July 21, 2019
There are more than twenty townmates from Binangonan that are based in Las Vegas as of Philip’s last count. In our desire to have a good reason to order food from Lily to help promote her home catering, Bong and Len invited townmates for dinner. Some were not able to make it and some found out about it too late. It was not intended to be a party, but just a mini-reunion and informal get-together. My sister-in-law also invited four of her friends from Los Angeles who happened to be in Las Vegas There were many who came to Vegas to watch the Pacquiao match but they were in a hurry to drive back to LA.
In all, we were a dozen only but still, we had a lot of fun reminiscing Binangonan days. I was surprised that they still remember the names of their teachers and their individual antics.
Marife Aczon bought this lovely cake.
Peng is a succcessful nurse and professor in Hawaii and Las Vegas. She also does community service in Uganda.
Butch is not a kababayan but he’s a close friend of Bong. They were classmates at San Beda High School.
Jen is a retired nurse and she’s the wife of Butch.
Philip brought along his daughter. She also enjoyed the pansit, kare-kare, and caldereta that Lily cooked.
Bong, Dimple, Len, Jen, Lily, Erly, Peng, me, Connie, and Philip.
Connie, second from right, and her husband flew to Las Vegas from New Jersey just to watch the Pacquiao fight. They were booked at the Caesars Palace. She told me that we’ve met at the Binangonan picnic in Piscataway in New Jersey when Oyen was just about to enter college. Magaling memory nya, ako nalimutan ko na yun kung hindi nya nabanggit. I accompanied Oyen to her school and on-campus dormitory. We were free that weekend so Angie Mehra invited Oyen and me to go with them to the picnic.
We were laughing so hard and talking so loud that American neighbors must have heard us.
We didn’t want to mess up the cake’s decoration because it’s so pretty. Salamat kinakapatid.
Lily makes the best kare-kare. Erly and Lily are my high school batchmates.