Ang Kape Ni LaTtEX

Earlier this evening I had dinner with a very good friend from college. He had gone to the US around 3 years ago and is now a high school Physics professor, and at the same time taking up masters in Physics in California. The original plan was that we would meet up somewhere near DLSU, but because of work I insisted that we hold it in the Ortigas area instead. Knowing that Ortigas was nearer to his home than La Salle, I figured he wouldn’t object.

When we did meet up at Megamall, he insisted on taking me and our other friend to eat at Pizza Hut. It was at the other building but I didn’t object. We all went there and got ourselves a pizza, and then we started the usual stuff; catching up on stories, talking about our plans for our adult lives (daym we’re getting old), and things as profound as the true meaning of the movie Vanilla Sky and as perverse as our favorite Japanese porn stars back in college.

However what struck me was when he revealed the real reason why he wanted to eat at Pizza Hut. He remembered back around 2000, when I had just shifted to Physics from ECE, that I celebrated my birthday at Pizza Hut. I barely knew my blockmates then. We weren’t really close but he said that I figured out that he and another blockmate would be in Netopia at lunchtime (playing Red Alert 2… some old network game that predates Ragnarok). I went to Netopia and called them over, insisting that they finish their game later because I was treating them for lunch.

And I don’t even remember doing that until he told me about it!

Five years later, he meant to repay the gesture. My friend never gave me the impression of someone who’s sentimental, but still he remembered. It was definitely something you would only get from a true friend. It also reminds me that you’d never know that some of those things you do for people, however small, may matter to them.

Salamat, Pareng Bem!