21

Suddenly it’s not such a big deal anymore. Suddenly the world passed on like it always did, and while I kept reminding myself that being 21 is the big 2 1, it never did settle, like a promise that wouldn’t hold. Suddenly it was, “So what?”. Repeat that a couple of hundred times.

But I made resolutions, nonetheless. I did feel whole new. I did feel like I’ve stepped onto a threshold of the new and strange, which can either be wonderful or calamitous, but not that I’m anywhere worried or wary. Just walk. And it starts out as a nice kind of walk.

3rd of March will be ending soon, and if I said I’ve made the best out of it, I lied. Somehow it always felt like there’s more. I’ve done my extent, however, and I’m tired. It has been a nice celebration.

I was on my way to a celebratory dinner on Saturday when it occurred to me that I haven’t, just quite haven’t, made a speech. Or plan one, perhaps, the way my brother did (and delivered, to a group of people who roared and responded). Somehow it felt that a speech had to come, had to be made, but in the end there wasn’t a speech, and there wasn’t one concocted.

I simply figured, that if I had to say something, it’d be; “I’m 21, two for many seconds, one for newer firsts.”

(After that, the statement hit me in all of its idiocy and I decidedly drowned it off with hot tea.)

The dinner was great. I didn’t have pictures, but I wished I did. There was a video though, which I shot over whenever I was free. There was a nine course dinner and some karaoke, and the brother sang Click 5’s Happy Birthday and got booed off by dad. Charming.

It was quaintly dealt with without any embarrassment or overly prolonged limelight (which I shunned, preferring the darkness, which soothes the skin). I did sing, however, and twice Elton John’s Your Song thanks to a very insistent mother. Nutmeg. But it’s the kind of karaoke you’re meant to sing badly in, because people simply didn’t care. There’s too much happiness going on about to worry about poorly enunciated lyrics and off-pitchings.

The next day, however, was superb.

There was a luncheon with the Kelv-ster, Pauline (Goblok) and Vic at Mid Valley Chilli’s. There was bottomless taco(?) chips served with salsa sauce, bottomless kegs of drinks and very, very large dishes that required every ounce of determination and stomach place to completely consume. Add that with a lot of laughter and stories, including a variation of Sweeney Todd (what if he was a janitor?), and you get the type of lunch you’ll never quite forget, not only because it was downright funny all the while, not only because the darned Kelv-ster went to order a birthday brownie sneakily (but got exposed, because the waitress didn’t know better but to be discreet), but because you’ll remember that you tried to laugh with a very, very full stomach.

It’s like every celebration with friends. It never goes away.

For presents, I got a box of chocolates from cousin Jasmine, while lil Billy gave me the regular photo frame (to which a picture similar to my profile pic would go into). Pauline, Kelv and Vic, though, got me The Simpsons Masterpiece Gallery: A Big Book of Posters, and the latter two also gave me a T-Shirt wishing me perpetual infusion with the Force.

The Force is with me. All your donuts are belong to us.

The shirt is based on the Lego Star Wars double-suicide incident. I jumped off-cliff and Pauline followed. And it was the funniest thing in gaming history.

The poster book is excellent, but the best is the movie poster parodies.

The Planet of the Apus; now available in VHS, DVD, and Store Security Camera Tape

I have the poster book up on the tallest row in the bookshelf, propped at where I could see it whenever I walked into room.

*********

And that was it.

I figured I’d end it doing some writing, and here it is. Somehow in the course of three days, I’ve done just about everything that made life more worthwhile than going through it without the minute details and intricacies which matters the best, and also most importantly.

And I guess I’ll end it like I always did, and it always been a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Pauline =P.

Goodnight world.