August 28th: Friday
I started my long weekend early as I was on leave to prepare for Harvey's birthday. It was my primary goal that day to pick up drinks and food as well as other materials for the DIY decorating. As soon as I finished watching Addam's Family Values on TV, sporting a Wednesday hairdo, I quickly traveled to the nearest mall to accomplish my goal. If I seriously hate all kinds of shopping, doing groceries is an exception. That agenda wasn't much of a problem, until I realized that I racked up so much on my bill that I literally winced signing the transaction statement. I knew I was too excited that I wasn't able to properly step on the brakes. I lost control there, big time. But all for the love of Harvey.
After doing the groceries, believe it or not, I squeezed out every inch of artistic spirit that's dying in my blood. I made bone cut outs from art papers I randomly and impulsively bought. I was chatting with Mitch and couldn't believe what I was doing. According to Anton, his brother, my bone cut outs didn't look like bones at all. Normally, I would contest and defend my work, but I decided that it's best to let this one rest.
A few minutes to spare, I dressed up and quickly drove to Makati for a team dinner. Drove was not the right term for it. I practically crawled my ass off to Makati and spent an hour in Magallanes and Edsa. I forgot that most people would be traveling for the long weekend, plus it was a Friday and a pay day. I somehow got stuck in the middle of it. But thankfully, I arrived there in one piece, ate substantially, and picked up my mom who was stranded somewhere there.
When I got home, I spent some time with Ate Ne and Ate Mai blowing up balloons in their room while watching a classic Pinoy Drama Movie starred by Maricel Laxa, Richard Gomez and Janice De Belen. I have to admit that I'm a sucker for 80's and 90's Filipino drama movies. It's the better, shorter and powerful version that teleseryes we have today. Nothing beats that era for me in Philippine Cinema.
We enjoyed watching too much that we only managed to blow up 4 balloons. I knew I'd be facing a busy day ahead.
August 29: Saturday
I wasn't able to sleep well because I was too excited. Nevertheless, I woke up at 7 am and began resuming my decorating stints at the garage, randomly peeking at the faint sky hoping it wouldn't rain. I had to clean up the party area, do something with the crepe paper, pick up the birthday cake and pancit, send out instructions, bathe Harvey and most especially, decorate the place.
I seriously...seriously wouldn't have done the whole preparation without the help of Nanay, Kuya Jojo, Ate Ne and Ate Mai. They pitched in no matter how busy they were with their daily tasks and stress. They managed to devote their attention and time to cleaning, decorating and picking up stuff. I am eternally grateful.
In between decorating, I could feel my heart sink whenever the skies became gloomy, but I guess God loves Harvey so much that He gave him a rain-free afternoon. The party all in all was a success. Almost everyone came and was so sport about the whole thing. They provided good company and vibes, and not to mention some brought their dogs along, which made Harvey pretty occupied and happy. The whole afternoon was a blast and all the expenses, effort, stress were worth it. August 29 was something that I've been planning for quite some time now and nothing beats the feeling of accomplishing it no matter how hard, expensive and weird it is.
It did rain though, but it happened when the guests were safely on their way home. By 9:30, I was immediately defeated to sleep.
August 30: Sunday
I woke up oddly happy and courageous. I seriously felt I could conquer the world and do stuff that I would not normally do. I was bouncing from one idea to another on how to spend my day when Mitch invited me to spend the whole afternoon with him in Greenhills. Without definite plans myself, I obliged.
While in Greenhills I thought of something that I could definitely withstand since the mood is accommodating, a visit to the SALON. I belong to the remaining few who has to get used to calling parlors, salons. Going to salons for me is like visiting the dentist. I don't like going there. It's the least of my favorite things. I don't like blow drying and complete strangers touching my head. I don't like them recommending stuff to me and pointing out things that aren't necessary, which they always do. I once had a hot oil treatment and literally felt my scalp burn. Some said that it was psychological, but nevertheless that was the last time I underwent with the procedure. That was two years ago. I also only visit the salon once a year for a trim. And it was approximately 1 year and four months since my last visit, until August 30 that is. I was so happy and carefree that I went to a salon, took the plunge and had a face-chaning haircut. In due gratitude and respect, I love it. For how long...I don't know.
After the Greenhills experience, I heard mass with the village boys and went home to change for a friend's birthday party. Going to the party was double agenda for me. To celebrate and take a picture of their street sign that says Manggachupoy. Hearing that name for a street cracks me up. The food was great, the company was okay and despite the late departure, I had fun catching up.
August 31: Monday
Mitch and I planned to swim on this day. I've been itching to swim in a pool and the only reputable place I could think of was at Southwoods Country Club in Laguna. I used to go here every weekend when I was a kid. The pool and clubhouse were awesome. Sometimes I went friends, but most of the times I went alone. I would swim laps till it would tire me out and eat clubhouse sandwiches after. I had the usual expectations, but upon arriving there, the pool clubhouse resembled a ghost house. The fixtures and the structures are already old. The shower rooms are nearly deserted and the pools are full of dead leaves and dirt. It was an utter disappointment. I ended up doing laps at the kidney pool instead. Then less than an hour, we all decided to just go to ATC to spend the rest of the afternoon.
I had lunch at Luk Yuen to appease my unsatisfied spirit and had a White Hat yogurt for dessert. I even managed to shop for a dress and killed my already bleeding credit card. I knew I'd regret it, but nothing like temporarily forgetting the stress and disappointment by all means.
When I got home, I was told to dress up for my sister's multimedia exhibit held at Blue Leaf McKinley Hill at Fort Taguig. My family and I had to go there to show our support for the creativity and craft of my already graduating sister (thank god). I just hope she found what she wanted and not waste everything given to her and what she had a privilege to learn.
Mitch also came for the event and the night was concluded by a dinner at Italianni's with the Arcilla Family. Got home at 11 pm, uploaded a few pictures in Facebook and embraced September 1st.
There's always something exciting and scary about September 1st. It's exciting because we're nearing Christmas and all the wonderful things that come with it. It's also scary because we're nearing Christmas and all the stressful shit that come with it. They say once September 1st steps in, the days seem to trickle like fine sand towards christmas. Seeing my ballooning credit card bill now doesn't make me a very happy and excited girl on September 1st, I have to fix this fast before the real spending sets in.
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