i turned 22 yesterday. at 12 am, i woke up, opened the door and without warning, defeated (gratefully) by UNannounced merriment to my then half conscious state. there was a candle on top of a cake (yum) and a loud "happy birthday" that i rather did not get. care of two friends whose thoughtfulness i thought non-existed until that moment. jesseca and jamie. jamie and jesseca.

jamie is a computer techie who works for a japanese computer programming company based here in cebu. jesseca is a med student. me a full-happy my family member and aspiring writer (among many aspiring others) and half-happy marketing officer at a stray furniture company. we are a very bad match, pulled in by forces of our almost forgotten high school memories. and our love to shell out too much money for food.

we have an unlikely friendship, really, which is what WE all need actually. worst case, we love laughing at and making fun of each other. a day that doesn't start with that is already disturbing. laughter is the best medicine they say, and being laughed at is, um, humbling.

in the evening, i was humbled by my cousin who opened the washroom while i was halfway through my liquid-ation at the bowl. she had a cake with a stick-thin candle in one hand and her camera-phone on the other. when you're halfway through liquid-ation at the bowl, that could be the most demeaning thing that you need the least (never need it at all). but it happened -- the birthday song, camera-phone that clicked like a flu victim, and like a go-getter pretend would, the 22nd birthday candle blowing. with my cousin and her "instruments" laughing their hearts out by the door, i couldn't stand up to put my panty back on (for very gurrrrrrl reasons). i was humiliated. not entirely by my cousin, but by her sweetness, her family love, and her perkiness. she has her ways... and i'll get back at her with mine (bring it on, cai!) :)

thank you guys for putting on really nice faces to a surprise. you got me.

on sunday...

jane flew in from manila to join us in our overdue wormies gathering and my pre-birthday celebration. the last time we saw most of each other, we were bawling our eyes out (on graduation night). zyra and erbelle showed up as well, which upgraded our mere gathering to a well-deserved reunion. j.lo was the most awaited special guest, but s/he stood us up for a very bad reason. (s/he shouldn't have just made the attempt to reason...). narsh came with her boyfriend. jessa came with her boyfriend. sheila came with her boyfriend. which made the "vita, our only wish is for you to get a boyfriend" very comfortable (but seriously, it was very uncomfortable). maybe i should start working towards that end, rather than on real-life and actual translation of my high school days' to-work-in-a magazine dreams and um, getting a life. 

just kidding. like what i told j.lo, i'm a romantic at heart. i believe i'd rather wait for my prince (eyuck, so high school) to find me at the most unbelievable of moments than me finding him at the most mundane of days.

get that, wellwishers. :)

love you guys.