‘Dance your decade’

Netnet Camomot

“IN the local arena aka Cagayan de Oro’s rainbow colors, the yellow and orange teams are not campaigning for one goal anymore, making yellow-orange as the most unlikely pair for the local 2013 political fun run. They used to have one goal way back in 2010 when the violet team was their common enemy. Now, there’s chika it’s violet and orange versus yellow. In 2016, will the city have new colors like pink?”

That was the fourth to the last paragraph of the previous column, “The Busy Manhid.” Note the years–2013 should be 2016, 2010 should be 2013. That’s what happens when every hour of the month matters but you still want to write because that’s your time to breathe.

And joining Lourdes College High School’s alumni homecoming is another chance to breathe. Thus, there you were at the Limketkai Atrium on Friday night to watch “Hali Na Mo Night 2016,” the dance contest that featured batches from 1966 to 2002, with an audience whose oldest, er, most mature were from batch 1953.

For this year, the contest’s theme is “Dance Your Decade.” No, not a decade of the Holy Rosary, which a Catholic alma mater like yours may encourage someday once the silver jubilarians have run out of contest themes. The decade refers to those ten years when your high school batch graduated–1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and so on and so forth, till the 2000s, and you could definitely tell the difference while watching the dance contestants, without even looking at the programme, on who belongs to what decade. Hehe. Hush.

The younger sis danced again with her 1985 batchmates. This was the batch that was elevated to the Hall of Fame after winning the top prize for three times, the same thing that happened to the Rotary Club of Kalayaan Cagayan de Oro in the Rotary district’s dance contest.

You’re not the dancer in the family–Mama used to tell you to sit down whenever you tried to dance with sis, haha! She’s definitely the dancer, and there she was again onstage on Friday night, after about two weeks of practice. Yes, two weeks, and they still won third prize in their category, which was A, the young once. They–Batch ’85–were the youngest in that category.

Co-Kalayaan Rotarian Kim Daguman and her 1986 batchmates were the, hmmm, hehe, oldest in Category B which was for the young ones, and they won third prize, too.

Another co-Kalayaan Rotarian, Margie Rojas, and her fellow 1978 batchmates won Category A’s first prize for the second time! One more win, and they’ll be elevated to the Hall of Fame, too.

The mom of some friends danced with her 1966 batch, this year’s golden jubilarians, with one of her daughters, Aimee Dabuet, as the choreographer.

Your batch, however, did not join the contest this time. Instead, you opted to cheer for everyone while feasting on Chicken Joy and regular Coke–hey, no fear! Yum!

For dessert, there was ube jam and leche flan. For appetizers–chips, peanuts, cookies.

Yup, cheat galore for the dieter whose to-do list could already win the Guinness World Records’ longest line. So, upon arriving home at almost 12 midnight, you try working while the manual planner is right beside you, and surprisingly managed to email layouts for tarpaulins, certificates and mugs, while verifying details with a Rotaractor at the ungodly hour of–gasp!–1 a.m.

The first line you sent out, though, was, Are you still awake? Well, he was. And that’s how you were able to finalize layout details.

To stay awake, there was the bag of peanuts again, and you had stopped asking by then if these nuts could increase your visceral fats. They keep you awake–end of story.

February remains as your busiest month ever. But who’s complaining? You laugh, smile, and continue to breathe through this column and other “oxygen” sources that keep you going. Life is full. Simply savor every moment and you’ll be fine.