Piedra Party

This was only the second time Liza's* gone out w/ my circle of friends. One Beijinoy she's met before, the rest she'll meet for the first time.

When Pa paranoiyingly (paranoid + annoying + ly) thought Taguig was too far me to drive there on my own (had I said The Fort or Serenda --w/c Pa still thinks is in Makati-- he probably wouldn't have blinked), he insisted the family driver be used. Fine by me. My last chauffered date was during Senior Prom. At least parking won't be an issue.

Tintin was dropped off my house and then we picked up Di. When the found out about Liza they could barely contain their curiosity and excitement. We didn't stay at Liza's house since we were running kinda late. By the time we walked back to the Hi-Ace T & D already moved to the back seats to give us space in the middle, otherwise I would've ended up sitting shotgun, giving Francis directions on how to get to The Contessa's place.

Fast foward to 4 girls and a guy off to Fort Strip Mall. Piedra was at the 3rd level, but we first ate dinner at the Persian restaurant downstairs. We had stuffed chicken kebab (dee-lish), lamb kebab (salty) and veggie-meat-thingie-resembling-dried-asado kebab (weird) because Di was having a Veggie Day.

We got the party about 45 minutes after Piedra's Open Bar started. Not 30 seconds after we arrive did Liza run into a fellow CAT officer from her ICA days (Next Gen Beijinoy, apparently). Birthday Boy Manol was, like the club's music, up and loud. Aside from Beijinoys like Dave, Pyao and Jarvey I also ran into old Ayala, Alabang faces like Piko, CB, Ana G, Izzy and Andy, and w/ each one I met I got a kick out of saying, ", this is my girlfriend, Liza." As she met them all for the first time, I had my first open bar experience w/ my first glass (ever) of R&C (Rum & Coke). Hmm, not bad.

Unfortunately a curfew meant we could only stay a little over an hour. Would've loved to have asked Ana G in person about whether or not she's back w/ex Igo (said, "We're enjoying ourselves for the moment."), or shoot the breeze w/ Andy. At least I got to say Hi to almost everyone I knew. Even Grand, whom I ran into in the men's room. After I introduced Liza to him Grand in turn introduced us to "Patrick," who turned out to be Patrick Garcia. On the ride home Liza said she didn't recognize him, hence the lack of starstruck-ness on her part.

On the other hand if I wasn't in a hurry to drive the ladies home (or just being cowardly) I might've said to Patrick, "Big fan of your work. Loved you in Batang PX."

*Seeing as we're already a couple, I'm giving up this omniscient narrator thing.