Suitcase Files: Baguio City 2013

An accidental rendezvous with a national treasure, world class sculptor Benhur Villanueva.

@Arko ni Apo, afternoon of  November 7.    With the "Maestro and Mommy" sandwiched between  Beng  (taken by yours truly ) then me (curt'sy by Ryes).

Just after a blind curve, Arko ni Apo was located across Tam-awan Village, our original destination. Coming from a little shopping from Benguet State U, I got a bit sleepy with the typical Baguio breeze and our white Grandia rockin' me like a baby.  It had me at hello :) ... I crossed the street without second thoughts, I walked behind NFC, who's an art collector himself.

It was delicious.  You should see the look on my face.   I was like a little girl  buying cotton candy :) ... My eyes and mouth all rounded up in amazement.  Even as a child, I have this thing with "beauty".  When you're young you don't call it art.  Not yet.  Until you see beyond the object, and find stories from the details.  To have an eye for that is a gift, i believe.  Not everyone has good taste ;).  This my bragging right now ;), CITEM, spending 15 years of my young corporate life,  trained and tested my taste bud,  having placed in company of both local and internationally acclaimed designers, I grew a deep affection for the art.   I admire them all ... Klimt, Schiele,  Bryers, Vargas, Lange, Orkin, Fein, Barton, Rockwell, Kahlo, Freud, McGinnis, Vine, Orlina, Claude Tayag, Abi Goy, BenCab, Gilda Cordero-Fernardo, i have a long roster of names of photographers, painters, animators, sculptors, installation artists.

It was a day of accidents.

We drove to Casa Vallejo.  Not for ghost hunting hehe but for dinner at Hillstation, a resto just below the city's oldest hotel.  And lo and behold ... there's a a narrow staircase that actually leads to a bookshop.  Mt. Cloud.

I'm a certified  book whore.  You know what happens to me each time I get surrounded by books. ORGASMIC!  LOL.  It's ecstasy and I get lost from it.  I always say that I can actually live in a room full of books.  When I get rich, I will have a huge library ...  a room bigger than my house LOL.

I let them ordered dinner for me.  I have to sneak in to that tiny nook within that haunted Casa :)

Walk in the clouds of art ... crafting, reading, listening.  You heard it right ... Mt. Cloud also hosts open mic poetry reading, every third Monday of the month.  So they say, "paint your night with (in a cloud  of )poetry.

 Tenants of Casa Vallejo.  There's Hillstation.  There's Mt. Cloud.  And every third Monday of the month, you can string together beautiful words, read them aloud and bring them to clouds.  

@Mt. Cloud, you can do your thing while having coffee or your favorite beer.   This place is heaven. ;)

This one wasn't accidental.

Just before my flight from CDO to Manila, I already requested to put us together in one room.  We got a bonus, and traveled in one van together, Manila-Baguio-Manila. :).  May TPLEX na but it's still a good 10 hours of road trip, back and forth.

There were 14 years between us covered only by telephone calls, emails and eventually Facebook.  There's a lot of catching up to do, two days not enough but a pretty good warm up.

She going through rough seas at work.  It's not something she couldn't surpass.  I'm just happy I'm here now for my friend during these times when she needs me the most.

Andameng wento.  Fifty years old na pala si Betchay, binata na si Arvie, widower n si Ate Lo, nasa States na si Ate Miriam, my friend now a Pastor's wife (arrgghhhhh!!!) , and so she got prophetic, she warned me not to marry yet, so look now.  Kaya pala, 43 na ako at 45 na sya hayyy naku ... sabay kame, sugar tumataas.  Funny she needed closure with Paul ... and talaga naman, i-stalk namin si JayDee ahahaha. Curious lang daw sya kase wala sa Facebook.  So gatong naman ako ahhaha, so i told her i get worried when people I look for don't show up in Facebook or don't update their timeline, isip ko lage, baka tegi na waaaaaaaaa ... so like, as of this writing, me wanna text her na ... ayun o si JD, netizen, hehehe, tabachingching lang pero cute pa din --- at nasa Gapo lang!!!!

She gets makulet with her usual antics when it's my turn.My friend and I were too happy to be together again after a long time apart trying to make something out of our lives.  I don't want to ruin that moment.    She knows naman na what happened to my marriage.  It was sob story enough.  Hanggang dun na lang.  Mas malungkot yung ngayon.  I don't want pity even when if it's coming from her.  I only accepted pity the year it happened.  Nuff said.

 Breakfast @ Baguio Country Club ... with one of my lifelong  friends, si BengBeng.  Bliss.  

***nota bene***

                                                                "All I have, all I need, he's the air I would kill to breathe

Holds my love in his hands, still I'm searching for something

Out of breath, I am left hoping someday I'll breathe again ..."

(dream catcher i got from Arko ni Apo. now hangs over my bed, by the window, in my room., hooked on my purple Chicago butterfly)