birthday in portuguese one of the best birthday gifts i got this year was a song in portuguese. it's the first time someone's sang me a birthday song that wasn't in either english or filipino!

Parabéns a Você
Congratulations to you

Nesta data querida
In this dear date

Muitas felicidades
Many happinesses

Muitos anos de vida
Many years of life


Hoje é dia de festa
Today is a day of party

Cantam as nossas almas
Sing from our souls

À menina (ulanmaya)
To the girl (ulanmaya)

Uma salva de palmas!
A salute of palms!


it is just perfect!

except for the translation. ahahaha i went online for that. heehee!

the friday night of my birthday, i met up with just one of my friends at the signature room - just one! because he is just insane like that.

last monday, may 30, everyone suprised me with cake and a party at one of my friends' houses on the chicago northside. that weekend, the saturday and sunday before, was pintig's open mic and sunday was a video group meeting, so we were out for like 40 of the 48 hours that weekend.

one of the funnest things we did was just get lost on the northside - after the open mic, we headed to the hothouse to attend pacifics' CD launching. i had a sexy drink that night, ahahaha.

i have no clue what it's called. i just said i wanted something light and sweet, ahahahaha. and the same dude who stood vigil with me at the signature room bought it for me and jessie, another video-dude friend. ahahaha.

after the hothouse, we were hungry, but we didn't want to go to the golden nugget just yet coz it was saturday night, and there might be other places to eat. so we decided to go exploring ahahahaha - i wanted to go north on broadway street and yes, what else would we find along the exhilerating, exhuberant, exciting and amazing lakeview neighborhood?!

AHAHAHAHAHA!!! i'm not telling. if you don't know, why should i tell? ;-) but later on, simply by passing clark street at belmont avenue, near club BERLIN and the offices of spin magazine, the joyous catcalling from romeo's SUV and the provocative smiles targeted toward it when we snarled to a standstill in that hoppeningly trafficky, trendy area, subsided. sigh.

for we had crossed into yuppy, silverspoonly lincoln park: home of depaul university. everyone else was yuck to it, but i went, hmm, coz both my siblings go to school there and i might consider, if i succumb to the idea that imma get into debt again once i go back for gradschool anyways, why whip myself better by moving away and acquiring lodging burdens? ouch. so the jokes turned back to "let's just go to the nugget!" coz we were hungry!

we spent the night at the nugget. just like d and i did, a week later, saturday from 2 a.m. till 6. ahahahaha.

the man has stamina. grabe. sobra. but the good thing's that he admits that sometimes he's just talking and not communicating, ahahahaha. which is strange coz i think i'm really listening. if i liked the guy, we wouldn't be talking about the things we talked about, actually, ahahaha - if i like a guy, we'd be talking about something else, like, "it's 2:30. in the a.m. i need to be back in my mother's house. now."

but i don't like d, in fact, i look up to him like a mentor because he risked spending time with me! and just me! ohmigosh! he called people to make sure that he knows at least why they can't make it! and he actually asked me if i wanted to go out to a concert with the crew! and he actually called and texted and left me voice messages at least four times that night to make sure where the hell i was!

he kept that he was chillin with some of the crew and that he could have asked them as well, but by the time i learned that, it was 4:30 a.m.! so i forgave him, because if not, i wouldn't have found out some things about him that not even his best of bestest friends know! HA!!!

the very bad thing about my birthday date is that we spent so much time at the signature room that we closed it, and therefore missed ciso's show. :-( (i'm sorry, ciso! if you read this, next time? i promise! and ack! thank you for reading! ahaha. now go back to work!)

there were moments in this birthday weekend that i truly wish never, never happened - episodes you'll find out soon enough anyways, ahaha - i hate blogging!!! ahahaha - but they happened, and oh wells. i'm just thankful some thing, some one, some memories, were able to tide me over till the next adventure. else, i would not have finally had a chance to go to margie's for ice cream and sandwhiches with my family! else, i would not have finally had a chance to hear some of the dedications for jen at her wedding shower, and hear some of her concerns regarding what some of the women said to her there, which became food for thought for me!

else, i would not have had a chance to make my mother herself happy by accompanying her at a casino again this weekend, and her winning more than $300! mom showed a coupon thingy the casino mailed her several weeks ago that she could use that turned out expired, but i tried by telling her it was also my birthday recently. she said that those things are mailed out, they don't have any on the floor they can give me, but happy birthday anyways. it was embarrassing, but sweet anyways! ahahahaha.

and now, it is almost 6 a.m. as i end typing this. i didn't want to go gambling, but seeing the chicago skyway, the tollway bridge, the south side steel mills, and distant, very blue, lake michigan in the early summer sunset was worth it. my mother and i got lost trying to find the casino, and in the process, we passed by closed BP refineries.

they looked eerie, unstaffed on a late sunday. we asked for directions from a security guard, and i was told not to take photographs of the massive steel structures. i noticed the elaborate designs formed by the steel columns, angle after cross-angle, forming a power plant. there was a forest of chimneys, silent sentinels pointing to the sky. there was the usual steel tower at one end of the complex, spewing orange flame, indicating that the refinery was still in use. i thought of new security measures implemented shortly after the 2001 u.s. terror attacks, and why i wasn't permitted to take pictures.

after a weekend with filipino friends, and then this common birthday song, but in portuguese - i was reminded that this was the u.s., and wow. i'd experienced yet another year's turning, and on this soil, no less.  ¶ 6/06/2005 05:18:00 AM