the intricacies of love, the complexities of life
a chilly, pre-christmas air touched my bare skin sending quivers deep inside of me, and making the hairs on my body stood up as i stepped out of the "temporary" place i lovingly call "home" even though nothing is farther from the truth. but i won't dwell on that right now. it caught me by surprise. the cold air outside. after all, christmas is still a month away, and this part of the world doesn't get that cold even in december, when the rest of the planet simply freezes into oblivion. thus, in my "all summer long" mentality, i wore a thin black long sleeve shirt with giant floral designs meant for the sizzling summer nights on the beach or on the mountains, an old reliable pair of black jeans and dark rubber shoes. never one to shy away from a cold weather, i decided to walk towards the bar where i was seeing a friend. it was a good forty-minute walk amid manille's filthy, smelly, dangerous and mostly dark streets, but i didn't min...