the awesome post-birthday weekend

Some people I know celebrate their birthdays for a week, even a whole month. I just eat a lot at home on the day, and then it’s business as usual.

This weekend, though, felt like an extra helping of blessings for my new year.

Friday, the completely unexpected GeekFight win

I’ve heard of GeekFight, and I have friends who have joined GeekFight, but I have doubts about my geek trivia skills. I know some things, but just basic info, certainly not the esoteric ones that get asked in hardcore trivia shows like this.

J found out that the Committee GeekFight for Nov. 9 is themed “Power of Myth” – Philippine myths, Greco-Roman and Norse myths, religions ancient and current – and he seemed to have great faith in my knowledge, which of course made me more nervous. I almost backed out the night before, thinking of the hassle of driving to Quantum Cafe and finding parking on a Friday night and losing. 

Well, I’m glad we went because we won.

We won! On our first game! It’s hilarious how our attitude changed from “It’s okay we’ll just wing it let’s just drink beer and have fun” to “MOTHERFUCKER WE HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THIS SHIT COVER THE FUCKING WHITEBOARD”.

A highlight from the event:

Q: How is the monster from Cloverfield classified by the DOD?

Someone answers: Isa syang class-S na halimaw.

Crowd: “TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN! TAPUSIN!”

Needless to say, I had a fun Friday night.

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Before the game, we tried Quantum Cafe’s food. These are really good:

I’d like to return to Quantum Cafe just to try the other dishes.

Saturday, Bwakaw, UP date

We weren’t able to catch the Cinemalaya and commercial run of Jun Lana’s Bwakaw, the Philippines’ entry for the Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, so I was overjoyed to find that the UP Film Institute was going to screen it for a week. We caught the Saturday 1 pm screening.

Bwakaw features a heartbreaking performance by Eddie Garcia as the aging homosexual, Rene. It is a beautiful, sweet, affecting story told with grace and control. It has the elements that can very easily allow it to lapse into a cloying melodrama – a dying dog, a lonely old man – but it never does. Instead it finds brightness in a sad life, and inserts humor in the most absurd situations. (How incredibly funny is it to see Gardo Verzosa constantly fanning himself?) And something must be said about the amazing cinematography: J said the film is so immersive that he half-expected to find himself in San Pablo after stepping out of the Film Institute. I agree. The people I saw the film with had this look in their eyes after the show, like they had just been clobbered over the head. Maybe they were expecting the same thing, the San Pablo of Bwakaw: wind-swept trees, unpaved roads, an old man with a dog in his arms riding a tricycle home.

I loved the final image of the film: Rene walking up a path and disappearing into the trees. We are not told where he is going, but at least now we are sure he is going somewhere.

Am I glad I got the chance to see this film on the big screen.

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After lunch at Chocolate Kiss, we headed to the Christmas bazaar. I got these beauties:

While in UP, J kept hiding his cell phone screen from me while texting. I wondered about that. He usually even lets me read his texts.

We got to their house, and found out why:

J was with me in Bulacan, and noticed the conspicuous absence of cake during my birthday. So he asked the family to buy me a cake, and more besides.

My thanks to J, J’s ma, his Tita Jo, and the rest of the family for the surprise dinner party!

Sunday, something new for my nails

I regularly have nail polish applied to my toenails, but not to my nails, because I’m a klutz and I chip them easily, sometimes even as soon as I step out of the salon.

So I tried UV soak-off gel nail polish, which the advertisements (and my friendly neighborhood salon) promise will last for two weeks. Mani-pedi using UV gel nail polish is more expensive than using acrylic nail polish. Mine cost PhP 550 at B&W Beauty Salon.

It’s more expensive in the bigger salons, I’m sure. (Some salons, I heard, offer the service for PhP 500 just for the manicure.) That’s a con, but the pros are 1) the polish will last longer, and 2) it dries instantly. No need to ask someone else to open your can of soda after meeting with your manikurista.

I didn’t take pictures of the procedure, but the UV machine looks like this:

I can’t make this a regular thing because of the cost. Maybe I’ll have gel nails for special occasions? (Once a year?)

My nails! So shiny!

I am loving, loving, loving my 26th year so far.

That’s true.