Ladies, geez, tone it down
Last night, a friend turned a year older. While preparing for this party, she exclaimed in her usual candid manner, “Holy baloney, everyone I invited said ‘yes’!” Our friends are usually difficult to pin down because they have scattered around the globe. When most agreed to be at her party, it was a too-good-to-be true moment for her. That’s how we filled a table of fair-weather friends.
Between bites of mini baguettes, Lita Bueno-Potassy, the one with the longest memory, said, “Do you remember when the Hollywood actor, Gregory Peck, checked into the then Manila Hilton? Letty was so excited that she exclaimed, ‘Gregory Preck is here!’ ”
Lita has been telling this story year in and year out so I thought this year I would set the record straight:
Lita darling, this is so “urban legend.” The truth is, when Gregory Peck approached the Front Desk, I was not there; I was busy on the phone exchanging sweet nothings with my boyfriend.
A guest approached the front desk and asked, “Are you holding a room for me? Last name, Pfeeffer.”
Maurita Arce (or was it Fe Reyes?) smiled and turned to check the reservations rack (this was long before the computer and WiFi technology). She glanced up and down the list, softly repeating, “Pfee, Pfee, Pfee…” Unsuccessful in tracing the name, she turned to Mr. Pfeeffer and asked, “Is that under F or Pfee?”
At the next table, I was sipping French onion soup when I heard them raucously cracking up. I turned to Celia SilangCruz and asked, “Is it just me or are we getting noisier and noisier?” Celia laughed and replied, “Nope, we’re just getting older.”
We all met in 1967. That makes it 41 years of sharing the good times and the dicey times, too.
“All right, this is it. Tonight, after work, I’m going to ditch him.”
“Of course. I’m done with his chasing skirts, his lies and his flirtations.”
The following day, the two friends met early at work.
“He agreed,” she whimpered. “He didn’t even tell me lies (‘as sweet as apple pie’).”
“I would have accepted that, you know,” she wailed.
Suddenly, the weeping amplified as the two friends began to cry.
Sobbing and bawling now, Marilou Mabilangan, one of the hotel’s top executives, crossed the hallway and raised one eyebrow. “What’s wrong with the two of you?” she asked. Quickly, the two friends wiped away the tears, swallowed hard and began to giggle. “We were just having a good cry.” It was as though whatever pain the other felt could be split in two and therefore the heart could be patched up quickly, good as new.
Last night, we raised our glasses in celebration of each other — the warm presence, the calm and the giddy joy of having been part of it all.
Still mad, quirky, and hopeless romantics, we began to sing:
“For it’s the laughter... (arms punching the air); we will remember (howling like a pack of wolves), whenever we remember (voice breaking), the way we were...” (clapping and choking now.)
E-mail the author at lettyjlopez@hotmail.com. Thanks for your comments and suggestions.
