anecdotes, memories and celebrations

There are a few precious things I feel like celebrating today.

First, it's the one-year anniversary of my caffeine-free by choice existence. Yup, it's been one year since I willfully ended my love affair with coffee. It was a fuss-free breakup ;) No weeping, no mourning, no regrets. And like any other split up- I've grown up after that. No more silly dependency. I was free, and happier. Hurrah for that!

Second, I was in touch again with my elementary school friends- Iva and Hope. Thanks to my bestfriend Roselle who was so savvy in finding them. I was so excited when she told me two nights ago that Hope was online. It was almost ten years since I last saw Hope, and Iva, longer. But we've exchanged emails now and I couldn't be happier to be connected again with these old friends.

Many funny anecdotes and memories roll in. Me, Roselle, Iva and Hope were classmates since grade 2. Our teacher then was Miss Torres, a strict, conservative old maid who decided to let a boy and a girl share a desk, in a futile attempt to shush us all. She got tired of our constant chattering and monkeyshines. But it never worked because soon, our seatmates became our chatter buddies. Our class was a talkative, noisy bunch. We were known of that memorable trait- we prattled and cackled and twittered 'til 6th grade.

Our third grade teacher was Mrs. Barcenilla who preferred to let her pupils write her lessons on the board, and was too obsessed in keeping the red floor waxed and polished at ALL times. Then came 4th grade with Miss Singson, an old maid with a pushy, strong willed attitude to compensate for her whispery voice- she expected her class to have perfect written compositions, perfect recitations, perfect test scores. We were also forever memorizing poems and practicing dramatic dialogues to present in our frequent class programs. But she also let us do things that we love to do- cut colored papers and make colorful arts projects which she proudly displayed in one corner, plant seeds in a mini-garden, write and exchange letters with our classmates, write and act in little plays, read books to each other. She encouraged us all to be creative, and by far, she was my favorite elementary school teacher.

Our 5th grade teacher (whose name escapes me at this moment) liked to start the day chastising us all for failing to keep the classroom, (in her favorite words), spic and span. And she liked to add her other favorite words- "it's very shameful!" We were her last class, she retired after that school-year so she must remember us all, the class who can't keep the room spic-and-span. Our 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Pedregosa, just spent 3-4 months with us. The rest of the school-year, she was on leave. We heard that she had enough of our boisterousness ;)

Meeting Iva and Hope again makes me think about how young we were then, so carefree, so happy, so hopeful and eager to grow up. Now we're in a different stage of our life, and yet those memories and delightful anecdotes still soar. And the opportunity to relish those cherished memories is one reason to celebrate.

Another thing to celebrate is books. It's a little thing, but I wanna drink to that. It's been a long time since I found time to read again. It feels good to be able to get myself lost in words, engross myself in stories and just flip over the comfort of reading. One of the things I could never live without or give up, it's reading.

I love to celebrate these little things in my own special way. There's no use keeping tab of mishaps, gripes and misfortunes in this world. Friends, good relationships, love, simple pleasures, hobbies, husbands, new recipes- they're always worth a warm hurrah!