Jessie Rama (younger brother of Vice Mayor Mike Rama) had the biggest surprise of his life when wifey Gina called all their close friends and gathered them at their house in Anaheim the day of his birthday.
Jessie was working that day when Gina called him that their bathroom was leaking, he immediately came home supposedly to fix the leak. Upon reaching home, he asked his daughter Isabel where the leak was. Instead of leading him to the bathroom, Isa brought him to the living room where all their friends greeted and shouted, "happy birthday, Jessie." He couldn't believe his eyes and had a lump on his throat. Surprised but happy, he hugged his wife Gina then the rest of the gang…Gerry and Fiza Du, Fred and sis Felicia Ynclino, Vincent and Gemma Yu, Dr. Letty Du and sister Linda Du Clark, Mr. & Mrs. Jimenez, Sim Kee, Tony and Connie Chua with daughter Joy and all the children who ganged up on the celebrator with Edwin and Rosie Du.
Another surprise Jessie had was the lechon (ala Talisay) that Gina ordered through her friend. Even the taste was likened to Talisay's, plus the very crispy skin. Everybody said "lami gyud kayo!" To make his day complete, the usual Pinoy party of mahjong or sing-along was the order of the day. The luncheon gathering extended until dinner and lasted till one o'clock the next morning.
Talking of a Cebuano friend, over the weekend, we finally sat down for dinner with a dear friend Ramon Logarta in Burbank's Italian resto - the Macaroni Grill. With us were my cousin Loly Casas and her great grand daughter Jacqueline. Since we haven't had a chat for a while, we had a lot of ground to cover.
Ramon a true-blue Mandauehanon living in California for the past 25 years, asked so many questions about Cebu and the people he knew from way back when. We later learned that the image painted at the right side of the altar at the Glendale's Holy Child Parish church is that of his son Mariboy who died in a car accident some years ago. Ramon, at the time of his son's death was devastated since Mariboy was their only son. After the horrible incident, he and wife Cynthia devoted themselves to church activities.
If you are in the vicinity of Glendale's Holy Child Parish and you happen to hear the Church bell peal, that's Ramon's humble contribution to his church.
Another birthday celebrator for November was Felicia Ynclino who was given a dinner by sister Fiza and hubby Gerry Du at the plush Italian restoranti, El Nello Cucina in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Their food was out of this world but so were their prices. At any rate, when the restaurant Chef learned that it was Tata's birthday, he surprised her with a special cake. An added bonus – we learned later that we were given a discount plus a complimentary dessert. It was a marvelous night for us, really!