j a n s e n. i. s. m.

It started when my friend Arem made an unannounced visit to the house in the morning with a surprise company. We were supposed to meet at a later time to get our ‘chichacorn pasalubong’ from our friend Gretchen who’s back from her Ilocos getaway (she said the beach, windmill and lighthouse are super great!). But lo and behold, the surprise company is not Gretchen but Lady—an elementary friend as well who we have not seen or talked to for several months. Apparently she’s back in town and she’s determined to win her friends back.

So several hours later, in the night, she invited us to her re-opened bar in GST. Arem said that it’s Lady’s treat so it was hard to resist such invite. We came to the bar early so while waiting for Lady, Arem, Gretchen and I indulged in a pint of strawberry ice cream we bought in 7-11 store (Selecta Gold Series Berry Strawberry, yum).

The vodka tonic (i wish the one we had looked this nice)

Then there came finally the host, and she took out a bottle of vodka and started concocting a recessionista version of a vodka tonic (vodka+Sprite+calamansi instead of Vodka+tonic water+lime). For some reason, Arem preferred cocktails over beer, Gretchen was strictly observing the lent season and stayed sober the whole night sipping on her iced tea, while Lady and I are shifting between our vodka and beer. Mike came in to the table late as usual with his underage cousin Jerome, both ready for shots. Other spotted in GST, the dessert from my last hangout with high school friends, a former elementary classmate who didn’t seem too thrilled to see us and Russel who acknowledged me at least three times .

My friend Arem

On a serious note, later in the evening, Arem confided that he will be undergoing a minor surgery (as if he’s not been through a lot after surviving lymphoma last year), this time to remove a boil in his wrist. Both Chen and I couldn’t help but be worried and just whisper a silent prayer that all things will go just as fine. Despite that, Arem remained cheerful the whole night providing most of the comic relief (imagine Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” choreography).

It was almost midnight when we left the bar and Mike was almost pushy about doing the “Bisita Iglesia” (i.e. go to 13 churches). However, I wasn’t fond of going to a church, and the alcohol was starting to hit me. So we decided to just go home and soon, when I reached my bed, the vodka did to me what Stilnox does to insomniacs. Zzzz.