HAPPENINGS

Reminiscing the past is a habit that one is inclined to do over and over again because it brings back the memories that make us happy and sometimes, sad.

Two days ago, I and together with “some” highschool friends, attended the post celebration of Mike’s (a.k.a. Michael) birthday held at Q.C. Though the administrators of our account, again, gave prior notice to the batch, I have predicted that there’d be less than ten (10) people who can make it on that day. And I was right.

On 10 May 2008, Cheng, Jeff and I were already communicating by way of text messaging. It was agreed by the three of us to convene at Trinoma before 4:30 p.m. on that day. And so that was it. A pre-arranged rendezvous supposed to be but humans as Filipinos, we can’t guarantee that such will be followed accordingly. Everyone has his/her reasons on that matter. I should have made it on time if the heavy rain did not interfere on my way to the meeting place. Others are just naturally late comers so to say. So we (without Pots and Aronne yet) ended up going a bit late to Michael’s. Pots advised me in advance that he’ll just have to follow later. As for Ed and Sharon, their hectic shedule can hardly meet the commitment. Jeff’s troupe (Ef and Edgardo) on the other hand had completely dropped the possibility of inflating the population desired to surface that night.

We arrived at the celebrant’s house around 6 to 7 in the evening. When we got inside, we were glad to see Gilmar in the house. And so at the moment, there were five of us to ramble. Meantime, the only girl was already hungry so she was the one who had dinner first. The boys preferred to have the bottles as their appetizer instead. After a while, Maricel and Francis showed up. At last, somebody will rescue me from the tagays. Hehe!

In the middle of the quaff, Mike showed us his masterpiece [some kind of tribute to the batch's name and also pointed out that it's actually a peace offering for Jeff who had a hard time condoning them (those who failed to attend the reunion) . The thing I'm talking about is a slide presentation of photos from our 10,000 B.C. scrapbook to the contemporary times using the youtube's special effects. Included in it are the two select background songs from Vitamin C (Graduation Day [Friends Forever]) and The Dawn (Salamat). The moment I heard the intro of Vitamin C’s song, I couldn’t help myself lifting my butt and go straight to the monitor to see it. It always bring chills up and down my spine whenever I hear it. The first few slides were taken from the atmosphere of our JS Promenade and the science fair a decade ago as it progressed to the latest gatherings we had. You can sure smile or laugh with the pictures flashing onto the screen. The faces, hairdos, fashion, physique - it was just so funny. Everybody was getting loco with it when suddenly, I recieved a text message from Poten telling me to fetch him at SM North Edsa so I left the circle for the moment with Cheng to pick up the last attendee.

After about half an hour, we went back to Michael’s to reopen the revel. At this point, there were already eight of us doing the similar routine. Just as I was about to suggest the idea of “youtubing” the songs that were considered cool wayback our time to break the monotony, Jeff took the initiative of doing the job. And everybody suggested the same. It was at this stage that everyone started to travel back in 10,000 B.C. using the select songs as our “time machine”. And I think, I need to enumerate the following songs to refresh thy (CLASSMATES, GET READY!) minds (hehehe!):

1. For Backstreet Boys - As Long As You Love

2. Siakol - Bakit Ba

3. 911 - Love Sensation

4. Steps - Last Thing On My Mind (Jeff’s favorite) and 5,6,7,8

5. Damage - Forever

6. Five - Until the Time Is Through (everybody’s favorite), Keep On Movin’, We Will Rock You

7. N*SYNC - This I Promise You, Bye Bye Bye

8. Spice Girls - Two Become One

9. Moffats - Miss You Like Crazy, If Life Is So Short

10. Meat Loaf - I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) The only rock song that prevailed because boybands are hot during those days. Even the most homophobic are up to it too.

11. Code Red - What Good Is A Heart (Poten’s National Anthem accdg. to him hehe)

13. Puff Daddy - I’ll Be Missing You (This one makes me dance, really! and what I remember about it are the faces of Jenirose Lazarte, Katie Morillo, Jacky Guzman, and company dancing it wayback that science fair day.)

13. Aqua - Barbie (For the COLT fellas: Remember how Erin Gray of SPVS danced to it?)

Below are the songs that were only suggested but not played due to the constraints of time and voluminous pending requests:

Gil - It’s Your Love

Vengaboyz - We Like to Party

Aron Carter-I’m Gonna Miss You Forever

Boyzone - Words

Some songs were played until the end and some were cut halfway to favor other requests from Francis (maka R&B saka tunog kalye pala ito), Maricel (parehas lang sila ni Cheng, mga babae kasi), Gilmar (Smash Mouth’s All Star)and the Birthday Boy, Michael (R&B dude). We’ve consumed a total of almost four hours in that trip wherein at the the last few minutes, everybody danced to the beats of “Low” by Flo Rida feat. T-Pain and “Hypnotized” by Akon. Who says Francis, Michael and Gilmar don’t know how to dance? Cheng, show us the clip please!

It was already 2 o’clock in the morning when we played Closing Time by Semisonic as a way of closing the séance that early morning.

On my way home, I was pondering on why I find great joy in reconnecting with my old highschool friends: reminiscing the past once in a while. And then, I just caught myself smiling as I connect to, what I call, my once and still, natural world then reflected to the rapidly changing society.

P.S.

Mike, thanks once again.