It's Never Too Late

The year is coming to a close, but the past two days saw me been pretty busy meeting up with long-missed friends for some pahabol Christmas gift-giving for 2008.

Gift-Giving #1: Reunion with GS Friends

“HA?! NGAYON BA YON?!?!?!”

I was frantically speaking with Vito over the phone that Monday afternoon. I just finished working out at the gym and just got out of the shower when I read a text from Gail, a good friend and classmate in graduate school, reminding us about our mini-reunion and exchange gift which was not until the next day. Or so I thought. Apparently, I got all mixed up with the date that I didn’t realize it was going to be on the 29th – that very same Monday – and not on the 30th, which I originally thought of all along. *Sigh* I was so underdressed for the occasion, having worn only my tee-and-jeans-with-flip-flops combo because I only had working out in my original agenda. Oh well, no time to rant ‘coz it’s not like I can do anything about the inevitable, right? So I was off to Bonifacio High Street where we’ll be meeting up, but had to do a quick stopover at Market! Market! for an emergency shopping of gifts worth Php 100, 50, and 20 which will be used for the exchange gift later on. Around 20 minutes after, I got to Pancake House in High Street, and Gail, Hershey and Tin were already there. Vito, Mac, Vench, and John arrived later on. Gail’s hubby, Vip, was also present. You can only imagine how it was chikka galore from where we were, and it seemed at that time that our table was the nosiest but we hardly cared; there was just sooo much catching up! The exciting part was the mechanics of our exchange gift. We were supposed to bring 3 unwrapped gifts each worth PhP 100, 50, and 20. The three groups of gifts were piled up at the center of the table according to their price. A shuffled deck of cards was used to determine how many gifts can a person collect: if he gets a JACK, he can choose any from the 20-peso gift; a QUEEN allows him a choice of any from the 50-peso and 20-peso gifts; a KING gives you the chance to choose one gift from 100-peso, 50-peso, and 20-peso gifts. That was the case until everyone gets his turn to pick from the deck of cards and there are no more cards left. For round two, it’s a similar mechanic but with a little twist: the deck of cards has been reshuffled, and everyone gets his turn to pick a card until no more cards was left on the deck. Only this time, a JACK gives you the chance to pick any gift that has been previously chosen, regardless of the price; a QUEEN allows you to choose 2 gifts; and a KING gives you the chance to take back 3 gifts. At the end of the day, everyone got to take home something. It was so much fun! We were planning on organizing a road trip for the crew, but we’ll have to wait until Gail gives birth to Baby Boy Garrido sometime late January of the coming year. Maybe we’ll go to Palawan, where Vench’s hometown is. Let’s see… ^_^


Gift-Giving #2: Coffee With Vic

After an hour of working out yesterday, I took a shower and went off to meet up with Vic, a good friend from way back during my Intel days. I caught up with him waiting at Nike Park in Glorietta 4, and we decided to have coffee at Starbucks. He was supposed to give me his Christmas present – the Green Archers 2009-2010 Team Calendar. I sooo love it! The calendar had pictures of the DLSU Green Archers taken during court action plus their respective birthdays as well. We spent a good deal of the next hour just talking about some stuff regarding work, family, and DLSU Green Archers, of course. I even suggested that why not come up with studio shots of the GA players in the upcoming team calendar for 2010, since it would appeal more to the female fans. (I hope they’d seriously consider it. Haha!) It’s just a shame that I wasn’t able to come up with anything to give Vic for Christmas; maybe I’ll just make it up to him next time we meet, like coffee or lunch on me. I was supposed to go somewhere with my parents later on so I had to cut our kwentuhan short since Cavite is still a long way from Makati. Nevertheless, it was so nice seeing him again, as his was one of those comforting familiar faces I can really count on when I’m in need of light conversations over coffee and something to munch on.