Proof...

...that my unconscious is a compulsive punner: I had a dream the other night where the sutil boy was supposed to marry me. I walked down the aisle of a rickety wooden church and he turned out to be the PRIEST with a moustache á la Mr. Pringles and he insisted, "But I AM marrying you."(Cue canned laughter.)

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So nag-inuman na naman kami nung Monday. After Alex's despedida (where we had barbecue and two kinds of pasta, not to mention red wine), Vince, Allan, Elmo, BJ P., and I ended up at Trellis, a stone's throw away from where I met up with a spectral presence recently.

Whenever I go out with these guys, I get reminded of that Stephen Dunn poem I love so much, where he goes: "everyone has brought / his fierce privacy with him / and is ready to share it." As for WHY we feel the need to go drinking every single week, none of us has problematized it yet (and why must I assume the reason is more than the usual need for camaraderie?).

What I learned:

1) Teachers in desperate need of alcohol will drive in the worst weather for a "silungan" substitute.

2) Strong Ice is the "lady's drink" in this group. hehe.

3) I'm not the only one who saves the plastic cats that come with the Gato Negro (or Blanco) wine bottles.

4) Metal ashtrays can double as spittoons.

5) There are people who can kill cacti.

6) From Indi, who joined us: B is going to Toronto for his Ph.D. Wow. Has it really been two years since my first black plastic cat?

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I blundered into the living room Tuesday morning and got attracted by a mini-headline (the more accurate term escapes me right now) on the upper right-hand corner of the Inquirer's front page: Saddam takes up gardening, poetry in jail. Fascinating.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein spends his time in prison gardening, writing poetry and snacking on American muffins and cookies, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Monday.

The paper said the "intriguing glimpse of the former dictator's daily routine as he awaits trial on charges of war crimes and genocide was given ... by Iraq's human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, who visited Saddam in dentention on Saturday."

"One of the poems is about George Bush, but I had no time to read it," he told the Guardian, without making it clear whether he was referring to the incumbent US president, or his father.

Irony of ironies. I for one wouldn't mind getting my hands on that Bush poem. With any luck, it'll be more amusing than the papers I have yet to check on my desk.