The Chemical Kinetics of Flings and, oh, Happy Birthday Dear!

It's official, Rowane Fesalbon is eighteen. That means two of the thirteen Dears can already go to jail. :))

She had her party last night at Club Mwah, which, as my friend Chito says, probably cost enough to pay for our tuition fees for the rest of our college lives. Chito studies in Mapua, so in my case that already includes my Masters Degree.

Dress count was five or six. She looked gorgeous, by the way, just refer to the Multiply sites if you know her. My favorite part was the Egyptian dance. She seriously looked like Cleopatra there. Worst part? Well, I don’t know if it was that bad but to me it was pretty crazy: the 18 candles’ dance number, a (con)fusion of Rowane’s friends, family members, and members of Kundirana, to the tune of Sexy Love. Modern day cotillion.

On another note, I shall now attempt to explain the development of a fling through Chemical Kinetics. No reason, really, I just feel like it.

A fling is a quirk in the fabric of space-time, defined by Webster as a brief period of pleasures. It is often preceded by flirting and succeeded by Step 6 in what I like to call the extended edition of Levinger’s ABCDE model of intimate relationships: Forgetting.

For a reaction (the fling) to take place, the reacting particles have to collide. As we all know, not all collisions are effective (that's why some people get stood up, and some others get dumped, etcetera). Now, for a collision to take place, there has to be proper orientation of the particles (same mindset, same interests, same purpose for being in a certain place). There also has to be sufficient energy to make the reaction happen. (When everything's hyped up by internal or external stimuli, then that part becomes easy.) This is called the activation energy, and it has to be present during the reactants' transition stage (in this case, the flirting stage). The presence of a catalyst also helps, because it speeds up the reaction without detriment to itself. (In fling development, the catalyst is usually another person.) I'm talking about the extremely fast reaction because like I said this is a space-time oddity. But when the fling does happen, it will eventually fail because the reaction does not become stable. It is a law of nature that for things to become stable, they must have low energy. By orientation, flings are emotionally charged, and thus the energy is too high. Blame the dopamine and the notable absence of oxytocin.

Segue, the chemical patterns of love and certain mental illnesses like OCD are alike. Not that I’m saying “love” is present in most flings, because people are not likely to recognize the emotions present in flings as “love.” And what is it if not a social construct anyway.

Okaaay. I'm taking the train back to reality now. I have to face one more paper and two more final exams (Math 14-Trigonometry and Social Science 3- Gender and Sexuality) before my summer officially starts on the first of April. I want everything to go as planned, heaven forbid another episode of Murphy’s Law... Did I mention I was ONE HOUR LATE for my French 11 finals? Ouais. I took it in one hour whereas my classmates took it in two. Here's to hoping I passed. On a less depressing note, I'm already exempted from the Nat Sci 1 (Physics-Chemistry) finals. On another depressing note, the results for the Math 3rd test are already available, I’m just not looking at them. I don’t want the excrement to hit the ventilation just yet.

I seriously just want all of this to be over... The only bad thing about the summer is the heat. Otherwise, I'm perfectly fine with it, because it means I will be taking that much needed break. No summer classes!

Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROWANE MAY AUSTRIA FESALBON!!!!!! We love you so much. Your debut was definitely something special. :)

Advanced "Happy Birthdays" to my only sister, Wakee (April 16—it’s her fifth) and to Marie Francoise Therese Portillo Salcedo (April 19—her eighteenth).