The Children-Wear of Imelda

"The nakapuyo sa Pyramid hairstyle"**

"A poor girl's nakapuyo sa Pyramid hairstyle"

**Translation: Pyramid-Dwellers hairstyle.

Remember when we we're younger, we read those Bible Stories book with full illustration. And we witness not just the divine miracles(?) but also the pyramid dweller's hairstyle. You know, those workers who were building those great pyramids. And that story with Joseph who was called by the Pharaoh, I can't remember really. But the point is I remember the hairstyle more than the story. And as we all know our parent's were hardcore Christians that they drew hairstyle inspiration from those Bible Stories books. Therefore I conclude, the Children of Imelda were the victims. And I think other children were also victims.

The Children of Imelda: Finding Dhords and Erik (part II)

Henry and I were staring at Max. Max is a Macbook, by the way. We were browsing over some scanned photos of the “past life” a.k.a. elementary pictures. I’ve seen ridiculous pictures before, but not as ridiculous as Henry’s collection. The 90’s children-wear was ugly not to mention the bad haircut: the bagol, the one-length, the (s)crew cut and many more. Because of that I would open another topic, a subtopic for The Children of Imelda Series, and I will call it, “The Children-wear of Imelda”.

Moving on, as we were browsing the photos that would spell out NOSTALGIA in all caps, I found a very familiar face, guess who? Yes the plane ticket girl in her single digit age, yes friends, the plane ticket girl was actually my classmate in Kinder II see the photo below…

Click the photo to feel the power!

Oh my fucking god, girl, my face was one hell of an evil child. You can actually conclude just by looking at my 6-year old face the dark forces living inside of me. This is no lie, at that young age, I go to school and go home ALONE! Yes, I was that "independent" or maybe I was just a neglected child. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

So after I discovered the plane ticket girl's presence in my Kindergarten II (9:00am-12:00noon) class picture I asked Henry, "Who's that girl?"

"Rhodora Picaza," Henry answered.

So I went to Friendster in search of Rhodora Picaza and found an abadoned Friendster profile with just one friend, so I click her friend and WADED in 15 pages worth of friends, I can't find "RHODORA". SO! I squinted my eyes and one-by-one I examined each and every human faces in thumbnails on the ugly interface of Friendster, and I found "Dhords", Rhodora Picaza...

Rhodora after 15 years...

And this was her first comment on Friendster:

See? She remembers me?! Who can't forget Jasper Nikki De La Cruz who finished as the 2nd honor of that Kindergarten class( Ela, my cousin, was the first, see how superior my genes are?)? HAHAHAHAHA. This again proves how accurate my memory bin is, I don't forgive and I don't forget. I may act like I've forgiven people from whatever damage they inflicted upon me, time will tell what time it is...

Well time for me to get back on track on what I was saying, I always wonder what is with my elementary school that people who once got "schooled" are always have this feeling of attachment with one another, certainly not with the water there(barely were the faucets worked), or the freaking 1.50 peso worth of burger (how can a burger cost 1.50?). But oh well, who cares!? We are, the children of Imelda...

The Children of Imelda: Finding Dhords and Erik (part 1)

After three months of hiatus, I am back like I never blogged before! I was not able to post anything here since March since my summer was spent doing boring, tedious and carnal activities:I kept myself busy by finishing and replaying PS2 and PSP games in daytime and knocked myself unconscious after drinking gallons of alcohol and dancing, twirling in disco-houses at nighttime, and (with the right budget) rolling around the relatively safe streets of Davao City. Trust me, if you do these things for almost two months straight you'll find your IQ drop at least 10 points, your creativity will stop functioning, and everyday was just "another" day.

In fact I was so bored, I volunteered in cleaning and repainting a public school classroom, carried chairs, tables and water jugs all over the place and rode a pedicab while holding an untied plywood on its roof on the way to the school. It was messy and sweaty, but I liked it. There was even a time I was painting a plywood green (for it to transform into a blackboard) and I was ranting about my Grade IV experience when we were tasked by Ma'am Burigsay to paint her classroom just so we can all "experience" painting using a roller, in front of a class, while she was lecturing, not my own class but the other section's class. Senseless endeavor right? I mean, why would you---nevermind.

And as I was ranting so hard, I didn't know Ma'am Burigsay was just around. She was restlessly searching for something with her eyes in my direction, maybe she was seeking the source of the rant, maybe she didn't expect that the voice was coming from me, maybe she didn't expect for a 20-something kind of guy to be her former student . Hello Ma'am, it was a decade ago, I would never remain a child.

You thought I was serious joining this Brigada Eskwela thing?

There was also this one event that was a surefire blog entry but because I had to protect my friends' "dignities" I chose not to. It was my 21st birthday celebration (my debut for short) ,that was not celebrated under the supervision of my family and relatives. Armed with a hefty cash-bag granted by Erle Kenneth Deligero, the universe was ours to purchase. Now just imagine what happpened next...

Erle sent me one of these (I stole this picture in Dante's Facebook account)

Moving on, I am now in Diliman, Quezon City, and I won't blog about my life here, since I've got a lot of free time to do so. Today I would start to officially open a new gimmick for my blog. I call it, as the title of this blog stated, "The Children of Imelda Series". Magugpo Pilot Imelda Elementary School was the name of my primary school. Hence the "The Children of Imelda". So there are no political references here.

When we ride our planes, you know, the airplanes, those airplanes that fly? We buy tickets so that we can ride that thing that flies...The point is while I was "lukating" a ticket in Gmall, I was stunned. The plane ticket girl's face was so familiar I had a major headache for about 0.7 seconds trying to remember who was she and then I asked, Qui êtes-vous?

Just joking, actually as I was sitting down the chair to purchase a plane ticket, we were both equally stunned because of each other's face, trying to decode, where, when, how do we know each other. Because we knew, we knew each other. I then concluded that she was my schoolmate in Mangga, but as soon as I had my butt touching the chair (note: I was going slow-mo here, remember the 0.7 seconds?) she had this "shock and smile" look at her face and so was I. And because I was there as a customer and she was doing her job, I didn't bother to ask her name or go chika-chika with her.



"And so life continues, as matter does not disappear, and you are not the issue..."

-Matter, Josh Joplin Group

I already mentioned the use of Facebook here. Again, facebook did wonders for me! Erik Bulus added me up. Well, who was this Erik Bulus, he was my one-time classmate in elementary and I never saw him since 1999. Yes, friends during the ending parts of the 90's when Knowledge Power and Ernie Baron were predicting a global technological meltdown due to the Y2k bug-something, and Chris Jericho capitalizing this with the "Y2J" of his own. The moment he added me up, I grabbed the opportunity to catch up with him. This "Elementary Recollection Mission" is an Imelda-batch 2001-wide event, that as you read now, many of my kind are trying so hard to call each other and reunite what was once we are(yep, you read this right)...

I started this recollection mission together with Ryan and Genedel before the 2nd semester ended . And stretched out with me, Syvel and Ralph finding each other one boring, senseless, unimportant afternoon of our lives in the former Tri-Kids (kanto Misa) just to chat. And nothing more. Hannah, Lovely and Sahara also did this recently! I know non-Tagum natives will have a difficult time relating. So I would stop now.

So Erik and I met in Gateway Mall, and I was intimidated by his looks, the all black costume, with matching tribal-tribal necklace and he was wearing a very serious face. So I greeted him with "Ang payat mo na!" and he replied " Mataba ka!"

All black in a pink room, Erik please...

Because actually people do not change, they just added components. You see, change is an illusion, you know the thing that really happened that we confuse with "change", we call it "upgrade". The human's core was still there. And you would not show-off this "upgrade" of yours to your elementary friends. Why? Because as Genedel's version of a popular quote says, and I quote, "Your college friends know who you are, your high school friends know why, your elementary friends know why, who, and how."

It will be a great pretend if you apply your goth/rockstar/achiever/scientist/Marxist/cynical ideals to your elementary friend right. The core is all you need to properly communicate.

Erik, I and Ralph with his girlfriend ate at Pizza Hut and started talking about the basic things in life, mostly about girls and sex. HAHAHAHAHA. Aside from the common trip down the memory lane, Erik revealed one of the greatest discoveries on earth,

"Tambay tayo noon, tambay pa rin tayo hanggang ngayon?"

I, Erik and Dante were one of the bottom-dwelling students in the history of Imelda. With Dante being the most misunderstood one (char lang, bukhad ang atay aning uloha ni ron!). Dante was always scolded because he was a slob. Erik and Dante once was called by our adviser for disciplinary action because of a very sexually offensive event I wouldn't dare to share.

And where is Dante now? He owns two cars, and a member of the US Navy. Erik, he might be a wandering jobless nursing graduate today but he will fly soon to L.A. and has an eye for the Airforce, or Jollibee, or nursing, but he'll migrate soon.

There is nothing wrong with this picture, Dante's enormous head tilted this pic...

And me? Owhhhh...still here, a loser. Self-pity is actually not my forte, it is not even my activity but oh well, I'm in a deep insecure shit. And this will only be cured by sending me a John Lennon sunglasses of which Dante had promised almost a year ago. Dante, have a conscience! If I kill myself, you are the reason!


TO BE CONTINUED...(Unsa ko salida aron magpa-thrilling? Yes, I am)