090909

Today is said to be an unusual day. It is the 9th day of the 9th month of the year 2009, a.k.a ’09. It is also the 252nd day of the year, and if you sum up these three numbers, what do you get? Isn’t it creepy?

Nope, it just happens to be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of day that will never come again in your lifetime (kaya nga once-in-a-lifetime eh, ang kulit, May). It’s an excuse to do something radical, something stupid, something weird, something wicked, something rare [yeah, like writing this blog. I haven’t updated my blog for quite a while and I’m doing it now. That’s rare.]

Reminds me of that scene in How To Make An American Quilt, one of my favorite movies.

FINN (pointing at the moon): Oh God, look at that!
ANNA: I never liked full moons. They give people an excuse to do foolish things.
FINN (played by Winona Ryder): I'm young, I'm supposed to do foolish things.
ANNA: And spend the rest of your life paying for them.
FINN: Well, it's better than spending the rest of my life wondering what I missed.
ANNA: I'd rather wonder than kick myself.
FINN: Well, I'd rather kick myself.
ANNA: Fine. You will end up with a deeply sore backside.

Talking about rare and different, this day brings back memories of things I’ve done, that I think many other people I know have not done in their lifetime (there I go again).

1. Lie down in the middle of the University Avenue at midnight in UP Diliman
2. Sleep in street clothes and a backpack during the 1989 coup attempt against President Cory Aquino
3. Play the role of Angel of Death (or should I say dance) in my group’s own play adaptation of the animated film Prince of Egypt
4. Drive around Manila and along Manila Bay at dawn, trying to watch the early boats, right after my college graduation
5. Live for a week aboard the Superferry during the Leyte Gulf Landing Anniversary
6. Watch the dividing night and day from a roofless clubhouse as the sun begins to rise over Mount Makiling
7. Swim alongside fishes (while feeding them with bread) in El Nido, Palawan
8. Ride a helicopter with British, Filipino and other foreign engineers to the construction site of the pipes that will be laid underwater for the Malampaya Gas-to-Power project
9. Arrive in Matinloc Island, El Nido at exactly midnight aboard a yacht
10. See miles and miles of desert from a plane, and miles and miles of snow after it
11. Visit Fatima, Portugal and enter the homes of the three visionaries of the Virgin Mary
12. Co-pilot an ultralight plane over the lahar-ridden plains of Pampanga, with one of the two people who first drove a home-made plane cross-country from Jolo to Cagayan
13. Making a five-day trip with no accommodation reservations from Manila to Baguio, Benguet, Sagada, Bontoc, Banaue and back to Baguio, and living each day on the kindness of friends and acquaintances

There are many more exciting things in my memory. I just have to add them to this list one by one. But for now, this is my rare act: to have this blog uploaded and stamped an 090909 date mark.

Because tomorrow is another day.