today’s the first of the nine-day novena masses for Sto. Niño. this year marks the 444th year of fiesta celebration in honor of cebu’s beloved patron. the latter trivia i learned from the priest who said the homily during the 4:00 pm mass, of which my sister and i were 45 minutes early, as we were 15 minutes late for the 2:30 pm mass. so what we did, we visited St. Jude first — ram and mine’s favorite saint because he’s the patron saint of the impossible and there are a lot of impossible things we’re both praying for right now, hoping against hope that each and every one of them would come true. or at least the major ones, anyway. the ones we keep nagging asking intercession for.

took the extra time on our hands people-watching. nameless faces in a sea of crowd. colorful balloons everywhere. shared each other’s deepest thoughts, with my sister asking,

i don’t know. i never really thought about it. balloons are fun only for kids. they’re only fun when you’re playing with them. but when you sell balloons for a living, that’s a completely different story because money would be involved. and when that becomes the case, happiness becomes a controversial topic.

and besides, people hardly buy balloons anymore. kids may still want one every now and then but parents aren’t too keen on buying their kids balloons. but i love balloons, though. just maybe not the ones they are selling these days. although i would love to get a spongebob balloon. i love spongebob. =)

the Basilica del Sto. Niño ground and the church itself was jam-packed. seriously. the safety freak in me that i genetically inherited from my dad was already memorizing all the exit routes i could use should i need them in cases of emergencies. it’s a good thing they assigned specific entrances and exits to regulate the flow of traffic. and the guards are pretty strict about following them so you can’t use your charms this time. unless, of course, you’re ready to faint and are as white as a “bumfire.” lol.

anyhow, isn’t it amazing how devoted cebuanos are to Sto. Niño? rain or shine, you can’t take that kind of faith out of our people. which makes me so darn proud to be a cebuana! =)

i think ram, my sister and i will be completing this year’s novena masses. i know it takes an effort to brave the crowd but we all have our own prayer requests, of which we are hoping would be granted. what are you praying for?