Confessions of an Undisguised Drama Queen

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Recurring Stigma

It is a recurring stigma that will haunt me for the next 2 or so months. Everytime I flip open "Immunobiology by Charles A Janeway et al", I cringe and an unsuppressible urge to scream just overwhelms me. Why? Yes, I admit I dislike having to study when I could be doing something less mentally draining (like complete watching season 4 of FRIENDS) but this is not the reason for my irritability.

When I open the book, I see lines and lines of pencil marks and highlighted words.

And they were not made by me.

Okay I admit I'm a neat freak most of the times. And I like all my things nice and clean. Which was why I was very unwilling to get a 2nd hand textbook. But I still did, with the intention to cut costs. Well, according to the owner (apparently not very honest!), there are only a FEW blemishes in the book. Other than a FEW underlining and highlighting, the book is almost as good as new. Either she's a total liar or she needs a vocabulary refresher course on what the word FEW means.

It is also partly my fault for not checking the book more thoroughly but I was tied for time then.
Anyway, so now whenever I refer to the textbook to do my tutorials and such, I will be faithfully equipped with an eraser to remove as many lines as I can. The result, my table is covered with eraser shavings and my book is only slightly cleaner. I am not appeased. This sounds crazy, I know, but this is what they call a character flaw, I guess. Which is why I feel that I'm really quite like Monica in FRIENDS. I can totally relate to her demands for everything to be clean and organised.

Another character flaw of mine that shows through this sickening textbook stigma is my hopelessness in bargaining - I got it for more than 50% of the original price, which, according to one friend, is exorbitant. This flaw is something that exasperates even my best friend, especially once when we went holidaying in Thailand. My inability to deflate prices is apparently a horrific trait - I could have gotten that $12 shorts for only $6 or I could have saved $5 on that
bag etc. etc.

I have no idea why, but I just suck at lowering prices. Could be that I think it's unclassy to be bargaining (don't want to look like an aunty from the market) or I simply don't know how to be coy and whiny. I'm the shopowner's dream come true. I find something I like, I seek out the price, if I can afford it, I buy it. If I can't, I walk away. Simple as that. Not a very wise move according to my friends. Any one offering a crash course on effective bargaining without looking unglamourous?

[Time of Confession] 10:41 PM
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