UP HIGH 1957-1961 EMERALD 2 REUNION
OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 1, 2016
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
"This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
This sunrise viewed from Polo Towers greeted us on our first day.
This was God's assurance that our reunion was going to be a joyful and meaningful celebration.
PROLOGUE
by Nina Lansang-Joaquin
What started as a simple invite by Everlita Rivera David to classmates in Southern and Northern Cal, to her concert in Las Vegas, at Ofie Penaflorida-Aid's memorial service last May, rapidly spread like wildfire to classmates all over the US to become what we could also consider now as Emerald Reunion Chapter 2 complete with green scarves, the trademark of our Emerald Reunion held in Laiya, Batangas last February.
I was going to agree with Bong, until I myself started to look at the photos including some released by Enteng Velasco as "teaser" photos for this forthcoming blog and knowing I am of 20/20 vision with my eyeglasses on, nowhere do I see a 70-year-old . Anyone who disagrees with me will be shut down, maybe even shot dead, just like in Manila now if you are suspected of being a drug user, a pusher or a drug lord. Just don't look too hard and too long, though . And do feel the spirit of the group emanating from the photos. I can truly truly tell you that what we felt in Las Vegas... and reflected in the photos was something really surprising..... ageless. Thank God for those times we can still feel this way, regardless of how we look. Thus, Ageless in Las Vegas is the title of this blog and as you read and look further on, we hope you may also start to feel this way, too.
When Marie turned the corner of the Church, off the Las Vegas strip, to pick Roly and me in her convertible, top-down Lexus, it was the sign that the excitement of Emerald 2 in Las Vegas festivities had begun!! What a real fun ride these 3 septuagenarians had from the Las Vegas strip to Casa Maglalang in Henderson.
Aura and Paul Cajiuat and Evelyn Andamo were already at Casa M with Mario when we arrived... hugs, chit-chats started as we snacked on Aura's home-baked biscottis that were to die for. Soon we were on our way to the M Casino and Resort and at the Marinelli's Italian Restaurant where we were met by the Borerros, the Jorges, the Taboras, and the Alvarezes... followed soon thereafter by the Jacalas and the Aquinos... such a happy bunch of friends excited to see each other again. Everyone ordered their favorite entrees and surely, wine flowed...amidst laughter, colorful jokes and stories so characteristic of this group.
To burn the calories from the excessive dining and wining, this group of seniors proceeded to Ravello for dancing and yes, more " imbibing" and chatting. The band played and the group swayed, swung, rocked and rolled to their hearts' content.
DAY 2 October 31, 2016
CASA M LUNCH
by Nina Lansang-Joaquin
Then the Jacalas had to say their early goodbye but the funny thing is it took them an hour before they could actually leave because out of the blue, Jack pulled out his ukelele and everybody was singing well known hits of our time like Love Letters on the Sand, Smile, with Jack and Merle leading all of us.
The Jorges too had to drive back home as promised to be with their apos trick-or- treating and had to say an early goodbye.Thank you Mario and Marie for such a thoroughly relaxing and meaningful half-day of bonding as a group in your home!
LINQ HIGH ROLLER
by Nora Quesada-Catiis
In the end, everyone came out a winner and this is where we really all could say that we felt really young and agile and ageless. There were a lot of gutter balls, but also a lot of spares and strikes. And most of all there was a lot of cheering for any body who scored, no matter what team . And there were no bad feelings in the end. These games really made us all feel sooooo young and good. Never mind if we woke up with aches and pains in our arms and upper thighs the next morning !
"Every moment in time gives us the chance to love, to learn, to dream, and to become more than we ever imagined"
Even before the day of the concert, there was this dinner for the early birds at Marinelli's Pasta Bar at the M hotel which we unfortunately missed. We had already checked in at Marriott Grand Chateau by 12 noon and the two "wise" hubbies Yoly and I were traveling with, stopped by the discounted tickets booth and thought they would surprise us by buying last minute tickets for the musicale Menopause which we ended up watching instead of joining the others at Marinelli's.
PRELUDE Dinner at Marinelli's Pasta Bar and Dancing at Ravello
by Nora Quesada-Catiis
When Marie turned the corner of the Church, off the Las Vegas strip, to pick Roly and me in her convertible, top-down Lexus, it was the sign that the excitement of Emerald 2 in Las Vegas festivities had begun!! What a real fun ride these 3 septuagenarians had from the Las Vegas strip to Casa Maglalang in Henderson.
To burn the calories from the excessive dining and wining, this group of seniors proceeded to Ravello for dancing and yes, more " imbibing" and chatting. The band played and the group swayed, swung, rocked and rolled to their hearts' content.
There was no question: the pre-reunion had started with a real Bang!...a truly wonderful prelude to the 3 exciting Emerald Reunion days to follow!
DAY 1 October 30, 2016
EVERLITA'S CONCERT AND POST-CONCERT DINNER
by Nina Lansang-Joaquin
The concert by itself, was already soooo worth it all, for Florence and Manny and Enteng and Doris to fly all the way from Ohio and Nora and Roly Catiis from New Jersey, respectively, and for the rest of us to drive or fly from northern and southern California.
The concert was put together by the main star herself, Ever, as we usually call her, backed up by two very talented world known pianists Relly Coloma and Larry Walker. The three of them along with the Las Vegas Fil-Am Chorale composed of about three dozen kababayans in red dress kimonas and barong tagalogs regaled us with a repertoire that made us alternately sigh and be happy and oftentimes, keep our breaths on hold out of admiration and fear of breaking the spell that truly beautiful music can cast upon a person. In this case, the whole crowd was often quiet and spellbound, breaking into applause only after Ever would end a very long high note in the end. The awesome Smith Center - Cabaret Jazz room with its classy table settings and fabulous skyline of Las Vegas shimmering in the background through the gossamer curtains, completed that magical and most inspirational show ending with Ever baring her struggles in life, and finding and finally giving God all the glory in the end. What an inspiring concert and how proud we all were of our classmate Ever!
After taking photos of ourselves with our concert star at the lobby of the Smith Center, we all drove just a mile away to the California Hotel which offered Prime Rib Special with unlimited salad and ice cream to boot, all this just for $9.99 which was what most of the group ordered. The same place also offers bulalo at 11:00 every night so it's really a popular place for Filipinos/Asians.
FREEMONT STREET EXPERIENCE
by Nora Quesada-CatiiS
Fremont Street Experience is indeed an "out of this world" spectacle in Las Vegas and the Emerald 2 attendees went, saw..and experienced it!
While it is said that "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas"... we just cannot keep it to ourselves and now share this Experience with y'all! You will all agree these photos are worth a thousand words!
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CASA M LUNCH
by Nina Lansang-Joaquin
Both Marie Maglalang and Ever are actually veteran organizers: having both anchored and organized very successful previous class reunions for us before: one in Northern Cal in 2010 (San Francisco ) when Marie was still residing there and another earlier one in 2012 in Las Vegas too when Ever had just moved there. Between the two of them, this recent Las Vegas reunion would probably have been a breeze to put together, but I suspect they also had to face some challenges in deciding what activities to suggest for our age group.
For how do you entertain septuagenarians for two more days after such a wonderful concert without appearing to be limiting activities due to our ages and physical condition and possibly creating a letdown? NO PROBLEM : As you will see in the succeeding days, Marie and Ever exactly knew the perfect activities for our group.
On this day, we all trooped for lunch at around 11 AM to the Henderson retirement home of Marie and Mario Maglalang. When we arrived and got out of our car, after a 7-mile drive from Luxor, we could already hear the distinct sound of Nora Catiis' laughter from the Maglalangs' backyard where a tent was pitched near their private putting green surrounded by modern landscaping with well chosen drought- free succulents. Such an ideal retirement home, surrounded by peace and quiet but with all the fun in the world in the Strip just 7 miles away.
We had a hearty well balanced delicious Filipino lunch which we went back to for second servings and later on we had an array of delicacies/desserts served with coffee . Afterwards we all dipped into 2 boxes of to-go persimmons courtesy of Art and Rose Alvarez and oranges brought by Aura and Paul Cajiuat.
Before dispersing, we all wore our green scarves, gifted to us by our organizers Marie and Ever and their spouses, for a historic group photo with Enteng posing like a famished reclining Buddha in front!
Marie and Ever knew and planned what was perfectly right and enjoyable for us to do that afternoon. We started with a short memorial service praying for our dear departed classmates and teachers. We also offered prayers of healing for our ailing classmates. Then Marie very wisely read Mother Theresa's Rules for Living which instantly set the theme for that day and all the days to come for the reunion in terms of our relations to each other as human beings on this planet . With Mother Theresa's beautiful thoughts hovering over us, we ate , conversed , joked, sang, danced a little, rested, ate again, and talked and sang and rested again, and walked around and even napped a little, played a little, drank, and ate and rested again. And we laughed and sang a lot.
The highlights of that afternoon, aside from simple catching up talk, was the wonderful group karaoke singing with our diva Ever this time in our midst and also the duets of Paul and Aura (with their beautiful rendition of the Bocelli-Celine Dionne version of The Prayer in Italian and English) and Roly and Nora (a reprisal of their Endless Love which we first heard in one of the very first reunions we had high up in their lovely Poconos mountain retreat).
We had a hearty well balanced delicious Filipino lunch which we went back to for second servings and later on we had an array of delicacies/desserts served with coffee . Afterwards we all dipped into 2 boxes of to-go persimmons courtesy of Art and Rose Alvarez and oranges brought by Aura and Paul Cajiuat.
Marie and Ever knew and planned what was perfectly right and enjoyable for us to do that afternoon. We started with a short memorial service praying for our dear departed classmates and teachers. We also offered prayers of healing for our ailing classmates. Then Marie very wisely read Mother Theresa's Rules for Living which instantly set the theme for that day and all the days to come for the reunion in terms of our relations to each other as human beings on this planet . With Mother Theresa's beautiful thoughts hovering over us, we ate , conversed , joked, sang, danced a little, rested, ate again, and talked and sang and rested again, and walked around and even napped a little, played a little, drank, and ate and rested again. And we laughed and sang a lot.
The highlights of that afternoon, aside from simple catching up talk, was the wonderful group karaoke singing with our diva Ever this time in our midst and also the duets of Paul and Aura (with their beautiful rendition of the Bocelli-Celine Dionne version of The Prayer in Italian and English) and Roly and Nora (a reprisal of their Endless Love which we first heard in one of the very first reunions we had high up in their lovely Poconos mountain retreat).
The Jorges too had to drive back home as promised to be with their apos trick-or- treating and had to say an early goodbye.Thank you Mario and Marie for such a thoroughly relaxing and meaningful half-day of bonding as a group in your home!
You would think after all that group activity in CASA M we would all be dead tired and all ready to retire. Not this group . There was still a lot of energy left for GUESS WHAT !
by Nora Quesada-Catiis
After the wonderful lunch and Karaoke fun sessions at Casa Maglalang, we returned to our respective places to freshen up and get ready for yet another night time adventure for Halloween! Some of us brave souls vowed to venture a ride on the latest spectacle in Vegas: the High Roller which tops out at 550 feet and is the tallest observation wheel, 107 feet taller than the London Eye. Prior to boarding, our group photo was taken by the official High Roller photographer. Probably because we looked and sounded the happy group that we are we were luckily given a private cabin on the ferris wheel without having to pay extra... and so, happily we rolled along. Those who were a bit apprehensive like Florence, Merle and Ever readily realized that it was a "piece of cake"and in a few minutes, they felt at ease and forgot any fear of heights.
  As the wheel and our cabin inched upwards, we were mesmerized by the stunning views.. the Las Vegas lights were truly out of this world and we could see forever!  Our total excitement peaked when our pad reached the 550 feet elevation. Happily, we kicked our heels ala NY Radio City Rockettes  while the guys did Frank Sinatra's My Way.  We were on top of the World and how we wished the ride could be longer... but it was time to disembark. Altough the ride took only 30 minutes, choosing the official photo taken of us seemed to take longer...after some negotiations, we settled on this photo: 
Famished after that joy ride it was time to meet the rest of the group...and off we went to the newly opened Gordon Ramsay fish and chips joint and all had a great time. Leave it to this forever-young and adventure-loving septuagenarians to enjoy Halloween 2016 to the fullest and do something extraordinary and out of this world!
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DAY 3 November 1, 2016
LUNCH AT FEAST BUFFET IN RED ROCK CASINO AND BOWLING
by Nina Lansang-Joaquin
LUNCH AT FEAST BUFFET IN RED ROCK CASINO AND BOWLING
by Nina Lansang-Joaquin
The buffet at Feast Buffet, courtesy of Dave and Ever, was really a Feast, with a lot more choices than the one at California Hotel and we lost count of the number of times we changed plates. We occupied several tables but in our table the main topic was our children and their spouses. We were eating for close to three hours already, when Evelyn P had to say her goodbye to catch her plane back to Northern Cal and Mario had to drive her all the way to the airport before coming back to join us for the bowling tournament. That gave us some free time to check in at our third hotel (in 4 days ) at the Club Soleil just some 5 miles away before coming back to Red Rock Casino for our bowling tournament!
In the end, everyone came out a winner and this is where we really all could say that we felt really young and agile and ageless. There were a lot of gutter balls, but also a lot of spares and strikes. And most of all there was a lot of cheering for any body who scored, no matter what team . And there were no bad feelings in the end. These games really made us all feel sooooo young and good. Never mind if we woke up with aches and pains in our arms and upper thighs the next morning !
At the end of two bowling games, we naturally felt hungry and within the same building was Grand Cafe which had well priced meals all looking so delicious especially after our exciting games. Towards the end of our meal, where we occupied 4 tables , we started to feel and sense that feeling which you feel when its time to say goodbye. We know that the wisest thing to do in this case is to pray ... and that's what we did. Pray for safe travels, for each others' health and well being, til we all see each other again.... and this kept us from crying too I guess.
This Las Vegas reunion was such a huge success, thanks to the perfect planning of our hosts : The Maglalangs and the Davids. They planned that every day should not start too early, almost close to lunchtime already and should not end too late either. This allowed us some time to sneak away from the group occasionally, and try our luck in the slot machines and black jack before calling it a day. They came up with the daredevil Linq High Roller ride and also highly competitive bowling matches both of which made us ecstatic and easily very proud of ourselves just by getting into the cabin and reaching the highest part of the ride, without fainting, and also when our balls hit some pins instead of rolling into the gutters..... and then made us really, really shriek and go wild... when we made spares and strikes! They knew what would make us feel young again! And these really made us feel so good!
For those who veered away from both activities due to previous injuries, or just had phobias, shopping was an easy alternative option, with so many outlets and an endless array of stores in the vicinity. Evelyn Andamo was the leader of this pack but she and Aura were also rabid cheerleaders for their bowling teams.
They also planned for us to pray a lot for our dear departed classmates and for each other, for safe travels and good health, and healing for all and for our families and the world around us, even for the elections and both candidates. For in the end, it truly all boils down to what Marie quoted in our memorial service as Mother Theresa's Rules to Live By. And I know that I will always remember this particular reunion in Las Vegas, the city of sin, with Mother Teresa's rules in mind.
I know you will, too. So here they are again....once again, for the benefit of all :
I know you will, too. So here they are again....once again, for the benefit of all :
Mother Teresa's Rules
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self- centered.
Forgive them anyway.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend your years building, someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
PAHABOL
And also the Las Vegas was a huge success, too, because we came and showed up for each other. And remember, even if you start to look old and have gray hair and can't stand straight anymore and are hard of hearing and get bleary eyed, stay and feel ageless anyway.
Good night and God bless, til next reunion in Windsor, Canada next year!
