answering the question

At long last, I’ve met some people who I have not seen since two months of May ago. And why not? We deserve this. After all, we have just celebrated in advance Dustin’s 26th birthday (?), a fellow Katsubong.

Since most members of the 47th batch have gathered, the prerequisite allegorical question of keeping each and every one updated is brought up: “Kamusta ang love life?” Here are some bits of information for those out there who are not able to attend with us.

Currently, Margie is crossing her fingers for a possible publication of her first short story collection. She works as a corporate communications just like me. She left Black Ink to get a new apartment.

Dustin, the birthday boy, is one of Christina Pantoja Hidalgo’s favorite students. As if that’s not enough elevation, he is the highest rated teacher in a university where he keeps on playing violence-filled videos to his students.

Carmela, who’s not letting Margie take the entire spotlight, is revving up for her “I Love You, Bakla” enterprise. After several short-lived undertakings in the corporate world, she thinks her current job would at least last for a year.

Tokwa is still the same; singkit but with a shorter hair. He would soon become the epitome of what is called genre-bending after the release of his Filipino-version of George Orwell’s 1984. It is a play with Marianne Rivera on it—an insert inspired from the movie Booba, the first Filipino post-modern film.

Lawrence, whether he likes it or not, has been immortalized in the form of a little figurine in the apartment of Dustin and Marge. Well, here’s some hint: If Oedipus is for blindness and Beethoven is for deafness, well there’s Lawrence for… you know what it is. He takes over the position of Marge in Black Ink.

Leslie did not seem to appear in the gathering. Instead, it is her alter-ego that came up, talking about dogs, crying over Quickmelt that magically transforms into blue cheese, and gulping down to the last drop of what’s left with our wine. Seriously, you’ll be fine, Les.

And finally, there’s Elena who, as what Dustin have shared to us, gives the class of Hidalgo a little surprise with her creative nonfiction work. Because of that, we push her to start with her own collection too. Oh, she’s happy being a student.

So, that’s it. With a lot of cheese, wine, and bread on the table, it’s inevitable that we stayed in until six in the morning of the following day. Okay, that may be wrong but let us be. This only happens once in a while. Until next meeting!

Liza, Lambert, Igor, Arlene, and Bron, are you listening? And oh yeah, the updates of those people's lives obviously didn't answer the metaphorical question, “Kamusta ang love life?”