Tey's Big 3-0...

Brothers & Sisters fans, do you remember that episode where Jason Mccallister and Kevin Walker were volunteered to organize the engagement party of Kitty and Robert? Jason says something like, "What... Gay person equals brilliant party planner?", before nodding his head in agreement.

I have to agree with that. Haha! At the office, for example, I always find myself in party planning mode after blurting out ideas for parties. Thankfully, my colleague and good friend Moneigh aka Maver was also blessed with the party planning gene. She's been doing it for some quite time now, and loves it very much. It's really great tossing around ideas with her. For two years in a row now, we planned the party of our dear Group Head. Last year, we found ourselves planning the "Smart" party of our President & CEO!!!

Though it's more work for us, I must say Iike it. Haha! It's a welcome distraction from the usual stuff at work.

Anyway, I recently found myself putting on my party planning hat. This time, it's for a very important person in my life, someone I really love - Tey. My friendship with Tey started in June of 1996! The venue is some old campus along Padre Faura. Haha! After college, we stayed in touch and managed to keep the friendship alive despite work, despite living in different parts of the city. In 2007 (and largely thanks to her), we "reconnected" big time when I started working for the same company. Even better, we are in the same department. To cut a long story short, the 14-year friendship and counting with Tey is one of the best things I have in my life.

So, when Tey said that she didn't want to do anything for her big 3-0, it was only natural that I object and say that I will put together the party for her and her LP friends.

And that's what I did.

Work has been majorly, majorly toxic for the past two months. We're holding a month-long celebration of Earth Day, and I'm a one-man team providing communications and publicity support to the activities. Still, I found the time to insert menu planning, decor making, coordination with friends, downloading theme music, and so on. I have to thank the heavens though because our good friends Zet and Engel also helped out. Maver, on the other hand, made a fantab chili con which we served during the party and which everybody loved.

The theme of the party was something like "Tey Aragon: Soaring to 30." I know, I know. It's similar to the PAL anniv theme. But that's exactly the inspiration. Tey is a huge fan of traveling, so that sort of became the theme for the party. We converted her place to some kind of airport (Thank you, Mumbai Int'l Airport, for the hi-res photo! Haha!). We added some banners and balloons to add more festivity. I downloaded some "plane announcements." So in between Agnes and Katy Perry, the guests would suddenly hear "Mga binibini, ginang at ginoo..." Wahaha!

It seemed like Tey had a good time at her party. I'd like to think so. I wasn't able to stay the entire time, because I had the 16K Earth Run the following day, and I had to leave around 10PM. Boo! But I think Tey really did enjoy. Thanks to friends who showed their love for Tey by showing up. Thanks to Lance for prepping games. Thanks to the LP gang for being always present. Hehehe! Happy birthday, Tey. Love you, love you always.

So, that's it really. Another party "success" brought to you by the gay gene. Wahaha!