Love Trilogy*

"Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of time. There are too many mediocre things in life and love shouldn't be one of them." - from the movie, Dream For An Insomniac

Two of my closest guy friends are in love. And I mean disgustingly smitten, down and dirty, turned into a cheese ball in love. Imagine two macho guys who back in college who would be so astig in their own way, the other guys who weren't their friends just hated their guts. Come to think of it, they hated each other's guts. I was the wide-eyed girl (space) friend who would hear about their exploits and be witness to their dramas. They'd tell it to me straight like I was one of the guys. They'd send me green text joke messages that made me cringe (my boyfriend that time read one of them and launched into a great fit of jealousy saying no guy friend would send a friend a message like that if they weren't into them. Duh). But it was all in good fun; an honest to goodness clean friendship. Hanging out with them was always hilarious and with them around in that strange jungle called college, I felt safe cause I know they got my back. So this blog entry really is a tribute. To Superman and Crash, my two great friends who are in love. I am happy for them.

Superman is getting married end of this month to the girl of his dreams. In college, I met him in 2nd year when we became classmates for a subject. We were in the same group and we had to come up with a product or service to sell and make a marketing campaign for. The final presentation would take up a big portion of our grades in that subject. On to our first meeting, he was this really aggressive guy who spoke in a loud voice and started dominating the discussion like he was the leader. I hated his guts. When we started working on the project it was a surprise to me that we got along well and he agreed with all of my ideas (and made the rest of the group agree too, haha). The project was a success and our friendship went from then on and we would take the same subjects and scheds so we could hang out. That time he was sort of dating this girl named Cindy who was always half with him and half with her ex. Superman was pissed but was also into this girl so it went on for months (all this time he would be complaining about it but still be with her). He finally got tired of it and split up with her and cut cleanly even after her usual attempt to win him back. I heaved a huge sigh of relief and told him "Good decision" to which he retorts smugly, "I'm da man." He would then be in a series of infatuated moments with numerous girls and then we graduated from college and would get in touch every now and then. He was single for years and loving it. Until sometime ago when I saw him in friendster looking happy and in love. With this girl I also knew from college; they had met again after a few years and realized they were meant to be together forever. I wish I could be in his wedding; it would have been a great "full circle" moment to his life and our friendship. I can't wait to hear about his life in the next few years where I am sure it will be all good. To Superman, I wish you your happy ever after.

Now Crash, my friend, is a more complicated story. I remember clearly how he made himself known to me. Our teacher in this really hard subject called on him to recite(this teacher was known for emptying a class halfway to the term; students just preferred to wait for the summer term when she wouldn't be the teacher to retake that subject). See, Crash was never into studying. He looked at himself as an artiste-gamer-punk who was too cool for school. He stood up and tried to answer our teacher's questions, struggling until she told him he can look at the textbook if he needed a guide anyway hr questions weren't t be easily found. Which he did, and in his nervousness managed to tear the book and the class could hear the sound echoing in the room. I could hardly control laughing and that did not escape him. We were friends from then on. Our friendship wasn't always smooth - Crash was prone to drama and I had little patience for it. We would argue sometimes and I wouldn't be able to take his in-your-face angsty take on life and many times I'd walk out and not speak to him for days. We would make up effortlessly though and our friendship would be on track until a new argument would come up. It didn't help that we were both Virgos, both critical of ourselves and of others. He didn't like a lot of people and would be at odds with different characters back then. He got along better with girls because girls would somehow allow his dramatic inclinations. Crash to his own credit and in his own rough way I know cared for our friendship a lot. Through the years I have understood that his being crass, loud, and "mean" was just a shell. He really is soft inside and would stand by you at the worst of times. We would lose touch for some years entirely because of my fault (which he hasn't made me forget) as my boyfriend at that time was insanely jealous of him so that time I felt I "had" to keep my distance. I would come running back when that relationship ended, but because we had graduated and his shifts in the call center were erratic we didn't see each other a lot. We would keep the friendship going through YM, text, and phone. Shortly after I had started to date Lem, I met up with him and told him I may be in love and I think this is the one. He was his usual jovial and "mean" self, teasing me and not taking me seriously. Anyway I told him I won't disappear again to which he gave me a smirk (how typical). Crash would go out with a girl for 6 years, consider marrying her, but back out of it.I always felt 50-50 about that relationship as I didn't see so much passion spewing from him because of her(and he always was passionate). He dabbled at the thought of proposing to her but would take the excuse that he didn't have a ring yet to get out of it. Early this year (I think), he finally ended it and has since met the love of his life. The one who made him into a cheese ball, dedicating love songs and declaring in his blog notes to himself that say "love her, marry her, die for her". He has a different energy about him and he is not at all afraid to hear any ribbing or teasing from me when he sent me an email that says "crash is happy". To Crash, keep her, love her, make it last. I know you would.


They say love makes the world go round. The world has since turned cynical and jaded, and sometimes I can't help but be caught up in that cynicism too. Never mind that I have found my own warm place - on some occasions the rest of the world can make you question that all may be well now, but what about in the future? But when I hear of stories like these, it makes me believe again. That true love happens and stays, that there exists a warm place where one can rest and be loved passionately, faithfully and constantly.

*Title borrowed from a Red Hot Chili Pepper song of the same.