Of Funerals and Other Updates

How do you know that you are truly getting old? No, it’s not the greying strands of hair.  Neither is it the dwindling number of times you get laid in a week as well.  You truly start to feel your age when the social gatherings/functions that you attend now include visits to hospitals or funerals.

Yesterday, at around 1am, Eugene’s (a good friend) father lost his battle to an advanced stage of alzheimer’s disease.  I was floored when I heard and I guess it put a damper on my morning.  So after ordering a funeral wreath and having it delivered, I went on with my day, corresponding with other friends who will be going to the wake later that night.  

Anyway, as always I went with Leejay, as he lives nearest to me and is the only one with the patience to pick me up and bring me home after such gatherings.  It was supposed to be a solemn event.  Afterall, death means a loss of a loved one and a reminder of our very own mortality.  I was expecting a lot of prayers and consoling of the bereaved, but I forgot one important factor.  That this was us.  The same group that you can never really dampen their spirits. 

So after arriving at Magallanes and finding a corner to hang out in.  The inanity started.   First, it was the giggling from the women friends, then the soft controlled laughter of the men, then later on the boisterous noise that only our group can create when we all get together. 

Some of these friends I have not seen in ages and it was refreshing to sit down with them and catch up on a lot of things.  Gina (pronounced as Jyna) was asking how I was, all the while thinking that I was still sulking from my failed marriage. Tina, whose infectious laughter reverberated almost all night.  The giant Gerrick, our network guru who came with Tina and Gina.  Irwin and the regal Juneann, who arrived late together with Paul, who after Leejay telling on me that I bought books in Powerbooks, could just not let it go.  Then there was Joet, who is still wrangling me to open a retail store for highend electronics, who came together with his beautiful wife Sab. Then  Steve  (who has ballooned. it’s true pawe you have! hehehe.) with his classy wife Vika (how you managed to net this one befuddles me man). And of course Eugene and Michelle, the king and queen of Blue Leaf.

We attended mass (good thing the steam coming out of my body went unnoticed), and was supposed to have dinner which we totally forgot because of the nonstop chatting and laughter. Met a couple of new people but didn’t get to meet Leejay’s supposed “template” for the woman he will marry (who turns out to be a very pretty, but very much married woman.  Well I guess that’s why she’s just a template).

Anyway, we left around 11pm and had dinner at Pancake House in Magallanes, where we continued our bantering.  Leej, going on and on, on  how’s about me giving out dividends this year (he’s one of my shareholders)   and trying to go one up against me by telling me that he has given dividends to his stockholders already.  Then there was Paul,  making sure to let me know that he will be opening Fullybooked stores in Trinoma, EDSA Shangri-La, Cebu and another place that my memory fails to remember.

Got home 12am. With the guards at the gate of the condo saluting me and Leejay, saying that they probably think we are lovers that just had a “busy” night at brokeback mountain.  Tsk, tsk, tsk. 

What a way to go to a funeral.  At least, in our own special way, we may have taken some of the sadness that Eugene may be feeling at the moment.