Thursday, September 27, 2007

so yeah, I'm happy, hahaha!

I remember last year, when Tin and I talked about finding "happiness."

Am I happy?

Yes, I am.

The simple joy of celebrating with two scoops of ice cream with cherries on top felt so good.

The funniest moments came when we decided to drop by the conference room to check out Insiang rehearsals. Nearly everyone knew in a matter of minutes. Their smiles showed that they had heard the news. Hahaha, all thanks to Chrome for that one.

That was a day off that was well-spent, hahaha.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

a real day off

Holy kamote, I'm spending my day off here in Taft, of all places, hahaha.

After a busy closing weekend of Avenue Q, I've been itching to do an update, but everytime I go online and try to blog, I don't know where or how to start it. Writers block while blogging? That's a first for me.

Last Wednesday, I went to watch DUP's production of As You Like It (Filipino version) with Tad, Wenah, Marj, Chrome, Kat, Jen, Russ and (at last!) Nicco, hahaha! Thanks to Victor for the tickets. Someone was quite the space case when he told me to just meet up with them at the North Edsa MRT station instead of Quezon Avenue station. Hahaha. But thank goodness I was meeting up with Nicco there so we took the MRT again to Quezon Ave. Hehe, when we were about to board the UP jeep, it turned out that Tad, Wenah, Marj and Chrome were also on the same jeep. We arrived at almost the same time.

After the show, we hitched a ride with Paolo back to CCP, where everyone was meeting up with Sugus to celebrate his birthday. I went with them because it was easier to go home from there. I had planned to stay for a while at the place where they were going to eat at, but due to someone's brooding, I felt so off that I just decided to leave.

(Honestly, I hate it pag may nagtatampo sakin, even if it's over the most trivial of things or even when you're just acting up. It's not that it pisses me off. Ayoko lang ng may galit sakin.)

Haha, in between shows on Saturday, I was just sitting in the lobby of the auditorium and saw three people walking towards the venue. It took me a while to realize who they were as my vision is going crazy these days. It was Paolo, Mailes and Cris, hahaha! Paolo was there to read for Dogeaters and Mailes and Cris just went with him. Cris had already read for a different role the day before as well as Nicco and Bryce. Hahaha, when they saw me, I think I knew that their smiles at me meant something. Ahehehe.

Our house is being renovated this week, and the whole place is a mess. Every room is being repainted, the ceilings needed new wood and new lights have been installed. Thank goodness we have the annex so at least there's a place to sleep. Well, actually, that's just for my parents, hahaha. I have to sleep in the living room. Plus I finally got to have my room painted blue! Yay! Hehehe, while the other rooms (except the annex, which is painted mint green) remain off-white, I have a blue room at last! I can't wait for the entire house to be finished to I can fix up my room.

So Avenue Q closed last Sunday... but only for now. Hope to see you guys at the repeat in December, hehehe. Of course, one concern about that repeat is that will anyone still take notice of Dogeaters in November? We'll see.

Anyway, on the evening of closing, I didn't bother going to the cast party due to some concerns, plus I was damn tired of coming home late already. Ahem, why put off certain responsibilities to party? Oh well.

On Monday, we came in an hour later than our usual time to get some well-deserved rest. But once we were in the office, we had so much to do because of all the stuff we had dumped after the show. Cleaning time once again. Moved a few stuff, returned things to where they used to be, stacked the Pepsi products against one wall and moved a couple of chairs. Yay, the office doesn't look much like a dump anymore with all that Avenue Q merchandise everywhere. Yesterday, I attacked the files and ended up with more stacks than I had expected. Instead of just Avenue Q stuff, I also had Dogeaters. But wait, there's more. I realized that I had King and I files somewhere. Huwaw.

After a long day, I met up with Nikki and we both got new haircuts. Hahaha, this is the 2nd production this year that I had cut my hair right after its run. Whee, I can't believe I actually enjoyed having a haircut. I used to be content with just wearing my hair long and loose.

Bobby had let us take the day off today. Yay. So I dropped by good ol' CSB again regarding my return, and then met up with Bei and her friends. I have yet to figure out what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Maybe I'll bum around at Harbour Square as usual.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

weekender

Found some time before I go off to work to blog, hahaha. Good thing we don't have to go to the office early on Sundays.

Got to watch Mulan's open DTR last Thursday evening with Iam, Ge and Nikki. Ahehehe, it's funny, Iam and I were watching a play that was seemed like a Chinese opera, and mga pekeng Chinese ang mga kasama namin. Well, Mulan is actually a children's play, but I loved its music, and I'm not just saying that just because Sir Jed wrote it, hahaha. It had a lot of indicative gestures, and their colorful costumes were kinda bulky. Interesting wushu choreography though. I loved the scene with all the soldiers! Riki, Bong and Russ all had these different characters, and they were hilarious.

This weekend's turnout of Avenue Q's doing good so far. I haven't gotten to watch any of the shows this weekend, as I've been enjoying too much of Bravo's dips and stuff, hehe. We had the most action during yesterday afternoon's matinee show, as Lorna had gotten Starbucks and MyDestiny internet as sponsors, and they had set up a corner where you can have your photo taken with a stuffed pink letter Q, feather boas, and a sign that says "Spread the fuzz." Hahaha, that was pretty cool. As for the evening show, it had been sold out weeks ago.

We celebrated Bobby's birthday in between shows, chowing down on huge boxes of pizza and buckets of fried chicken, washing them down with cans of Pepsi products, hahaha. Crazy hirits all around, mostly from the birthday boy while he took pictures of everyone.

Ahahaha, and then while we were still just hanging around the lobby, Bobby turned to Ate Sally and kept adding additional last minute guests for the evening show, including an old flame of mine. When I reacted with a snort, Bobby suddenly knew, and kept teasing me, along with Ate Sally, Bernice and Bettina. Holy kamote. "Crush mo siya no, Hogi?" (when I was just chuckling to myself.) "Kaya pala ganyan ang T-shirt mo." (when they noticed that I had knotted my shirt in the back to make it tighter.) "Magpapa-cute na si Hogi." (when I stood up to go to the bathroom.) "Did you boyfriend pick up his tickets yet?" "He's lonely, sitting alone. Go sit with him." Crazy.

Anyway, gotte get off my bum and start moving. Thank goodness we only have afternoon shows on Sundays.

And one more thing...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NAR!!!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

back online

Carlo had said that I've been MIA online, hahaha. I actually missed the Internet, but even now, I'm too tired to check all my email and heck, updates on Multiply.

Avenue Q had opened this past weekend. But my goodness, before it had its press night and opening night, the week was crazy. When I had gone to the theater on Wednesday afternoon for a little setup in the lobby as well as to check out the DTR. After fixing the seat numbers in the entire theater and had a little briefing with our ushers, something went wrong. The soundboard had short-circuited and well, let's just say that it made a huge delay, and so we got to watch the DTR without mic lapels and the band. Holy kamote. But I truly thank Miss Mel of Domino's Pizza for coming through for us when we needed last minute food.

Despite mishaps and all, we survived opening weekend! Running around to pull out tickets from Ticketworld, hauling tons of packed meals to the theater via that service elevator that takes forever, ticket mixups (ARGH), disappearing loge seats (where does M16 keep disappearing to?) and etcetera can be quite crazy, but I guess fulfilling in a way, as I missed working at the front of house last year. And because I missed pigging out on Bravo's crostini with their assorted dips and spreads, that's what I did this year, combing with Propel Active Water to wash everything down, hahaha.

One more this I had missed out on last year was people watching, while just sitting in the lobby. Sometimes it's always a nice surprise to find people you don't expect to arrive. My favorite was Jenny. Heck, I already knew that she was back from Hawaii, and I had also told her to watch Avenue Q once I had found out that she was coming home. But finally seeing her again in the flesh was hilarious. It took me a while to register who was standing in front of me, and according to her, my reaction was so slow and gradual, hahaha!

And once again, getting guests was always last minute. I managed to alter Zee, Carlo and Micah's afternoon plans so they can watch the show. My apologies to the rest of the BFFs, by the way, specially to Nar (whose birthday is coming up, nyahaha)!

Yesterday, even though I haven't caught up with my sleep, I decided to drop by good ole CCP after our matinee show, declining dinner invites by Peachy and Sundee (my usual quip here to those who know), and Chari ("May date ka nanaman," she had said, and this time, well, I can't say anything to deny anything). I ended up joining the AC at Jorge's and Denisa's place somewhere in Pandacan.

Man, I just love love love Horhe's house! It's so spacious, and I also fell in love with those stairs. Drinks, talking and music galore, and when the rain let up, with all went next door to Denisa's house, which I fell in love with too. It's so zen. We all settled in the cool living area to have more drinks, and because I'm not really a social drinker, I forgot about my drink on the table, when it was more than halfway through, haha. When we started pigging out on the chips and stuff, Denisa then said that it wasn't for free, and had each of the AC perform a little song, hahahaha! And my favorite was their improv song, which I regret that none of us had recorded, darn!

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Ahahaha, I'm not exactly done with my blogging yet, as I owe people a whole lot of explaining to do, if you know what I mean, hahahaha! G'night all!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

backlog: no sleep

So Circa had closed last Sunday. By the by, to Nikki, Misch, Allein and Christian, thanks for watching! Ahehehe...

Last Sunday, my only plans were to just be there for the closing show, and hang out at the front-of-house with Paulo. Minette had also said that she and Carlo were planning to watch a movie that night. I actually had no plans as to what I really wanted to do. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, that's for sure.

The house was packed that very afternoon, overflowing even. I just went inside the theater just to check out the last scene of Act 1. So it was back to the front-of-house. Hahaha, Wenah and Ate Donna were there as well.

Ahehehe, I just have to blog this. Wenah had sent a text message to her friend, saying sad daw siya. I laughed out loud at her friend's reply: "Isipin mo na lang na maganda ka. Matatawa ka na nun." Something like that, wahahaha.

So anyway, by the time the show was done, I still had no idea what I wanted to do. I honestly wanted to go out and do something without spending much. But at the same time, I wasn't in the mood to do anything. I decided to join Sugus, Chrome, Tad, Henry, Kuya Bong, Daryl, Anna, Jen, Tara and Kat at Sugus' house before they go off to Ana's house for the cast party. I thought that I could just hang around, have dinner, and when they leave for Ana's, I could just go home.

I ended up still going to the cast party, ahehehe. What's funny is that after weeks of forgetting to eat, this time, I forgot that we all had dinner at Sugus', and I ended up still eating at Ana's. So there was food, videoke and laughs all around, specially when they were bashing one particular cast member who wasn't there, hahaha.

And yes, well, there's that. Not really a big step, we just decided to give it a try. Hahaha, I already knew that the moment I had left the party, someone's gonna get cornered. Ahehehe, will blog about this one another time.

Anyway, when I got home, I only had an hour of sleep before I had to get off my bum and go to work. Aside from the endless errands that kept me on my toes, Ate Sally had hinted that I can't really leave by the time Avenue Q closes. She said that I have to stay until Dogeaters. Oh shoot. I really need to resign by then to take care of things to go back to school. Plus my mom had even called that I will only stay until this month. Now I know that it's important to finish pending projects that you have started, but if it's for the sake of having a designated contact, can't I just delegate it to the next person that we'll train? Miss Berns, Chari, would that be alright?

*crosses fingers*

By the way, because I was uber busy working in the office that I never got to attend Avenue Q rehearsals, I won't be manipulating the Mrs. T and Princeton in that one particular scene anymore. Phew. There's a load off my back.

Anyway, despite having no sleep yesterday, I still managed to keep myself awake. Plus the food sponsors had perked me up, hahaha. Even though I never managed to finish a whole Whopper meal from Burger King before, I was so surprised that I actually finished one within minutes. Then there's that long overtime because we had to wait for Miss Berns and Jem, so we ended up leaving the office at almost 9 in the evening. Oh well, at least I still have that other Whopper, hahaha.

This day wasn't as hectic, but I was still running errands. At least we closed the office at the usual 6pm. At first I decided to wait for Gino to leave his own office in the next block, but when he said that he still had work to do, I decided to take a cab to CCP, bringing with me some packed meals from yet another sponsor, Teriyaki Boy. I ended up with 3 rice meals, and was supposed to give one to Gino. I was about to hail a cab outside our office when this van started beeping the horn directly at me. I didn't know who it was at first, but then I realized that it was Chiquita's PA. As it turned out, Chiquita himself was having his hair done at the hair salon in the building next to ours.

Waited for Gino to get out, and dragged him with me to CCP. By the time we got there, we had our own reasons so we would not drop by Mulan rehearsals, so we decided to hang out somewhere else. Hehehe, we ended up eating our packed meals at Teriyaki Boy Harbour Square. We decided to buy some drinks para hindi naman nakakahiya, even though the resto is really a sponsor for Avenue Q. Hahaha, Tad ended up leaving rehearsals early and hung out with us, so he got the 3rd packed meal.

Huwaw, I'm supposed to blog more, but when I looked at the time, I suddenly feel sleepy, ahaha. Will continue tomorrow. Ahehehe, I'm sure some of the ones who are reading this already know the news. Hep hep, wag ulit mag-assume ng kung anu-ano. Chismis yan.

backlog: back to school?

Another backlog, hahaha. I didn't get to go online this weekend, but I did manage to find some time alone to write down some stuff.


Friday, August 31, 2007

Back in Starbucks Harbour Square once again, just killing time before Circa.

Well, this week has been quite the rollercoaster. After spending an afternoon with one of my best friends early this week, the next days weren’t as fine, especially with my certain status at home. I guess that’s why I’ve been kind of aloof and sort of spacey at work. Once again, my parents were on my case about my direction in life.

So what happened? 2 days of loud one-sided talks with the parental units (once my dad raises his voice, he doesn’t listen to reason except his own), then I began to get myself acquainted with the new SDA building. Lots of waiting, re-filling out forms that I had filled out before, talking with Sir Gerry (who made a point to say, “I make sure that all students who have been under my wing will graduate.”), double-checking both old and new flowcharts as well as old and new course codes, and finally, to my dismay, I have to take subjects that weren’t in my initial flowchart due to the school’s new policy.

By January, I will be a full-time student again. With a full course load. And there’s no turning back now. I really want to finish this. No more putting it off and procrastination just because a cool new production is coming my way and I really have to be part of it. Two whole terms of classes again. And the funny part in all this is that I’m actually excited to go back to school, hahaha.

What’s even funny is that when I looked at the subjects that I need to take, I found this one particular subject called Production, Stage and Theater Management. Holy kamote. I have to take a class like that? But what have I been doing for the past 3 years that I haven’t been in school? Hahaha!


Am now sitting in the house of the Little Theater, waiting for open house while some of the cast members are doing mic check. Man, I can’t believe that this is the final weekend of Pilipinas Circa 1907. Then Avenue Q will be opening next week and will run for 3 weeks. And after that… what will I do? When Zee and Micah caught up with me at Starbucks earlier, I had quipped that maybe I’d try a part-time job, say, like a barista, hahaha! Hmmm… now that’s a thought. I already have a form that I had picked up in the coffee shop. There’s no harm in trying, right? I mean, what if I don’t really get any racket during my 3 months of bumming? I need some money by Christmas. Oh well. It’s just a part-time job anyway, so I hope the parental units won’t complain that much. Then maybe try to get in as a dresser for Dogeaters? Wahehehehe.