A light when all other lights go out!

Clyde turned 26 today. But there was no one at bellecroft; most of the people having taken advantage of the long weekend to go out of town. I confess to having forgotten her birthday, but I acquit myself of the crime since a little bird had told me to bring Clyde a sweet and she had had it and eaten it. Moreover, I had dinner with her. We ordered a meal from Flaming Wings. I had my usual – tenders meal, Mild ‘N Sweet, with honey mustard. She had the same, except the part of the flavor being Carribean Jerk and the dip sweet ‘n sour. I told her 26 was a good age. I like 26. I think it’s sweet. I mean, can you imagine? Say it with me: “I’m 26.” Doesn’t it sound nice? I like 26. I told her to document every freaking day of the next 365 days of her life. She just might be going places at that age, I said. She just might be having that um, friendship with him at that age, yihee! So we talked while we ate and she announced that she wanted to post as her status message on facebook...

Lala's YM status message - invisible to cor... ahh....hehehehehe..... wala lang...she's so mean...i got two minutes na lang before i have to get going to that something i have to do....

So I was talking about The Three Musketeers… Favorite line: Of course – “All for one and one for all!” – Classic. Favorite character: Athos. He was the only one in the story who had moral presence. Haha, those who know me might probably not be taken by surprise by my choice of character and the explanation behind it. But c’mon…don’t you like Athos? Favorite action sequence: Well, it wasn’t actually an action sequence but overall, I liked the part about how d’Artagnan met the three musketeers. Favorite sub-plot: The one of Athos and Milady. Most Hated Character: Felton. I’d prefer Milady to him. Moral of the Story: There’s no moral. I don’t know if the book intended to moralize, hehe. The book was about intrigue and I think it intended to thrill, and I have to say, I did get thrilled while in the thick of it. Love? What love? There’s no love in the story except that maybe of Athos’ for Milady once before. :p What important thing did I take from the story? N/A. Hehe. Will be lookin...

So, how was last week? • Hey, I had fun last week. But please take note, it takes very little to get me to have fun. I’m just too simple like that. • Last Sunday, November 21, Lala, Allison, and I met up at Trinoma, and we dined at Jack’s Loft. The food was delicious. I had spaghetti and I am dying to have it again. Oh Lord, please grant me a delicious plate of spaghetti again. It’s all it takes to make me smile. I enjoyed Lala and Allison’s company of course. But aside from the original glazed doughnut I had from Krispy Kremes and the comforting signature hot chocolate I drank from Starbucks, the highlight of the evening for me was…the moon. It was round and white that night. And it had a rainbow-colored halo surrounding it. Allison and Lala could have just left me at Jack’s Loft staring at the moon all night. It was beautiful. (Before Lala can make a cheeky remark on this comment of mine, let me just put on the record that the pair had ditched me for a moment to watch the...

I wanted to record this because it made me laugh. It’s a story about punctuations…because she’s sarcastic about them. Lala: cor? I was @ a bday dinner last nyt&couldn’t hear u over the din of conversaxn&the live band.allison&i’re wondering if u cud join us 4 hp7 l8r 2day? Cory: Hi lala! it’s ok…can’t… :) not that much of an hp fan…anyway…have fun??? :) hope the party was a blast….. :) :) :) Lala: u arent?really???u cant???? multiple punctuaxns are fun!!!! (something about having fun at the party…) Cory: Not really all that excited 4 hp7 lala…I’m glad that you had fun…wat tym kyo punta pra nood?? :) :) wat time will it b over??? :) :) Lala: after church and lunch, cguro mga 3 pa kmi mkkabili ng ticket…(some texts omitted)…meet up later n lng s mall once I txt our plans? Cory: Yep…..u myt b on ur way to church na…:) cge,cge…..i myt find my way to starbs 2day or tb’s! :) :) :) tc! Hab a lably day,lala!hi 2 allison….. Lala: wokey!hi to whoever it is that’s making your punctuati...

I arrived in bellecroft and flinging my bag on one part of the sofa, I sank into its soft cushions, as in my mind I wrestled with myself. A part of me was nagging, telling me that there was something I needed to say to Don. A part of me was not keen on taking that plunge. He’s not used to me yet, I appealed to myself. He’ll be discomfited, taken by surprise, or something like that…I don’t know if people are used to such things. But habit was a strong thing. When I had felt a need to communicate a special message, I had never hesitated overmuch before. So I got out my phone, worded it, and with a nervous gulp or two, sent him the message. It was this: Don, good eve. you know, my closest friends know something about me. it's that i have a tendency to text in the middle of the night or out of the blue just to tell them one thing: thank you. now i'm going to do the same for you. i'd like to thank you for everything. i've learned so much from you...like, for example, how t...

It was half past six and I was walking along an orange-lighted street in campus. I took out my phone as I had remembered that Don had called earlier that day and I had told him that I would get back to him as something had occupied me at the moment. Thinking it was about an assignment, I texted as I ambled along: Don, I’m sorry but I don’t have anything done yet with regard to our assignment in Legal Bib. I also don’t have with me the details of the assignment; I was hoping to get those from our classmates. Maybe our other classmates are done with it already…maybe you can ask them? He replied, “Wala lang…nangungumusta lang…” I stared at my phone for a second then rolled my eyes. “What, you’re bored? Aliwin mo nalang sarili mo with Bernas.” “Tapos na. Inaaliw ko na sarili ko with Tolentino.” We texted for a little while. I liked it when he would call, and I’d miss it, and wondering what business occasioned it, I would ask and receive the simple reply: Wala lang, nangungumusta lang. S...

Don called so that we could test whether our landline was really working already after having been busted for a few days. “Oh, it’s working!” he said, as he had rang and I picked up. It was already 11 in the evening, and I had been studying and was glad too, like him, for a break. He told me that he had just finished reading Estrada v. Escritor and I asked him to narrate to me the case. He told me about how this one party had discovered that the other, who was working as a clerk in the judiciary, was having an affair and thought it conduct unbecoming of a person working in the judicial department of the government of the Philippines. (Okay, now, please don’t quote me on this. See the case for yourself. My recollection is four years rusty and dusty.) “What?” I reacted to this piece of information. “MYOB.” “Exactly,” he agreed. (At this point, I would like to make another disclaimer and that is that I had merely been asking him about the case and had not read the principle as yet on ...

This is the part that hurts. I heard from a friend recently. And she revealed that after a long time, quite post-facto, Don had unexpectedly opened up to her his own version of how events with me had taken place. I paused. He did? Yes..can you believe it, she said. After all this time… Well, to tell you the truth, I didn’t want to hear then, and I still don’t want to hear now most parts of what I imagine he would have said about me. I would actually dread to hear it, and I’m pretty sure he’s probably justified in what he had to say. My friend asked me if I had spoken already with him. No, I replied. Why, was some kind of conversation supposed to have already taken place? She told me that she had told him to talk to me. And she said that she thinks, based on my account, that he should have apologized and that he’s taking too long a time to go about doing it. She mentioned that he had told her that he was giving me “space and time to recover”. That part gave me a start and got me ...

I replaced the receiver back on the phone. I had just been talking to Don about an assigned case, Lambino v. Comelec , and I had given him background on the national political context that surrounded that particular trial. Kitin, then a sophomore in Ateneo, looked up from her position on the living room floor. “Uy…who was that?” she asked. “Nobody,” I answered quietly. ABC, who was also a freshman like me in UP Law, was sitting in front of her PC and she overheard. “Uy…,” she said in turn, as she joined in the conversation. “When a person says ‘nobody,’ it’s usually a ‘somebody.’” I rolled my eyes. We then moved to the dinner table and prepared ourselves for dinner. Clyde had joined us by then. Kitin and ABC pursued the conversation. “So, who was that?” they asked. “Just a friend from law school,” I replied, shrugging. “We were talking about an assignment, that’s all.” “He’s testing the waters,” ABC pronounced. “What? No…” I uttered in genuine surprise. “He was asking about an assig...

Someday, I might be forgetting these things, but for now… We had a class for persons and family relations and I was hurrying to get to it. It was a little past 8 in the morning already and I was running late. I pushed open the heavy wooden door and slipped inside the room, noticing that most of my classmates had already arrived and were seated. I made my way to my seat near the back of the room with haste, saying hi to friends along the way. As I did so, I noticed Don turning in his chair to look at me but I didn’t acknowledge him until I managed to sink into my chair situated at an angle behind his. Still looking at me, he said to me, simply, “Good morning.” I responded to his greeting with a smile. He turned back in his chair and I suppressed whatever I made of that moment and preoccupied myself with preparing for our tension-saturated class. When class was finally over, and the tension in my shoulders had relaxed and dissipated some, I allowed myself to think of that moment, an...

And the story begins when Juliet meets Romeo...or so it seemed. (Hahaha) It was the first day of UP Law, first semester, '07 - '08. We were at a room designated for Persons and Family Relations under Prof. Aguiling-Pangalangan. If I'm not mistaken, that must have been one June 11. There was a long table and there were four seats. I was on the second seat from the right and I was chatting with my new friend, Thea. Thea and I shared so many things, more or less pareho kami ng academic background in terms of performance, pati undergrad, same feelings about expectations on making it to UP Law...I spent a good hour just chatting with her. After a long time, I turned to the classmate who was a seat away. Smiling, I introduced myself. "Hi classmate! My name is Cory. May I know your name?" "Don," he said, smiling back. "Ah!" I said. "You're Don Romantico." (First day of class we had an activity where we write our impressions of the other ...

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, quiet and peaceful, like you were in the province. I was at bellecroft, having come over to offer assistance to Cherry Anne in checking her papers. It was nearly four, and the sky was dark and gloomy – it was going to rain. Cherry Anne left the house for some things to do. Clyde and I were left to ourselves. I stood in front of the mirror near the entrance hallway of the living room, running a comb through my hair, to all appearances okay though deep inside I felt terrible. “Clyde?” I asked. She was on the couch. “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure,” she responded. With casual curiosity, I asked, “Is it okay to think angry thoughts?” “Sure…in prayer…” she answered mildly. “Really?” I asked earnestly. “Yeah,” she replied dismissively. “Like, ‘Lord, mamamatay sana siya…” I laughed. I wasn’t quite that violent. “Really? Like, ‘Lord, mamamatay sana lahat ng lalaki sa buong mundo…?’” We laughed, neither of us meaning what we were saying. “Is this about a gu...

Commencing project: letting Don go. I guess I'm going to have to experience the emotions one more time before I put them away. The sooner I get this over and done with, the sooner I'll get better on this one aspect and on the whole too, most probably. :) I suppose that this isn’t going to be my writing best…I think this is going to come out in stops and starts, maybe like stop-motion animation or worse. But I guess what just matters most is that I am able, to the best of my ability, to articulate my heart, and I guess there is therapeutic release in that.