Yesterday I helped my friend Jessa celebrate her 30th birthday. Two other gal friends from Treasure Island joined in the fun. All in all a very nice evening.

Jessa had to work until 3:00 so I had a beer and bought her and her co-worker Kat a Jager bomb to jump start the party.

I had my driver Donny come by to transport us to Harbor Point Mall on the old Navy base where the festivities would take place. Once the gals were off duty I had to sit around and wait for them to change clothes. Luckily I’m a very patient man. *ahem*

But they were worth waiting for, don’t you think?

Left to right that would be me, Kat, RuRu, and the lovely Jessa.

So anyway, I told Jessa it was her birthday so the evening’s activities were all up to her. She chose seeing a movie then having dinner. We bought our tickets and had an hour to kill so we walked around the mall some. I took Jessa into the Samsung phone store and told her to pick one. I thought it spoke well of her character that she selected the A-6, a mid-range phone that also happened to be on sale. She was happy and excited to have a nice phone so I reckon that was money ($225.) well-spent. Kat said “I want it to be my birthday too!” which made me laugh.

Kat and Jessa acting like a couple of posers…

So this is the movie that Jessa selected….

Worst movie I have ever seen! I’m not exaggerating when I say that. Several people got up and walked out during the film which was my inclination as well. But of course I had to defer to the desires of the birthday girl. We sat through it all and afterwards Jessa said “that’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen”. That cracked me. Here’s a trailer if you are so inclined, I can’t stomach being reminded.

I’m not a reviewer so I’ll just say there was nothing at all I liked about it, other than the company I was with. It was filmed as if it were being recorded on a handheld video camera so it was jerky and uneven (reminded me a little of the Blair Witch Project in that regard). I also thought the characters were shallow caricatures of tired stereotypes and the actors were not convincing as supposed high school students. The story itself was lame and overwrought to the point of ridiculousness. Oh well, I’m glad I saw it in the Philippines. Four tickets were less than twenty bucks. Although I reminded of the old saw “I went to a $1.99 all you can eat buffet, but I could only eat a dollar’s worth.”

Anyway, we had a good laugh about it afterwards. And oh yeah, in the “it’s a small world” department, I’m standing in the lobby pre-movie and I see a familiar face walking by so I called out “hey Ken, what are you doing here?” I think it took him a few seconds to recognize me, but in all fairness I’m not the man I used to be when he knew me (no mustache now and less fat). Turns out he and his wife were there for the same movie. Ken and I worked in the same HR universe on Yongsan back in the day. He retired back in 2008 or so and moved to the Philippines with his Filipina wife. Until last night I hadn’t seen him since. He’s living on the Navy base these days and I guess life is being kind to him. It was cool running into him that way for sure.

So with the movie behind us we were off to dinner. I tried to tempt Jessa by walking her by the Korean grilled meats place I fancy, but she had her mind set on somewhere else. It was a few blocks away but we all hoofed it over there.

There are quite a few Korean eateries on the base (Hanjin has a shipyard nearby). This one’s sign cracked me up…seems like typical Korean reasoning….open 24 hours except for break time of 4 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. One of the girls asked why not just say open from 10 to 4? I had no answer…

This was Jessa’s choice for dining. I was a little surprised because it looks more like a coffee shop. But they had a nice outdoor dining area, a pretty good menu with various options, and what we ordered at least was well prepared. Not bad at all!

The happy diners…

The restaurant also had a small bakery which was a godsend seeing as how I had overlooked purchasing a birthday cake prior to departing the mall.

We did the one candle equals ten years thingy…

Ain’t she sweet? The cake was good too!

After dinner we headed back to Barretto. I had my driver drop me at Alley Cats for my beer fix and he took the girls back to Treasure Island. I think we all had fun. The gals want me to cook for them at my house soon and I promised that I would.

So, are you wondering about the potential for any future romance with one of these gals? Well, three of them are in their early 20s, so that ain’t going to work. Jessa at 30 is stretching it, but given the chance I might give it a go. She’s never given me any indication that she had any romantic inclinations towards me however. On the other hand, she doesn’t call me Kuya John like most of the young women I meet. She always calls me Gwapo (handsome). Anyway, having no expectations is a good defense against disappointment.

Just going to keep living one day at a time and see what happens next.