Only girl in the world

MANILA, Philippines –  For many years, Pam Pastor was my seatmate at my former office. Our desks were beside each other and her stack of paperwork often overflowed into mine. And with us being nocturnal, we stayed on working on our pages till the wee hours. Yes, we’ve spent several sunrises together.

 A big part of those sunset-to-sunrise bonding moments over food, food and more food was us sharing our dreams with each other. Every beginning of the year, we would have a “word of the year,” and that would serve as our mantra (and password to everything from gadgets to websites). One year, it was “abundance,” another year it was “commitment.” Last year, Pammy told me she wanted to do things she’s never done before, from having green nail polish to the more serious ones like being confined in a hospital, and to writing a book. So before 2011 knocked on our doors, Paper Cuts was born.

Cut and paste

 I was one of the first few to have a copy of the book (a signed copy at that) and every page brought me to a different dimension of Pammy’s psyche  a psyche that I was all too familiar with. She shared so many secret thoughts in that book, secrets that Pam only shared with maybe her desktop  and me. A surge of pride comes with the publishing of her book, knowing that dreams do come true, good people are rewarded with blessings, and real talent will always shine.

 I brought the book to several parts of Europe over the holidays and just like Pam, Paper Cuts has travelled to so many destinations. From Zurich, Switzerland to Vaduz, Liechtenstein to Feldkrich, Austria, I made a visual record of where I brought the book, reading it as I went through my Eurotrip. Just like her book, Pammy has gone a long way.

 At her book launch recently at National Book Store in Glorietta 5, I had to pass by and give her a hug and pasalubong, something that we do every time we come home from our working trips abroad. Supreme’s Gino dela Paz was the advance party, and it took him two hours in line just to have the Anvil-published book signed! Talk about in demand!

Curiosity killed the cut.

 Paper Cuts is not about generational angst  Pammy has never been about that. “I will never be that writer who will write something to bring another person’s career down.” It’s not a brag book. (Even in her blog, Snap, Crackle and Pop, she writes about her failed Janet Jackson stalking.) She’s not into tall tales (yes, her mom really thought the vibrator was a face massager) or false self-deprecation. Or false anything for that matter. Pammy and her Paper Cuts is as real as real can get. Real funny, real interesting, real touching, real friend.

 Proud of you, Pammy. Grab a copy of Paper Cuts and you’ll understand what I am talking about.