What an interesting day. I’ve never seen so many of my UP EEE batchmates in one day ever since college. And I wasn’t really expecting it.

Discounting my batchmates that are also my coworkers, the first one I saw was Shelley after leaving the office. Since she works in the company on the floor above us, it’s not surprising that I’d bump into her. She was with her boyfriend, Rico, an orgmate of mine, and they were going to Pinnacle Health; I walked with them along the way. I was going to Gold’s Gym myself for my regular workout and parted with the two near McDonald’s Eastwood.

After gym, I was deciding where to take my dinner. Since the day was the first Friday of Lent, I was abstaining from meat and so Jollibee and McDo were out of the question. (I don’t think I’d’ve subsisted on Fillet-o-Fish and I didn’t like Jollibee’s Crispy Bangus Belly.) I settled on eating at Sushi-ya’s in Megamall. The decision to eat there turned out to be serendipitous.

Inside, I saw Karen, another batchmate, with five other people. I also recognized Che, another orgmate, so I figured that they were all from HP, which puzzled me since I thought that all of HP’s offices were in Makati. Both of them didn’t see/recognize me.

After finishing my meal—the Chirashidon was amazing—I went outside and waited for my sister to pick me up. I got restless after a bit and so I walked around. Nearing Superbowl of China, I was a bemused to spot Noel A. with a large bunch of people. I looked more closely and was shocked to see that almost all of them were my batchmates! If memory serves me right, the people I saw there were Theta, Cacho, Tzie, Aidz, Emong, Vicky, PJ, Franz, Mico, Xandie, and Doy. Practically all MaScians except for the odd Xavierian and Lourdesites.

I went behind Tzie and asked, “Anong meron?” and they were surprised to see me as I was to see all of them together. Tzie informed me that it was a despidida party for Vicky, who’ll be leaving for Korea to take up higher studies. Vicky told me that Jor-El left sometime earlier to go home. (Hey, Jor-El, it seems I just missed you there, buddy.)

I told Vicky, “Di ka nagsasabi; kung di pala ako napadaan dito, hindi ko nalaman na aalis ka.” I was just a little bit miffed since Vicky is a good friend from college and she didn’t even text me that she’ll be leaving and that there was a farewell get-together. Well, I don’t really expect to be invited since I’m not part of their extended barkada. Anyway, I not holding anything against anyone.

I chatted for quite a while with Tzie and caught up on a few things. Apparently, HP now has an office in Ortigas, which explained why I saw Karen earlier. She also told me about her business trip last week to Dusseldorf, Germany for their client Audi. She was only there two weeks but she managed to go sightseeing in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Belgium, and Paris. Lucky her. I told her that hopefully I’ll be going on a month-long business trip myself in April.

We exchanged news of our other batchmates, like Darwin, Finley, Jred, Neiljohn, Johann, and Maricel, who are all my officemates, and Joanne, Carmi, and others in HP.

I’m still bemused at seeing all of them.