a reunion of sorts

leo moved to the states sometime back in college. we were classmates at don bosco makati - even shopmates (computer shop) along with dale, another good friend. while dale and myself pursued our engineering courses at de la salle, leo took up architecture in up diliman. and he and his family moved to new york, he shifted to civil engineering. the last time i saw him when he visited manila was in 1997 and i was barely out of college and just started working. i can't believe that nine years have already passed since that last time and leo's back in manila for some family gathering. seeing old friends sort of brings back a lot of good memories - in a way, high school was really fun. we were popular with the teachers during our senior years, and being seniors gave us licenses to look down on the lower years. childish.

at dinner, we couldn't help but talk about past professors and those school people we didn't really like so much. leo said he stopped by don bosco and saw that some of the folks back when we were in high school were still there. its really funny that you can never get tired of reminiscing how it was in the past - the dinners after CAT at the food plaza (which is gone now except for a lowly burger machine stall), the overnights in laguna, the petty fightings, the competitions, even talked about how we survived high school without airconditioning. we laughed about how "oldie" and "daddy-like" some of our classmates looked now, some of them we heard had guts that made them look like pregnant women. yeah, we can still make "lait" them cause we still look young (ahem, thank you moisturizers). we wondered how they have just given up taking care of how they look when they all got married - big mistake. we talked about a classmate who passed away and wondered what went wrong. it was a trip down memory lane that in a way i guess i needed to remind me how much blessings i have received from the time i stepped out of high school. i looked at two of my oldest friends and i feel proud on what we all have accomplished. back in high school, we never even talked about what would we become when we grow up - @ 16, we only cared about college. we're so grown-ups now, making our own decisions, revelling in whatever success we have and dealing with our own set of problems.

for the past few days, it was difficult for me to feel anything. i smile like i always did - automatic. being with other people, its easy to be happy - you just flash a smile and the world smiles back at you. its the being alone time thats a killer. life is better now - steady, no complications - its boring actually. maybe that better person meant for me is coming sooner - and i can find a way to feel something again.

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btw, the choc-nut ice cream @ uva is uber delicious. i was tempted to finish three generous scoops of it but i settled for 4 mouthfuls of it. yum.

we also had another dessert, sticky rice (suman in filipino) which was drizzled in sweet, sugar coconut sauce and ginger ice cream. it was also very very delicious. i love these desserts - there the whole point of every meal.

most of my friends say i'm "payat" na daw - so yay! they're not going to call me fat anymore.