Will Saint Thomas Aquinas would approve my beer indulgence?

Dear friends,

Just before anything else, an update of my life.

Last Saturday is the birthday of a fellow brother here in the community. Happy Birthday! We celebrated with lots of buko salad (coconut salad), lechon (roasted pig), grilled bangus (milk fish), rice (of course), dinuguan (search it!), and some dishes I cannot recall. We invited the school administrators, novitiate community, and some friends for the dinner. I l lead the prayer (as usual) and our festive meal did not even last for two hours which is quite fast given it’s a Filipino birthday celebration.

I don’t usually drink alcohol but I joined the friends of my fellow brother because it’s his birthday. I saw them when I was going to the library where I was playing a computer game, an old modified map in Warcraft 3 with Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece characters in it. I think this year I am consuming lots of beer compared to the previous years of my life.  Even my fellow brother, who happens to be our community superior, said that I might share in our young brothers assembly that I learned to drink alcohol from him. That was said in jest of course. The typhoon Karen even made way to Cotabato City with all it’s gustiness and rain that our drinking session outside the veranda was transferred to the library. It’s convenient that it’s just adjacent. So they, the visitors whom I know because they work here in the school, saw all my books, unreturned student activities, school supplies, school record, in the big table because I slowly turned the library into my personal office. That was not planned if only I have organizational skills to remove clutters. So here it’s obvious that I don’t have a table inside the faculty room due to some space constraints there. I have a table in the campus ministry office which I rarely use. So that’s why all of the clutters was there in the library table in full display to the visitors.

Since the computer was in the library, we turned it into our television by just tuning in to YouTube. We had a marathon of the 80’s music because that’s the generation of the visitors. As a 90’s kid, I barely knew the songs except for some. I know some of them because the songs were the pop songs during their time and it just so happened I’m familiar with them thanks to MTV. The good times lasted until 2:00 AM.

Of all the alcohol, I think I won’t be consuming hard drinks anymore and settle with beer or wine because with beer I can still think clear and not really that uninhibited and can still walk straight. With a strong liquor, I don’t think that would be wise for me. Maybe St. Thomas Aquinas would approve this beer indulgence of mine. Or probably not because his quote on Sorrow was misattributed. We have a weird prayer on blessing beer even to the point of calling it as a “creature”. I just saw that prayer somewhere. I am thinking of connecting beer to the Wedding Feast at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. I lack the technical skills for explaining theological nuances so I’ll just leave this as it is. Besides, I don’t think there’s a need for it. Anyway, I just remembered them.

The next day, Sunday, I was originally planning to attend again a feast somewhere near here because the principal invited us during the personnel meeting last Wednesday. Hung over until 12 PM, I decided to scrap the plan since I just woke up before noon time. I attended the Sunday Mass at 11:15 AM because we have a meeting at 3 PM to vote for our representatives for the upcoming 22nd General Chapter. It was Game 4 of the PBA Finals and Ginebra won despite the uncalled travelling violation of Sol Mercado in the crucial last minutes.

Now, this week is the last week of the first semester before the break. I’m done with the students’ grades, lessons, lectures, and just waiting for the week to finish. This week, I gave my students a lantern making project with a Marian Theme because it’s the Rosary Month.

Next week will be our annual personnel retreat. I might again write some of my reflections during that time of prayer and rest.

Peace everyone! I’m out.

Post-review of the much awaited opening of the Marist School Employees’ Athletic League 2015

Yesterday was the opening of the first MSEAL (Marist School Employees’ Athletic League) with our team, MAPAC, combined with some staffs to complete the blue team. Some highlight? I represented our team as our torch bearer. After that, some extra formalities with hilarious yells that we did spontaneously.

Bad news: Last night, my shooting streak was over. Last year, I didn’t miss an attempt in the perimeter. Last game, I shot two attempts and it just clanked the iron. We went into overtime, was just trailing by two in the last two minutes but we never scored during that period due to exhaustion. Final score: 79-89.

Good news: First time that I stole a ball in a fast break attempt while the opponent is on transition. And since we didn’t have any center, I have to grab the rebounds from our more than six feet tall opponents whenever I subbed in. I think I had five or six rebounds.

The best part of the game: On the last 2.9 seconds of the regulation, we had the last possession. Only down by two points, we can win or tie the game. the opponents are holding our players during the inbound since they have three more fouls to give. They can actually foul us until the game ends. So they gave two fouls and left us with 0.5 seconds. That means a catch and shoot situation. But some screen play and presence of mind did trick our opponents. It was so fast that our tallest player was suddenly open near the basket and the inbounder just took the opportunity. That was not in the play! Presence of mind did the trick! He caught and shot the ball. Overtime!

We don’t have enough gas in the extra period. A bittersweet loss. No regrets. We did our best. Maybe some hydration drinks will help us in our next game.