barely skimming 27...if you really want to know

 

when i was younger, i used to make an inventory of all the gifts i got and from whom. now that i’m older (and we do get fewer gifts, don’t we, if at all =), i count how many people greet me, sort of as an indicator of whether my friends have also increased in number along with my age. my standard is that the number of greetings i get by phone and text should be at least equal to my age. last year, it was off the scale—too many friends ;-)

 

this year’s birthday index:

 

ADVANCED (day before) = about 2 or 3 texts

ON TIME =  25 texts, 1 call (only! tsk tsk)

**first greeting from my father (who says he doesn’t believe in birthdays anymore since shifting religions) at 00:05:47

**weirdest hour award goes to my former boss who sent a greeting at 03:51:55

BELATED (day after) = 2 texts, 4 calls

 

i guess that’s good enough, even though i didn’t quite hit the number on the day itself.

 

actually, i didn’t have the usual “rite of passage” feeling this year; didn’t really think about it until maybe the day before. probably because i’m in denial that i’m no longer “mid-20’s” =P i was just planning to check my students’ papers and clean my room, since there’s really so many things to do for school.

 

but then of course, after thinking a bit, i thought it would only be right to have a birthday dive after church. what am i in dumaguete for, after all? so i asked some people if they wanted to dive, but oh no, my birthday just happened to fall on the day of the great pacquiao vs. morales fight. ana, who was supposed to meet me down south, couldn’t go because her husband wanted to stay home and watch the fight. even the hardcore divemasters here in dumaguete stayed on land the whole day to watch, and just celebrated by the boulevard afterwards!

 

i still tried to arrange a dive by myself in boljoon, but the one person who had tanks for me said he would be using them after all. and i said, Lord, thy will be done. i know how to take no for an answer when it’s God talking.

 

so i decided to be a normal Filipino and watch the game, too, especially since i just learned that morning how important the fight was for morales who, turns out, is a three-time world champion (sorry, i’ve never been into sports much).

 

oh but before that, i went to the public market for the first time to buy some flowers--not for myself this time but for my sort-of landlady who was in the hospital for chemotherapy. i’d wanted to buy some for my room, too, since they can really do a lot for my mood, but i only had P40 in my wallet, exactly enough for the bouquet, plus some change for my tricycle fare. anyway, while the flower vendor, arlene, was arranging the flowers, we made chika, and i told her it was my birthday and didn’t have flowers for my own, so she added lots of extra flowers to make the bouquet really pretty =) it was in the hospital that i learned from a nurse that the game was over in three rounds, even before it had started on local tv =P

 

as i sat down at home watching the doomed morales (while checking papers), i felt that it wouldn’t be right if i didn’t at least spend part of the day at the beach. i could still practice my skindiving, after all. so at around 3:30 pm, i put on my “brand new” pink UK2x board shorts, hooked my fins, mask & snorkel and water bottle together, stuffed my journal, waterproof casing, camera, and some Skyflakes in a backpack, and set off to look for a marine sanctuary. i was told there was one near the airport, about 5 minutes away from my place by pedicab.

 

got off at silliman beach, crossed the creek emptying into the sea (eww!), walked across the airport runway (great feeling!), and walked and walked and walked until i discovered i was already in the next town, sibulan. it was low tide, so the beach was really expansive, with some nice tidal pools. took pictures of the different creature markings on the sand, some self-shadow-portraits, and even got the unexpected surprise of a rainbow over cebu, just across the beach!

 

eventually saw a group of students, so headed in their direction, thinking it would probably be safe to snorkel in that area, when i realized that two of the people there i’d already met through a classmate.

 

had no plans to hang out; just asked them where the best snorkeling area was. but they had such a cute dachshund, and the waves had made the water terrible for snorkeling...and they offered to teach me how to skimboard. so of course i stayed!

 

and that is how, instead of letting me dive, God gave me the gift of skimboarding on my birthday =) it’s something i’ve always wanted to try since i first saw them skimmers, and now i can check it off my list (of course, Jack Johnson’s “Thicker than Water” had a lot to do with that, too). we stayed till sunset, skimming on, the silhouetted mountains our backdrop, then walked back in the dark.

 

i still haven’t been able to “cruise” more than a few feet, since i have to gather more speed and improve my form, but at least i’ve more or less gotten over the biggest fear of tumbling off the board =) can’t wait to try it again.

 

pictures of my serendipitous birthday walk and of course, the skimming, in my photo album =D now, to learn how to drive a motorcycle.