As was the first 17 years of my life, my 18th Valentine’s Day came and went without me having much of a love life.

       But what made it quite interesting was I celebrate it with the company of friends, classmates and students.

      I had NSTPCWS throughout much of the day. We were assigned to serve and teach some 20+ grade school students as young as 6 and as old as 14 in the isolated community of Baseco Compound in Port Area, Manila. To make the long story short, I had a great time with the kids, not to mention seeing the smiles of my other groupmates: Simon, Topher, Judge, GM and Raymond, all of them who were so in glee.

   We left the place in high spirits, compared to the not so satisfying feeling we all had early in the morning.
 
    As the sun sets at dusk, I headed north to meet up with Jeco and friend for something he’d been concocting. We met up in MC Square (Malabon Citisquare) and with him were Dianne, MR, Yoko, Chamy and Mark. Jeco now has his license a months back thus he’s able to drive one of his family’s cars (I assume).

    We all had dinner together then went on to the reason of our gathering. Jeco want us to share our critical analysis as a consumers on a couple of ad campaign he and his group in DLSU-M been working on, entitled “Focus Group Discussion”.  His presentation was produced using Keynote.

     Each of the ad campaigns were all about this certain product, composed of a couple of TVC and print ads. Questions were asked and r “full, honest-to-goodness” answers were given.

      Nevertheless, we had such a good time. Special circle of arts and marketing-oriented students summoned to become the greatest force of critics beyond time and space. LOL

   Yes, I may be tired from all tht has happened but I’ve never felt this happy. Even if I’ve yet to see the only one for me, at least I now have a reason to celebrate Valentine’s.

Set in 1/500 sec shutter speed and aperture ranging around f/3.5 to f/5.6

Shot in Bulacan

Weird as it is, it’s happening whenever I step inside the SDA Building. Three different people, 2 guys and a girl, I would always see at 50% of the time when I’m in the hallways, in every single floor I’ve been to up to now.

1. Mr. Pretty Boy-I remember this guy specifically. It was a a few days before my birthday, it was the last day of finals week, a Friday, and it was the day when I went into this media-talk seminar at the 12th floor SDA Cinema (the smaller one). This guy is one of the those who’re organzing the event. I’m guessing he’s either a 105, a 106, or a 107 (transferee possibly).

Since then I’ve been seeing him all around campus, especially late 2nd term and now 3rd term of the current year. I would bump into him in the elevator, at the lobby, the 10th floor hallway, the SDA Caf, outside the school near the supposed “No Smoking” area or even as far as in the CSB Theater in Main when we both attended a NSTPCWT Mass (meaning he’s taking NSTP 2 as of the moment) that held there.

2. Mr. Blue Long-Sleeved Polo Guy with Glasses-The first meeting between me and this guy was way awkward. I was in 1008 netsurfing and I was not informed that the PC I was using I had it logged out from its previous user. The previous user (the Blue Polo guy) came back and saw me using that PC. He told me politely that he was still using it thus he left it with his account still logged on. I apologized, moved to another PC and went on with my life. However, just when I was about to leave, I checked my bag and I was about to leave with it.

But it wasn’t my bag. Turns out it’s the guy’s. I was so embarassed, I didn’t have an idea of what I was doing. His bag looked exaclty like mine: big, ‘strappy’, and dark blue. I finally saw where my REAL bag is, which was right next to his. I took it and left the premises.

Since then, there have been instances that I would see him in places I don’t expect him to be. Like Person Most Likely I would Bump Into #1, there’d be days where we would be in one place, like the hallway, the lobby and, this afternoon, at the Caf in SDA!

3. Miss 108 Gal-I’m not really used on being greeted upon in ways similar to how I would greet people. When I greet people, I mean it. It’s a day-to-day routine that I had since grade school. But having the routine shot back at me was so much of a big surprise.

I met Miss 108 sometime after 1st term started. Since that initial meeting, she’d greet me when she sees me. There was also this time when I was being greeted by her but didn’t recognized her (In college, you can’t really expect sophomore to get the feeling of feeling “frosh”-y while still early in their second year). Kinda awkward being greeted by people a batch younger than me so I wasn’t comfortable with it at first.

The appearances would continue well up until this time. It’s only now that these instances have been decreasing but I now got the hang on being greeted instead of me greeting them younger dudes and dudettes. Most likely I’d see her would be a)lobby, b)elevator, c)SDA Caf, and d) 9th floor (the new 5th floor Mutien Marie Hall for ID 108).

———————

Do you find this weird or am I just paranoid? Noticing too few of a people you won’t most likely hang out with but most likely you’d see his face around on campus the same way you’d see a hundred other faces walking the halls of Benilde.

    When I first saw him, I thought he looks someone very familair. I took a second look and realized it is him. No, he’s not the one I was referring in my previous entry.

     Tito Bong is my dad’s old buddy in college, and he, as of what I know about him, teaches art in a university in Bulacan. When I saw him again earlier this afternoon, I didn’t hesitate and called out his name.

    Turns out, he’s currently in his first term in his new teaching job. He’s a prof fo Comgrap and Deskpub. Too bad though. Had I known he was teaching, I would have sign for his class instead of choosing a Deskpub prof who’s been on-and-off in class for a few weeks already, which I have as my own. We haven’t been doing heavy stuff which we should have been doing by now.

Last thing he said was “Say hello to your dad for me!” Hehehe…