October 2, 2005 – Pinay New Yorker

I started getting invites to join Friendster in 2003, but I never really joined until a few weeks ago perhaps for lack of anything better to do. Even my e-group from St. Paul College of Quezon City which is basically Yahoo based sent an invite, so I said, why not?

I have 21 friends to date and around half a dozen other invites pending. One of the original friends who invited me hasn’t logged on for months. I have been checking into my main page daily to see who else is here and to check on any updates on those on my list. I have managed to find at least 2 nephews, one of who was a favorite godchild of mine. I have two former assistants who became very good friends, my siblings (of course) and even my bestfriends are here.

Yesterday I searched for the “kids” of friends I was known as “Tita Dinna” to for the longest time. I remember them as one or two year old babies, as 10 years boys doing homework, and now I am humbled to see them in their 20s, the youngest of whom I met when she was 3 now posting at 17 years old.

Even their faces have changed so much from the young tykes I used to play with. One young man we had helped to convince to go through the ritual of puberty, circumcision, I heard is starting a career of his own.

While I am afraid to ask for them to allow me to add them to my friends list lest it be deemed “uncool”– I couldn’t help but marvel at their presence as young adults here on Friendster.

I remember swimming parties, birthday parties, dinners at their houses with their mothers.. how one little boy didn’t want to give up the bottle but whom we talked into taking his milk from a glass as he was a young man now.

Seeing them all grown up now makes me feel so old, and here I am nurturing a sixteen month old son who, I hope, will grow up taking the better side of all these young people whose lives I had been a part of in one way or the other.

There is a part of me that wants to reach out to them and just tell them I’m still here, and I am here for them if they need me.. for whatever it’s worth — even if I’m 10,000 miles away.

I’ve always been impartial to Friday and Saturday evenings. They were the only two days of the week which officially allowed me to forget about work the next day, which in turn gave me license to stay up as late as I can without worrying about tomorrow.

Tonight I postponed doing the dishes until midnight. I just finished cleaning up the kitchen. The boys are asleep but we’re all here in the living room. I don’t even know what this movie is that’s playing on the SciFi channel.

In a previous life I’d be out on a Friday or Saturday night. If I were home, I’d be relaxing, knowing I’ll be waking up just before lunch Sunday unless I had plans to meet up with someone for lunch. Right now I have a ton of things I want to do but I’d rather take it easy tonight. Sometimes it’s much better to just sit back and do nothing — it helps one achieve a clarity of mind that is difficult to achieve if you take on task after task after task.

I have at least 3 letters I need to write but I figure they can wait. There’s always tomorrow, or later, if I don’t start getting sleepy.

I have to start knitting that scarf I’ve been meaning to knit for three weeks now. I actually spent the first week the idea came to mind experimenting on the yarn. I did around 2 or 3 test swatches, and now I’m ready to do the real thing. Besides, the morning chill means I have to get on with that and the other projects if I am to use them this season. Otherwise, I’m going to end up using them next year again.

I picked up two new needles at Target’s Dollar corner. Any knitting needle selling for a dollar is a steal! Picked up a size 4 and size 7, both sizes which I don’t have. I’m using a size 13 or 15 for the project I’m starting soon, though.

During nights like this I often find myself going back to those Fridays in Makati, or at least at Shangri-la. Libis and Rockwell weren’t quite the nightspots that they are right now. Or sometimes I think about the nights Alan and I managed to go barhopping in Manhattan. These days, we prefer to stay with Angel. Perhaps when Mom’s back with us, we’ll be able to at least start going out to dinner again.

It’s enough that we are warm and toasty here at home on a cold night like this.