7th birthday weekend

interspecies office love affair

the celebration was capped by a nice habana in the park and a few pints at barcade. spending some quality alone time and taking a breather from the weekend's worth of 7th birthday partying. ok, 27th.

FRIDAY—festivities started friday with a nice surprise ice cream party in the office. of course, throughout the day, i had already suspected that the kids were up to no good. height of which was when i saw melissa and lisa at the ghetto corner supermarket—only reason for them to be there would be that they were getting some dirt cheap party paraphernalia. boy, am i special.

around 4PM, i got the quick get ya ass in that meeting notification from sung. and there they all were in one of the main conference rooms with pints of ice cream and bottles of choco and sprinkles on the side. and biggest surprise of all was a unicorn piñata overhead which at first i had not noticed. they didnt want me to make a huge mess of the halogen lamps from which pinny was hanged so i smashed her on the table instead. needless to say, piñatas are a bit foreign to filipino culture coz all we have back in the islands are clay pots to get kids all bruised up and rushed to the emergency rooms with. only the toughest. the surprise party was much appreciated obviously. and the card they had made on the differences of jason brockie the brit and i, jason pachenco was hilarious as well. and of course, pinny the new pet has found a perfect spot under the desk, getting occaional visits from cricket and mabes. (i think cricket likes pinny and mabes is getting jealous but shhhh, i dont wanna be spreading office rumors.)

the future of advertising

SATURDAY—saturday, april fool's, was spent running an advertising workshop at the art directors club to some 40 high school juniors picked throughout new york. it was the "giving back" portion of the birthday celebration i guess. the presentation was a huge success; even got emails and calls of praise and thanks days after. but of course, most important of all was that zi kids and the other volunteers had lots of fun. well, i did too. felt a lot like i was in my element—cracking jokes, making a fool of myself (and others too), and of course sharing a little of whatever little knowledge i have. i guess if advertising kicks me out of the door, the board of education would be glad to have me over for a teaching post somewhere. well, at least naomi, the BOE rep, says so. nice nice.

it was great seeing the students coming up with their own ads. and also, the amount of collaboration going into their works. and also, their ability to come out of their shells to present their own work infront of everyone. ok, enough of this tooting one's own horn. its starting to make my ears bleed.

children's party in the apartment

BIRDY SUNDAY—got birthday calls and emails from family and close friends based Elsewhere throughout the day. spent the whole morning spiffying up the apartment. also me being on the brink of germophobia, made sure everything was disinfected with lysol. by 2:07, guests had started to arrive. a total of around 23 friends came over to party. very nice mix of people. me having grown a bit of an aversion for clickishness was very pleased to see a handful of nationalities represented. most were of islands' descent. the rest from US of A, canada, denmark, holland, china, russia, and italy. nice little united nations convention going on with the common thread a youngness of heart. bit of a shame though the flying dutchman wasnt around to man the barbecue grill.

finding nemo and episodes of wonder years played on TV while 80s hits boomed out of the stereo. usual children fare of chips, spaghetti, pizza, burgers, cake, apple pie were served. grown up wine, beer, gin, vodka and green iced tea were served too. the white castle burgers got mixed reviews. some loved it so much for its junkness. and the others like me hated them for the same reason. elvira's homemade authentic dutch apple pie was gone in 10.37 seconds. richie's spaghetti was loved. the green iced tea was a huge hit too. and now everyone's wondering where i got the mix only to be surprised i got them from a drugstore back home.

the 7 party rules

everyone was back to being 7 years old again as people played basketball, checkers, tic-tac-toe. ok, texas hold'em was a bit off-theme but was lotsa fun for those that played nevertheless. everyone enjoyed the goodie bags of candies, toys and CD too. but most importantly, that 7yearold willingness to talk to others and make new friends was quite present as well. of course, it helped having the 7 party rules posters scattered all over. number 3 of which was "Share toys. And share stories too. Shyness is so Pre-K. And selfishness so New Yorker. Make new friends. The world will be a better place." (i heart office printers)

it was one of the more memorable birthday celebrations so far. a nice mix of grown-up-dom and childishness. a great reminder that life's meant to be celebrated, birthday or no birthday. and that the only way to thrive is with the spunk and disregard of a 7-year-old. an excitement with the world of different people to discover, the world of knowledge to conquer, the world of food and drinks to taste. but ok, im fine with skipping the white castle part though or at least maybe having em after several pints of barcade beer when i dont care what junk im stuffed with anymore. drinking beer at 7?!? ok, maybe 6 years and 8 months. minus all that crying and whining, of course.

enjoying the view and perfect birthday weather up on zi deck