During the past month, I've been grateful for the small distractions that come my way. I welcome all the "distractions" that keep me busy at all times. I still avoid any activity or any topic that make me dwell on things that I'd rather not think about. That's why I still steer clear of certain, well, things.
I was grateful to be busy with our RPT workshop, because thinking about the workshop and the recital kept me from thinking and worrying about other things. I was actually surprised at myself to be so completely occupied, beginning from when I wake up in the morning to do my daily chores, and even when I arrive early in CCP, along with a whole bunch of fellow early birds of our class. Then when I get home and sleep, that's when I realize that I've been occupied the entire day, and was actually thankful about it.
The day our RPT workshop ended, I started thinking about what I could occupy myself with before I head over to my other obligations. I kept busy talking to certain friends, among other things. And I was glad for another day at the Vox Populi shoot yesterday (Thursday).
Our call time was later than last week's, so I underestimated the travel time to get to Marikina. The location was trickier to find, being this crazy Southern belle (ahahaha) that I am. The waiting area was this small barangay hall under an overpass, and to my surprise, Tuxqs was also there. Apparently, Sir Dennis also had a very appropriate role for him in his film, ahehehe. We hung out outside the barangay hall, because it was already super hot inside, and was grateful that it was (well, slightly) cooler outside. The usual long wait, which I didn't really mind at all because we were chitchatting among ourselves anyway. There was even a videoke machine setup nearby because of a certain event in the area, and it was so funny how Sir Julio, Sir Dido and even Bernard and Dave each had a turn at it.
We shot a whole sequence under the overpass where we had to ride and hop off a van and head off somewhere. It took a while to shoot because the vans had to be pulling up one after another. Sometimes there would be a random pedicab driving up between them, which caused a little delay, until we noticed that it was the same pedicab attempting to drive between the vans a couple of times, ahahaha.
After eating lunch, some of us were still hungry probably because of the heat, so we went to the nearby sari-sari store to buy some more snacks and drinks. We shot a bunch of other sequences after that in the connecting streets, and of course, we "councilors" were kind of restless waiting in the heat that we even bought ice candy from a vendor while we did one sequence, casually concealing it behind or under our vests while we did the scene, hahaha. After shooting a final sequence under the overpass, we packed up and headed for the next venue, which was some restaurant a few streets away.
Betty and I rode with Dave to the venue, so I got to leave my bag in his car. We were so glad that the venue was cooler, plus there were several chairs to sit on, hahaha. And there was food as props! Including lechon, hahaha! So the entire time we were shooting at the venue, we were eyeing the food, hoping that we get to eat it before we had to leave for the final location that night. We were hoping that that would be our dinner. When we were almost done shooting the final sequence, I caught some of the lead actors grabbing a few bites of the lumpia and the chicken, so Rayna and I made a beeline for them as well. When we were done, Sir Dennis grabbed the ear off the lechon, and it was time to attack. Within minutes, the crew had surrounded the entire thing and devoured it, hahaha!
Off to the plaza for the final sequences of the night. We hung around a bit at the Red Cross, where our waiting area was, and we had our dinner there. After a long while of hanging around (Rayna and I even got to check out the church across the street), it was finally time to head over to the plaza to shoot. Holy kamote, a huge bunch of talents were needed to simulate the crowd (an illusion of 500 people, according to Sir Dennis), so they got the locals to be the crowd. It took a while for Sir Dennis and Carla (the AD) to get the people to do what they wanted, but in time, we finally had good shots. The bunch of us playing the councilors got to finish a little past midnight, so we headed back to Red Cross to surrender our costumes.
Rayna, Betty, Max and I hitched with Dave out of Marikina, and I was so relieved that he was heading straight home to Cavite instead of staying at his apartment in QC, so I got to get a ride all the way back to the south. He just dropped me off at Zapote where I could easily grab a jeep home.
Glad to have days like these, especially when you're surrounded with friends. In the morning, it's time to return to Make Believe.
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