nano_speaks had planned an all-out wakasan party to be held at the condo. She needed to get drunk, incidentally, so did Mabie, Annabs, Rem, Chris and me, and it just so happened that October 26 was within the vicinity of my birthday. She scheduled it three weeks before said date, but the best laid plans failed at the last minute. Rica got sick (a very valid excuse), while Rem had a sudden urgent conference for her NGO (also a very valid excuse). Also, I found out that Annabs was currently "out of it", so I canceled.
I just asked Chris out for coffee. Of course, I had to wait until he gets off work at 4, which was okay since I needed to send out some emails anyway. In a bad twist,kalendaryo lost his wallet and slept in the gaming room until the accounting office coughed up his salary in cash. He heard that we were going out for coffee and so he offered to wait with me at the coffee shop until Chris got off work. I texted Mabie to see if she wanted to come with and she suggested Bretton.
And so off we went. It was pretty fun talking with Karl again. Let's just say we've been uncommunicative the past few weeks, he's dead tired and sleepy in the morning while I'm sleepy and cranky (arguably, all the time).
Needless to say, I enjoyed that everything-went-wrong day and it turned out into something fun. Thanks goes to Karl for the Cafe Liegeois (my second favorite coffee) and the something-Pinay crepe, plus Mabie, Chris, and Karl for the company.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then comes Carmel on October 27 who jolted me to wakefulness with this text message: "dude, manganganak na ako." On the 30th, she pops up again with, "Give me suggestions for a name." It's a baby boy by the way, though he'll have to spend some days in an incubator since he's premature.
No name yet, but I vehemently expressed opposition to "Rayver."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 29 started crazy and got worse in a hurry. I barely had any sleep due to a bad case of insomnia (I've been getting less sleep than usual the past few weeks, hence getting more lates). I was lone editor for the SS (Shift Sarcastic) since Rica was out. In addition to the usual insane Monday deadlines, I also had to fix the team building stuff. After the shift, I had to wait for Chris for our meeting with the "professional" named "Jhun." I'm sorry but I really found it hard to take the guy seriously based simply on how he spelled his name. (Later, I discovered that his real name was Maximo and I kinda forgave him for the extra H.)
Meeting ended at around 6 or 7-ish, and Chris neatly placed the cherry on top of my day by saying, "He was SO hitting on you." I rolled my eyes and gave him my patented WTF look.
And so I dragged my weary ass into a cab and headed for home. When finally got to the condo, I staggered straight to the room, only mustering half-hearted hellos to my roomies. They were all there, April, Jen, and Cha plus Mark. I should have known.
Jen went inside the room and asked, "Dude, are you going to sleep na?" I was still resting my oh-so-tired carcass and couldn't drop into unconsciousness straight away so I held up my new book (Undead and Unpopular) and waved it around. "Still reading."
Famous last words.
Roomie Jen exits and there was a bit of commotion outside the door. Three tentative knocks, then "Choch?"
More weirded out than irritated, i thought, 'What, she locked herself out?' I unplaster myself from the bed and haplessly opened the door to a single candle atop a blueberry cheese cake (I could smell it). My crazy roomies were huddled in the hallway shouting, "Surprise!"
You guys are crazy, I said as I faced them in my usual sando, shorts, and disheveled hair.
"Get dressed, we're going out," says April. So I did.
We trooped into Mark's Innova (his Honda is still sitting in some parking lot in Valero) and drove to Timog. The last time I was there was... wait, what year is this? Anyway, we ended up in Behrouz (our eyebrows went into orbit due to the uncouth waitress' unbelievably rude manners) and scuttled to Starbucks afterwards. I was about to drop dead so we went home. Then I collapsed to bed and snored until 1 in the afternoon.
Thanks guys. For throwing me my first birthday surprise and for letting me know that you remembered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hmm... I feel oddly, I dunno... detached? Weird? It's been a crazy week and somehow I feel like I don't fit in my own skin. Maybe it's just that I haven't slept at all today and this heady feeling is just my brain shutting down slowly. Anyway, my traditional birthday post will have to wait until later.
No comments:
Post a Comment