Of Pastimes and Fast Times

Man, I am positively itching right now. Yes, itching, I tell you, to hold a guitar. The first bars of the song “Suntok sa Buwan” by Session Road are torturing me. (To refresh thy memory, check out my muzak at the sidebar southaway.) The song isn’t in vogue at the mo, and the lyrics don’t exactly bring to mind a vivid remembrance of all things bright and beautiful (or even otherwise). So I’m quite clueless as to how the song managed to hijack my inner gramophone and put itself on insta-replay. I've already downloaded the tabs and chords to the song a week ago. Need to brush up on my tablature reading and plucking first, though. Been out of practice for so long, I imagine brassy creaking to be the accompaniment my digits will be producing the moment I get hold of a guitar. I'll need to hang out at Lejan's place, of course, to slake this sudden urge of mine. Good thing she still has that guitar that her most infamous suitor gave her for her birthday back in freshman year. All we'll be needing then is booze (not that Lejan drinks; I don't, either) and some smokes (not that Lejan still lights up; I don't, never have). And how can I forget the other singular most important add-on to the setup: Gil. (Not that he sings or plays the guitar.. the last time I checked, anyway.)

Gil, Gil, Gil. What can I say about my best guy friend in the world? Well, for starters, we don't hear from each other anymore. Not like we used to before, anyway. The last time we spoke was in post-Abs July when we burned the telephone lines, talking about what went on in our lives during the yawning gap in communication prior to then. Sadly, our correspondence is now limited to sporadic forwarded messages and missed-calls. I miss the guy terribly. We lost track of each other for a coupla years and reconnected just a coupla months ago. It's sad that we lost touch, and even more so because I probably won't be seeing him for a long time. He's so far away now, studying and making a heck of a living in his hometown in Sorsogon. Among all the people I know in our batch, he's the busiest person I know who's handling the highest level of responsibility. For a 23-year-old, he’s pretty much up there already.

Of course, to be perfectly honest, some things you never see coming. Back in college, Gil was the most party-hardy person I knew. He was the ultimate BI ("bad influence" for the less informed), and Lejan and I used to relish stories of his and his posse's bad-ass ways. (Yep, we were such dorks then.) Gil was everyone's favorite blockmate, and you could always count on him for a good laugh. But what makes him a supah dupah friend is that he sticks it out with you through thick and thin, literally.

Gil was the wakeup call I needed to get me through some of my more icky moments. He was never tactless, and he dished out the painful truth without making you feel like you were the biggest retard on the face of the planet for not having realized it in the first place.

He's wise, too, in the ways of the wily. The breadth of his knowledge and his open-mindedness still take a lot of getting used to, but it all was a refreshing departure from the linearity in thinking of some of my closest friends. And I benefited from that, internally at the very least.. Indeed I like to think that some of it has rubbed off on me.

Gil's my best guy pal, but most of the time we spent together was when it was the three of us with Lejan hanging out. My absolute favorite memory of him was when, together with Lej, we were lounging around the Quezon Hall steps, shooting the crap as per usual. Spurred on by someone's stroke of genius, we decided to have our own little ice cream party that same night. So we dropped by Mercury Drugstore at Philcoa to buy a tub of ice cream and some Ferrero Rochers (his treat, of course; he's always nice like that). Then we headed for the Sunken Garden where, under a hazy canopy of stars (yes, Stef, I'm plagiarizing myself), we ruminated on a great many things about the past, the present, and the future that lay ahead in the vast milkiness of the night sky.

Looking back, I guess it was with a sense of foreboding that each of us realized that things as beautiful as the seemingly eternal present have a way of disappointing you. You get lulled into a sense of complacency in which you think that although changes happen, you can still count on certain things being fundamentally the same. And to a certain extent, this was what happened. But sometimes, the trade-off doesn't seem so fair. In our case, growing up had to necessitate the outgrowing of such spur-of-the-moment indulgences. But we could never outgrow each other, despite evidence to the contrary. I like to think that there's a time and place for everything and that someday an encore of the times we spent together is possible.

Lejan once asked me if it was possible that I would fall for Gil. While I love him to pieces and everything, I replied in no uncertain terms to the negative. See here, some things cannot hope to evolve. And sometimes they shouldn't…

I miss Gil like a bad love song from the mid-90s. You know the type that comes on the radio after long periods of hibernation? Then you find that you just can’t get the tune out of yout head coz of the warm, fuzzy feeling that comes flooding within.. I've been wheedling him forever to take a trip to Manila for business or whatever, but his uber busy sked is just too airtight. Hopefully by next year, Lejan and I can find time to swing by Sorsogon together and trespass upon his hospitality. Then maybe we can finally have our jamming session under the stars. In the meantime, I think I'll get cracking and brush up on my latent inner rockista.