Pamamanhikan

If there was anything apart from telling my parents that Nards and I are planning to get married that brought me so much stress, it's the pamamanhikan. And just like that day when I told my parents, I was at a loss as to why I was stressed in the first place.

It was originally scheduled for 29 June, but thanks to Frank and the rampage he did to Nards' parents' farm, it had to be moved to 6 July.

The week prior to that Sunday was spent cleaning both houses. I don't think I've ever cleaned so much in such a short span of time. We missed out on the Rock Ed Anniv parties that week because we were exhausted from the dusting, sweeping, mopping and putting away clutter during the day. In fact, the Friday before The Day, we were cleaning until nearly midnight.

With that said, on the day of the pamamanhikan itself, Nards and I were texting each other on the hour by the hour, giving each other updates on our parents. His parents arrived from Sariaya a few hours earlier than expected, and he had to park them in his house for quite a while, because my parents were still busy preparing for their arrival. (Read: chopping stuff for the puttanesca, and putting my sister and I to clean an already uber clean house. My brother picked the most inopportune time to go out with his GF to go shopping for jeans. I swear.)

I was stressed primarily because: 1) I have no idea if my parents and his parents would get along; 2) my brother is threatening to be absent on an important family even; which in turn 3) stressed out my parents who were pressuring me to make him ditch his shopping spree with his GF and do the proper thing by coming home in time for Nards' family's arrival. He arrived about half an hour after Nards arrived, by the way. Plus the heat that day was simply interminable.

Nards was giddy and all smiles. When I saw him smiling at me broadly, with his new haircut (which his Mom forced him to get that morning), I instantly relaxed and enjoyed their visit.

The funny thing is, there was less talk on the wedding, just our Mothers exchanging notes on the outfit, and Nards' Dad's concern on giving speeches (he doesn't want to, and we assured him, that there'll be no speeches of any kind on the day of the wedding). Most of the time was spent talking about their common friend. (Talk about our small world.)

(I feel like I'm always undergoing baptism through fire for this wedding, since I'm the first. But it's not bad as I though it would be.)