more bai 8

the one and only bai 8 picture na kumpleto kami.
taken sometime '95 in negros oriental.

taken last january at the latest bai 8 reunion in ocean adventure, subic.
di kami kumpleto so walang away...asaran lang, hehe.

bai 8 presents...

we call ourselves "bai 8". pronounced "bayi", bisaya for "babae". 8 because, well, walo kami.

it started when the barkada of an ex, composed of nine dudes, put up their own store on campus as part of their marketing requirement and named it "laki 9". theirs made semantic sense at least while we...wala, mga copycats lang gyud, hehe.

but the name stuck. it was how our friends and admirers (ehem! haha!) knew us.

the friendship began in carson hall, way back in '93. it managed to survive high drama, individual neuroses, occasional mental derangement, boyfriend horrors, physical distance, and time. it is still a wonder to us why we've gravitated to one another, why we are still truly, madly, deeply bonded.

we all have dominant personalities. when we fought, we fought passionately. no one backs down. i suppose along the way, we all agreed to disagree. oddly, we've observed na nag-aaway lang kami ng todo 'pag kumpleto kaming walo; but if even just one is absent, peace is somehow kept.

wowie is a nurse in the US, chevas works in dubai, bing remains a silliman professor in dumaguete, ana is a wildlife advocate in subic, joko works as a nurse in zamboanga, rhina runs a business in dipolog, while tootsie, registered physical therapist, and i, interior design-slash-travel consultant, are finally together in davao.

thank God for technology, we are able to keep in touch no matter the location and timezone. sillimanians.com was our salvation, up until it shut down. bing said mura siya ug napi-angan because we suddenly had no access to bai 8 talks. we all felt that sense of loss and that is sincerely the truth.

as independent as we all are, our bond is as essential to us as breathing. we are who we are because of what we've been through and because we've been spiritually together for every "been-through", our self-identity will always be intertwined.

my pride and joys

clockwise:
izak (ice cream boy), patricia & paul (theater geeks), jakob (artist wannabe), jedrick & joshua (hammock folks)

adjusting here and convincing myself to stay hasn't been easy. but i constantly remind myself of the reasons why i wanted to come back.

as much as i enjoy my independent life in manila, i miss my family. we're a tight bunch and it hurts a little every time i come home to see my nieces and nephews gaining their own unique personalities without really witnessing them grow.

all in all, i have three nieces (patricia, jannel & jamie) and nine nephews (jedrick & joshua, paul, izak, jakob, lewis, iezer, edfil & edrick), courtesy of my cousins.

they're bright, funny, talented, smart-alecky, bossy, stubborn, aggravating, lovable, sweet, and simply irresistable!

auntie/tita gud ko, i have the license to gush!

blog. virgin, without stiiiir.

a fellow blogger once asked me if i ever tried AdSense. though he personally hasn't benefited from it yet, he heard daw of others na kumita na ng dolya-dolyares.

actually, matagal na ako may AdSense account. i think i had it since about three blogs ago pa. at that time, the number of bloggers were on the rise and with the amount of online time they're putting in, might as well pagkakitaan 'diba? ako naman, nakisawsaw din sa uso. okay lang at first, but after a while i forgot to monitor it. i can't even remember my login details anymore.

i was tinkering with my layout just now and i considered for a moment signing up again for AdSense. but nyeeaaaahh. i like my blog as it is. simple, commercial-free.

na naman!

an unknown number flashed on my cellphone screen. "ma'am, si rolly po 'to ng -----", the guy said when i answered, "kanina pa po kami dito sa labas ng unit n'yo kaso walang nagbubukas ng pinto. "

we've been renovating the place we're renting in makati and due to the number of repairs needed, as well as delays caused by bad weather, it's been taking a while to finish. since i had to leave for davao, i endorsed the supervising to the housemates.

now the carpenter's calling because none of them are picking up their phones or answering his knocks and time's a-wasting. so here i am in davao, trying to sort out the situation in makati. ate to the rescue.

i strongly suspect i will never outgrow this role.

reminiscing

the great thing about going to a place like silliman is you meet a lot of people from all walks of life and form friendships that last a lifetime.

that's how it went with charmaine, juna and i. we belonged to the class of 1996, school of communication...at least, juna and i tried to graduate by '96, fate had other plans, hehe. charm managed to avoid being swept away by our, ehem, bad influences and finished right on time.

we were an unlikely trio. juna was this tall, dusky, easygoing beauty who turned heads wherever she went, charm was this pretty, petite, hard-working news reporter for the university paper, while i was the pasaway transferee who spent more time riding on the back of a scooter than sitting in class. yet somehow, we found one another.

now, 11 years, 4 kids, 1 husband, and countless heartbreaks later, we're still stuck together and we still fondly call one another "dai".

juna is now married with a hubby who is so supportive and protective of our friendship (thanks so much, jun!). she's also a very hands-on mom to three handsome boys: shaquille, seth (my inaanak), and shadrach. charm is a great single mom to a cutie-pie, aka geoffrey daniel, aka bugoy, who also happens to be my inaanak. as for me, i am the happily footloose and fancy-free godmother they try to take advantage of as much as they can.

we rarely get together, me being the nomad that i am while they are very settled in dumaguete. fortunately, we have cellphones and our friendship has managed to subsist on texts and calls.

pero minsan, mas masarap pa rin ang chika pag kaharap sila. so i try to travel to dumaguete when my pocket permits. our last get-together was july last year. my schedule only allowed us one night, but what a night it was!

juna, charmaine & i @ hayahay! buhay pa rin kami!

with "our" hubby, jun2x! notice our rosy cheeks c/o numerous shots of rum coke :-D

today is actually charm's birthday (happy birthday, dai!) kaya i got a little maudlin. i know i'll be missing yet another celebration. haaay.

uuuuy!

tama bang kiligin ako na parang highschooler? madahan...at my age!

pero totoo. hahahahaha!

jaime called to ask when i'm planning to return to manila. i said next month. he said we should go out. i said...yes. all throughout the conversation, i had a big, crazy grin on my face.

however--yep, there's a big but!--if i am loony enough to pursue this, i'll be stepping on a lot of toes. ang tanong, am i prepared to hear a lot of ouches? samuka oi! reality bites.

pero kilig pa rin ako, hehehe.