The ‘Bulaklak ng Katuray’

I had the last taste of the vegetable when I was craving for food while pregnant with my first child, Kay.  The mother-in-law cooked sweet and sour lapu-lapu and I hated it.  Everybody in the table was in for a joyous ride with the deliciously cooked lapu-lapu while I sulk.  Suddenly, I smelled something at Ate Rose’s house nearby.  Lo, it was pinakbet with bulaklak ng katuray.  It was surprisingly good and very tasty as I remember it.  Among the veggies in that pinakbet was the ‘bunga ng malunggay’.  I devoured the whole plate of pinakbet  with gusto to the shock of everybody.  It’s a good thing though that they understood how it is like with a pregnant woman.  😀

Image from http://www.marketmanila.com

There is a story though.

It was about an experience in my elementary days when a rowdy boy classmate called me ‘bulaklak ng katuray’.  You know, the usual name-calling when we were all very young, naughty (bad?), or unthinking.  I did not understand why but it sounded bad to me because he and the other boys were laughing very hard.  It did not leave my memory – the boy, the scene, the laughter.  Perhaps I looked like a ‘bulaklak ng katuray’ whatever that means that time.  I can actually surmise now and make a long list of why he called me that name.  The thing is it does not have an effect on me now honestly.  I remember being hurt that time but not like carrying the (emotional) hurt until now as one of the classmates implied.   How could one brood on memories like that and be bitter about it when understandably, we were all very young and very different from what we are now?  Besides, looking at the bulaklak ng katuray in that image above, how could I be slighted?  If only I knew that time how it looked like, I could have felt proud to be compared with that pretty cream-colored petals of a flower.  I could have danced and be cheated instead with the thought ha ha.

Anyway, it always feels good to see once again classmates in the elementary and high school days albeit in pictures.  It is interesting to see how my crushes look like now.  It is interesting how the girls had bloomed to lovely middle-aged women (of course, it also goes with the boys).

Reunited

Last Friday, July 20, I went to see some batchmates in high school through the invitation of Digna.  Remembering Papsie’s words about invitations, I accepted even though I was not sure how I will go along with these girls who were not my classmates with only a few of them I can recall.  Honestly, I cannot exactly remember Digna in person.  I only got to know her and be acquainted with her again on Facebook.   I was thankful though that I decided to go and discover how cool it is to be reunited again with batchmates/schoolmates after more than two decades with an exemption of a few who I had met a lot of times already the past months.    Thanks a lot to Digna for this experience.

It was nice meeting them and getting to know about them and their family.  It made me think that a lot of things had changed not to mention ‘how we’ve grown’.  It is such a nice feeling to discover the person in each of them.  We had a lot of laughs and exchanged nasty jokes even.  I have to say it was a really fun night exclusively for the girls.  😀

A date with Digna de Vera

Just last March this year, we also had a date with Edna Rosales.  We also had lots of fun and laughter, thanks a lot to Joven and everybody.  The boys were invited here.

A date with Edna Rosales

Last year, July, 2011, Leonie Cacatian Choa invited us also to have dinner with her.  I was so glad to see her again.  It was only in Facebook that I get to know the real Leonie who was a really funny and kind person.  She was more than that when I met her again in person.  I felt welcome and accepted.  I like feeling the feeling of friendship all over.

A date with Leonie Choa

In November, 2010, Flor invited us all to her birthday celebration which surprisingly was held at the house of our adviser, Mrs. de Jesus.  This composed of classmates mostly.  I had donned a sports attire because Flor said to bring my badminton set.  The time ran out because it was not enough for the stories.

Flor’s birthday

After the batch get together in 2010, Helen Esguerra Amigable invited us last September, 2010, the class of IV-1 Marangal where she was staying.  This was my first time to attend an invitation.  There was booze, lots of laughter and reminiscence.  It was a fun night, too.  I went home late.

A date with Helen Amigable

Reunions are fun.  Gone were the days of vanity and insecurity and competition.  These are moments of reuniting with friends, and perhaps, non-friends, but void of intentions to show off, well at least to me, it is.  These are moments of getting to know more, of hugging a dear friend to let her feel how she or he was missed.  These are moments of rediscovery, of finding treasures once more.  😀  Says Lilibeth, in a comment, “Ulitin natin ‘to!”  😀

It Does Not Seem to End

Helen

I am amused that up until now, my high school classmates had not gotten off from the excitement of throwing banters at the posted pictures in Facebook.  They seem to have liked it so much to exchange jokes at everybody.  If one is ‘pikon’ surely he will be the object of it all.  So high-school-ish.  Ha ha  It does not seem to end.  Not that I wanted to end but the exchange have not died until now.  It is one way for everybody actually to experience laughter virtually.

On another note, Helen, the one who sponsored a party for our high school class, is going back to the US.  Back to work actually.  I was told she had not missed a day visiting places here in the Philippines and eating Filipino dishes in all her days of vacation.