tymeless

Nikki and I met up in ATC last Sunday afternoon so we could hang out and talk again after ages. She's been so busy job-hunting and she actually started work on the day of my birthday, hahaha. Anyway, I told her that Lea has a mall show (with the DLSZ and Woodrose chorales) in ATC that day to further entice her, but of course, she still wants to hang out either way, hehe.

I was starving by the time I finally arrived at the mall after enduring a bit of traffic jams along the way, and thank goodness Nix had first suggested that we eat first. Yaaay. Off to Razon's we go for some good ol' cheap sisig for two. We were thinking of having halo-halo as dessert but after that sisig and rice, I guess we were full enough.

The mall was really crowded, packed with Christmas shoppers, mall rats, Lea fans, Zobel and Woodrose people coming to support their respective schools, and other typical spectators. We braved the crowd and found a spot with a good view at the playground area, where Pam and Rod had also situated themselves. Rawr, I really hate crowds. So after Lea had sang a handful of songs, Nikki and I gave up and decided to hang out at Starbucks and chat. Talked about how she started at her new job on the day of my birthday, and what other business we could come up with, beginning with shrink plastic that I only consider a hobby, hahaha.

By the way, was Lea wearing that yellow gown that she wore in the "My Life On Stage" concert?

I love running into friends, so it was great seeing Pam, Rod, Ari (it was nice to finally meet Annex, even though it was pretty brief, hahaha) and Lara with her siblings, all scattered around the mall.

Met up with Betty, Jenny and Opa at yet another Starbucks yesterday afternoon, this time at Harbour Square. Brainstorming day for a little project for January before Jenny goes back to New York. Betty paid for our drinks as a Christmas treat, and I distributed my Christmas gifts to them, which were (what else?) shrink plastic earrings.

By the way, one shrink plastic project fail was that I first used poster paint on Jenny's stained-glass-inspired earring design. It took a while painting the plastic, and when I fired it up in the oven, the paint crumbled and the whole thing was ruined. Oh well, back to good old colored pencils and pens, hahahaha.

I love it that the four of us got together. But yes, there's never a dull moment whenever you're with any one of these ladies. And it's sure to be a blast pag kasama mo sila ng sabay-sabay. Betty with her bastos moments, Opa with her surprising strokes of genius, and of course, Jenny with her bear-with-salmon gesture that evolved the entire afternoon and well into the evening.

Discussions galore about the material we have, courtesy of Jenny. Interesting concept, and the first time I read it, we knew that was it.

At one point in the afternoon, a Starbucks employee came up to us with a tray of cakes.

"Para sa inyo po, ma'am," he said.

"Ha?!?" was our response.

"Pinabibigay po sa inyo."

"Nino?"

"Siya po," the guy replied, pointing to a man who was still standing at the counter.

The man turned to look at us, and then Betty realized that it was the same guy whose wallet she found in the restroom a few minutes earlier. He bought the cakes for our group as gratitude for Betty finding his wallet which he thought that he lost. Thank you!

More talk as the bear-salmon gesture evolved, and we sort of got sick of tasting all the sweet stuff, so we decided to have dinner at Dencio's. More talk, this time mostly about indie films and plays, and those quips about method acting, hahahaha.

Oh, these friends are what makes your precious time with them so memorable.

Speaking of memorable, Betty once wrote about writing a year-ender note. Basically about the memorable events that had happened this past year. I do that at the end of every year, and I haven't even thought about my own year-ender entry yet. But there was one part of Betty's note that I liked. After mentioning a misunderstanding with a friend that wasn't quite much a of a loss, she said "That they are my peripheral friends kung kaibigan nga ang matatawag mo sa kanila because I could live without them but would just die without these people."

Peripheral friends. Interesting term. I have lots of those. And now I find that I also have friends who used to be super close with me, but now, it's better that I live without them. Weird, huh? Nakakapagod kasi kung ikaw ang mage-effort sa isang friendship that you'd already invested in but is now one-sided and totally not worth the effort anymore.

Text from a friend sometime earlier this year:
"You know, it's a bit sad when people you're really close to don't exert any effort to fortify and preserve the friendship you share. Makes you realize that the friends that you have right now aren't the true friends you thought them to be. Wala lang, random thought... Ka-sad lang kasi all my efforts are for naught pag tina-try ko makipag-reconnect sa mga old close friends eh. Yung tipong todo effort na sila pa ang dadayuhin mo sa malayo pero wala pa rin. Parang wala kayong pinagsamahan sa pagdededma sa iyo."

What's funny was that the same friend who texted that is now turning out to be one of those aforementioned so-called friends. Pfft.

I don't want to be cynical, but in some cases, siguro tama nga ang sabi ni Jenny dati. Parang lalabas na rin na "friendship over" na lang if the worse comes to worst. I have to agree with her that I'd also rather want to be with genuine people who don't have clique issues.