The recent holiday season was more relaxed compared to 2013's, when almost every other day I was out for the night to meet up with friends. I couldn't complain, though. I always loved hanging out with people who make effort to find time to reconnect with me despite their hectic yuppie schedules.
This year, however, despite the long stretches of off-days at work, there were only but a few get-togethers, but it didn't make them any less fun or meaningful. Quality over quantity, as they always say.
The day after Christmas, my high school friends and I rented a room somewhere in Fairview and had an overnight so-called Christmas Party. The "party" involved getting to taste Joyce's very own spicy tuna spaghetti and Marifel's fruit salad. Haha. It was such a sabaw, random and funny night that is characteristic of our more than a decade-old friendship despite the others not being able to join us. I guess the main point of the gathering was that we could continue with our weird kris kringle tradition, this time amounting to Php 323.77. Talk about challenge! Haha.
On the other hand, the highlight of the night was us finally getting to call our friends who are now staying in Japan and Canada, Gellie and Philipp, respectively. Philipp had some shopping to do so he had to leave shortly after we managed to establish a video-call. We were able to wheedle out the more important details from him though. So that's just fine. Haha! Gellie, meanwhile, stayed with us until probably five in the morning. (Six in Japan!) We talked about anything, until minutes would pass when we're all just lying in bed talking about work and life and love and everything in between, us there in that room in Fairview and she in her room in Tokyo. Nakipagpuyatan din siya! Haha. It's as if she was there with us, corny as that may sound.
And, true to the trademark kasabawan of the group and as per Claire's suggestion, we raffled off the remaining food we had. If raffles don't make a Christmas Party, I don't know what does. :))
The next day, after two hours of sleep, I headed to Maginhawa to meet Kristel and Toto for lunch. So rarely do I get to see my Inay that I dare not miss this despite the lack of sleep. While we can't bring back the #RJDays of yore, we still get together when we could even for just lunch dates, or a night out with the other RJ people. This time, we chose to explore Maginhawa a little more, and tried two new restaurants we haven't been all to before, and another one we knew from our Quezon Ave days. We were lucky that the new places we tried offered really good food, and cool and cozy spaces. (We had a little too much fun with the wall decor at Café Quesadilla, obviously.) We had a good time catching up (me listening to the ridiculous stories of our common friends that I haven't seen in a long whole, too) and planning trips for the coming year.
I guess I have been through a lot with these people that those crazy nights from years back would continue to hold us together for more years to come. Meet-ups like this make me realize that sometimes you have no choice but to burn bridges. But you also have the choice to keep and work on the friendships that you'd like to have for the rest of your life, no matter the context of your acquaintanceship.
On December 30, I had this boy take me to the South, where he seems to thrive amid the urban madness. Haha. It was a holiday, so there were relatively fewer people when we got there. We just didn't know that this lack of rushing crowd is indicative of our plan not taking shape, i.e. going to Ayala Museum. It's a holiday, and it's closed. </3 But we did get to eat at a nice restaurant where we had pasta and a really filling dose of bacon slab. A slab. It was delightful. Haha. The drinks, I have to mention, were also tops. I had the restaurant's freshly brewed iced tea and he had carbonated citrus delight. Gabriel made the observation that the drinks were kinda like us, that they looked like us. :))
And then he took me to his office where I got to see his workspace, and then around the area's malls. It was a good idea to wear flats as we really did a lot of walking, which I didn't mind. Going back north, we had coffee and dinner at Technohub, a more familiar turf for me. Haha. Over all, it was a great day to spend as our official first day out as a couple. :> Despite things going wrong we still had a really good time, which is probably indicative of the kind of adventures we'll be having together from now on.
If that's the case (well, minus the things going wrong if I can help it), I can't wait for more. :)
