~~~~
"It's an Anniversary."
"An Anniversary?"
"Yes, an Anniversary!"
"An Anniversary for what?"
"The Anniversary for my birth day!"
"Isn't that a birthday?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"A birthday is simply the day of your birth."
"And that's not special, Mr. obvious?"
"An anniversary is a celebration. The Anniversary of my birth day is the celebration of the gift of life given to me on that day."
"Do you always have to be this rhetoric?"
"It's my birthday."
"Fair enough."
"Much more than fair, my friend."
"So...are you going to make a wish?"
"What for?"
"Because it's a Birthday wish...I'm sorry, Anniversary wish."
"..."
"Whatever, I'm making one. You should too..."
"Fine."
~~~~
Today was my parents' Anniversary. It was different this year. Usually, we spend their Anniversary in Tagaytay, the site of their honeymoon, however, today we spent it in the gorgeous yet remote location of Hamilo, a great place to getaway. Even with the bright and cheery beach, the lush and green hills, and the cool and sparkling waters, I find my mind drifting off to far away places, places like distant islands or sprawling metropolises. Distractions don't usually work as you'd expect them to.
Going to a 4-day stay in Hamilo, I armed myself with my cellphone, a handful of books (see how many books you can hold in one hand), my guitar, and an iPod. My cellphone has been quiet for days, its last stirrings were during the Holy day, I'm not a very popular person. The books I brought resonate with the souls of melancholy, I constantly find myself taking breaks to avoid any lasting effects. As for my guitar, I haven't learned any new songs and my iPod's been stuck in the very dark side of a Carpenters' record for a month now. All these don't actually put me in a festive or an anniversary-ly mood, as you'd expect. I do feel bad about it, though there's nothing much I can do being stuck in the middle of nowhere, in an under furbished apartment, with rusty pipes, no bed, limited food, uncontrollable temperature, and a weak body recovering from a flu. The first night in, I immediately got sick, and was hacking away next thing in the morning. It may look like I was a Debbie downer (masculine idioms fail me) but I wasn't. After all, it's my parents' Anniversary, I can't be complaining and dampening everyone's moods. Good thing I was able to find some paper and a pen, and here I am writing. Though I haven't written much. Granted all the inspiration I have in this place, the output is not quite good. For example, I made this weird short story about this man whose only cure to his terminal illness was to say "I love you" to his one and only daughter. He ponders the absurdity of the claimed panacea to a point he deduces that this is some ploy to just get his hopes up so that he could die, shamefully, happy. In the end he refuses the said treatment and therefore dies with a heart-broken daughter beside him, still dumbfounded as to why his father refused the quite so real cure, with the moral of the story being that love is not absurd at all.
The Anniversary itself, you see we arrived in Hamilo at the 28th though the anniversary was at the 30th, was quite a different thing. We woke up early for our boat tour of the five coves in pico de loro, which was amazing. We even got to see some Pawikan island reserves, didn't see any turtles though. After that, we went snorkeling. There dozens of fish in the waters, and while my parents were admiring them I was busy trying if I could kick. I so totally could. The rest of the day followed suit with a stroll on the beach, then a hearty lunch buffet, got back to the apartment, and rest until the mouth-watering dinner we had on the beach lit by a beautiful bonfire. This was the part where I had fun, since all these activities were very much different from the ones we usually had on the previous Anniversaries, which constituted of sitting around in Tagaytay. Even with the very different itinerary, we kept one event constant, which was our seven-year tradition of watching "Love Actually". Say what you will about it but I absolutely adore that movie. Sans the awkward nude scenes, it is a very heart-warming movie, you could say we, as a family, fell in love with it at first sight. Somehow, we never get tired of watching it, well after all, you never grow tired of love. It's funny how my reactions from seven years ago are the same exact reactions I have right now. The embarrassment I felt for Mark when Keira Knightley realizes that he's in love with her. The turmoil Alan Rickman has for his feelings for his secretary. The anguish Emma Thompson experiences knowing her husband loves someone else. And the pure unadulterated joy the kid feels when he finally tells the girl he loves that he loves her. Good or bad, these emotions brought out from within are worth experiencing over and over again, masochism not withstanding. I guess the only new feeling I got from watching the movie again was when I realized Rodrigo Santoro looks exactly like Zech. Men do not seethe in Jealously, though I confess we however clandestinely promote it.
With all the numerous events, I could safely say that there was one that was the highlight for my parents, however this does not take place on the beach, or in a boat, nor out at sea, it takes place, quite simply, on the balcony of our apartment. It was about five in the afternoon when I decided to look out the window to take in a view of the lush forest before the night hides it away. What I saw though instead of that were my two parents sitting down reading their books, while listening to Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits. They would take breaks from reading to either smile at each other or to talk. It wasn't like they were forced to by sheer boredom or obligation, they just genuinely want to. They looked satisfied, happy, enamored. Here I found a realization, which I will put into quote, hoping royalties find me: "You know you're in love when the best thing you can do with your loved one is to be perfectly boring with each other." That was 3 hours of your day, just sitting, staring, being with each other, and that's about it. It was somewhat inspiring, it's good to see people, especially your parents to act this way, but I felt something. This is with all honesty that I state that I have no idea what I felt, it was happy yet sad, bittersweet at best. It was confusing, I think it was longing, or rather knowing what you want. Two weeks prior, I couldn't understand what Jan and Pats felt when they learned of my parents' Anniversary (it was their civil anniversary at that time), maybe this was it, though I could hardly describe it. I just remember them saying the ooohs and ahhhhs before saying they're sad, it was really confusing...well, at that time. Makes you want to hope I guess, though I'm sure in the future I wouldn't be doing what my parents were doing, I can be sure of that: I'd be listening to Billy Joel instead.
~~~~
"There. I made my wish. How about you?"
"I still haven't made one yet."
"What?! Why?"
"Well, I couldn't think of one."
"How can you not?"
"I just can't."
"Don't you have any hopes? Any dreams? Is that how I become? A miserable shell of man without any needs and wants. I guess it's sort of like evolved apathy. This is pathetic. I'm pathetic."
"No, I don't think that's it."
"Huh?"
"I guess I'm just...satisfied."
"I can understand being satisfied, but you can always aim for better. I'm sure there are more things than being just satisfied. How about happy? Joyous. Delighted? A blessing. A hope. A wish."
"I have those, I'm human just like you. I guess. I think I do. But...what's the use of wishing something when it's already granted?"
"Oh."
"Hehe."
"Fair enough. You know, you should really stop with being rhetoric, it's confusing...You mind telling me though what wishes did come true?"
"Nope."
"Why not?! At least give me something to look forward to!"
"Where's the fun in that? It won't be as surprising."
"You're a dick."
"Yes, you definitely are."
~December 30
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