ze wedding

mr & mrs jose santos and

mr & mrs manuel santos jr.

invite you to join in worship,

witness the vows and

celebrate the union in marriage of

Joyce Gayle & Edwin

saturday, the twenty-ninth of september

two thousand and seven

at four o'clock in the afternoon

vista mar beach resort and country club

mactan , lapu-lapu city

cebu

cringe

i often visit places i've grown familiar to. more often , i linger and somehow loose myself in the weave. somehow there are places that embrace me tighter than the rest but its really no big deal. a cozy corner always await my arrival (anytime) within a vast area of coastline housing or farther into the skirts of verdant forests. nobody seems to really bother who i am since they feel so happy just to see me. after a while, i have become these places. in a flash of a thought, i am there. whatever season, with no other reason i just pop into the scene where i feel i own and belong. some folks try to get away , take a holiday from the neighborhood*, but i never get away from anything or celebrate a holiday just to escape this neighborhood of environmental terrorists (some lesbian attempted to set-up a machine shop right along my street! the nerve!) , i just let the wind blow me there and everything is alright with me and the world!

that time of year

an abstraction of thought suddenly cram into your day. unwittingly, you fall into a coma and nothing seem right in your side of the world. the clouds shudder and a heavy downpour drown the best of what you ever wanted to be. its that time of year. the time when you have to dwell on the fact that soon enough , the winds will howl harder and signals will be given and lifted as often as you bat your lashes.

milenyo and reming were two unwelcome guests last year. this time around, everybody hope them howlers will simply tease the northern periphery of things. i cannot seem to imagine myself holding close to the screen door sailing upon the roaring wind and rain intruding upon the privacy of my half-demented self ... i promised to be nice after that. or half-sleeping in a bench embraced by (and not embracing) a mongrel-bitch tossed over our fench; who now wears a name like 'gladys'. or having to blindly shift through channels of flood spread carelessly all over the exit points of where i live. or having to blog it all , same time , next year.

frugality among other naughty afterthoughts

i'd rather not dwell upon this subject really. i'd rather be constipated and freezing on top of an obscure hill just beyond this bend than be condemned later on for ungraciously flipping

the tab on a close relative... specifically an aunt. but whether or not she disowns me for

this, i really couldn't care less since i know i simply made this up for laughs.

she's the wife of my father's brother. a beauty queen in her prime, she would have easily

stole the thunder off most of sampaguita stars . she was much prettier and sharper in shape

than amalia fuentes (who would have passed as her sister, had she signed with doc perez). but no, she chose the life as the better (later, bitter) half of a southern mindanao town's photographer and gigolo.

of late, news has it that she had become awesomely frugal . of course, with the

hardest of times, you would not blame her if she switched on the power to their

house at 6p, and off the next day at 6a. or that she refused a water connection from

the local district, and enjoys fetching water from an old and weary well on the side of their house (very close to their antipolo-style toilet) ... or that the phone is disabled most of the time... abled only when she 'feels' that her children (who are still TNTs in the states) are to call. or that

she cooks in her earthen stove... or that everyday ,she walks 6 kms. to the elementary school where she teaches. of course we really couldn't care because that is what makes her

perfect!

but what really bangs me to the wall (and floor!) is that whenever she watches tv (which is

basically during news hours) she fades off the colorcast and settles for the black&white screen, its not that she's colorblind but she reasons: "Para makadaginot sa kulur!" (To save on the color), apparently she vehemently thinks that tv color can be saved and perhaps and half-a-chance last longer (for whatever ungodly reason) for future utility.

a world full of strangers

you never know who knocks next on your door. it seems that days of anticipation is a thing of the past. i never had a penchant for doorbells, i always appreciated a visitor's effort to knuckle up and give me the hoot. it always is a pleasure to open up to a face and not a long walkway towards a rusty gate in the heat of mid-day. but then, in a world full of strangers ... who knows who might call and walk into your privacy?

what wonders are there in store for your utter innocence to the rest of the busy threads of life? what more questions are there to muster and refuse to be answered?

but then, some are most welcome.

this little girl is most welcome.

her name is JOYCE. she drops by

every friday afternoon and stays over the weekend. she is a bundle of joy and hope . her energy robs into everyone who

happen to meet her. she is a gift from heaven as she inspires people around her with her awesome wit even at her age of 5. she lives at a quarry area where she also is enrolled in a day-care center . i always pray for her safety and wish that someday she shall inspire more lives and have a peaceful and beautiful life just like what she is! God bless you Joyce, Mama Mary loves you!

finding long lost friends...

there are days when your schedule give you a wide array of activities or a hectare of emptiness; depending on the time of year. these are the days when you reminisce ... cling to some remnants being washed away by age and time until they all seemingly disappear. i had such a day. sometime last week ; i just sat there fingering the pages of my mind ; dwelling on images upon images shifting and shuffling like alphabet cards ... and then you bump on real people. people who you have shared days in the sun so to speak... special creatures of your age enjoying what the world had to offer.

then you turn to your pc and surf back and forth your servers and these long lost friends (if they matter albeit are still in the planet) suddenly sail on the screen with teasers as to how to find them. and you do. and have a great time... at least now, you share a spot in the past all to yourselves! a moment much more precious than gold... or diamond or a night in amanpulo...

somehow... some have gone to a different direction. one particular friend in college had the nerve to declare his friendster age as 36! well, its okey to deduct or add a few years here and there but to lessen it by a decade and two is preposterous! anyway , to each his own but i definitely lost respect for creatures like him... its sad but then who cares?

l o s t

i must have really slept for a while. almost forgetting to wake up and smell the coffee... or what day it was and/or is... i just lay there in my kapok mattress laid upon my huge empty room. nothing could ever wake me... all that i were was a mass of 180lbs flesh, served ala carte.

for almost four months, i just laid there. something happened. and i just found myself lying there...