Quote of the week, as screamed by Tuesday Vargas (after dancing to some drum beats and doing the Lady Gaga – Bad Romance a-aah ooh la la intro, she shoves the mic in front of the audience and gets a rather shy response on the next verses): “Mga pa-cool! Kunyari hindi alam yung kanta. (audience laugh, and she mimics) ‘Pare, cool tayo, di natin alam lyrics nyan.”

*laughs*

You know how they say someone’s thinking of you when your nose gets really itchy? I swear to god, whoever you are, quit it. It’s starting to grow into a huge tomato, for crying out loud. Wait, maybe it’s the bacteria that’s doing the thinking. And they’re congregating on my nose. Yuck.

Anyway. Weekend was such a fun whirlwind if I ever saw one lately. Okay, I think I may not be in the position to say that considering all my weekends lately are bereft of rest and full of wacky stuff, but this time though, there were a lot of rather pleasant surprises around.

Friday:

I run to Glorietta and wait for Cass’ car to pull up—we’re supposed to try this vegetarian resto she found on the internet and we were to meet up at a common location. Her brows twitch to a knot when she sees me.

“Kailangan naka boots?” She asks. I pull a grin, because it’s not exactly a question that needs so much explanation. It’s just a pair of boots which I happened to be wearing. We drive to Jupiter and she tells stories about how they waited for her birthday last Wednesday, and I try my best to keep mum. I haven’t greeted her yet and trying to restrain myself is hard. Very hard. :))) We weave through traffic and reach the building, which she gingerly parks in front of.

“Pwede kaya mag park dito?” She wonders aloud. “Baka pagsabihan tayo pag nakababa na tayo, e.”

I say, maybe not. The guards haven’t exactly made an effort to move. When we alight, however, one of the guards asks, “Ma’am, saan po kayo?” We say the destination. “Ay, ma’am, sa kabila na po kayo mag park.”

Tangina mo, manong. *laughs*

We go in after she re-parks and remark at how subdued everything seems – from the ambience, to the way people speak in hushed tones, to the colors. We browse through the very amusing menu – from salads to somewhat high-end sounding pastas, with notations on which ones are vegetarian and which ones are vegan. I order a broccoli spaghettini, and she orders the famous tofu burger. Turned out, we both did a hell of a research; we ended up comparing notes on the food. It was Fan. Tas. Tic. I can’t put it any better. I educate Cass on how sometimes veggie meat has an obvious distinct taste and softer patties which makes it distinguishable, but I had to bite back my tongue when I had a forkful of the burger. Shit. It’s been a long time since I last had something barely discernible from meat, and this was flavored really well.

We try finishing up the huge sandwich and the pasta, and one of the crew hovers. I mumble, “Kuya, yung cake.”

Cass notices. “Kailangan modulated voice rin?” referring to how our waiter took our orders in a modulated hushed way earlier. I tell her I asked for the bill. She eases on her seat for a bit, probably digesting most of the food. After a few seconds, the guy comes out with a carrot cake and a small lit candle stuck on top.

God, you can see the shock. Wait—she was BEYOND shocked: she was stunned, flabbergasted, hopefully not scandalized. We both kind of squirm in our seats, and thankfully the crew didn’t belt out a Happy Birthday song (of course it was futile to keep it a secret from the other people eating, what with everyone looking at us and smiling, but a Happy Birthday Song from the crew inside a subdued café would seemingly come off as…loud) , but the owner did kind of offer to get our picture, and after staring at each other incredulously (I was kind of in shock, too, because of her reaction), we embarrassingly pose in front of her portable digital. She still looks at the cake overwhelmingly.

“Di ba dapat may kanta bago I blow yung candle?” She asks. I say I can’t sing (what with the choking shock, I could barely do anything else), and try a little anyway, and she blows out the candle. I say, sorry for not greeting you at all. I tried hard not to. I thought some things are better said personally. And we both grin and giggle our asses silly.

Rein cancelled on our Tagaytay trip which was supposed to happen after the dinner as he was feeling under the weather, so we drive over to BHS to walk off the heavy dinner, and check out ROX for some bikes which Cass wanted to have one of, and we pull off little jokes on some of the items. (We both discuss wanting to wear Sanuks for work, if not for the fact that it kinda looks funny with slacks. I read aloud the Sanuk disclaimer: These. Are. Not. Shoes. She pitches in: These. Are. Not. Office. Shoes. We laugh out loud) We look around Hobbes and Landes and grab some froyo on the side, making a mental note not to order kiwi with mint brownies (some bad experience) and going for butterscotch instead (some heavenly experience). She drops me off back at work, because even if I have ended my day in the office, I incidentally needed to talk to my manager.

I go home with a bag full of jackets which I brought earlier thinking we might be hitting Tagaytay tonight, but ended up thankful we didn’t because I’m hella tired.

Saturday:

I wake up a few hours after sleeping at around 4am—lately, it’s becoming a trend that I automatically wake up before 9. It’s a bad thing when you want to sleep in on the weekend, but I pull myself up anyway and decided to go around the metro.

I bring Wicky and go over to my old unit, which happens to still have a functional wifi. I download a couple of things, leave Wicky on, and head out the door. I go over to Alphaland in Magallanes to check out Booksale (any new mall with a Booksale would have better chances of having a good index of books until discovered), then go over to Greenbelt, Megamall and Trinoma, trying to look for a specific gift which unfortunately, is already out of stock.

Tired from the mall tour, I run home but still manage to put on something random then ran over to Cubao for the Meiday event, reaching the place at around 9.. Cass got stuck in traffic so I wait inside; Yang’s still at home then and won’t come around till Techy’s set at around 10pm, and Rein won’t make it at all due to a dinner. Yang’s supposed company are all not around: Ann Medallon’s in Bora, Khismet’s in Tarlac with hubb Dott, RC’s already in UK. When Cass finally arrives, she expresses surprise at the line outside. “Parang Emba!” She shakes her head in amazement. “Nagpapapasok lang pag may lumalabas.”

I tell her that the guards are frisking everyone; earlier there was a girl with a spray paint arguing with the security. She’s on a mission, Cass deduces. We go for our token beers and express a little bit of disgust for the new color of the “re-launched” Sputnik (some sick-green color), then wait for Taken by Cars. We hang around for a bit and watch Techy Romantics, then catch Tuesday Vargas’ band, Top Junk. She’s an interesting watch, as usual, and it turned out it was Cass’ first time to see them live—and it seems she got an incentive when TJ played Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I have a YYY album which I took out from my playlist along with my Franz Ferdinand before (I had to explore other options) and sadly I don’t have that song, so I’m gonna have to brush up on my musical literature.

We were both getting restless and TBC’s still not playing; we left in the middle of Itchyworms’ set at around 1am. We were kind of already tired (mall tours + bawex = kind of a little too much for the body) but Joan smsed that she’s in Malate with Pipo, so I decide that just for the hell of it, I’ll make an appearance. So I did.

Sunday:

Dead tired but had to cater to obligations, I wake up at 10am after coming home at 5 and sleeping at around 6am after some over-the-phone arguments. I dress up, go to Makati to pick up Wicky, then head over to Cavite along with my camera—so that’s a rather heavy bag I was carrying. My father sends me an sms at around 12:30pm—Asan ka? I tell him I’m on my way; would they want cake or ice cream? He says better go for ice cream, then throws in for a good measure, “meron bang sugar free?” I pick up three tubs, buy some cake I craved for, then arrive at noon with my niece screaming my name from the gate. I greet my mum a happy birthday, and we linger around the dining table with stories till 4pm. I took everyone’s photos, pulled them outside for better light, and took extra snaps of my mum for her “birthday picture.” While with wifi present, I upgraded my phone, too. I’m now on OS 3.0, yay!

5pm, I run back to the metro with broccoli stuffed inside my bag (my dad was insisting on two huge ones; I HAD to remind him I’m the only one who’d eat that). I take a quick shower, decide on my outfit (was deciding over a red bohemian bra-less strapless long blouse vs a plain white long one which looked far much more decent; I go for the latter because it’s a freaking play I’m attending), then run over to RCBC. I grab the tickets, and Jay was still not around, but makes it in time for the 8pm show. Rent the Musical was…kind of a small let down, though. But more on that next time. After the show, Jay goes for coffee with a splash of orange; I go for my comfort Chai. We both decide we’re too tired, so we finally go home. I get to my bed at 12mn, decide that my back is killing me, so I head over to a nearby massage parlor; spend an hour, then finally plop down on my bed to sleep.

Monday:

I still get to wake up early. Man. Something’s wrong with my body. It won’t let me rest! :/