A Weekend Bliss

I have just come back from one of my best weekends for the summer. It was a blissful 2 days & 1 night spent with good company with good food in a good place. Laiya, Batangas. Aah, what a bliss. It didn't take too much an effort getting to know new people. It was 2 good days of frolic, fun and laughter. The bus ride going to San Juan was way too slow, I must admit, but with great friends on the way with you, the lazy ass-ed bus could take its lousy time for all I care. As ever, I find bus rides cleansing to my soul. I love cruising by SLEX, for it brings old, well-kept memories to the surface. I remember wild days of driving and racing through those highways while being dead drunk to alcohol and other unpleasant substances. I think of anticipated Sunday afternoons when I looked forward to going back to ELBI and to the friends and home I considered making there. I let the old times consume me, if only for a bit, because my mind with this memory is at its most vulnerable, - and yes, dangerous. Now, I feel my story digressing. ELBI life is for another post. I will write about it again, someday. But for now, yes, Laiya Batangas. We got to the beach after about 3 and something hours. For me, that was just on time because lunch has just been served then, and my stomach was just beginning to rumble. After luncheon was games for everyone who felt like getting wet either by saltwater or sweat. I felt more like playing my guitar. Oh yes, BIBI, my dependable new love came with me on this trip. So ignoring the water and the sun and the sand altogether, I got my songbook out and played to my heart's content. Toni and Marj, some of the guys I work with at the office stayed on either side of me and sang with me thru the afternoon. Time flies when you're having fun. All too soon, it was late afternoon and 'twas time to move to the sleep camp where we're staying for the night. After showering the day's heat off, we went to dinner at the pavillion near the beach and stayed behind for the bikini open. Much hoots, dances, claps, games and songs later, some people went back to their own cabins and retired for the night. Some groups opted to have some drinks by their huts, but majority of Boticelli, my new team, wanted to get a shut-eye. Toni, Marj, Joey and I decided otherwise. We trekked the hundred something meters from our suite to the tree houses in search of groups doing some alcohol bingeing. We happened by OM Tito and TL Eugene's group, where Lance, an old friend hung out too. Songs, dances, jokes, food, beer, tequilla, thoughts and secrets were shared amongsts new and old friends that night. Being bosses and subordinates did not matter. During the night, we talked and walked the intricate line of communication - open, frank, real. By the end of 2 cases of beer and a big bottle of tequilla, everyone had a dose of a good conversation. One by one, people dozed off and walked to their own suites. Everyone went except 5 - Toni, Marj, Joey, Fritz and I. We hung by the pavillion, talking. Good talks. Serious talks. Funny talks. We took a dip in the pool. More talks. Intimate talks. By dawn, we were well ahead of having a very good conversation, that we never noticed we haven't swam at all. We were just standing, or half-sitting, or in Fritz's case, splitting, while we talked. We have been staying in the water, soaking and marinating like nice fishes for almost 3 hours. By sunrise, we went to the beach to watch the skies. The water was calm. Fritz said that saltwater equilibrates and neutralizes the body. It supposedly eases tension. It might have been true, for I felt exactly just that while sitting in the shallow waters. That was a quiet moment. I felt relaxed. I felt easy. I felt at peace. The skies had a story for me that morning. It was as if it was talking to me. I felt awed by the colors. I felt more alive, if anything. I wish I had taken more pictures. But no, I left everything in the cabin for fear of losing or damaging anything if I got too rowdy or too drunk. I never got drunk. Tipsy, yes. Tamang amats, yes. It felt so nice to laugh again. You know the kind of laughter that bubbles from within and then bursts out as a hearty one is the kind of laughter that I have been missing most these last couple of months. I had lots of those in Laiya. Yeah, last weekend was lots of fun. I felt that I have been meeting all these new people for a purpose. I don't know what yet, but you'll see, in time, I will know enough to even write about it. For several days now, I have been anticipating for something. It's as if something real good is about to happen. I feel excited about something but I don't know what. I have been waking up with good thoughts lately. I don't know, maybe a surprise is waiting for me somewhere around the corner. I can't wait. Lemme' leave you with sky pictures that I took while going back home to Manila. Again, I don't know why, but I feel like the skies are about to shower me with good things real soon. I don't even ask why anymore. Maybe I just deserve to be happy - again. Yeah, I know I do.