Cliche Time!

Love is sweeter the second time around. It's older than our forefathers' harana days. It has become a movie and telenovela staple story. And we've seen different versions of it, from the "almost kinda like it" to the "really?" versions that seem unbelievable but we choose to buy anyway, for the sake of kilig and as testament to our undying belief that love, however impossible the issues surrounding it, surpasses circumstances and will remain true & within reach, because love moves in mysterious ways.

I have my own version, and it came to a wonderful culmination yesterday.
Sing is a good friend of mine. We went to high school together and sang in the same church choir. we had different sets of friends then but our friendship stood the test of time. She took an engineering course at a different university and worked her ass off right after graduation while I dissected corpses and memorized generic names. We saw ourselves through boyfriends (although I officially had just one) and all the controversies the foolish guys brought, and I'm just so proud that she got over them - fashionably.

Until Obet came. I didn't see him coming. Sing & I were sitting at mass sometime in 2005. I was a fresh medical board passer & Sing asked me about her seemingly increasing appetite. I jokingly replied that maybe she was pregnant. She laughed. Two days later she called, telling me she was indeed pregnant. Obet the sperm donor did not want to acknowledge the poor little thing. It's the same old story at this point - girl goes through pregnancy alone, curses the father in between painful contractions (which didn't work anyway; Sing went through CS), gives the child her own surname, raises the child on her own, moves on and forgets the painful past.
Four years and a failed attempt to make another past relationship work out later (I just hate knowing these guys at all!), Obet slowly & painfully tried to introduce himself to my fast-growing godson, Julian Angelo, or Lian, as his Daddy. And he succeeded. Little did we, Sing's friends, know that building a relationship with Lian wasn't Obet's lone agenda. Sing & he became fast friends and good "parenting pals".

Sing called last holiday season, inviting me to her wedding. Her & Obet's wedding. A shriek, then a tear, that's what Noy recalls because we were driving to dinner with a couple-friend to celebrate his birthday that night.


It was a simple, no-frills wedding - only casually-dressed close friends & relatives in attendance. Papa was one of the ninongs. It was nice to come back to the church where all of us in the family used to serve. The priest knew Sing very well because she continued to serve as lector/commentator when our choir took a gradual dissolution. But that's a different story.

-----------------------------------

Speaking of second time, my wedding & engagement rings breathed a new life at the start of the week. Noy had one of the missing diamonds (must have loosened when I started work at PGH) replaced on the wedding ring, and had it cleaned as well, including his. The engagement ring was cleaned and plated and looks very pretty now. It's a fitting pre-celebration of our "togetherness" next Friday. I'll surely blog about it next time =)