Welcome home, Ms. Valera! Happy birthday, Pinky and Zamby!

25 Jan 2001. Lia Jovellanos' residence, Dasmarinas Village, Makati City.

Our teacher, Ms Deng Valera, was home from Denmark to attend the SPCM HS76 Silver Jubilee, and our classmates, Pinky Marquez and Zamby Arnaiz, were celebrating their birthdays…a happy, extra-special post-EDSA 2 celebration indeed! Clockwise from the back, left: Beth Reyes, Pinky Marquez, Ditas Santos, Lia Jovellanos, Cookie Yap, Bina Melwani, Myrna Soriente, Janette San Juan, Zamby Arnaiz, Sunny Escareal, Ms Valera, Dolly and Dettie Tesoro.

Sunny's report: Food, as usual, was overflowing. Palabok and cake (Beth, Sunny and Dolly), Chicken Curry (Bina), Mechado (Pinky), Tuna Belly (Janette), Spareribs (Dettie), Dilis and chocolate cake (Zamby), softdrinks and lumpia (Lia), softdrinks and icedrop (Ditas), 4 seasons juice (Sunny), bibingka (Myrna).

I wanted to surprise Zamby whose birthday on the 19th I completely forgot and was not able to greet her. So I decided to buy her balloons and a small cake with Happy Birthday Zamby on it. Problem was I was not able to brake at a hump and the cake fell to the floor. Ayun, Ha B..d... Zamb na lang ang natira. Bastus na Dolly pa, when she cut the cake, she took out the Zamb. Eh di walang natira. L

What I completely forgot was that it was also Pinky's birthday on the 23rd. So you could imagine what I felt when nagtampo si Pinky. Kasi when I told Zamby to blow the candle, I brought over the baloons and Pinky asked me whose balloons they were for. I said Zamby. She pouted and said "The least you could have said was 'sa inyong dalawa'" So I said, "You want me to lie?" She laughed and said "No!" So she gamely posed with Zamby and her balloons and then they both blew the one candle on the chocolate cake. Well, I was able to give Pinky one rose in a box and that helped ease my guilt of forgetting her birthday. Because of this, I decided not to give my gift to Zamby cuz I'll never hear the end of Pinky's sama ng loob sa akin. So I decided to wait for Pinky to leave so as to buy me time to prepare my gift for Pinky (utang ko pa).

When Pinky left, I gave the gift to Zamby. It was a small album of pictures taken during our meetings and reunions. Ang dami ko kasing extra copies. I thought I was out of the woods until Lia said "Ay! Bakit iyong kay Zamby naka-album? Iyong binigay mo sa akin, walang album?" Naku! Patay! Para akong nanay. Napakahirap talaga ng madami ang anak.......J

We asked Pinky about her involvement in the EDSA rallies cuz her name was always mentioned on television and radio. Imagine nagsisigawan sila ni Dettie who was on the flyover and Pinky who was on ground level. Dettie said, nakikipagaway si Cebuana doon sa isang driver and she was hitting the car. Pala, both Mari and Pinky were trying to stop Pinky's mother from fighting with a guy who made a thumbs up sign while passing EDSA. Sa dinami-dami ba naman ng tao sa EDSA, nagkita pa sila ni Dettie during that first night. The next night, Pinky say Yeyette and Alice D. Nakapulupot daw iyong dalawa sa poste ng Meralco shouting "PENKE! PENKE!" (Sama ng tunog!) "Tawagin mo naman kami when you are on stage!" Kapal..... mga showbiz talaga.

She also said that a photographer took a shot of her son Kevin on the shoulders of a friend and holding a sign that said "MACEDA - BELAT!" Buti na lang, iyon lang. Otherwise, mag-mamigrate na daw siya at baka daw siya tirahin. On second thought, malakas daw ang loob niya to stay. Kasi daw, the mistresses of Erap are Guia GomEZ, Laarni EnriquEZ, Joy MelendEZ. Baka raw Pinky MarquEZ and pwede na ring Zamby ArnaEZ, makahabol pa - like a bad dream! J She text us nga pala the week after the Sabado de Gloria and said "Boring na. Wala ng rally. Rally daw ulit para ibalik si Erap." Loka-loka!

Iyong ibang text message naman said "We should return Erap to Malacanang para may Erap jokes ulit." Wala talagang magawa ang mga Pinoy! Niloko nga namin si Pinky na when she gets married, "Text na lang ang invitations natin, sa EDSA shrine sila ikakasal and the EDSA na lang ang reception". Cheap pa, diba?

We got to talking about Beth Reyes. Deng asked Beth how she met and married Ces Lugtu. Nilasing daw siya ni Ces and hindi na pinakawalan. (Or was it "Nilasing daw niya si Ces…"? J ) Sabi ni Deng, "Sigue na Beth! Iyong totoo!" Say ni Beth "Ganun nga. Nilasing ako." Deng: "Hindi! Iyong totoo!" Sigaw ni Beth "Bakit ayaw niyo bang maniwala sa akin?!!!!!" Sigue na nga.

Asked Beth, "When we were in high school, kaya mo bang sigawan si Deng ng ganyan?" Beth: "Hindi! Takot ako diyan eh." Which brings me to the point, that our age, our teachers do not seem so old anymore the way we thought of them when we were still in school. We can even tell them our kalokohans. Tongue in cheek, Beth told Deng, "We have to confess. We cheated in your subject." (Hoy! Speak for yourself! J ) Beth has a theory. Kaya daw malapit ang batch natin kasi halos lahat - we have always "helped and taken care of each other" J . True?

The party ended at around 5 p.m.

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