The Cake, the Surprise & the Finale
I woke up the morning of my birthday making reply
to text messages that came one after another. Surprisingly, it was Jhayr who
was the first to greet me through text. It was quite unexpected yet very
appreciated since he did this even if I intentionally did not invite him on my
birthday dinner treat last Saturday for some personal reasons which he
understood very well. Back home, it was Mom who was the first to personally
greet me. I was up early since I paid a short visit to church. I had pancake
& sausage breakfast at McDonald’s, bought newspaper to see my horoscope and
picked up my own birthday food — Black Forest cake and some ice cream. Somehow, it felt quite weird for me doing this shopping
but what’s weirder is my 4-year old niece, Kyla acting a bit bitchy when I got
home that she didn’t even greet me happy birthday.
We had a family lunch at home where Mom cooked ‘kare-kare’
(Dad’s missing since he’s abroad but he texted me happy birthday earlier!) although
I felt it was nothing but an ordinary Sunday lunch together rather than my
birthday lunch.
Despite being on an official vacation leave, I
opened my email in the afternoon and was surprised to read a thread sent by my
‘bootcamp buddies’ from work greeting me. Then I checked my Friendster, where
Anne and Alvin both have this colorful happy birthday comment made on my
profile page—sweet!
Mom ordered some pancit Malabon for merienda, and
together with the cake and ice cream of course, everyone in the house had too
much calories to burn that afternoon.
Just when I thought my birthday is about to end
that early and I was ready to make a birthday expense summary, I got a text
from Jhosel inviting to hang out that night, together with some friends. Not another
birthday celebration I thought because clearly this was beyond my birthday plan
and budget. I was in my room, texting a few friends to convince them to come
with us tonight, when all of a sudden, I heard some voice calling outside our
house. Soon mom was calling my attention and surprise indeed, it was Sheena and
Glads. Aww… They both missed my birthday treat last Saturday and there they
were in our house this time along with a cake roll as birthday present to make
up for their excuse. Thank God there was food left from merienda, I shared
dinner with them. We talked a lot, even Mom was game for the chitchat and both
agreed to go to GST later on. We hang around my room as I was getting ready for
my birthday-treat-part-two.
Several minutes later, we found ourselves sitting
in GST with light beer served in front of us. Jhosel came soon, Judie (who’s
present again but had to leave earlier as usual!) and Jayson (who insisted on
paying a portion of the bill) were able to join us that night as well. I had
great conversations that night with Glads, Sheena, Jayson and Judie. We
finished almost midnight, almost Labor’s day actually. Indeed it was a perfect
finale to my extended birthday celebration.
I realized though I’ve been celebrating so much
that I haven’t spend time pondering on what
turning 23 means to myself. For now, let me just thank everyone who took
their time out to greet me on my birthday. I really do appreciate it.
