surprise, surprise!

august 17, my birthday. :) i felt like a monster that early friday morning. i know i have to face the truth some day, why not now? hit me on my birthday so i'll feel angry and not tend to look back.

for the past few weeks, i have been pretty hopeful that things will somehow work out. it didn't seem that way. so i asked for honesty. i wasn't expecting those facts but there they were. it hit me solidly. if you ask for the truth, don't expect that you won't get hurt. so what could i do? discreetly cry amidst work.

i asked myself why i had to put myself in such an unhappy state on my birthday. i could have asked for it some other time, but i guess i'm in the mood for it. hahaha... to get over things soon.

on the other side of the universe, i was perfectly clueless that my kuya was brewing up a secret party for me. he asked me to invite JUST my office mates for a quiet dinner at the house. menu was liempo - his specialty.

so i asked the good-natured 4 office buddies. janise and marco (with anne) confirmed. mommy jen and sunshine declined for funny reasons hehehe. so i was expecting a totally quiet dinner for 5.

time to go. my 3 guests and i went home together for our supposedly liempo meal.

from the street, i could see that there were a few shadows inside our house. weird, i thought. kuya should be alone today cooking his liempo. aha, must be just the other housemates.

at the lobby of our home, marco, jan, and anne were busy logging in when i spotted james and mitch alighting a taxi. aha! my scheming brother... i sensed it won't be a dinner for just 5 after all. "anong ginagawa nyo dito?!?!", i asked james. "uh, housewarming", sagot ni james. duh!!! you're so buko! hahaha.

so we went together to our unit. i opened the door and voila... some 20+ friends shouted and greeted me! grabe i was so shocked and overwhelmed to see my very good friends:

mommy jen and ian - who said they can't go to my simple dinner

sunshine and jo - same i-can't-go drama hehehe

len, mommy jen's housemate

liza - nakakapagtakang di nya ko tinext... hahaha kaya pala

james - ang nakita ko sa lobby kaya ako kinutuban

mitch - and kasama ni james nang nahuli ko sila

michelle - a college friend whom i haven't seen for ages

cindy - my spi batchmate

weng - spi and ubs ofcmate (and mind align chatmate as well)

donna - who doesn't know her? hehe

guen - spi and ubs ofcmate

suzy - spi ofcmate and bundok buddy

louis and liz - my housemate and his gf

edwin - a mainstay in our house

sonny - my housemate

noel - kuya's friend... and naarkilang cook hehe

janise - ubs bud ang kasama kong pauwi

marco and anne - ubs bud and his gf, kasama ko rin pauwi

allan and carol - kuya's good friend

mike - kuya's good friend, not the monster one

nick - ubs colleague and kuya's friend as well

it always prepped me up when people greet me on my birthday. sa kahit papanong paraan, i just love it when people give me well wishes. it's specially true today, maybe i feel i badly need the warm wishes on my break-up season. uh. kontento na ako sa simpleng happy birthday, caths! pero what just happened that friday night? i cried talaga when i saw everyone's faces. grabe!

there was liempo, shrimp, chicken, spag for everybody. good food, good company... grabe ang galing ni kuya super saludo ako. wala akong masabi. mahal ako ng kuya ko! and i'm proud of it.

thanks to everybody who came. you really made my birthday special. and thanks to my kuya... for everything... you all made me realize that there is always a reason for life to be sweet despite pain and bitterness.

i'm inching towards the sweetest part of the sweet. :)