves, pretending not to notice that there was an inconspicuous corner devoted entirely to contraceptives. And in different flavors, too!

I’m not sure but I think I was the only girl in the group who had the courage to hunt for a condom in a very conservative city. (Although I wonder now if the city was really conservative since, as adults, we soon found out that those things were available in most grocery / pharmacy stores!)

Long story short, we did buy the condoms and I was the one who purchased it. We wrapped it in a box along with a few other gifts (just in case she didn’t like the first one) and gave it to her. If my memory serves me right, I think she was delighted (although we never really did find out if she actually used it…).

She has such good friends.

P.S. Sometimes I can’t believe how time flies by. A few years ago, my friends and I were totally innocent about the birds and the bees. Well, we *knew* how it happened, but we didn’t really *know*, ya know? But now we all do. It comes as a surprise, sometimes, when a friend admits to the extent of his/her “knowledge”. But then again if everybody knew the skeletons (or fairies, dolphins, pretty things, to put it in a positive light) one kept in one’s closet, well, it isn’t really surprising that other people have them too.

And speaking of skeletons, here’s another one of those ads:

Be careful.