In my very first blog, "making old friends gold", I wrote about how we remember or tend to forget friends we meet at the different stages of our lives. I picked this title from a song taught in grade school. In part it goes like this:
"Make new friends... But ke-ep tha-a o-old.... One is silver and the other gold....."
This first blog was inspired by a childhood friend living in the US who came to visit me at that time. I remember us being very good friends in grade school and high school but did not see each other again after we hugged and cried at our high school graduation. We recently reconnected on facebook and she came to see me on her next trip home as promised.
I wrote that friends in grade school are the ones we remember the most, as we go through life's twists and turns. I even asked:
"Are we too pre-occupied in college that we tend to forget friends we made along the way?" True, isn't it?
But I can't say the same with my three BFsF from college. They are like family to me. While I stayed at a dorm all through college, they lived with their parents in the city. During weekends and holidays their parents would invite me to their homes, and most of the time it was a sleep over. Dinners at their homes were always a treat to me then, after having enough of dormitory food. I recall one of theIr Moms used to wrap big chunks of cheddar in foil for me to take back to the dorm to eat with crackers and coke. I also recall that I was able to entice them to come to my hometown to meet my parents on one occasion.
Last week I learned that they are all in town and they wanted to catch up. They all live in the US, they left after college, they worked, got married there, raised their children and only came home occasionally. Having been preoccupied with career, marriage and raising kids myself, we hardly had time to meet up when they were in town.
Though I was initially reluctant to miss my weekly bonding time with my granddaughter to meet their schedule, I felt better after my daughter assured me that it was fine with my granddaughter to miss one bonding day.
"I'll be a bit late", I said as I wanted to take advantage of the first two hours on the first day of a big sale at the mall near us to get my cosmetics supply for the year.
"Any restaurant you can recommend?", Gee texted.
"Haven't been at the place myself, though my daughter recommend three options, but it's really up to you, after all, it's not the place, nor the food, but the company", I texted back.
While we were along C-5, Gee called:
"they wanted to go to NIU Vikings", she told me.
So lunch was at NIU Vikings, a buffet restaurant that claims to offer the best spread in town.
They are March celebrants, their birthdays are only a day apart.
After much eating, drinking, chatting and laughing, we thought we'd walk everything down and we eventually found ourselves at the Skypark on the fifth floor, complete with plants around, a water feature and plant boxes to sit on.
Not to be outdone, the husbands also asked to take their pictures.
While at the park, we had more catching up, here we discussed more serious matters, some very personal but since we are best friends, it was okay.
There was a 3-day sale at the mall as well, so we proceeded to the shops. I'm at another SM mall regularly for my daily walk so I have lots of opportunities to shop but I surprised myself this time that I bought two dresses.
After shopping around, we went to the Prestige Lounge to rest our weary feet, did more catching up until we felt it was time for dinner.
"We're still full", some of us said. "Let's go to Lugang Cafe and just have dimsum", one of us said. So, back we went to the restaurant row on the fifth floor.
Dimsum, is it? But we ended up with a full course meal.
"Let's just diet tomorrow", Lornz said happily. Look at this enormous fish, isn't it BIG?
We headed home past nine, tired but happy, we had a wonderful day!
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