Salamat

My mom was watching TV in my room while I was writing my last entry on my blog. At the strike of 12, Papu was the first one to greet me through SMS, followed by my college buddy Angelo and my soul mate, Biela.

Suddenly, the door opened. It was my sister and she was carrying a Tiramisu Cake she brought from Red Ribbon that evening. When my mom saw the cake and the candle, she started singing Happy Birthday. My sister joined her as well.

Midnight came and I celebrated my coming of age with my mother and sister.

It is a tradition we've been doing for the past three years already.

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Morning came and I went to work late. Mami Athena, and the rest of my teamates greeted me as well. After I thanked them, I went to my workstation and started my work.

Mom called me in the afternoon. There was a state of panic at home after some policemen stormed our former publishing office and took everything that once belonged to our company. As it turned out, one of the creditors my father failed to pay several years ago took all the assets as a partial payment for the money my father owes him.

However, the problem was they never gave us notice of their impending strike.

Since we were simply powerless to resist such force, we just comforted ourselves by talking to our lawyer. One chilling note however is that they may sieze our shares in my father's other business. One nightmarish scenario we were very afraid to accept is that they may strike our very home as well and take everything it has. If that happens, we might loose everything this year.

My only real assurance right now is that I am relatively prepared for a six months dry spell if ever such worst scenario happens.

Too bad... my day would actually fall at the same date as my baptism of fire.

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Afternoon came and I invited my aunt for a coffee which is my treat.

My aunt is considered the Alpha Female in the family, due to her strength, leadership and status in life. And in more than one occassion, our personalities closely resembles one another.

Like her, my main priority in life is security. Nothing scares me more than to wake up one day realizing that I am totally unprepared for any life-threatening emergency that may come my way.

In fact, I am willing to be stingy for the sake of ensuring myself of such security I was in need of. And that is the second thing I share in common with my aunt. Like her, I am the most kuripot among my cousins.

Ever since I had a fall-out with my dad years ago, she instantly became the person I looked up to. Whenever I am in trouble or confused over some decisions that involves financial security, or if ever I am in a dilemma and I needed a second opinion aside from my own mother, she would always be the first person I seek for enlightenment.

Instead of treating her for coffee, she invited me for a grand one on one dinner that evening.

Of course I was too embarassed to accept her invitation, but she insisted that its okay. After all, it was my birthday.

So I left home to meet her at PGH. We then proceeded to Malate to find a restaurant where we could have our dinner.

That evening, I had a sumptuous meal at Good Earth. I also got a good advise about what to do with regards to the looming problems we have on our business.

Before we parted, I told her that my reason for seeing her is to plot my direction with her guidance. Indirectly, I just openly told her how I looked up to her as my inspiration now, that I am already charting my own life.

She just smiled as she went inside her Revo. I hope she got my assurance that no matter what happens, I would look after her and her son, my cousin as we grow older.

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When I got home, I had a Kodak-moment dinner with my family.

And for the first time, Phanks was seating with us on one table.

At some point, the scene was quite embarassing. The fact that phanks was there with my family and that he is the only person outside my family who was invited to my little dinner was something quite breathtaking, if not a good subject of speculation.

Probably, they actually know the things happening between us. It's just, we don't talk about it for the fear that might happen after the truth is revealed.

Phanks not only remembered my birthday. He also got to fulfill my birthday wish that is to sleep with him on the very day I was born... even though it meant that I would be doing his homework.

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This is what I really wanted for my birthday. I wanted it as simple as it could be and as close to my loved ones as it gets. Despite the intitial jitters and fears of growing older, it turned out that my wish in mind was actually granted.

I had the most special birthday celebration in recent years... and I hope that it won't be the last.

Finally, I could move on, and restart my life as a twenty four.