Wow, it's been 12 days since my last entry. By far, the longest I've gone without blogging.

I have the perfect excuse. Work.

When you work in a restaurant, December is the busiest month of the year because of the Christmas parties and get togethers with friends and when you handle the reservations of four branches, it gets really tough.

But I also had another good excuse. My birthday. I spent the entire 2 weeks preparing for it.

You see, I'm not big on birthdays. To me, my birthday is just an ordinary day except I get older. My last party was when I was in second year college and ever since, I'd just have dinner with close friends and my family. This year, I decided to throw a big ass party, inviting everybody.

I'm turning 24 this year. 24 years old sounds so adult. Unlike when you're 18, you're an adult. You can now drink alcohol legally, drive legally, watch porn legally but you know you're not quite that yet because you're fresh out of high school. It's the same when you're 21. You're an adult but not quite yet (again!). It's like having one foot out of the door already but the other is still inside your parent's house. More often than not, at 21, most people still live with their parents. 22 and 23 sounded like an awkward age to celebrate your adulthood and so I decided, 24, it is.

I wanted a huge party. I wanted to invite my high school barkada, my college friends, my college blockmates, my entire family, A's family, A's barkada, the management team of the bar, investors of the bar and all others who helped me out. All in all, my guestlist was close to 140 people.

But there was a reason for throwing such a big party. I wasn't doing it for the sake of throwing a party or having all the people I love under one roof or because it was my birthday AND my 2nd anniversary with A (Yup, we're turning 2 years, a day after my birthday!) It was because I wanted to give back.

For a couple of years now, I've been so grateful of the blessings I've been receiving. Family, friends, love, health, work, strength, happiness.... Oftentimes, I'd ask myself why am I so lucky? Why is God so good to me? What am I doing to deserve such blessings?

Bilog and mundo. The world is round. One moment, you're up and the next moment, you're down. Right now, I'm at the top of the world with the many blessings I've been receiving and I fear the moment that I'd have to go to the bottom. I realized that it's not enough to be just grateful for the blessings. I have to give back to God and to the world while I'm at the top.

And so, the greatest catch of my birthday party, is that instead of gifts, I asked my family and friends to donate to the 2 groups I'm supporting:

1) The Missionaries of Charity of Mother Theresa
2) Pacem Foundation (a foundation for seminarians who want to become priests but cannot afford the schooling).

At the same time, I'm donating a month's worth of salary to our parish who is currently in need of funds for the building of our church. Half of the donation was my way of saying thank you for another year in life and the many blessings I've received while the other half of the amount was donated as my way of saying thank you for the love and strength to endure the trials that God throws unto the path of my relationship with A.

My birthday turned into a fundraising event.






27 November 2004, The Day I Turned 24.

I left my house a little past noon and drove myself to my bar's branch in Ortigas where I was throwing the party. I was meeting Jeane and Glady there at 1PM to decorate the place. I was actually nervous driving myself because people say that you should be extra careful on the day of your birthday because danger lingers. It's some superstition I believed because on A's birthday, we almost ran over someone. In fact, we had to take the guy to the hospital to check for injuries! But that's another story.

The moment they arrived, we hurriedly went to work. I had to leave by 4PM to get to my 5PM appointment at Bench Fix, where I'm getting a manicure, pedicure and my hair curled. We hung the silver stars and silver swirls we've been working on all week, the white crepe paper curtains, and our money meter, which keeps track of the money we've raised.

Stars hanging from the ceiling

I was surprised that we finished in time. I was actually worried that we wouldn't make it. We left the bar at 420PM while I moved my appointment to 530PM. I knew that on a Saturday afternoon, White Plains would be terrible and so earlier in the week, I looked for another route. True enough, I got home in 30 minutes, with a little time to grab something to eat and pass by the parish to donate the money. By 530 PM, I was sitting on a chair in Bench Fix. Everything was going according to my schedule. Perfect!

By 7PM, I left the salon and ran home (actually, I drove =p). I put on my makeup and put on my black flared skirt, my black halter top, which I altered a little so that it would have a deep V- neckline that would go down to my midriff and the hem ending right above my navel, and my sexy strappy sandals. It was my sexiest outfit to date. Sometime in between putting my makeup and dressing up, Glady and Jeane arrived at my house as they needed a ride to the party. After all the help they've done, it was the least I could do.

A arrived to pick me up at a little past 830. Thankfully, there was no traffic in White Plains and so we got to the venue by 9PM. On the way, I gave a little speech about how I greatly appreciated all their help in decorating the place. I knew they endured stressful days and sleepless nights- and aching backs- cutting stars and stringing them and as a way of showing my appreciation, I gave them both a gift certificate for either a Swedish/ Shiatsu/ Combination of Swedish and Shiatsu massage at one of my favorite spas. I gave A a gift cheque too because the week leading to my birthday and our anniversary, we were fighting constantly. =p

Needless to say, the party was a success. Many of my friends came, a lot of them I haven't seen in a long time. I had 5 shots of Tequila that night and was feeling woozy by then, partially because I didn't eat much that night. Perhaps, my favorite part of the night was when Jeane, Glady and I were counting the second batch of donations. We were all tipsy by then and so we had a hard time adding, either manually or with a calculator. After we got the figure right, (or so we thought, because later on, when we sobered up, we realized we were P1,000 over) we went to the money meter to update it. We were so tipsy that we had a hard time sticking the red strip of paper that indicated the amount we raised. Jeane couldn't stick the tape properly and kept saying, "Sh*t! I can't stick the tape right!" which we, in our drunken state, found so funny that we laughed so hard, I got teary eyed and almost peed on the spot. Good thing I remembered to hold it in.

But the tipsy-ness did not last. I sobered up when Cel and I had to rescue Riz in the bathroom because she was feeling dizzy and faint. It was a good thing her boyfriend ran to the bathroom with us and so he was able to catch her the moment she collapsed when we walked out the door. We revived her quickly by fanning her and letting her drink water. I think we just discovered that she's allergic to alcohol. She claims it was the first time for her to feel that way though she had beer before. (But I guess not beer AND tequila).

That night, we raised P20,440 and up to this day, there are still pledges coming in. I still haven't received the checks from my uncle, my aunt and an investor of one of our branches.

Many have told me that they were proud of me, that my way of celebrating my birthday is unique and that most of all, I'm teaching others to give. Some have told me that when I give to others, it will come back to me a thousandfold. What they don't know is that, I'm only giving back because I'm receiving so much.
Sometime during the party, I appoached my grandmother and sat with her.

Cat: Lola, you know what? I gave Pxx,xxx.oo to our church today. They need it to build the church.
Lola: Really, that's good! You know, when you give to the house of God, to the less fortunate, it will come back to you thousandfold. It may not be in the form of money, but in can come in other forms.
Cat: Well, actually, Lola, the reason why I donated to the church and I'm raising funds for Missionaries of Charity and Pacem is because I'm thankful for the many blessings I've received.
Lola: (Gets teary eyed) I'm happy for you! (And then we hug)
Cat: Lola, I learned that from you...
Lola: (Gets even more teary eyed and tries to laugh behind the tears) So you learned something good from me?
Cat: Everything I learned from you is good.

It was my first worthwhile and meaningful birthday. 24 years in the making.



EDIT: As of 02 December 2004, I've raised P40,440!!!