Got this last Apr 23 from my HS bestfriend, Gretchen, when I asked her the favor to emcee our wedding reception program along with a HS classmate, Archie. While Paul's family and I were on our way to Pampanga for an outing, we were delighted to hear our names over the fm radio..

"Hi to Mai and Paul who are tuned in right now...they were my classmates in high school and it's nice to know that they're tying the knot on December..so I'm wishing you all the best guys!".

That's Gretch greeting us over the airwaves..she's a deejay at Blazin 105.9 (10 am - 2 pm weekdays, 2-6pm on saturdays). O di ba astig ang emcees namin! Archie and Gretch were the best debaters we have on our batch. (Archies's working for Miriam Defensor-Santiago). I'm sure they'll do great on our day, eversince, lagi na silang nag-e-emcee, besides, it'll have a more personal touch since they know a lot about us..especially Gretch, whom I shared almost all of my HS secrets with. We used to have a journal where we would alternately write a message for each other everyday...andun lahat ng secrets, pen names of our crushes, doodles ng kung anu-ano, poems, our theme songs for our moods, heartaches, sama ng loob, anything we'd like to write.

She really was indeed my bestfriend as we had lots of similarities kaya nag-jive talaga kami..we're both small (body built and height), we both wore braces, we're both moody, we loved the songs even if by jam morales and tell me by joey albert, etc. Awww, reminiscin such makes me miss her a lot. We parted ways na kasi nung college. She took up AB Legal Management while I took up Business Ad..though we went to the same college building at UST, we rarely saw or even bumped into each other as we had different sched and eventually, had different circle of friends :( Di pa uso cellfone nun, la naman siyang landline sa dorm..so ayun...nawalan ng communication. It was just the other year, i think, when I got hold of her mobile number. Ayun, tapos nakita ko siya sa friendster..and there..ayan may balita na ako sa knya. The last time I saw her..sa underpass ng Ayala-Paseo. Papasok me ng office while siya naman pauwi na. She works at Sykes in the evening and hits the airwaves in the morning..hay ang sipag ng lola! (not to mention ang yaman na nito!)

When Paul and I were planning who to get as our emcee..without second thoughts, i texted gretch right away. If there's one person who knows how it all started between Paul and I, that would be Gretch. Kaya Gretch..manlibre ka naman..(haha! ang layo)

You may be wondering why with that title, "chentleens" was how we fondly called our "best-friendship". "Chent" taken from her name, Gretchen, and "leen" from my long nickname, Maileen. (Uy trivia yun..now you know kung san galing ang "mai"..eh ang layo sa real name ko na napaka-santacruzan ang dating na "maria elena").

And with Gretch accepting the favor, ngayon pa lang, thankful na ako. Indeed, chentleens forever..right Gretch?