TOP TEN CRUSHES OF ALL TIME
February 14, 2009
[NOTE FROM YLB : Baduy, tacky and cheesy as it sounds, we are posting something for Valentines Day. Post-Valentine' s Day actually. Nope, we aren't with anyone special right now, just by our lonesome admiring the power & energy of love and its consequences, love probably being the greatest force the world has known in history. Happy Heart's day to everyone, will try to give another surprise quiz at the end . . .]
Dear batchmates, batch and kabatch:
pls dont double back anymore, weve already googled it :
LOVE is any of a number of intense feelings or emotions that have to do with the human experience , and interactions therein.
Guess what? We looked up CRUSH and it is loosely described as an intense feeling of infatuation with a member of the opposite sex, usually temporary, felt by younger people just entering adulthood.
Is it just us or are love and crush just different labels of the same product?
For sure, we have had our great loves, the love of our life, been "in love" in great episodic fashion, meaning we won't forget them easily. If we can count being in love and having loved on one or two fingers, then we should consider ourselves lucky.
On the other hand, we fall into the snare of "instant attraction" as often as once a day, for the chronically afflicted, even more. Love at first sight is no more than an attraction of intense magnitude, when every feature owned by a particular person appeals to us, like hand in glove, when the voice, affectation, way of turning the head, and even the way the corners of the mouth crack into a smile . . .turns us into jelly.
Love is a crush developed, nurtured, cultivated into its natural outcome. Like the slumbook sez, let love go; if it returns, its yours forever. If it disappears, it was never meant to be.
Crushes are like thousands of your little unfertilized sperms (or eggs) that are just itching to fertilize themselves with the nurturing pool of mutual attraction and interaction; celebrate the two individuals who, out of millions of strangers passing each other everyday, discover each other in a chance meeting, admit that a "crush" exists, and make the logical next step: fall in love.
With that said, here are YLB's Top 10 All Time Crushes . No rules here, oblivious to qualification, set standard or condition, we just set forth who tickled our fancy, excited our soul; no matter if the infatuation existed for only half a day or for 25 years.
Pero di naman po pwedeng TOTALLY walang pangsukat, we have probably nurtured crushes most days of our mundane lives, from the nameless girl crossing from the other side of the street, to Wynona Ryder who still inhabits the velvet walls of our nocturnal dreams. From the almond - eyed organic market vendor of "Asian" leeks to the blonde usherette who saves her naughtiest smile for dodgy lechers like us.
Its overused, but we can't help but relate to a few lines in that James Blunt song "i saw ur face / in a crowded place / but it's time to face the truth / i will never be with you . . ." the defining quality of a crush, in all its naked truth, is its anonymity, its fleetingness, and its death even before it gets born.
Back to our list, the only rule is this : whenever a batchmate smiled her mysterious smile, returned our gaze, no matter how fleeting, from the deepest corner of her eye, or when she acknowledged, no matter how modestly, that we did admire her specialness from her own corner of the universe... then we could not but enshrine her forever as our crush.
A word of warning to those who appear here: you may be taken aback, embarrassed, or just amused by how we felt so so long ago. . .its just our way of confirming, affirming and recording for all time (medyo malaki lang nga audience ), all in good fun as they say, and of course, it is an acknowledgment of what you did for us (mostly positive) and probably a few others, a small thank-you for, whether or not you were aware of it (then), being a part of our lives :
(Ay oo nga pala, two entries here are not classmates or batchmates but teachers. )
CATHERINE GRUBA - if only for the fact that Cathy was probably the VERY first crush we had, we will always remember her. None will be able to estimate how early this was, so we will just relate it, the story we mean, in true YLB fashion:
The remainder of the schoolday was declared half-suspended, for what reason sobra na po yun di ko na maalala (rained out or something) and this fortuitous event caused us & our yaya, and HER and her yaya to converge into the same jeepney; since her class was p.m. she got to miss class that day, yehey. We were just going home on sked; we were enrolled a.m. the whole time. ( in case youre still not aware of it, this all happened in KINDER TWO grabe ). Predating the classic Spiderman scene (by 30 years) of Peter Parker seeing Mary Jane the first time, we would have used the line (had we known it) "Aunt May (yaya), is that an angel?" :) Cathy looked like a Japanese doll with her perfect skin, doe eyes and cute smile, wondering why we were dumbly staring at her: i was at 6, hopelessly in love. Buti na lang we had Popeye & Casper as well as our usual bottle of milk later that day to distract me from being in love; we didnt encounter Cathy again until 1978, when we became 6-E seatmates. Kahit maganda pa rin sya nun, we already had the good sense not to make TOO much of a fool out of ourselves, we just became one of her pals.
MISS RAMIREZ (sorry, we forget her first name) - she had a slightly prominent nose and was kinda short, but for us she was the prettiest Reading and Phonics teacher the world had ever known, or would ever know again, in our young Grade 1 eyes. Though Ms Ylagan was our adviser, we counted ourselves lucky to see her 1 hour a day teaching us to aspirate our s's, t's, vibrate our b's and v's and strengthen our fledgling vocabulary via McGraw - Hill and S.R.A. We think we also mentioned that her eyes were set off by the bright colors of her Cub Scout uniform whenever it was her advisory section's turn to don the beloved blue-and-gold (which we were fated never to wear), she looked perfect then.
We would also position ourselves strategically at the foot of the accessway between the old and new buildings just to be able to say "Gud morning Ms Ramirez" and behold her smile. Ahhh, that made our day.
KATHERINE ANG - we have always been attracted to smart girls, and Kathy was probably as smart as they come. So this smartness, framed in an irrepressible and enigmatic, engaging smile, turned our heart into silly putty probably as early the first quarter of Grade 4 or 5, she was so smart that even though she was not originally Sec A, we think she was elected class prez anyway by her new classmates. All the teachers loved her and there wasnt anything she couldnt do. Because of our natural inferiority complex and wishy-washiness we were careful never to let TOO much of our admiration show, but from Day One, she had won us over, hands down.
Her modulated voice, crisp, manicured accent, stratospheric grades (dont think she ever scored below 95 in quizzes, unit tests, periodical tests or on the report card) only served to mythicize our adulation of her: there was no way she wasn't perfect. Which only preserved our image of her: unreachable, immaculate and flawless. Best thing was she handled it well and never let it go to her head.
CAROLYN CHAN - Along with buddy Irene Chua, they were one of the prettiest pairs that ever walked the corridors of Hogwarts, and in HS1, she caught us more than a few times staring helplessly at her awesome countenance. For sure, she was as Chinese as the rest of us, but the symmetric confluence of her eyes, nose and the rest of her face
was a visual treat that made any batchmate's day, male mostly. The nice thing about Carolyn was that while she already had this self-awareness that she was hot :) she still found it in herself to be charming and engaging, disabusing most of us of the notion that she was too pretty to be approachable, and too classy to give anyone else the time of day. Almost always, she was just Carol, classmate to Sec.Aers, and friend to all. We liked that, and evidently everybody else did. Thanks Ms Chan.
MISS EVANGELINE GO - She obviously had Chinese ancestry, but was our Religion teacher, and both DocGerry & YLB liked her, she had this awesome set of sparkling peepers and an evanescent smile that provoked the same reaction in us SNEG questors... we wanted to grow up real quick & ask for her hand in marriage. We always found reasons to spend more time at the Religion department, with her & other nice Religion teachers like Ms Azarcon, Ms Llantos (who handled several batches of our ahyas, dihyas and achies) and Ms Severa, reasons like helping out with programs like Mission Sunday, Rector's Day, special Masses. It was also a special incentive for joining KAS even though Ms Go wasnt KAS advisor, as she and Ms Azarcon were quite close. We're sure she was one of the few regrets gso82 had in leaving Hogwarts.
MARIE RUTH SO - Petite, lovely to hear, graceful and vivacious, Marie Ruth ticked all the boxes on our list and then some, caused many hearts to flutter (including ours ) and it took all our nerves and composure to strike up a conversation with her. Luckily, it turned out she was friendly and approachable. Too bad, that was just about all the courage we could muster, paghanga na lang Kuya Eddie. Still it was worthwhile in that friendships with memorables like hers gave us a bit more fortitude for the road ahead.
CAROLYN CO - She had the most beautiful, expressive eyes we had ever
beheld in our young HS life, and for a brief period we made it a point to make it our inspiration at the start of the day and towards its end. Her eyes were crowned by a refreshing smile that has not been matched by many for the remainder of our 43 years, and we are glad that before our paths diverged, we were able to tell her so. This list would not be complete if we did not include Carol's name, and so we dutifully add it here. Many many years later, we were happy to hear that she had shared (and continues to share) half a lifetime of married bliss and two handsome sons with a batchmate, Edwin H. Kudos, lovebirds.
EVELYN VENES - This may come as a surprise to many, cuz we have always viewed Doc Achi as a sister. But, as with someone else below, we though it the better part of valor to just consider even someone as attractive as Evelyn as a chummy chummy pal / amiga.
Consider these: she had two Kuyas both still in Hogwarts, who already knew how popular she was with the guys and who were not about to let the list grow any longer. Another thing was, most of the people we knew already fancied her, and the general sentiment was "get in line, buddy ." Rather that do so, we just admired her from afar and became an unofficial member of her big family. (2 bros and 2 sisses, numerous aunts and cousins in her household made it quite a Wan Kee - Good Hope barangay that never ran out of fresh bread and siopao . . . haay those were the days. )
Such was her allure that she, along with I think Carol C and Irene C were made DBMC majorettes with twirling batons for every parade of the Hogwarts calendar. Im also sure she was a many time muse for many intrams squads and teams. Still think we were too prudent for our own good?
Thing about Evelyn was that though she rated (and still rates) quite high on the beauty department, unquantifably, she had this sunshiney smile and effervescent appeal that made fans out of a lot of our male batchmates. Enough said.
JUNE TIU - She was another example of a classmate who appealed to us via her smarts, her being quite articulate , and of course having a great set of legs didn't hurt. We were only one of many guys who found her attractive, but it was our good fortune to sit near her during sophomore or junior year we think, and we made each other laugh all day long. Additionally, we had the "strategic" advantage of providing a ready "ear" whenever someone struck her fancy, giving us all the opportunity to strike the unfortunate fellow down. Eventually she would select another batchmate of ours, kudos to the guy and causing all the rest of us to consume hundreds of kilos of sour grapes. But it was a great friendship with June, in whose family ( sisses Cindy, Kathleen ) beauty runs quite deep.
ANNETTE SY - Well, she was the last in the line of Muses that caught our eye, and we were as with the rest, seriously smitten with this fine specimen of Batch 82 beauty. With the rest of the the Promenade / Sugi 7, we all shared a laugh when we recounted how we were the one that sent a "secret" gift of chocolates the origin of which she hadnt known for about 25 years. Don't know which among her attributes was so attractive, whether it was her symmetrically perfect face, her classic Asian eyes, her melodious voice, or the elegant way she carried herself . . .or maybe all of the above. We went through the whole gamut of notes, surreptitious invitations to this-and-that, sugary-sickly- sweet smiles and stupid grins that we're sure so many other admirers-from- afar gave her as well. Well, better to have admired and lost than never to have admired at all ...
Many years later, she gallantly tried to make us feel better by saying that such things hadn't entered her mind yet, which was as if to say that we shouldnt have felt as we failed the contest, when there was no contest at all. . . nice try & thanks for that, Shi WeiWei, but "busted" remains our middle name.
Well, we are sure there were many more that gave us brighter days and sleepless nights, but these members of the fairer sex were the ones that gave us the strongest memories. We are being candid and risking ridicule as maybe in the near future, probably next Valentines, someone will go through a similar memory scouring exercise and encourage other to remember as well.
Belated Happy Valentines Day and thanks for the memories!
YLB,
NOel
CHINESE NAME QUIZ # 3
OK class, here's the expected surprise quiz . Ralston L's and Raul d S's names were supposed to have been part, but since we have been pre-empted by mini-quizzes, there have been last minute inclusions. Reminder again, everything is in Pinyin for consistency, so some spellings dont match the traditional (phonetic) sounds. Here we go :
Xu Zan Luo - one of our most artistic batchmates, is part of a big clan with kinsmen in and out of the batch, and has a twin. That's practically giving the answer away !
Xu You Zheng (spelling not 100% confirmed) - all we can say is he is one of the nicest, most successful and responsible leaders of the batch, which isnt really saying a lot since many batchmates can answer to this clue. . . let's just say that his weight loss since HS has been dramatic.
Chen Ya Ling - since 6E has been in YLB's opinion one of the most gifted batchmates around, Jill of all trades and is also physically talented (hint: watch one of the videos available on the batch site ). Too many clues na ata.
Chen Yi Wan - unbelievably, unique as our name was, we had a tukayo in school, but his was more homonym-ic ( to his Christian name ) than ours. He's now a successful doctor, again a very generic clue ( sorry ).
Cheng Bing Lin (not sure with the surname, but that's the equivalent of his surname in English) - was an overachiever in elementary, had a bit of a common first name, quite soft spoken and very refined in manner.
Lai Zhi Ming - mentioned at least once before that he was one of the hardest workers in the batch, almost sure he was a 4-B officer, has a bro in batch 83, again too many clues na.
Shen Hong Ji - name sounds like "red rooster" and he attracted as much attention as one; for sure one of the funniest, zaniest batchmates, athletically gifted, and is Stateside now. Sobra nang clues.
Fu Yue E - we think she was in elementary Sec A through and through except Gr 6, always good for a few laughs, she's a doctor now.
Huang Qiao Qiao - Is the surname right, cause we are just sure about the given name, she has always been the studious type, quite slim for most of her life, and is a sharp banker.
Ding Ying Zi - Another funny batchmate who treats cavities and builds braces, she used to post actively on the e-group, has a way with words and is candid as can be. In body she is Stateside but her mind and heart belong at home.
Answers to be given next time or when someone posts a perfect 10-for-10. Well, we don't think it will be that hard this time.