its a boy! ;)

sigh. its been what, 2 days and approximately 12 hours? and i'm still in a cloud. in a bed of soft, fluffy, dreamy clouds; dreaming still of my latest technological purchase--the laptop of my dreams! :) (hehehe, i must be really dreamy, so dreamy to not have noticed that i kept on using "dream" in varying functions in my last sentence... as verb, adjective...etc, haha!!)

at the beginning of this month, i wrote my wishlist for this christmas season. topping my list was a compaq laptop, ending my entry on a note of uncertainty as to whether i can or cannot buy that much coveted shiny thing that kept on dancing in my mind's eye like rudolph the red-nosed reindeer on drugs. weeks passed, and an officemate who happened to know of my plan of buying a "writer's tool"--our little pet name for "laptop"--asked me whether i'm gonna push through or not with my plan. all i could manage in reply was a sigh of uncertainty, as all of us at work are really hoping for a good news to come from the powers-that-be in our office; that this season will really be a merry one, not just in name and spirit, but also in terms of material endowments--primarily the little pieces of bank-issued printed paper we affectionately call cash, hehehe.

party time came, and Big Boss issued the customary christmas message, warning us at the beginning of his speech of his "terribly bad" bad news. so terrible it is, according to him, that he had to wait for the other big bosses to pop out and join him in announcing the bad news. seems this new big boss have the penchant for the theatrical, i said to myself. weeks before that fateful speech, there have been rumors circulating that things were being worked out by our union president with the management to augment the measly salary we're receiving by a grant of a spectacular christmas bonus. as an employee already used to the nature of office gossip, i never really banked on receiving the rumored amount, not until i have incriminating proof that indeed, said rumors are true... well, it couldn't ring more true than this--straight from the horse's mouth, as it was announced in front of a crowd, mouths singularly gaping in anticipation and excitement hehehe. wham!! it hit me like a cold water slammed to the face. hehehe. HEHEHEHE.

then came the raffle draws. two of the major prizes that were raffled off were hp laptops costing around 40k each. just imagine me, gentle and calm on the outside, but seething on the inside as the winners were announced. i would be a hypocrite to not expect my name would be miraculously called from that list of around 500 people.. so yes, i did expect. i lost to a drunkard who cannot even stand on his feet and had to be dragged by his officemates to the stage to claim his laptop. well, i said to myself, at least the bonus plus a bit of cash coming from my savings will do enough to cover for a decent-looking laptop, once i get to invade the malls.

i held onto that thought as the night progressed; geneva cruz, whose vavavoom presence made heads turn 360 degrees, did an impromptu performance it seems, as she didn't have enough songs stashed in her repertoire to quench the crowd thirsting for a performance fitting royalty. hehehe. jeffrey hidalgo also graced our party, and so did kris lawrence, doing one song number each. jeffrey, aside from the solo number, also did a duet with geneva, singing the applauded "paraiso".

two days after the party, i stormed the malls, searching high and low for my dream laptop. the image of compaq immediately turned to dust when i laid my eyes on this baby--an acer, in full shining glory. so shiny that i dare not remove the protective film on its cover/ lid for fear that my baby "gael" get scratches all over. hehehe. yes. i call this shiny thing "gael" on eyvicat's suggestion that i name my laptop. it seems the trend nowadays, naming things you own with people names. eyvicat have his "diego", the dell laptop; while mr. chowking affectionately calls his car that we used going to caleruega with the rest of the crazee bunch, "priscilla". hehehe.

gael, in his infancy stage hasn't really churned out anything yet that his daddy can be proud of. there are still lotsa things to be done, like setting up the programs, connections, etc. nevertheless, like any proud papa, i've high hopes for this baby. go, gael show papa gentle your moves, baby... i'm waiting!