It was the first day of 2009.
I have been in Arayat for most of the holidays. And my mom, dad and I went back home to Mandaluyong to fetch Sky and Marty and bring them back with us to Pampanga. Regi was insisting that we go out for dinner, but I kept on telling him that we ought to postpone it since we’ll get back home late. But, he kept on insisting.
So. My parents and I got home at 9pm. Regi was there waiting for me.
Regi: Tara, dinner tayo!
Cey: Pagoda. San mo gusto?
Regi: Chocolate Kiss!
Cey: Hwe? Jan 1 ngayon, gabi na, sarado na yun.
Regi: Pustahan tayo, bukas yun.
Cey: Metrowalk na lang. Starbucks tayo, libre kita, nanalo akong GC sa raffle e.
Regi: ChocKiss na, please?
Cey: Hmmm…
Regi: Pustahan tayo bukas yun!
So we went straight to UP. Honestly, I was smelling something fishy. Well, baka assuming lang ako. There had been jokes about the engagement in 08, so this set-up, plus his persistence on this dinner, added to his uber-confidence that he’ll make it up to me because he’s missed our family reunion for the 7th consecutive year…yup he was uber-confident with the line: Pag di ako nakabawi sayo, suntukin mo ko! We’re not the violent type, so this kind of confidence, given the fact that I could be matampuhin about these kinds of things made me think…he’s got something up his sleeves. Ok, I digress.
Anyway, so on the way to UP, I was thinking, teka, ano ‘to, he talked to the ChocKiss management and asked them to open up the resto just for us? Tapos may flowers, and one table set for two? May candle-lit dinner na may personal serbidor? With matching may nag-v-violin? How very Regal Films! Proposal na kaya? Yup, these things played in my head. Cliché, I know. At assuming nga naman ako, hanep.
So from MassComm, we turned right going to Bahay ng Alumni. A few meters from Chocolate Kiss, I was already expecting the cheesy love story visuals….Ayan na!!
Cut to…sarado ang Chocolate Kiss.
Oh. So I must’ve assumed way too much. He’s probably got something up his sleeves, but it definitely wasn’t a proposal.
Cey: Dapat nakipagpustahan ako e.
Regi: Ay, sarado…
Cey: Tara, Metrowalk na lang nga.
Regi: Ok, pero tara daan muna tayo sa tambayan.
So we went straight to the UP Chapel. Ang dilim. It was already 9:30pm, on a holiday. Of course, Apacible was deserted. Slightly nakakatakot.
Cey: Uhm…mag-make out ba sa tapat ng simbahan?
Regi: Grabe ka, ang baba naman ng tingin mo sakin.
Cey: Joke lang, eto naman.
Regi (pointing towards the ICTUS tambayan: Diba dyan tayo una nag-meet?
Cey: Uhmm, oo. Bakit?
Regi: (gets his backpack from the backseat, takes a yellow box, pops it open)
Cey:…..
Cey:….
Cey: (cries, slaps her face innumerable times and asks) Teka, totoo ba ‘to? Totoo ba to?
Regi: smiles.
Cey:…
Regi: still smiles…(teka were those tears in his eyes?o baka assuming na naman ako.)
Cey:…
Cey: Wait, di mo ba ko tatanungin ng ‘Will you marry me?’
Regi: Uhm, diba the ring should speak for itself? Atsaka ang cheesy e.
Cey: Diba…romantic?
Regi: Ay….ganun ba? Uhm…Will you…marry me?
Cey: (still crying. Yup, akala ko sa pelikula lang yun, pero ganun pala ang feeling) Yes.. Yes!
Regi: Sorry ha, gusto ko sana lumuhod sa labas, kaso baka ma-hold-up tayo.
So there. On Jan 1, 2009, we got engaged ☺ After only a few minutes in UP, we went straight back home to my parents where Regi told mommy and daddy, while holding up the ring (we put it back in the box para hindi weird na suot ko na tsaka pa lang kami nagpapaalam ☺ ) “Nag-propose po ako kay Cey…pwede na po ba?” Mommy and daddy said yes!
*Sigh*
It wasn’t the usual sweety-sweety proposal I’ve had in my head. But it was so Regi, and so true. It didn’t feel so much as a man proposing to his would-be wife; more like my best friend telling me we’re on our way to spending the rest of our lives together. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Daddy's Tales
I love it when my dad talks about his happy childhood memories. Over dinner he told me how Lola Nene brought him and his siblings aboard a trailer attached to Lola’s jeep, to Darabulbol. Yup, catchy name, just had to write it down.
Anyway, Lola Nene was my dad’s tita. Her family had a piece of land in Darabulbol (sorry, just had to say it again) in Concepcion, Tarlac. They grew sugarcane. And during harvest season, she’d bring my dad, his brothers and sisters and cousins along as she transported the harvest from…Darabulbol…to Hacienda Luisita to be processed. It would usually take a few hours for it to be done, so she’d make a side trip and bring along my dad and company to the nearby river for a swim.
Oh how his eyes light up when he talks about those good ‘ol days. And he’d always laugh when he’d talk about that time when he and Tita Angge went fishing on that same river. They were so excited to use their fishing rods that they failed to exercise much care in handling the potentially dangerous, but seemingly harmless-looking hook on a long rod. I forgot whose lips or cheek got caught in those hooks when Tita Angge whipped up the fishing rod too far back—hooking an unaware cousin in the process. Must’ve been painful, but for a bunch of 7 or 8 year olds on a summer vacation, it must’ve been so funny that it sent them on a laugh trip all the way back home to San Fernando. I guess it wasn’t that big an injury. None of them grew up to be Scarface.
Or that story about that time when they’ve grown tired of flying their kites, that they rested on the haystacks…not really haystacks but stacks of palay and they pulled at the harvest, eating some bits like butong-pakwan, up until the owner realized that there were intruders playing on his ricefields.
I suddenly remembered those times my cousins and I tried to catch dragonflies and grasshoppers. And that time when Joy, Chito, and I think LA too, found a huge pile of carabao dung on the road. We used grass stalks to draw on it and turn it into a mighty foul-smelling, but cute, birthday cake. We were careful not to touch it though. Who would’ve thought you could have so much fun when life brings along a huge pile of shit?
It’s a pity my nephews and nieces can’t have these same stories. Them with their PSPs and DS. But I guess they’ll have their own stories to look back on when they’re this age. I just hope I could do the same things for them, as those my daddy did for me.
Suddenly I feel I ought to write a piece on mommy as well. But that’s a whole new article altogether. Just as happy, and just as filled with love.
Anyway, Lola Nene was my dad’s tita. Her family had a piece of land in Darabulbol (sorry, just had to say it again) in Concepcion, Tarlac. They grew sugarcane. And during harvest season, she’d bring my dad, his brothers and sisters and cousins along as she transported the harvest from…Darabulbol…to Hacienda Luisita to be processed. It would usually take a few hours for it to be done, so she’d make a side trip and bring along my dad and company to the nearby river for a swim.
Oh how his eyes light up when he talks about those good ‘ol days. And he’d always laugh when he’d talk about that time when he and Tita Angge went fishing on that same river. They were so excited to use their fishing rods that they failed to exercise much care in handling the potentially dangerous, but seemingly harmless-looking hook on a long rod. I forgot whose lips or cheek got caught in those hooks when Tita Angge whipped up the fishing rod too far back—hooking an unaware cousin in the process. Must’ve been painful, but for a bunch of 7 or 8 year olds on a summer vacation, it must’ve been so funny that it sent them on a laugh trip all the way back home to San Fernando. I guess it wasn’t that big an injury. None of them grew up to be Scarface.
Or that story about that time when they’ve grown tired of flying their kites, that they rested on the haystacks…not really haystacks but stacks of palay and they pulled at the harvest, eating some bits like butong-pakwan, up until the owner realized that there were intruders playing on his ricefields.
I suddenly remembered those times my cousins and I tried to catch dragonflies and grasshoppers. And that time when Joy, Chito, and I think LA too, found a huge pile of carabao dung on the road. We used grass stalks to draw on it and turn it into a mighty foul-smelling, but cute, birthday cake. We were careful not to touch it though. Who would’ve thought you could have so much fun when life brings along a huge pile of shit?
It’s a pity my nephews and nieces can’t have these same stories. Them with their PSPs and DS. But I guess they’ll have their own stories to look back on when they’re this age. I just hope I could do the same things for them, as those my daddy did for me.
Suddenly I feel I ought to write a piece on mommy as well. But that’s a whole new article altogether. Just as happy, and just as filled with love.
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