Though I had been determined to ignore Valentine’s Day, I had been stricken with guilt the night before, when hubby came home late after being stuck for hours in Makati traffic, with a bouquet of Ecuadorian roses for me, and three pretty long-stemmed roses for our 11-year-old. If my busy, harassed significant other could go sappy, so could I.
I woke up early to get some stuff for a special breakfast (mangga, suman, bibingka and sikwate) and hipon for lunch. I also got three small Valentine balloons and stuck them behind the chairs of hubby, our daughter and our househelp.
It turned out to be a very relaxing Valentine’s Day and far, far different from Valentines past, some of which I still remember for reasons far different than the usual.
 |
| On seeing three baskets on our table, my father was reminded of a funeral. |
Sinong namatay? In my younger years, an ardent suitor decided to surprise me on Valentine’s Day with not one, but three baskets of flowers. The flowers were a combination of roses, African daisies and what looked like mums. Though I was delighted by the flowers and the gesture, my father took one look at the three baskets and said they looked like they came from one of the flower stalls beside the Sto. Rosario Church in downtown Cebu City. “Sinong namatay? (who died?),” he asked.
You don’t give me flowers anymore. I don’t remember why, but I was carrying a bouquet of roses while my sister and I were walking to one of the establishments surrounding the Fuente Circle. I was surprised when she suddenly took the flowers from me, but realized why when we came face to face with the guy who had recently broken her heart. After they exchanged greetings, the guy noted that she got flowers on Valentine’s Day. My sister merely smiled in return. She did not need to say anything. I kept silent. I understood.
Not a friendly date. It was nearing Valentine’s Day when a rather effeminate office colleague, who was rumored to be gay, asked me if I had any plans. When he learned that I was also date-less, he suggested that he and I might as well go out on a friendly date. It was a spontaneous, non-romantic invite so I said yes and thought nothing of it after. On V-Day, he showed up at the house bearing flowers. I was surprised but accepted them nonetheless. He opened the car door for me, which surprised me further. I started feeling slightly uncomfortable when we drove up to this nice, expensive restaurant, but was totally flabbergasted by his admission that he was romantically interested in me. I wanted to ditch the concert after, but he already had tickets so we went through it even after I said no. It was totally awkward.
All pumped up for Valentine’s Day. Valentines 2003 found me nearing the end of my first trimester of pregnancy. Hubby decided to give this then pregnant and always hungry wife a different Valentine’s celebration.
After work, we drove to Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, where we planned to feast on takeout food in a picnic under the stars. After crawling through traffic to get there, we found out that traffic was even worse at BGC because Boyz II Men was having a concert at the Bonifacio Open Field.
We couldn’t stop anywhere to buy food. We hardly moved. When we finally inched out of the traffic and onto C5, I told him to buy food just ANYWHERE. We pulled up at a Shell gasoline station along C5 where he bought a can of Vienna sausages, Skyflakes and water for the two of us. He had the Shell Select personnel heat up the sausages and tried to salvage our Valentine’s date by opening the back of our SUV where we sat eating our measly dinner. From where we sat, we had a great view of the gas pumps.
No comments:
Post a Comment