ROAD TRIP
As I'm sitting here typing this, my muscles are aching and my joints are creaking. Travelling a thousand kilometers can do that to a person. It was worth the trip as we spent last weekend trekking way down south to witness the wedding of my friend Mic.
I took Friday off in the hopes of leaving for Bicol at 11 am. Some unforseen delays changed our plans though and we were forced to leave past midnight. No complaints. It allowed me to attend the Colayco send-off with some of my friends. It was, as I like to put it, "comfortably familiar". It was also fitting that I spent my last moments in Colayco with the group I started hanging out with there in the first place. I joined Solvie, Meah, GQ and several other Colayco stalwarts I've known over the years. there were testimonials, memorabilia auctions and a final walk-through of the building. I got to say goodbye to my old haunts like the Strains room, the COA room, the Oproom, Sanggu and DSWS. We had a nightcap at Gayuma after then I headed home before midnight to get ready for the trip.
We arranged to meet at the Petron on the expressway at 2. We ended up leaving at 330 due to someone being late. He was the one who caused the initial delay too. It took us just 8 hours to get to Legaspi and we would have made it sooner if not for someone getting lost in Lucena - yup the guy who delayed us struck again. The trip itself was okay. Danny and I joked and talked and laughed all the way. We laughed so much that our cheeks were hurting by the 6th hour. We were even joined by Bill via speaker phone and we talked and reminisced for about 30 minutes.
We got to Mic's house before lunch and were able to rest a bit and have some lunch before we headed to our reserved cabanas near the beach. After dressing, we figured we had enough time to make it to the church. We ended up getting lost and missing the entire thing, much to my chagrin.
Come reception time, it was bittersweet for me. I confess that once upon a time, I did have feelings for this girl, just like every other guy in our barkada (hey, if I'm going down, I'm taking the rest of you with me...right Danny, Stephen and Bill?). I took one potshot ("Mic's always been one of the guys, so this is the closest thing I'm going to get to a same-sex marriage"), followed it up with an endearing message ("Mic has always been the heart of our group and it's nice to know that our heart has found a new home in the hands of the groom."), did a surprise number (sang "Wear my Ring," a song I wrote some years ago for my parents' wedding anniversary), and cried as Mic's brothers and father danced with her with the song "Butterfly Kisses" playing hauntingly in the background.
Mic thanked me afterwards for not "spilling the beans" despite it being in m power to do so. Hehe.
I ended up shedding a tear again as Danny and I sat and watched Mic taking family pictures from afar and he remarked "Our Mic is gone". Our Mic. Subtly screaming with so much meaning. She was, and is one of us and the first of our circle to get married. Our regret is that we weren't around to see their relationship grow. Our little sister has "grown up" in our eyes and she has never been more beautiful.
We headed right to bed after the reception and woke up at 6 the next day. Our scheduled 8 o'clock departure time was postponed by a delicious breakfast with Mic's parents and a photo-op at the Caragaya ruins. We finally left at 10:30 for Manila.
Now, I'm tired and cranky but it was worth it.
I took Friday off in the hopes of leaving for Bicol at 11 am. Some unforseen delays changed our plans though and we were forced to leave past midnight. No complaints. It allowed me to attend the Colayco send-off with some of my friends. It was, as I like to put it, "comfortably familiar". It was also fitting that I spent my last moments in Colayco with the group I started hanging out with there in the first place. I joined Solvie, Meah, GQ and several other Colayco stalwarts I've known over the years. there were testimonials, memorabilia auctions and a final walk-through of the building. I got to say goodbye to my old haunts like the Strains room, the COA room, the Oproom, Sanggu and DSWS. We had a nightcap at Gayuma after then I headed home before midnight to get ready for the trip.
We arranged to meet at the Petron on the expressway at 2. We ended up leaving at 330 due to someone being late. He was the one who caused the initial delay too. It took us just 8 hours to get to Legaspi and we would have made it sooner if not for someone getting lost in Lucena - yup the guy who delayed us struck again. The trip itself was okay. Danny and I joked and talked and laughed all the way. We laughed so much that our cheeks were hurting by the 6th hour. We were even joined by Bill via speaker phone and we talked and reminisced for about 30 minutes.
We got to Mic's house before lunch and were able to rest a bit and have some lunch before we headed to our reserved cabanas near the beach. After dressing, we figured we had enough time to make it to the church. We ended up getting lost and missing the entire thing, much to my chagrin.
Come reception time, it was bittersweet for me. I confess that once upon a time, I did have feelings for this girl, just like every other guy in our barkada (hey, if I'm going down, I'm taking the rest of you with me...right Danny, Stephen and Bill?). I took one potshot ("Mic's always been one of the guys, so this is the closest thing I'm going to get to a same-sex marriage"), followed it up with an endearing message ("Mic has always been the heart of our group and it's nice to know that our heart has found a new home in the hands of the groom."), did a surprise number (sang "Wear my Ring," a song I wrote some years ago for my parents' wedding anniversary), and cried as Mic's brothers and father danced with her with the song "Butterfly Kisses" playing hauntingly in the background.
Mic thanked me afterwards for not "spilling the beans" despite it being in m power to do so. Hehe.
I ended up shedding a tear again as Danny and I sat and watched Mic taking family pictures from afar and he remarked "Our Mic is gone". Our Mic. Subtly screaming with so much meaning. She was, and is one of us and the first of our circle to get married. Our regret is that we weren't around to see their relationship grow. Our little sister has "grown up" in our eyes and she has never been more beautiful.
We headed right to bed after the reception and woke up at 6 the next day. Our scheduled 8 o'clock departure time was postponed by a delicious breakfast with Mic's parents and a photo-op at the Caragaya ruins. We finally left at 10:30 for Manila.
Now, I'm tired and cranky but it was worth it.
You're such a softy. ;-)
Posted by
banzai cat |
10:53 AM