Move Along

For the past three years July has kinda sucked. I smell a pattern here. July is like the reality bitch slapping month and August has been the recovery month. July has been giving me headaches, disappointments and unwanted circumstances. She made it two in a row for me this year.

The first time it happened was about three years ago, I coped up so badly that I became a whiner, listened to Rammstein all over again and was ready to bite off anyone who annoyed or I deemed irritating for no apparent reason. The succeeding years I did better with impulsive book shopping and binge drinking.

I was suddenly caught off guard with whirlwind drama this month - I just don't want to divulge it here. Let's just say its some left over drama at home that has been reopened and overwhelming petty conflicts among friends that left me a little bit guilty of the nature of the incident. And not to mention the drift apart among friends from different crowds continued. All of these incapacitated me for a day but instead of moping around I gave myself less than twenty fours to take it all in -whimper silently, prayed for peace and let out a good emotional cry. Then I was back on track.

Though wanting July to be over means that judgment day also known as the greatest exams of my life thus far will be nearer, I think it will be worth it. It is inevitable anyway and I just need a fresh start desperately.

And like the previous Augusts, I am hoping for the best that August will be excellent. I will make it sure that August will be awesome. So this year no birthday dramas for me and I'm not even planning to celebrate. I just want to spend it like I would spend any ordinary day. This August I will be enjoying back the things I missed, going back to the basics and just try to attain peace of mind. So August, better not rain on my parade, you owe me again this year!

Let me leave you with some words of wisdom from The All American Rejects: "When everything is wrong, we move along" and that's what I am doing exactly. Here's to more happy times and better days ahead!

This post is dedicated to Patient D.E. Thank you for all the learning you taught me. You have shown courage and optimism in battling terminal illness. As you have told as your life story, I have realized that we should make the best of what we have, that time is precious and it will be taken anytime, sooner that we think and love does transcend anything. You have shown grace in your ordeal. Rest in peace and I know that God will give you rest and He'll continue to look after your family.

Birthday Boy

If our lives were a TV show, this would be it as the poster says. Stupendous Man is the one labeled "Idealist". The four of us hanged out every break there is during college. We all went to the same high school.

Today is the natal day of Stupendous Man currently M.I.A. from the rest of the world and was claimed to be spotted in the city of Los Angeles, California.

Bingo and I went to the same high school. But during those four years we never got the chance to be classmates and my perception of this person was that he was weird. He had an odd way of walking to class from the school gate, mountaineer backpack, guitar on right hand and tool box looking lunch box on the left. Our only interaction was usual conversation about movies, forgettable random stuff and me, laughing while he makes comments about the most mundane things but yet it was enough to make me crack up.

We also went to the same college together but different majors, but it was the during sembreak of 2004, in our senior year in college were I got to know who the real Bingo was. It was our frequent hang outs through mutual friends, in the mall which was mostly talking and ranting about life - the latest animes, coolest books, funniest movies, pigging out while our metabolism was still efficiently fast, playing video games in the arcade and sharing playlists.

I admire Bingo's subtlety, his quirky often times sarcastic yet happy outlook in life and his intellect. Yes, he can start off a very interesting cerebral conversation anything from politics to medicine to just living. He watches and updates himself with the latest animes and his taste is very eclectic too. He is well read and even opens Hamlet just for fun on a boring weekend afternoon. He likes eating grilled hamburgers and drinking cups of coffee and never ever gets fat. He is one great writer. He is one of the most interesting people I've met and I'm glad I did to get to know him deeper beyond the skin and preconceived notions.

Four years ago, he left for greener pastures and mostly we only get to send e-mails every now and then during special occasions.

To Stupendous Man, I wish you all the best this life has to offer, success and stability and happiness and peace of mind. Come back soon. Let's have dinner and you owe us four years worth of long engaging conversations like we used to have of course over a cup of coffee.

Drunken Stories Part III

After writing the previous two blog posts about how I become really stupid when I am intoxicated, it got me to thinking last night that I have left out a couple of more pointless incidents when I am hammered. So just to make this a trilogy like Lord of The Rings I have concocted and remembered a couple more.

Some time January 2007 with a couple of friends from med school on a friend's birthday
I was tipsy and angst filled on this particular period of my life and a little too much to drink than usual...
Me: (getting all aggressive and challenging Friend I) Hey you, you know what I don't like you guts blah blah blah blah (then insults came flying out my mouth)
Friend I: What the f*** did I do blah blah blah blah (defending himself)
Me: Blah blah blah (more insults I could not remember everything)
Friend I: Yeah why don't we deal with this with a fist fight!
Me: Sure (unafraid, though we are the same height he was ten pounds or so heavier than me)
Friend I: Let's get it on!
Me: (covering my mouth about to vomit and then I ran all the way to the sink and puked everything I had that night)
Friend I: Look's like its not going to happen (smirking)
Me: (with vomitous on the side of my mouth and crying) Nooo!!! I still want to fight!!!

December 2008, Post Christmas Party Drinking Spree with med school classmates
We were talking about something really random and trivial probably Twilight. I had too much to drink again and I was dizzy. And so is everyone but still they made sense
Friend J: Yeah, great night and blah blah then laughs...
Friend K: (laughs along) blah blah blah
Me: Yeah totally (laughing while swinging myself in a this plastic chair)
And then all of a sudden BAM! It was me laying down on the gravel because I had fallen together with the chair with my feet up.
Friend J: Hey why can I only see your shoes and not your head... (super confused)

Christmas Party 2003 with college friends
We were drinking again as usual and I had like ten glasses of this seemingly deceptive drink - it tastes like juice but it was full of rum. Now I am a bit slurred... Friend L was doing the usual things a tanggero would do and he was trying to make me more drunk.
Friend L: Hey this is yours (offering me a glass of that deadly drink)
Me: NO! (shouting)
Friend L: Take it, you can't pass up
Me: NO (then slaps Friend L on the right cheek)
Friend L: Take it!!
Me: NO, I Don't want to! (slaps Friend L on the left cheek)
Friend L: Take it! (getting frustrated)
Me: No! (slaps him one more time on the right)
Friend L: THIS IS NOT A SOAP OPERA! DRINK!
Me: NOOOOO (then slaps Friend L back to back four more times!)
Friend L: (shocked then laughs) Okay! (then drinks from the glass that I refused)

Post Board Exams Party
Man, we were drinking right and left right after our medical technology board exams.
Friend M: Hey it is your turn again
Me: (drinks the beer) Ugh, excuse me I got to go vomit... (Then I vomited and came back)
Friend M: Hey it's your turn again... (trying to get me drunk, obviously)
Me: Nope just had a glass before I went to the bathroom
Friend M: Nope, it's really yours.
Me: (somewhat irritated) Are you sure?
Friend M: Yeah. Go, don't keep us waiting
Me: (splashes the beer to her face in front of everyone) I'm DONE!!! (then returns the glass to her)

And not counting about those times that pillow fights ensued, vomiting in front of public establishments, puking then drinking right after, the painful headaches the next day, the missed lectures, the almost failed quizzes and everything in between. After my exams I will definitely drink and drink. 31 days to go and more crazy stupid tales to come!

Drunken Stories Part II

As I have indirectly declared in the previous blog post that this is Sobriety Celebration Week for me, and no, I will not be sharing more embarrassing tales of the alcoholic, but instead I am counting down my Top 5 Favorite Drunken Moments, in descending order.

1.) Badian Outing - November 13 - 14, 2004

This was the most fun outing in my entire college life. Twenty five of my fellow medical technology interns and I rented a two-storey, six-bedroom, three-bathroom beach house three and a half hours from the city which has a pool and a private beach among the amenities for the weekend. So pre-Jersey Shore! Blame it on Tanduay on the rocks and Gilbey's with Boracay (the cocktail) as chaser which ended up into one wild crazy night. We played this game in which we used our lips to pass around a credit card around a circle. We didn't even mind that the credit card fell into the ground a couple of times but we still used it anyway. There were also a couple of accidental smooches. As the night progressed, cannonball dives became frequent, trash talking started over the games and I sobbed, rolled down the lawn and puked on the sand. The morning after, left me with no recollection of the events, no idea who changed my wet clothes for me and waking up with a classmate passed out on the lawn chairs in her bikini, another one slept dipped in the pool and a catch up breakfast of the prior night's hulla balloos!

2.) Sinulog 2009

This was the "Med Girls Gone Wild Sinulog". If you have not gotten wasted during the Sinulog ever, then you haven't fully embraced it's party significance factor. My classmates and I had set up a table with food and drinks (mostly alcoholic) in Arlington Pond, the little street connecting F. Ramos St. and Osmena Boulevard. Our spot was perfect! Not too far of a walk if you want to see the parade and not too far if supplies run out. We grilled fish and pork Filipino style, gobbled up Lucky Me pancit canton and even had Black Sambo for dessert. We started drinking as early as one thirty in the afternoon. Then the fun began. Playing guitar hero, dancing and randomly pulling strangers and foreigners passing by to bump and grind with, tequila straight up with no lemons or even calamansi, making requests at our DJ (yup beside our table there was a DJ complete with a turn table, speakers and disco lights), chain smoking, face plants in the ground, pop and lock showdown, bottles of red horse, lovers fight, confrontations and not a care in the world. It was a mass release of people's inhibition occurring simultaneously on one plane! At around six thirty in the evening, I took a walk across Jones Boulevard and because I had too much to drink, I sat down on the sidewalk and fell asleep. When I woke up thirty minutes later, I was okay with no stab wounds whatsoever, phone and wallet still in my pockets and man, I felt good!

3.) Kawasan Spontaneous Trip - April 18, 2007
This trip was planned in a hurry. It was summer already and after two weeks of exams - orals, written and practicals, we just needed to get away. We did not even care where as long as there was booze and food. We decided on Kawasan falls since we were deficient on funds. Boy, it was a riot. With two bottles of tequila and one case of Red Horse Grande, we disturbed the serenity of the environment at two in the morning as we shouted, laughed out loud, splashed water and soda to each other, played Truth or Consequences and Twenty Questions, and bashed people. After the overnight trip, a new clique was formed.

4.) Christmas Party 2005
It has become a yearly tradition with my college barkada to hold a Christmas party at a friend's house. The Christmas party is basically composed of eating, exchanging gifts and drinking till who is left standing. That year it was special because it was the first Christmas after graduating from college. We were all professionals now after passing the board exams four months prior but we chugged tequila and beer like non-professionals. I puked a brownish bilious vomitous and splashed soda to anyone who tried to coaxed me into drinking more.

5.) Post Trivia Drinks at Alejandro's
Ever since I joined Group 12, it has become a tradition for us to drink after the game win or lose to unwind, talk, quiz each other more. This is where I had vomited on the ice bucket, passed out on the chair after having too many Weng-Wengs (those pitchers are deceptively deadly!), shouted, and quiz my team mates on Filipino movies. What I love about drinking booze and getting drunk in here is letting your inner geek surface without being ostracized.

Drink Moderately!

Drunken Stories Part I

I'm proud to say that I have been sober for 30 days already. The longest time that I have engaged myself in sobriety was way back in early 2008 were I did not imbibe any alcohol on my system for three months. I still consider myself a social drinker borderline binge drinker plus cheap drunk. It is good to be sober and not get wasted but there are times when it is fun getting drunk. Here are some of my memorable drunken conversations.

Friend A:(has had a few drinks already cause he's getting chatty) What's your favorite year of your life so far?
Me: (also has had a few drinks, getting more chatty): 2004 because I discovered the powers of alcohol! (I realized what a shallow answer)

Drinking on a now defunct restobar:
Friend B: Let's have a contest, whoever empties a bottle of beer first, bottoms up, wins!
Me: Okay! Go!
(We both then chugged down our beers until halfway I gave up. Friend B continued and gave up until it was almost empty.)
Ten minutes later...
Friend B: I gotta go pee
Me: Okay... (slightly intoxicated)
BAM! Then I turned around, Friend B was on the floor with handbag contents scattered all over!

On a college outing, classmates and I were playing some sort of a drinking game:
Friend C: (More confident and aggressive this time, after consuming a bottle of rum and talking to me) Man, you f****ng suck so bad at this!!
Me: (Very, very intoxicated all flushed and probably 100 mg/dL blood alcohol level)
Why.. Why. Why do you hate me so muuuuuccchhh!!!!! (Then bursts into tears!)

A Post Birthday Drinking Spree of A Friend
Friend D: (also very intoxicated and a cheaper drunk than me)Blah blah blah (he's all sluggish)
Friend E: (calls out Friend D) Yoohoo, your crush from school is here (extends her left foot)
Friend D then kisses her left foot thinking it was his crush's hand!
Me: Shit!

Post concert drinking spree
Friend F: The band was awesome! (She's a little bit inebriated but still sensible but can't seem to stop talking about the concert)
Me: Okay, okay (then splashes Friend F's face with cola ala Cherie Gil to Sharon Cuneta in "Bituing Walang Ningning".
Friend F: (in shock... then speechless)

Another post birthday drinking spree:
Friend G: (hammered, can barely walk in heels, emotional) I'm never drinking again ever! And I'll quit loving him...
Me: (intoxicated as usual): Yeah right!
Friend G: I'll show you (then she suddenly knelt in front of an open sewage system and vomited and cried simultaneously)
Me: Drama Queen!

Post Trivia Drinking Spree while playing post trivia drunken trivia:
Me: Guess the movie, Leonardo di Caprio, Cate Blanchett, Alan Alda...
Everyone: The Aviator!
Me: (pulls out the ice bucket and pukes like hell for a minute or so) Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen
Friend H: There is puke on your lips... and it's Closer!

- In Vino Veritas -
(I forgot who spoke of this)