June 14 - 20, 1962

June 14 - Thursday


I have the feeling I’m in a mine shaft, trapped and the dirt is beginning to loosen over me and slowly, little pelts drop and if I don’t get out in time and someone doesn’t come to help me, the whole mountain is going to cave in on me. (Good grief, Lea....que drama!) I have no ganas for anything except my studies (This latter sentence must be a wrong entry!) I want to go to the party on Saturday yet....Poor Dad has troubles with the business he had before he got sick and the BIR people keep hounding him and bills are piling up. (Ah, Dad, your daughter traveled that same road 40 years later!) Daddy comes home tired and discouraged and in a bad mood and Mom is tired because those blankety blank maids (the one we have now worries me a little) Oh why doesn’t Rita come back. Mom and Pop get into big arguments over nothing really and make me feel even more tired than I am. Oh, if only money DID grow on trees......



June 15 - Friday

Tonight I feel much better than I did last night. Richard Chamberlain in “Dr. Kildare” and “Bonanza” are the best TV shows on TV. I don’t have much to say tonight. I only hope we could get Mr. Cruz to teach Accounting instead of Sister Felix. She’s so boring. Mr. Cruz seems quite brilliant. (Good heavens, I actually called Danny Cruz “brilliant.” I mean he was nice, and attractive and easy on the eyes to a bunch of convent school girls, but he taught us STENO, for heavens sake!) Tomorrow is Cookie’s party and let’s see how this one turns out. Linda Villavicencio, Ofelia Obieta and Marilena Maralit were at school this afternoon.



June 16 - Saturday

Every time I come back home from one of Cookie’s party, my reaction is always the same - it was a great party - for everyone else! It’s true that Tony Ortigas and Luis Pertierra danced with me but....The first person I see when I walk in was his royal highness himself - Carlos. I completely ignored him, well, tried to anyway. We caught ourselves looking at each other a couple of times. I bumped into him twice while dancing and our hands touched and I got that electricity through me again. Did I just say a couple of entries back that I was over him?!! I hate him because I like so very, very much.



June 17 - Sunday

I woke up at 10:15 and didn’t make it to Mass. I went to the ANC late and saw Luz, Gonzalo and Pichuco. Ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant with Frank Teney and his wife and Mom and Dad. I stayed home all afternoon. We were late for Mass again because we were waiting for the new maid to arrive.



June 18 - Monday

(This entry completely baffles since I talk about Cookie’s party and I already have an entry for it on Saturday and this is a Monday so I can’t explain this weird discrepancy. I checked my actual diary again to see if I mixed up the dates when transcribing, but no, this is the way the entries go. Anyway, here is what I wrote....)

Cookie’s party this evening was quite a party. The Strads really packed a wallop. We got there at 8:15 and at first there were a few girls but no boys. Lita, Mercy, Margie, Ginny and I sat together. Carlos Garcia was there and I tried to pretend he wasn’t but many times while dancing I caught him looking at me! His attitude decidedly different tonight. He did not have that high and mighty look on his face. In fact, at the end of the party he smiled that devastating smile of his and he gave Mercy and I some Cokes. I am still nuts about him and no matter how much I tell myself I don’t care about him, the moment I see him, my heart tells me otherwise. Ginny is so nice and I don’t blame Carlos for liking her and vice-versa. Mercy was on some unknown cloud since Titos Ayesa was there and danced with her, as did Tony Ortigas. Paqui concentrated on Lita so she was on her own cloud as well. Everybody danced the night away to the music of paso-dobles to the “Madison.” We got home at 2:30 almost 3 with Tony Ortigas. It was a wonderful party but even more wonderful was the fact that Carlos was there. That smile he gave me was worth more than anything in the world to me.



June 19 - Tuesday

Mercy and I seem to be on some unknown planet. This afternoon she picked me up to go to the ANC with Honey. We kept recalling last night’s party. She thinks of nothing but Titos and me, well, who else, but of Carlos. Honey however is still the nicest guy around and I treat him like a brother. I’d trust Honey completely if necessary. (And, to this day, this is one of the true constants in my life - Honey Muniosguren. He is the brother I never had and I do trust him completely. In almost all the crisis in my life, he has been the truest of friends and always there for me.)



June 20 - Wednesday

This has probably been the HOTTEST day this year so far. I nearly suffocated. Oh, for the coolness of Baguio! Right now it’s pouring outside and hotter than ever. Even the rain can’t cool the air and I’m glad Mom has an air-conditioned room. (She did?!! I don’t remember.) Mercy and I went to Cookie’s house this pm to pick up my fan and bolero. We saw George Gallent in a taxi. We later went to the ANC for a while and Lita spent a little time with Lita and Luli. (Tita Lol combed my hair a different way and it looks pretty good.) We’re intending to have a gathering here at home (I hope) on Friday for Arno. Mercy went to the Teddy R. (??) Show tonight with George Gallent (Was this Mercy and George’s first “date?” Four years later, almost to the date, they were to become husband and wife!) I think I am leaving my giddy teen years behind, slowly. I don’t swoon over every cute guy I see, my tastes in dresses has changed and I seem to think differently. I’m still me but I am very conscious of the fact that I am turning 18 in about a month.