Valentine madness

I'm sure everyone reading this column did something out of the ordinary yesterday to celebrate Valentine's Day. I know I did. And yet, I'm no real fan of Valentine's. I always think it's merely another western-inspired commercial ploy of the first-world countries, like Mother's Day and Father's Day.

And yet, there seems to be no escaping it. I found myself instantly buying a Black Forest cake with just one telephone call from the very convincing Mrs. Eve Bokingo. Their group, the Christian Women's Association, always sells Valentine Cakes every year. This is probably the fifth Valentine's Day that I bought a cake from them. Admittedly, it cost more than what I had expected to spend for that day. But oh, well...at least, the cake made by Sans Rival tasted very good!

The same spell of Valentine's Day was also cast on my biking buddies. Cobbie had to make the painful decision not to bike with his usual crowd yesterday because he had to take his wife Dessa out for a ride (he assembled her a bike, that's why) and had a fabulous South Seas Resort breakfast afterwards.

Mike Feeney brought his girlfriend Joan along for the 5:30 ride to Valencia. She, too, had a new bike and a new helmet to boot. And she surprised us all by keeping up with Mike every step of the way.

Dale Law, my English teacher in college who, at 63, could still outpedal most of us, especially in the final stretch leading to the Valencia market, didn't want to say what he bought for his wife Rosita. He just said he had taken note of that day as Valentine's Day and we all took it to mean he was cooking up a surprise for her later on.

Ruem Gregorio, the balikbayan who retired as a chef in the US (he's only 39), was still looking for a rose as we started our ride back to Dumaguete. Until yesterday, he still had no idea where to buy those flowers, especially for flowers that cost "25 pesos." I'm sure he was kidding, even when he declared that he still doesn't have a girlfriend.

Arnel Balbon, whom we all thought had long retired from biking, surprised us all as we were enjoying our coffee at the Valencia Public Market by showing up on his bicycle. "It's a good day for biking today and I just knew you would not miss it," he said. Seeing Arnel reminded me that my son had always been asking me why his tito Arnel hasn't been biking with us anymore. "That's because he's a new father--he already has one kid," I told Gj.

After thinking about my answer for a moment, Gj replied, "But you have three kids [and you always go biking]!" Indeed.

But if I were to give an award to the man who had the most elaborate preparation for Valentine's, it was probably this single buddy of ours, whom I will keep anonymous for obvious reasons. As we were biking up our trail, he told me that he had sent "something" to each of his three ladies-in-waiting.

Somehow, I was not surprised. I just kept reminding myself that many people tend to do something crazy for love on Valentine's Day-- even if it happens only once a year. And this friend of ours was no exception.*

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