Kanpai!

Friday the 12th was one hell of a rainy day. It didn't stop pouring the whole day, it made me feel like just clicking Start --> Shut Down, fish my jacket and golf umbrella and hit the steam room of Gold's Gym just to escape this lazy-ass day.

At about 430pm, Sheila sent me a message saying that there will be an impromptu gathering at Daniel's place (Daniel's a really good painter, as you can see in the photos. If you're interested in purchasing his work, holler back!). I was hesitant, considering I haven't gone to the gym in 3 or 4 days, and I felt rather bummed out for wasting membership dues either because of plain slackness or some work-related excuse. So despite so much prodding from her (believe me, Sheila can be really relentless!), I irresolutely declined. But you'd think she'll let up? Hell no. Still giving a perfunctory "I will think about it" at around 530pm, I stood from my cubicle and looked at the still-gloomy, wet, and bumper-to-bumper situation outside. I still did not want to go.

And then, she said the magic words. There was going to be wine, lotsa food, and a lot of laughter to go with it. An hour later, I was at Rustan's Supermarket buying Doritos, Herr's and Lay's chips to bring with me to Daniel's pad. Shortly after, I was squabbling with the next eight cab drivers to bring me to Libertad in Pasay City. Oh Lord, have mercy on me for being friends with Daniel for five freakin' years and still haven't been to his pad...and now not knowing how to navigate the damned driver from Legaspi Street of Makati.

Barely 40 minutes later, what with the incessant SMS exchanges between me and Sheila, and me and Daniel, I have miraculously found his 2-storey pad. Pleasantries and abrazos y besos out of the way, I hollered (on the staircase, mid-way to the second floor) "Pop those damned corks and let's start getting wasted!"

Yeah, the wine didn't start pouring until later. We started with white pancit and barbecued pork on skewers for dinner. It didn't feel appropriate to be vino-ish at that time. So we settled for sodas and water, alongside our kvetching for the food murdering our supposed dieting.






Daniel was playing a CD given to him for his birthday by his special friend "P" (not the real name, I later on found out...hah!) when the wine started to get poured on our unpretentious house glasses. Chammie and Daniel were doing something on the computer while Sheila and I entertained ourselves by taking pictures of ourselves on our Nokias. Trust me...they were fun and funny. ;)

Grace came a-knocking after a few minutes to join us. More abrazos y besos, and then some more wine and juice and sodas and water and chips that seem to lose being crispy after barely 2 minutes from leaving their packages.

An hour later, we found ourselves dancing (or, actually, *I* found myself dancing more) and laughing like hyenas at the littlest of jokes and anecdotes. Aaaahhh...the beauty of red wine combining with a total lack of humor. I believe I actually gave Sheila and Chammie each a lap dance. Gracie was way too freaked out and sober to endure my indecency!

When we got tired dancing and listening to oldies from Daniel's babe's CD, I plugged in my Rio mp3 player into Daniel's speakers, and listened to a couple of covers of originals--ranging from Chantay Savage's "I Will Survive" to Destiny's Child's "Let's Wait a While" to Michael English's "(Love Moves) In Mysterious Ways" and Akafellas' "Help Me Forget". (Oh shit, I still owe these guys CDs of these songs!!!) And I quizzed them on what song Eddie Murphy made popular during the early 90's. When they were already uncomfortably haunted by the song that they can't seem to remember, I told them what it was. Can YOU guess what it is? *evil grin*

Called it a night when Sheila started dozing off. Was it the wine? Exhaustion? Oh, hell, all of those. And that was the night Chammie viciously spoiled Harry Potter for the two of us. But between me and Sheila, I was less homicidal. ;)

Nothing beats good friends and good wine. But, heya, Fiona, we still miss your brown ass back here.

Cheers! Kanpai!