Rey's Blog: 32nd Wedding Anniversary

I have to admit, friend and high school buddy Mike Estacio has always been my most consistent nagger about updating my blog.

The following are some of his messages either through text, YM or eMail:

"I guess, there's nothing new yet, it's still on typhoon Frank."

"Nope, nothing this morning yet, it's PHS Graduation Ceremonies."

"Hey, what's going on? I'm tired of seeing Indo's butt all over my screen?"

Let me explain, Mike lives here! He's from Villa Victoria - about 10-15 minutes drive from our place depending on the traffic. So Donna goes, "Why doesn't he just call you on the phone and talk to you and get updates that way?"

Yeah, Mike, why don't you?

On the other hand I have to thank him because he's one of the reasons why I push myself to post my updates...

Before I left for the States last April, I was torn on my schedule but one thing was certain. I was not going to miss our wedding anniversary. Donna's always maintained that annivesaries are more important than birthdays because birthdays will come and go no matter what. Whereas anniversaries are special because each year there's no guarantee you'll still be celebrating it with your spouse. As I've mentioned in my previous blog, I was at a loss on what to give her. When we were in Spain last year and we visited Ronda, she bought this poster of a picture of the place taken in the early 1900's with water flowing in it's now dried up creeks. I thought of having the poster framed for her gift. I arranged it so my niece Jack will pick it up from the frame shop once it's done because I may not have the time to do it myself when I come back from California.

Along the same lines, have I mentioned that I also had a bunch of my digital pictures blown up through COSTCO? We had them framed and they came out GREAT! We even had a quilt framed. It's a gift Rach and Eph received on their wedding last year. It had a silhouette of a bride and groom in the middle. We had one of their wedding pictures printed and had it mounted in that spot instead.

Anyway, back on the Anniversary..

Neither Bishop Bobet nor Apung Sito were available to celebrate mass here at our house so my sister-in-law Gay got a hold of one of her priest friends Fr. Mon Torres to do it on their behalf. He brought with him three choir boys one of which was a keyboard player. Friend Nelia Gonzales did the reading.

After the mass Donna brought out a couple of big bags of those fun sized chocolate bars that we used to give away during Halloween and gave them away to our guests. People went crazy on those goodies, including the priest!

Donna had already contracted cousin-in-law Malou of Fisherman's Grill for the catering. There was all kinds of food. She and her crew came the day before to set up the tables and chairs.

And since it's my birthday, Leda baked and decorated several cakes for me. Aren't I special?? :-)

Donna invited a lot of people. Our high school classmates JASHS Class '70 came. It so happened that Dandy and husband Tan from California were in town on vacation so they made it. Dandy's flight was for that night so they hung out till late. Her flight was at Clark. Joy Pangan came all the way from Manila where she lives nowadays. Dan Garcia came late because he had to tend his grocery business.