Everything Under The Tropical Sun

I’m so proud of my Teach. He’s one of my best friends and we talk practically every day. Sharing mundane everyday things happening in our lives and a week without chatting with him seems incomplete. To think he lives thousands and thousands of miles away and yet it’s so comforting to know that in spite of the fact that it years went by before we started chatting again (which is what we did when we first met: in a chat IRC chat room – embarassing to admit that now but it’s true), we just picked up where we left off.

He’s always tried to teach me things I wouldn’t normally try to learn on my own. He encourages me to do the things he knows I love and but just afraid to try. Though he is a very intellegent person, he’s a paradox on his own. He knows he’s smart but thinks he’s not smart enough. He knows he’s got skills but wonders if it’s just in his imagination. Among my best friends, he’s the most paradoxial (is that a word?) among them.

One thing I admire about him is when he focuses on something, he usually excels. He’s recently taken up photography (just shy of a year ago) and the heights he has reached is just simply amazing. His level of learning is so awesome that I believe he’s the fastest learner in the world! He encouraged me to take up photography as well because he knew that it was something I was into when we first met (but let it go to pursue my give-in-to-peer-pressure teenage life). Isn’t he just the best? He’s so supportive.

He would sound off how bad he feels because he thinks his photography hasn’t improved. I think that was maybe about 3 months ago… but now, he’s so proficient in the language of photography that half of the things he’s trying to teach me gets deposited in my subconscious bank. Something to be accessed when the need arises. He’s getting paid gigs and he’s not even started with his portfolio! Imagine that. He’s getting all these sophisticated equipment which is more than fine but the great thing is, he knows how to use them effectively! There are so many photographers out here who keeps buying expensive studio equipment, lenses, the best DSLR and they take horrible pictures!

I haven’t seen the complete new collection of photos but Teach showed me ONE shot he took and it was awesome! I’m so proud of him. But I’m not surprised that he’s doing so well. It’s always in him to excel and he has excellent focus. He’s reached a whole new level and I’m so happy for him.

Imee, one of my husband’s very few girl friends (who is actually a very, very awesome person!), got married two Sundays ago. She really has a great head on her shoulders and is very witty. She’s not your run-off-the-mill clingy woman and every so often, she’d say that she feels that emotionally, she’s a guy. She forgets anniversaries, sometimes birthdays and didn’t need a blow by blow account of what her man is doing.

I’d think she’s every guy’s dream girl. A woman who wasn’t clingy, wasn’t needy, and wasn’t emotionally high maintenance. To top it all off, she’s sweet and kind. A real catch in my book. I liked her right away when I first met her. Among my husband’s girl friends, I found her to be the most down to earth.

Before she met her husband, we’d usually try to pair her up with good friends of ours. Guys we think highly of and none of those pretentious losers that run rampant nowadays. We’d be unusually protective of her and thought it was our God given right to choose and pick who she should go out with (without her knowledge, of course). Then gave up because Imee deserves to live her own life and not ours living precariously through her (it’s the married couple’s disease).

I’ve often wondered why was it that my husband and Imee never hooked up any time before we met. She seemed to have everything a guy could ever wish for and more. There was a time when he asked me what type of girl I’d be threatened to find around him, I admitted: “Someone like Imee, without a doubt. I’d feel very insecure.” He, ofcourse, had an expression like I told him to get it on with his sister and when he asked why, I told him that seeing him around gorgeous women doesn’t really bother me… but around women with substance, it makes me feel a twinge of jealousy because he gets attracted more to smart women rather than beautiful ones. He’d go for an okay looking but witty woman over someone who’s gorgeous but talks about nothing but fashion and trends any day.

Two Sundays ago, Imee got married to Joel who is a Messianic Jew. Though she was a Roman Catholic, it was a pleasant surprise to see that she agreed to get married and be recognized as a couple under Joel’s faith. It  just goes to show how happy he made her because if that was my family, they’d go berserk and force him to convert. Maybe there was some sort of persuasion on their part but nevertheless, I would think it was a feat on its own.

They both cried. Joel, while watching her walk down the aisle and Imee when they exchanged rings. It was beautiful wedding ceremony and I wish them all the best. I am grateful for their friendship and love. Happy they have each other and I pray that they’d have a very blessed marriage.