Dad's 61st

for my own purposes, 2004 ended yesterday, during the celebration of my dad's 61st birthday. This way of delineating time stems from the fact that i've mapped 2004 beginning with my dad's celebration last year. I think it was because of the profusion of good people and energy that was had during that night, one year ago. And well, when your father turns 60, you start imagining that he's hitting that decade when heart attacks and strokes are seen as the norm, and not freak occurences. In other words, it seemed as if a new era had began during that time, so it was also a new year.

understandably, this year's celebration was more subdued. two big men in our family, who were there last year, were no longer around. Uncle Caloy and Uncle Ron. It ended early, and was quite tame, except for the party ending magic mic sessions with Kel and Jorel. I got into the fray too, but was held back initially because earlier scores i had received from singing didn't rise above 60.

Cousin Pinky's kids (Paco and Pael) are adorable. They remind me and Kel of the two of us when we were kids. Paco is young Kelley. I wonder if that makes Pael young Fabian. For his sake, hopefully not entirely true. The precociousness I'd wish on him, but not the painful self-consciousness. Pinky doesn't seem as if she's a mom of two. She looks like someone in her late twenties. . .with flawless skin.

Nonoy came over this year. I hadn't seem in a while, so it was good to see my guwapo cousin. This year's running joke was that he was the Victor Basa who had joined the MTV Fashionista event and also doing the rounds of magazines in Metro, clad only in whatever skimpy attire. We talked a bit about plans for later this summer, since he wants to visit Coron / Concepcion. So does Kel. This heartens me coz it tells me that I've got family members who are interested in togetherness and bonding. Somehow, during the late 90s and the early 2000s, that didn't materialize as much for me.

This reminds me that I better schedule a time for my diving lessons soon.

Aside from this party, the only other thing I really did this weekend was go to the ADS tryouts, and that was, for a change, even interesting and entertaining. Some of the teams seem to be a little unorthodox; we'll see how the experiment bears out in the next few weeks.