june 3 is my grandmothers’ birthdays. my lola from my mother’s side brings us together and invites us to a simple dinner. I always look forward to celebrating this day, like christmas eve, because I only get to see them twice/thrice a year. this year wasn’t any different. I headed to sm after our pc&f group date; met up with aizle, daryl, and faye; and celebrated the entire night with them.
aizle and I didn’t have any sleep. wasted our time on chatroulette and omegle, talked about these boys who are not worth our time but are surreptitiously keeping both of us awake at night, learnt a little bit of mandarin with fujin, and ate up the whole festival bread in secrecy. there’s a growing warmth in our eyes as the night waned in vigor. how long have we talked? time is wholly disregarded. this abstractness made me realize that the happiest moments in my life are when I overlook my being time’s subordinate. when things are numbered/labeled, discontent will take root within us. only we are duped to think that this is the best way to bring about peace and order. these numbers pose danger and so are the words.
tagaytay:
on the way, we witnessed about 6 airplanes that have barely taken off and were stupendously gracing the sky. we casted up our eyes and stared in majestic awe at how these things can fly. there’s always science to explain the complexities of lift and drag but that isn’t what I’m fascinated with --it’s the mind that houses the complexities, the discovery, the possibility. people coming, people going, in just an instant, in just a blink of an eye. it reminded me of father, of how much he gets scared during liftoffs, of how he always tries to engage in conversation with the person he’s seated beside, and of how much I want to fly with him for the mere reason that we have not yet done it. there’s hardly any room in my heart to coop up this nostalgia, so the nightly reverberation of his voice must already do for me.
how aizle gets ready for lunch
we dropped by tito chito’s rest house, which overlooked the taal lake and the our lady of lourdes church. the view was enticing and everything about the house looked so clean and new. they offered us lunch: steamed crabs, kare-kare, mechado, lechon paksiw, grilled squid and tuna belly, rib-eye steak etc. but I barely ate mechado and lechon paksiw since I developed this odd reaction towards any red meat. afterwards, lola and lolo headed to the casino and we were left to explore the whole city. I particularly enjoyed this part of the trip since it was only us, faye, aizle, francis, daryl, and i. we went to people’s grove and residence inn. faye, daryl, and aizle went horse-back riding while francis and I took pictures of them. I could not thank our driver enough for his unrelenting patience towards my very stubborn and annoying cousin, daryl.
my ultimately annoying cousin
the back of our lady of lourdes church, which i find quite stunning
on the way home, I had the worst case of stomach ache so I dozed off the pain. after an hour or so, we stopped by jollibee to grab a quick merienda. I wasn’t my best self so I just downed a whole bottle of gatorade and stayed inside the van. it probably was the squid or something. my stomach was acting weird until sunday. I found out recently that my cousins also went through the same ordeal. ugh, stupid squids.
