Beadtime stories

I was going to call it a craftwoman’s lunch but that forced me to look up craft in Google. A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. . . to describe something as craft is to describe it as lying somewhere between an art (which relies on talent) and a science (which relies on knowledge). Now that sounds like advertising, my old profession. But that doesn’t sound like a good enough description of the women in this group.

So I look on and find a section that says Freemasonry and Wicca are known as “The Craft” by their adherents. Hmmm! I thought. Maybe we are witches, that feels more like it. But I could not open that section so I cannot define us as witches and document it. If I did, then there might be a movement to impeach me from my class and that is the last thing I want to see happen.

Finally, I found Decorative Arts and just before Ivory and Bone Carving came Jewellery/jewelry, defined as a form of personal adornment such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets. . . no other purpose than to look appealing but humans have been producing and wearing them for a long time. Jewelry may be made from a wide range of materials but gemstones, precious metals, beads and shells have been widely used — from hairpins to toe rings.

Hairpins to toe rings. I must remember that. My mother once had a toe ring from India. I wonder where that has gone? Can I convince Filipinos to wear toe rings?

Anyway, there we all were meeting for an early lunch, which was to end early to give us all time to go to beading class where we were all classmates. I guess I can call us a group of bead jewelers, and include handbags, please. We also make them beautifully.

We met at Mangetsu, a new Japanese fusion restaurant on Jupiter Street owned by the husband of Tita, who pre-ordered lunch for us. This was our rather belated celebration of our beading professor’s birthday. Portia Leuterio, the grand dame of beading, was born on Dec. 23, but that was so close to Christmas and we were all going crazy with presents so we decided to celebrate it this late.

Be at Centris Walk on Saturdays at 7 p.m. of January and watch Zion Band featuring Meryl, who will be backed up by talented musicians Gino and Mic for an evening of soulful music.

We agreed to meet at 11 because our class is at 2 p.m. and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to chat and enjoy each other’s company better. I arrived on time and found Tita and Bing already there. Shortly after came Eeaga and Portia. Then there was a bit of a flutter as Tita forgot that she was supposed to wait for Charo as Vicky reminded her in her frantic phone call. So for the next 15 minutes we were trying to get in touch with Charo but things soon settled down when first Vicky arrived then Charo walked in. The group was finally complete.

We are all over the hill. No one is younger than 60. We all carry our senior citizens cards proudly and we also love to eat. At least I do. I ate everything except the broccoli, which I simply tasted but found I had no room for, which is strange because I found I had room for dessert — vanilla ice cream with a syrupy mango sauce that tasted like but was better than mango jubilee.

Lunch was unspeakably delicious starting with the appetizer, which was a Korean-flavored tuna sashimi, all the way to dessert. What made it even more delicious was everything was pre-ordered so we did not have to make up our minds. That is such a benefit when you are our age.

Add this mysteriously delicious menu to a mixture of old and new friends and you have the makings of an enchanting lunch. Charo is an old friend and co-mom to my son. Tita is her cousin. Vicky and Bing are Tita’s school friends but I have also known Bing since high school. Eeaga and Portia are new friends. Over lunch Bing claims to be an Arguelles, my grandmother’s surname, so maybe we are related. Then Charo also says she has Arguelles blood. Omigod, we are all related!

There is — among us — a certain chemistry. Beyond just being friends we are all bead jewellers, women who enjoy working with their hands to create (what we believe to be) beautiful things for us to wear or for us to sell or to give away as gifts. We all knew each other before but met once again in Portia’s class, once a week either on Tuesday or Thursday, and there working together around a table, we have strengthened and deepened our friendship.

Soon we proceed to class. We have two new classmates. They are settled down to do their first class — create five bracelets. I see myself on my first day of class. But today I am busy working on a necklace for myself. Bing and I are working together on the same design but come out with very different results. Eeaga on my other side is also muttering to me now and then about her beads. Across us Tita and Vicky are working together on their handbags.

On Sunday Bing leaves for a cruise. Then Eeaga leaves because her daughter is giving birth. That’s the flow of the class. Some people come, others go. You just go with the flow. One day you look up from your beads and you know, you are part of the class, mixed up in its chemistry, bonded for life.

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