Catching up

You know you're getting older when catching up with friends is the week's highlight.

14 years have passed since I left the university and though I still keep in touch with my people, I rarely do find the time to be physically present during meet-ups. I get off work late, seven-ish, and the traffic's always bad. So when Mida scheduled dinner at 1:30 a.m. last Sunday, I said, "Really?", laughed at the strangeness of it all, and confirmed. With W in tow.

We arrived a little past 1:30 a.m. in Burger King along Marcos Highway. Mida and Marnie were waving at us from the window, and it was just the best I've felt in months.

There's really nothing like being around people who've seen you at your worst; it's just so much easier. Like wearing worn down sneakers. Comfy, snug, smelly but who cares? No, everyone smelled just fine but, ah, it did feel like slipping inside a time bubble, stuck in that one space in the universe where I never grew old and we never grew apart.

We are all different people now but it's funny our life's objective remained the same. Marnie has always been our writer-activist and now she tells stories through pictures. Mida's the glue of our circle and true to form, she organized this small gathering even if she was probably exhausted from her flight. And she is as brave and bold as ever. And me. I don't know how they see me. Flamboyant? Funny?

It was just great to hang out, singing along to random songs like it was 1991 all over again.