Of Farewells and Missed Chances.

Brace yourself. Long post ahead. Well, not that long.. .just... long.

Game na? Game...

Friday night found me in San Lorenzo village for April's despedida party. Twas fun and sad at the same time. Lots of pics, again. Hehe. Check it out in my Multiply account.

Went home with puffy red eyes, a numb face and a freaking headache.

Knowing that April will be flying back to Australia the next day was really heavy for our hearts, especially for Mishel.

If I had Mayette for my soul sister, Mishel had April. You could see the sadness in Mishel's eyes.

As a take-home present, Mishel gave April a scrapbook. Now, this is totally out of Mishel's character. It is NOT her to make a scrapbook. When we were going through the pages of the scrapbook, which contained old pep pictures, block pics, practices, gimmicks, it was evident to me that it was made with patience, love and affection. Mishel revealed to me that she did contact a lot of people for many of the pics. Haggled, pushed, shoved a lot to make the scrapbook a treasure as it is. She wanted to give April something which will remind her of the great time we had while she was here in Manila: our Bora trip, Galera beach trips, numerous Pier 1 inumans, Jaipur/Embassy/Dusk night-outs, those 'tara-inuman-tayo-ngayon-kala-Say' texts at 11pm, Tagaytay trips.

Anyway, the party lasted until sunrise. Bianca and I were fixing the tables and collecting the empty bottles, and we were amazed at the amount of alcohol we had consumed. A whole lot of 1L Red Horse bottles, more than 8 bottles of pareng Empoy (for those who are not in-the-know: Emperador), bottles of Tequila Rose, 2-4 bottles of champagne and wine, a case or two of those big plastic bottles of softdrinks, and then the gallon of GinPom the pep boys pulled out from nowhere.

When it was time for me to go home, I had a hard time keeping my composure. Eventually, just as I feared, I had a tearful goodbye with April. It was like the first time she left: a lot of tears and kisses, few words and tight hugs.

Again, I'm never good at good-byes.

Be safe, April.

We'll always have Bora.

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The next day..................

I missed the Neil Gaiman book signing. Ugh. 'Nyeta.

My copy of 'American Gods' and 'Stardust' were already stashed in my bag, and even if I had a hangover from April's despedida party in San Lo, I was determined to go to Rockwell and brave the crowd.

But as luck would have it, my brother and his wife had to attend a wedding, the yayas were given the day-off and have already left, my sister had to accompany my mom for her check-up... and so... I was tasked to bring my 2 nephews to a birthday party in Megamall that 3:30pm.

Nakngpot@h. Hey, I love my nephews to pieces, but we're talking about Neil Gaiman here. NEIL GAIMAN.

Repeat after me: NEIL. GAIMAN.

There'll be other birthday parties my nephews can attend in the coming months naman diba? C'mon, missing this one wouldn't hurt, right?

I begged. I pleaded. I wanted to throw a tantrum. Well, I wanted to but baka masampal pako ng kuya ko. Hehe.

Melo called me up and I had to break the news that I wouldn't be able to go. She then informed me that Neil would be reading an excerpt from his new book, Anansi Boys.

Saksakin niyo na lang ako. Grr.

Dominic, my 7 year-old nephew came in my room and I was taken aback with what he said. "Tita, you could always just come back for us. Ako na bahala kay Raymund.'

Aw, man. I explained to him although I am disappointed, I would never, ever leave them somewhere just so I can attend to my 'want.' So, instead of braving the 3,000 crowd in Rockwell, I lovingly brought my nephews to their party.

I was pretty much okay after that. Tired, hungover, sleepy but okay.

Then I found out that my cute tall geek officemate (yes, the guy in my Desperately Wanting entry) was in the book signing as well AND was with Melo and Aiah the whole freaking time.

Nooooooooooooo...IT...CAN-NOT...BEEEEE...

Pakiabot nga yung blade. Pakipasa na rin yung calamansi.

Hindi ko kinaya. Waaaaaaah!

*hikbi*

Was sulking the whole Saturday night. Re-read 'American Gods' while soaking in the tub.

Good thing my Saturday night turned into... hmm... an eventful one... if you know what I mean.

De-stress? Hah!