Thank gawd! Ma eyes have now slightly recover’d from that raccoon-eyed look it had acquired after bein’ made up for graduation. Cold cream and facial wash diden seem to work at first as I woke up tha following morning lookin’ at tha mirror at smudged eyes like those of tha gurl in Take That’s How Deep Is Your Love music video.
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Graduation show’d diff’rent colleges’ gimmicks to make them stand out among tha rest. Legal Management grads each bought gold medals to wear in tha ceremony while Behavioral Science studes brought their college yearbook to show-off to us Journ studes [and perhaps other colleges as well] seated at their back. Our own gimmick wuda been to wear tha bookmarks Ruth gave each of us tha previous day which show’d both individual pictures and group pictures wit a pencil attach’d and tha words: “Peryodista ka! 4C5 Journ Batch 2003” [or sumthin like that] which explain’d why most of us were seen carrying it. Only problem is, Ruth forgot to give us ours, and not all got reminded to bring their bookmarks.
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Tha faculty administrators tried but had no way of preventing verbal, communicative, and expressive Arts and Letters graduates from takin’ pictures, rooting and cheerin’ for their chums, inserting a pre-song joke, and generally makin’ it a happier and lighter event for all. Right after tha event, as tha graduates slowly deserted their seats, some knew that tha happy crowd they came to know as friends individually is fleeing from them as well and helplessly shed tears at tis. Even Felice –who made fun of those who cried at our retreat- cuden help tha tears that came to her when Emil, our anti-social, indifferent, autistic [he really is] classmate approach’d, hugg’d her & bid her goodbye.
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Afterwards, tha clan spent an eternity in tha car scoping out tha perfect place to dine. Paver told our ikot-happy driver to go to Malate to scope for more places but Raffy [ikot-happy] diden seem to find tha idea so great & seem’d to think not eatin’ at all to be tha right idea, and so we diden get to choose a place to dine at Malate either as he took us there but quickly whizzed past tha potential places to eat, not givin’ us tha chance to clearly read tha names of tha restaurants we were passin’ by until soon we found ourselves almost home. Paver sensed our driver’s “topak” mood and told him to just take us to a gasoline station first when we were two blocks away from home. As our driver went out to pay for gas, paver told us his plan of ditchin’ Raffy and grantin’ him his wish to go home and lettin’ brover take his place at tha wheel instead. We all agreed to tis and I jokingly told paver to hand over our driver’s wage wit tha words “Tis is your last pay for bein’ apurado!” As Raffy went back and our plan wuz told to him, guilt seem to have gotten to him as he told us he’ll escort us to a dining place first. We were in tha middle of Tomas Morato, Q.C. when it finally dawn’d on me that he juz wanted a free ride to his home, specially when Pa told him “O, diba dito na sakayan mo? Sige kami na bahala..” before he exited wit his pay on hand. And then it took eons before we decided on a place to eat. As I wuz hungry, I pointed out tha first random diner I saw but paver had excuses for each place I pointed:
1] “Kumain na tayo sa steak house nung grad ng kuya mo.”
2] “Hindi natin alam yan, ano naman maoorder natin diyan?”
3] “Naku eh bar yan eh, hindi naman kainan talaga!”
4] “Anliit masyado!”
6] “Eh katabi lang yan ng tinuro mo a! Kahit ano na lang pinipili mo!”
He wuz so choosy that later when we were desperate and considering tha places I’ve earlier pointed but he rejected we were faced wit diff’rent probs:
7] “Ala naman parking! Piliin niyo naman yung may parking!”
8] “Abot hanggang labas ang tao, o! Eh di maghihintay na naman tayo! Gutom na nga eh!”
We ended up eatin at a Spanish restaurant call’d Alba where a bunch of grandfather types play’d their big guitars for us. Tha bill wuz remotely big so it’s hard to figure why we still considered goin’ to 7-eleven before going home.