Party Dear Mouse, It was a perfect afternoon if not for the coup alert news that kept on popping up in the 50 inch channel TV showing a Filipino noon-time show that I find disgusting. It was a party of four...ooops nine including the two babies that are in the carry-anywhere portable beds. The host is the bachelor friend who owned a condo in the suburbia. The guests were two lady friends with their spouses and first born babies, a relegated-to-babysitter- mother and moi. The objective of the meeting was not really to party but more of a reunion to celebrate friendship that developed due to care and support for each other. Lady friend number one was a former guest roommate for six months. Her boyfriend of six years since high school abandoned her when he met a nurse here in the States. The lady friend pulled all strings including her pursestrings to help him join her in the States. She got a place of her own but going home there every night was just like putting salt to an open wound. She found refuge in my place. My pillows were soaked in her tears every night. Time heals wounds. I attended her wedding not as a guest but as a principal sponsor being her friend and her spouse-lawyer's. One sponsor cannot help but asked what I was doing in the presidential table. Am I not supposed to be in the secondary sponsors' table ? How am I related to the bride ? Oh well, this curiosity does not kill a cat. Now they have their first born; a three bedroom house and a flourishing law firm. The face of a grieving lovestruck young woman is a distant past. The picture is that of a happy family. Lady friend number two was an office mate in my first job. She, too was single. She too had a boyfriend who also thought that being married to a nurse would give him more financial security. She too was responsible for making the dream of the boyfriend a reality- to come to the States. Oh well, anything for love. Now she is married and just gave birth to a beautiful girl a month ago. She too has a house and a secured job in a law firm. Gone were the days when she would come to my place to cry for the loss of a first boyfriend. I too was a sponsor in the wedding. I felt old. Bachelor friend is looking for a girl friend. He got a condo and a job that he hates. He wants to go into business. The mother who cooked for us wants him to get married. The boys took a break taking care of the babies and went out to play golf while we ladies stayed home. The two new mothers compared notes about "kabag". I watched the disgusting noon-time show, amused by the two ladies dancing in the background while emcees were trying to look cute. If not for the old woman with us, I could have change the TFC channel. But I enjoyed dancing with the one year old kid. Everytime she heard the music, she swayed and hummed. It could have been a children's party should my former roommate found time to join us. But then I was dying to go home to have more news about the coup. The CAT