easy like sunday morning

Barely.

Sunday morning was spent resisting the urge to tear my copy of Paolo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die to shreds. I've been struggling with the book, not because it's a hard read, but because it hits too close to home. By page 135, it has successfully bumped "The pilgrimage" off as my favorite Coelho's book. By page 136, i had to put it down and just concentrate with another nourishment of some sorts, my fix of iced chocolate dreamt and craved for since thursday night, along with a plate of cinnamon swirl I haven't had my hands on since college. With beb on my cell, I walked out of Starbucks T. Morato with a soul and sugar high. Now that's a start.

Beb and i had time to kill, so after surveying what's on the cineplex at the galleria, we decided we'll sit through almost two hours of Gwyneth Paltrow in "Proof". Gwyneth wasn't even close to insanity, the girl's too solid, but if insanity looks like her, I'm happy to be loony. It was my kind of thinking movie, not the best i've seen, but worth the 130 pesos out of beb's wallet. Now, this time, with a call in his cell, i desperately got hold of my nerves, and braced for the next couple of hours.

We met up with his mom and his sister, who were doing some major power shopping around the mall. After taking a couple of swipes off credit cards, we went off to meet up with his dad and brothers who were making similar rounds at shoe stores on the other end of the mall. Dinner was reserved at Crowne Plaza's Seven Corners for his dad's birthday, and at six, six warm bodies and a nerve-wrecked one appeared at the doors of practically empty frou frou buffet resto that side of Ortigas. When Raph, his sister's bf, came to fill the eighth seat, all rose and acquainted ourselves with the assembly of food from all "corners". Beb helped himself with Asian noodles and tiger prawns, while i got myself some fresh raw oysters, medium rare almost moo-ing roast beef and palm-sized salami pizza. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when i saw a free-flowing chocolate fountain, with all the cookies and marshmallows you could stick in them. This from a person who love chocolates and fountains separately, so seeing them in one brilliant structure is practically cardiac arrest inducing. Beb got me a couple of choco mallows and little plates of creme brulee and sansrival, so i was, without a doubt, one happy girlfriend.

Everyone capped the night off with a round of hot jasmine tea, and stories sprang out of parking passes and those years during martial law. For the last two years i have been with beb, his dad finally didn't look like he saw a ghost when he saw me and actually seemed genuinely interested in what i do now for a living. Now, it's official. I'm in this neck-deep.

We said our goodbyes and beb took me home. The boyfriend asked if it turned out to be a good day. Great, I said, wasn't easy, but great.