Delighted.
Grateful.
Escaped.
—
November 4, 2023 — Saturday.
The clock struck exactly 6:14 in the afternoon as I finally summarized this remarkable weekend into three blissful words after minutes of careful thinking—delighted, grateful, escaped. Even though I slept late last night, I woke up early this morning to prepare myself for a trip to the beach to threw a fete for my cousin and lolo's birthday in advance. I planned not to swim this time, having learned from our previous bondings how exhausting it could be to return home after an excessive swimming. When I do swim, I'm all in! I simply wanted to cherish the soothing breeze in the beach with my guitar while everybody's having their best times at the sea. It's been so long since my fingers tickled the melody out of the magical strings, giving beauty and soul to my ordinary voice.
Without much thought, I dressed myself up in a long denim short and a loose red fox-colored square-neck shirt that matched my lip tint shade. I grabbed my tote bag and put on a pair of flat caged sandals. We arrived there at 11, and the strong but gentle wind welcomed me. I greeted each face I hadn't seen in a long time because of school. There, we saw our lolo. My sister and I kissed him on the cheek like we used to. When his sight gazed on me, I jokingly said, "Hi Lo, this is your "gordyuss" (gorgeous) apo!"
What was even more amusing was that he only recognized my younger sister a little and had a hard time remembering her name. We teased her but the moment lolo exclaimed, "Ay, si Miyang !", (his own version for "Mia"), everyone burst into cheerful applause showing their support. Moments went on, everyone was hungry already. We patiently waited for the pastor for a while because he encountered some trouble on the way. The sermon didn't take that long anyway, and after it, we prayed over to them silently.
I asked God for happiness, courage during challenging times, good health, and the ability to achieve their unfulfilled dreams, especially for my lolo, whose time is growing shorter considering age, compared to us younger ones. We managed to have our meal just before it struck 1 o'clock.
Here they are— lumpia, afritada, bola-bola, maja blanca, lechon, pancit-bihon with my favorite pig liver sliced into pieces, and the other one beside bola-bola that I don't know, the starter pack of Filipino foods in celebrations especially on birthdays. Of course! Lumpia is a must-have on the plate. There should have been four but I couldn't resist and ate the other two while I was on my way to my seat haha! I absolutely loved the ones with cheese inside. We ran out of mung bean sprouts, so one of my titas got creative and filled the leftover lumpia wrappers with cheese and some pork. Trust me, every dish on my plate was incredibly delicious! From my tito's signature of tasty bola-bola to the super creamy maja blanca with cheese and peanuts, and the crispy lechon skin. I finished all of these and I can't still get over it. What made this moment beautiful to look back on is how the beach's ambiance overwhelmed me as I ate facing the serene blue sea. I thought—
"This is what I need from all the draining hassles at school and work physically, mentally, and emotionally."
I'm just a little bummed because I couldn't eat the lechon's tongue, which is my favorite part. The mouth was the first one I checked and it turns out someone had already beaten me to it. Good for that person, I envied him/her for it, haha!
Moving forward, everyone had happy stomachs. The little ones continued swimming while my sister, papa, titos, and I jammed for an hour. I joined them because most of my cousins didn't come as they still have their classes. It was honestly my first time singing with my titos. There voices are deep and incredibly beautiful to listen to, thus, I quite had some difficulty catching up. The very low key for boys is oppositely high for girls. If you choose to lower your voice, you have to go very low, which might make you uncomfortable with your voice and vice versa.
Delighted.
Grateful.
Escaped.
—Another remarkable day is added on my list.
"A Dazzling Fete By The Waves."
These are the three blissful words within a day which devoured the burdens I've been carrying recently. There is indeed a need to take a break when things go undeniably hard. Thankfully, we celebrated my cousin and lolo's new year of their life.
So, pause for a moment, charge yourself may it be recreationally or spiritually and then continue fighting the reality of life.