Good-Byes & Sad-Byes

Uncle Peter passed away this week. We weren't related. He was the husband of my mom's classmate from high school. Though the most time I ever spent w/ him was about a week (China vacation 2007), he made quite an impression on me. Hard-pressed to find a nicer guy.

So naturally, because God has a weird sensa humor, nice guys get and pass away from cancer.

That Thursday night in Santo Tomas Hospital I heard brought in the crash cart to revive him, w/c worked, but in the end it didn't last.

What I find strange is that I feel more grief from his passing than I did when my own grandparents passed away.

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Speaking of nice guys... I drove to DLSU Manila yesterday (and got to park the car in-campus again) to attend Dr. Doy Del Mundo's surprise retirement party (the party was the surprise, not the retirement) organized by Mike Lim and a whole buncha DLSU students of his. First and former Pinoy MTV VJ Melanie Kasul (didn't recognize her 'til Eileen told me who she was) was co-hosting the program. As per your usual retirement celebrations there were songs sung, tributes paid, skits enacted, stories told, food served and thanks given. The only skit that caught my eye was the one depicting Dr. Doy's life after retirement, w/c apparently consisted of judging reality shows and hosting UAAP games courtside.

My birthday present to him was an actual Artistic License (too bad the final print came out smaller than I expected). I was probably the only one from ID 94 to attend, not that there weren't familiar faces in the audience, like Rache, Patty, Daniel and Eileen. There were also famous faces like Gil Portes and Bembol Roco.

After the program a good hour was spent by Doy signing autographs and having his picture taken. And boy, did these organizers miss out of some cool puns, like instead of Doy is My Boy logo done in the style of American Idol, they could have written PiDOY IDOL, or iDoy instead of "IDOL" on the custom-made T-shirts.

I wasn't able to buy the T-shirt or sign the guestbook, so I'll make do with the extreme close-up picture Eileen took of us. (Mental note: UNzoom before handing the digicam over to someone to take your picture.) Dr. Doy was a major influence on Eileen in developing her love of film and to Jemps' (wasn't able to attend) love of writing movie reviews. For me he was simply the best MassCom prof you could ask for: instructive but undemanding. So while I celebrate his new chapter in life, I pity the ones left behind (i.e. future DLSU MassCom students) who still have to put up w/ Sibayan.

Afterwards Eileen and I hung around Robinson's Ermita, checking out the even newer wing they built. I was feeling tired, most likely from hunger. After shopping for comics on sale (completed my Batman: Broken City storyline, as well as the 2nd Warren Ellis story on Ultimate Fantastic Four). I regretted ordering the salmon at SBarro's coz it cost twice as much as their deep-dish pizza, but definitely not as filling.