"para sa nawalang kabataan"

ah 21, that glorious age, that hour of beginnings - now arrives that time when one can confidently announce one's intent to indulge in all manners of vice; when sex now carries the added excitement of statutory rape; when one finally, finally begins to resemble that horror hidden away in one's driver's license!

it is therefore not illogical, and certainly not uncommon, for men of a certain social standing to celebrate this milestone with as much fanfare as the body can withstand, often enjoining the company of a large group of similarly-decadent individuals to assist in the consumption of purchased commodities. thus it was that last friday evening found me necessitated to play the roles of colleague, chaperone, and co-conspirator, an adventure that began at the very doors of that fortress of drunken revelry: embassy.

i met jonat a good two hours before opening time, as he had asked me to assist him in the finalization of logistics: as usual, he had invited the entire ateneo student body, 90% of which had eventually begged off. after four years of the same scenario, you'd think that he'd change tactics just a bit. once all financial matters were settled, i had dinner with him and his family at the embassy caféteria [this is really how it is spelled; it appears to be a shong version of the heavy metal umlaut], which would have been good, if only it weren't friday*.

guests started arriving at around 1030, by which time jonat and i were halfway through our second round of mojitos and "pork kebab with egg tofu" [read: tokwa't baboy]. i was happy to discover that he had invited a few high school classmates as well, and they had thankfully decided to follow through. we spent the next couple of hours or so catching up on things, before jonat declared that the hour of our doom had arrived.

for the record, i am not what you may call a "party person" [the word "nightlife" sends my thoughts more in the direction of omnivorous flying rodents than abuses to my optic and auditory centers]. predictable, then, that i should delay our attendance by encouraging debate on why an establishment erected for entertainment purposes should be named after another, undoubtedly more sinister, construct.

it was only after mustering courage enough to enter that the mystery resolved itself: apparantly essential to both locations are queues so lengthy that only the first 20 people are fully aware of where they are headed; a sudden, palpable decrease in personal wealth; and a heat that soon contributes to an emergency-room-worthy migraine. in theory, one difference would have been the dance floor, but this i consider to be a moot point, as any dance floor containing a number of people so great as to inhibit any form of motion beyond the vertical has no business being called such.

in fact, the majority of us guests instead found ourselves playing parlor games such as "find the jonat" [with the thick smoke proving to be an effective enough blindfold], and "who can travel furthest without debilitating injury". at this point in time, it should be quite evident that i have no great love for deafeningly repetitive basslines and synthesizers when accompanied by blindingly repetitive strobe and laser lighting.

and yet despite this, i managed to have a sane enough time due to those four words which now sit atop this entry. para sa nawalang kabataan: a toast to the immaturity of yesteryear, by people who'd one by one lost it at some point between then and now. it's a slightly dampening feeling [even more so than that caused by the alcohol], reconnecting with women who've gradually traded their braces for breasts, or men who now consider it more manly not to shave.

one would do well to realize that although eventually losing all things is inevitable, eventually forgetting is not. and that it is, in fact, worth a few hours of tinnitus and afterimages, spilt drinks and embarrassing exclamations, to retain some well enough to keep for years after they've been misplaced.

happy birthday.

sige ingat.ü

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friday: on fridays, my teammates at work insist on lunch out, since we are free to wear more socially-acceptable attire, and are therefore more willing to be seen in socially-acceptable locations [or as they say, "kain tayo sa mahal"]. on top of that, this particular friday was our imported trainor's last day, so that warranted an additional team dinner. and on top of that, it was also the date of the company quarterly coffeetalk, which translates to food and beverages for 1000 people. needless to say, i was stuffed. 
posted by stani at 10:53 AM