Hurricane Steph blew in and out of Metro Manila like most any hurricane: sudden, forceful, and leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Destruction mostly means bleary eyes and waking up late, though. And not going to work. Steph arrived Thursday night; me and Neva and Efren and Rocky and (surprise!) Mia Loyola picked her up at the airport. It was the first time I'd seen Mia since they graduated, and she looked pretty good. Her hair's longer now, but other than that she hasn't really changed much. Right after we picked up Steph, as we were pulling out of the airport, Mia goes "Ay, dito na lang pala ako." Nyeh. She had a 1 AM flight back to Cebu (it was 11 PM) because she had duty the next day at the hospital. Seems she was only here for an interview. Sayang, but at least we got to see her for a few minutes.

From there we dumped Steph's luggage at Neva's place, where she would be staying, and proceeded to California Pizza Kitchen, where Quark, Ernan, and Chris followed. Of course, we caught Steph up on almost 2 years of stories and chismis. Ernan showed us the pictures he recently put up on his blog. When it was obvious that CPK's employees were just waiting for us to leave, we moved on over to Heckle & Jeckle, a seedy bar in the Makati Ave. area full of GROs and Caucasian foreigners, which was a regular haunt of Chris's back when he was working for Juice (back when there was a Juice). We stayed outside the place until about 4, just laughing and talking and catching up with one another. It was a lot of fun, and tiring.

The next day I met up with them for a late lunch. Them being Steph, Quark, and Harvey.

You normally need Photoshop filters to get a smile that wide but Steph can do it fine.



Harvey with his recently-shorn hair.



"Diba ganito lagi yung itsura ng mga candid conversation shots?"

Efren joined us later; he'd skipped work. Quark and Harvey had to go back to work, so after they'd left the three of us remaining went to Ateneo. Steph wanted to see the changes and additions to the campus, and we were supposed to sit in on a class taught by Larry, their batchmate and fellow Heightser, but we were too late due to traffic (Friday, payday, and sale day: triple threat).

After picking up Larry and after Redge joined us, we went to the new and improved cafeteria, and I went to the pubroom, bumping into Jeline, Naya, Sigh, and Nikko. Then everyone went to the pubroom, where we got copies of the new Heights issue. It just so happened that the damuhan group (comprising the Heightsers of Neva's batch) were planning on having a poetry reading that night, which was derailed by Steph's arrival.

Jeline caught in the headlights.



Naya attributes her weight loss to working for Clinton Palanca.



Here's Larry appraising Jeline's portfolio. A terrified-looking Jeline is to his left.



Steph, Redge, and Efren.

So we showed Steph Ateneo's new swanky cafeteria, and the Church of the Gesu (it was my first time inside it, as well).

Jesus!





The camera couldn't take the distance, which is why it's blurry.

There was an actual mass going on when I was taking these, and they were looking at me because I was lying down on the pews at one point. They might've been pissed, but I wasn't looking at them. Steph was just cackling like a hyena. What's the female form of hyena, anyway?

Then we convened at Sweet Inspirations, after picking up Ceres and Mely at Dunkin Donuts. Slowly, one by one, people arrived: Paul Sta. Ana, Ernan, Neva, Ivy.

Paul S, Ceres, Ernan, Efren, Redge.



Redge, Mely, Larry, Neva, Steph.



Ceres and Larry, who are usually at one another's throats, share a Kodak moment.



Mely has a job now that requires her to eat chocolate all day.

These guys were all seniors when I was a freshman at Heights, and some of them are Neva's closest friends. What I found amazing was that even though they hadn't really seen each other in a while, they were behaving as if no time had passed at all. As if it were another lazy afternoon back in the pubroom (back when it was still in Colayco and not in Gonzaga), and I had the option of going back and forth between the AMP room if I so wanted. Topics would jump crazily with abandon, and old expressions were still being used. Come to think of it, it was like that at CPK, too.

After that we zoomed over to Power Plant to catch Some Fila Thing. The only reason we were going was because Donita was going to be wearing a dress by Mich. And it's open bar, so…

I wonder why Quark is so rigid in this picture? And what's up with that eye on the left? You'd think I was trying to kill the guy or something.



Steph can't help hamming it up for the camera, even if she is in the background.



Hmm… what's Chris doing here?



O, reflexivity! You can see Chris's pic on his blog in a few days.



Lia shows off the results of her brushing nightly.



I don't even remember if we were striking a pose anymore. Doesn't look like it, though.



One of my favorite pictures of this couple. Their expressions are precious. Had to turn off the flash because I liked the color. Cute, no?

'Twas a blast. Steph pushed her flight back a couple of hours so she could attend and finally meet Mich, who she's familiar with as a blogger. They got along really well, which made us glad.

There was some contest where you had to take shots if you were wrong so Hannah went up and got everything wrong on purpose. That's Ducky with the cap.



Then it was Goldie's turn. Donita tried to trick her into revealing her real age (15) but our Goldie knows her math so she got her shot! Yay! I think Donita was getting a little pissed, though.

We then proceeded with the usual: making fun of others, catching up on chezmez, and hollering for Dos. Yes, Dos and his hair graced the event.

Ha!



Haha!



Hahaha! I don't like any of these clothes.



I took this so that there'd be at least one picture I could send to our high school class mailing list that wouldn't embarrass ol' Dos. That's Mich's dress Donita's wearing. And is that other guy cupping his balls?



Chris here is wincing at some joke made at his expense but I can't remember what it was. Whatever it is, it must've been funny. I mean, look at his face! Hahaha!



Aww…



Chris cops a feel. Someone's getting a full stocking this Christmas.

We ate at Hapchan afterwards.

Another awww... as in "Yawwwn!"



Mich couldn't wait to get her hands on sum. Dimsum, that is.



Arty pic 1.



Arty pic 2.



Arty pic 3.

--

On Saturday I went to Arnold's signing at PowerBooks Glorietta.

A fan gets his book signed. Two cheap shits read on the floor in the corner.



Of course Ate Cyn was there to lend support and snap some shots.



I even bumped into Joey "Yuppie" Tolosa who was there buying Christmas gifts (or so she says; I saw her going straight for the Erotica section).



Here Arn's trying to stop Ate Cyn from recounting an embarrassing tale. hehehe



I try the arty shot on Ate Cyn.

After the signing we had a long snack at Saint Cinnamon and caught up with each other again, exchanged some newsbits, talked about this and that until Neva came and we had to go to Marikina for Neva's brother's birthday.