a night with friends, UP style

edy, a lawschool batchmate (dapat. pero hindi e. hehe.), was in congress yesterday & she asked me if i wanted to check out the up fair.  i was in corporate attire so i told her i wasn't appropriately dressed for a rock concert.  so we decided to have dinner with malen, another lawschool classmate who also works in congress.

over dinner, we talked about some of our college & law school friends, politics (but of course), botched-up cases that were or are hogging the headlines (the effect of filing a demurrer to evidence without leave of court is "elementary" for law students!) and how it's time to start giving back to our former alma maters, given that for me & edy, it's been 15 years since our high school graduations.  (gahhh...)  that also led us to conclude that somehow, the paths we've taken have relatively allowed us to move a notch higher in life. 

kumbaga, at the very least, we've reached that point where we can safely say that we've made something out of ourselves somehow. :)  gone were the days when we would scrimp on our measly monthly allowances in college, when we had to use the water heater and dip it into a tabo for us to "cook" instant noodles (payless was the cheapest.  and wala pang cup noodles nun!), when bar hopping in malate meant ordering ONE beer per bar-with-free-entrance just so you wouldn't get kicked out, when we didn't have cars and would only ride in taxis if your friends would chip in...

but at the end of it all, we have stayed the same.  the probinsyanas who went through some-kinda-hell and back, and have successfully weathered the storms that have passed through our respective lives.  we know that wherever the winds bring us, we're good to go.  we know the world is ours to conquer for more adventures, more challenges.  life is great.

- - -

despite my inappropriate outfit, sans heels, wryl, malen & i decided to check out the up fair.  rock night?  up fair?  who would dare miss it? 

we parked our cars at the law parking lot and when i needed to use the banyo, guess who used the "alumni ako" magic to get the security guard to open the men's comfort room in malcom hall?  (wag na umangal. he only had keys to the men's cr. haha. and my gosh, may tubig na umaawas sa faucets!!! yahoo! hehehe.)  spending 10 years of your life in up has its perks.

so we trekked to the sunken garden.  (imagine kung natuloy yung dating plan na bawal na mag-fair sa sunken?  e di mas grabe pa ang reminiscing namin nun!!! hehe.)  while we were walking, sandwich played "betamax."  coolness. (i love that song. super can relate. haha.)

some alumni (that's what they said) had secondhand books for sale, and the bookworm in me found two books i couldn't resist (amsterdam by ian mcewan & a book of sappho's poetry.  yes, gf, the latter one is for you.).  a lot of people were watching (more like listening, actually, kasi they put up really big tarps to 'hide' the stage from both sides) the concert outside the grounds.  when we saw the really long lines and checked out the list of bands, we just decided to make tambay outside the grounds, like those who were 'watching'.

after buying balut and water, we decided to park ourselves at one of the benches fronting malcolm.  kahit malayo, we could see the band playing and the whole crowd inside the grounds.  we really couldn't believe the number of people inside on a tuesday night.  when i was in UP, we would usually go to the fair on tuesdays or wednesdays, konti lang tao then, and we could sit on the grass and just listen and watch the bands play.  (i never went on a valentine's night. cheesy.)  the three of us all had our own share of experiences during fair week, and definitely, the big crowd there last night wasn't one of those.  10pm pa lang, may nag-bo-body surf na. kids these days...

maraming tao, obviously maraming dayo (at the fishball stand outside the grounds, two teenagers asked the manang: "may red horse ba kayo?" hahaha.), so the "oldies" (us) were quite content watching from afar.  we laughed when one of the bands said "o, old school muna tayo ha!" and promptly played "summer of '69" by bryan adams.  of course i sang along.

we waited until ely buendia (with his new band, pupil) sang "disconnection notice."  it was after midnight and it was time to go.

alcohol-free but happily drugged with good food, great conversations, yosi and rock music...  yes, it was my first ever up fair night without alcohol.  and i wasn't complaining.