party-hearty

The last time that I had a party like last Friday's was four years ago when I was nursing a broken heart, but two guys were courting me (woohoo! those were the days) and I had a whole different set of friends invited, except for the one and only (or 25 or so) Glider Friends. This year I invited those people who were closest to my heart right now: the Glider Friends, of course; my office friends; former students who've remained close; and some of the nicest people I know, like my nephew, Kai, and Ger-ber and Charlie-girl (package deal).

My mom was the one feeling panicky for me. Meanwhile, I was recuperating from fever and some really intense muscle pains the day before, and was generally lazing around most of the day. Didn't take my LOMI, er, LOMA exam (goodbye US$65) because Thursday's fever seemed to erase everything that I had read about Insurance Marketing up till Wednesday. So I stayed home, went to the doctor, and then rested for the birthday thingy. Cooked a little pasta--I know that didn't turn out well because that was the dish with the most leftovers. Was just too tired and it showed in my cooking, hehe.

DaMike was the first to arrive, followed by Aldo and Raymar. Those three people saw me in my 'cooking attire', all sweaty and messy. Nice picture there, am glad Aldo's digicam batteries were with Denise. Quick change. Denise, co-celebrant, arrived soon after, as did most of the other guests. Someone told me it was a bit overwhelming, having around 35 people there. I don't know. I like having a lot of people around me. Maybe I'm compensating for my being boyfriend-less and a little lonely, but it's almost always been the case that I've celebrated my birthday quite lavishly, since I started working. This is my way of thanking my friends, who put up with my neuroses and my fits of insanity.

The theme was supposed to be 'cinema' but it was only manifested in the "game" and the prizes [aha! pirated DVDs!]. I admit I had a little too much to drink on a nearly empty stomach and ended up introducing everyone to everyone and shouting myself hoarse; so there. My excuse for being totally noisy and tactless at some point in time. Hey. My party. Take it or leave it. The quote on my calendar today says, "It is when we forget ourselves that we do things that are most likely to be remembered." Yes, I think I was in that zone last Friday. No regrets. Maybe some apologies--nah. None at all.

meeting kai
Hmmm. Was going for a title like Serving Sara or Boxing Helena--both box-office flops! Anyway 'Meeting Kai' didn't turn out to be that much of a flop. I have known Kai Huang for a little over seven years, I think. We started out at the MaxiBoard, the 99.5RT BBS system; then we all migrated to LiveWire (and played LoRD till we dropped or something). Unfortunately, the prelude to online gaming and BBS took a backseat to affairs of career and the heart (not necessarily in that order). But I still maintained my ties with some of the old fogies--CJSJ, Brian S, Eric Meim(+), and Kai. (I recently got in touch with Joty through friendster too.) Although I had met up with some of them (CJ and I were both from DLSU, Brian S and Eric were siblings of my friends), I had never met up with Kai. Until last Friday. I had actually set him up to date one of my friends, and they had met up, but I still hadn't seen the alien-er-person face to face! Haha!

Of course he always brings up that one time when we were supposed to meet in Glorietta, which was aborted because some person, who shall remain nameless, was insanely jealous that I was meeting up with another guy, never mind that I had (technically) known this person a lot longer than I had known him. Oh well. I'm glad we finally met after all these years. He seemed nice enough, although there was a feeling of him holding back a degree of wit and sarcasm. Hey, I know you're capable, dude. Cheers. [Too bad you didn't drink.]

cheers!

• Here's to dinner and drinking with wonderful people, and almost all the people I love with me all in one place. [After all, the next time might be at my funeral. Er, wedding?]
  
• Here's to it being a small world, after all.
  
• Here's to an early bird who was one of the last to leave (thanks Mader!).
  
• Here's to Desert Rose, much cheaper alternative to Tequila Rose.
  
• Here's to a great nephew who stayed till closing time (then hied off to an early-morning 'meeting', haha!).
  
• Here's to people gamely putting up with our weird (nerdy daw) party game.
  
• Here's to alcohol numbing your aching muscles until you wake up the next morning (oww!).
  
• Here's to lunches with former flames and exchanging pleasantries.
  
• Here's to badminton, the new shawarma (huh?!).
  
• Here's to life--sometimes you just really want out, but hey, things always look up eventually. Eventually.
  

tonight
Allan is listening to Incubus. It's now 'I Wish You Were Here'. Ah, to end the working day with visions of Brandon Boyd dancing in my head. Sweet.

Am still waiting for the party pictures from Aldo and maybe Kai. (Hehe.)