My 3-0 day.

So how was everyone's Christmas?

I haven't posted in a while again, and to think that I've hit a pretty nice biological milestone this month. Yup, I've hit the big 3-0 on the 16th. I really had nothing special planned on my birthday, as I wasn't really feeling that optimistic. I guess it was because I didn't really enjoy my birthday last year. Anyway, things were pretty OK on my birthday this year, thankfully.

After work, I headed to CCP to attend Carlos Celdran's "Livin' La Vida Imelda" tour. I've always seen him around CCP while conducting the tour, and it's about time to catch the entire thing.

The CCP Christmas party was in full swing at the Little Theater when I arrived. Jelson was at the entrance as one of the hosts, interviewing people as they entered the theater, while Tad was inside, as the other part of the hosting tandem. After a quick stop at the prop room, I hung around the LT lobby, just people watching while waiting for the tour to begin. Carlos was about half an hour late due to the crazy traffic, but we didn't really mind. Once the tour began, we were all wrapped in the story of Imelda, full of romance (well, men), humor and of course, intrigue. If history classes were this fun and interesting to listen to, I would've paid more attention to it back in school. Carlos took us from the LT lobby, to the Silangan Hall, the Main Gallery, the Main Theater (places and venues that are all too familiar for me) and back to the LT lobby while telling different parts of Imelda's life.

For the next leg of the tour, we rode in orange shuttles (hired for the tour) to the PICC. Because I was the only one there who went alone, I was snapping photos of everything but myself (like a lone tourist, haha). This family noticed and smiled at me while we were aboard the jeep, and the dad offered to take my photo for me. I politely declined, but then the dad asked if he could take my photo using his own camera. I gamely posed, and after he had snapped the photo, the guy asked me if I was a model, because he said that I looked like one. Best compliment ever! Happy birthday to me! Hahahaha!

Anyway, onward to PICC. Most of the tales were once again told in the various places of the PICC, giving us good views of the Coconut Palace and the Film Center. The venue I liked the most was the Delegates Lounge. You sure could party back then in that room.

We ended the tour on the lawn fronting the PICC before settling the fees back at the entrance. Of course, I couldn't resist having a photo op with Carlos, even though we already had a photo together at one of last year's Intramuros tours.

Walked back to CCP to pick up the stuff I dropped off in the prop room, and I received a dainty little gift while I was there. Thank you so much!

I enjoyed the simplicity of how my birthday went this year. Thank you so much for that day.

2012 is right around the corner. I have to prep for my traditional year-end blog post.

Meeting up with Carmie and Evan.

I haven't seen Carmella in almost a year, so we decided to meet up this past Tuesday afternoon in Greenhills. Jay couldn't make it because he had to work, but I'm so glad Evan was there (so his yaya Lisa was also there in tow), despite the crazy Christmas shopping crowd.

Met up with them in Starbucks Promenade, and Carmie didn't notice me at first because of my really short hair. So yeah, my hair was already short to begin with the last time we saw each other, but this was already shorter than that. Hahaha, it was great seeing her again. For a mom, she doesn't really look like it, even though she keeps saying she got fatter. Anyway, Evan was asleep when they had arrived, so we stepped outside the coffee shop so we can talk, just the two of us. I love these rare bonding times that we get to have. She's the type of friend that you can easily talk to, and catch up with as if you only saw each other yesterday (minus the salisi moment we had earlier, haha!) So updates galore on each other, what she's been doing, how the people she knew in theater are different now, all that schtuff.

Evan was awake when we got back inside, so we got to play with him a little. He showed us a little dance to one of the songs that Carms played on her phone, and he was super adorable! One hilarious moment with Carmie, by the way, was when she told me about a pair of sandals that she saw while they were shopping earlier, and she called Jay to tell him about it...after mentioning that she saved a lot while shopping for other presents, hahaha!

We went inside the mall for a while and just hung around the food court, eating taho (I had no idea that almond syrup on taho was yummy) and talking more. Deeper conversations, true confessions, relationships, and even a bit of gratitude to the good friend that helped us cross each other's paths to become friends. I love you, baby bro, for introducing me to Carms. I love her to bits like a sister I've never had.

We went around a bit more in the Shoppesville area and Carms bought some baking stuff in Gourdo's for her sister Iza. Then she decided to head back to the store where she found those sandals that she mentioned. She started trying on different shoes, while I got to browse through their clothes (I have my eye on a few items, so I'm definitely going back there), until finally settling on a pair of shoes.

Because I was waiting for the rush hour traffic to subside, we had dinner at Peri-Peri, our final stop for the evening. Carms then mentioned about her dad's show that airs on Net 25 every Sunday. I haven't seen an episode of it, but now that Carms had mentioned it, I got even more curious. Then she suggested that I try working there as an FD. Oh my oh my, I really want to! But I still have commitments until mid-February. Oh please, can I please work there after this? Hahaha!

When it was finally time to call it a day (Evan had already fallen asleep), they dropped me off at Edsa and I managed to get a ride home from there.

Too bad I didn't have my camera then. Though Carms did snap a photo of the three of us. Will wait for her to upload it so I can repost it.

It was great seeing good old friends like Carmie. I sure hope we get to see each other more often. Love you, Carms!

Hello, first December blog post.

Well, hello there, blog. I haven't touched you in quite a while again. So here I go again, with another random update. My goodness, I haven't been blogging like I used to before. Most updates, even rants and raves, have now reverted to short posts on Twitter. Yes, this is why I didn't want to have Twitter in the first place. But well, I can't really help it, can I?

My goodness, it's a Saturday in December, and I just realized that I'm turning the big 3-0 in less than a week. Wow, a biological milestone. Looking back, what have I accomplished in my younger years? And here I am, with a part-time job in a call center, one thing that I didn't even imagine myself doing. But at least I still somewhat practice what I really love doing. True, there are still a lot of idle times, waiting for things to happen. Hopefully I'd be able to remedy that in the following year to come.

I'm so glad to be seeing good old friends again these first few days of December. During last Sunday's Little Mermaid shows in Meralco, I got to see lots of familiar faces, including my baby bro Nicco, and BFF's Carlo and Micah, and even EmJ as well.

Yesterday was one of the best. After several years, I finally saw Maika again. I remember during the times when we were super close, we would meet up after class almost everyday, and just hang out. When she went off to college in the north, I never got to see her, up to the point that I had to record a video of me with a bunch of our friends, just so I can make up to not attending her debut birthday party. So anyway, we were supposed to have a reunion with the rest of our other friends, but we decided to reschedule it to January, and just meet up to hang out and catch up. A long lunch at Teriyaki Boy in Trinoma, all while talking nonstop, was one of the well-spent afternoons I've had in ages.

There's a mystery texter who's been sending me messages since Sunday. I have a huge suspicion as to who it is, but we'll see if I can uncover who it really is soon.

Lesley and Pipo's wedding.

Lesley and Pipo finally tied the knot last Friday. Was glad and flattered to be able to witness their special day. Due to the fact that I had no rehearsals to attend (because D' Emperor got cancelled and was moved to next season), I was able to make it to the actual wedding instead of just the reception.

Cabbed it all the way to the church in my dress, forgetting to bring extra clothes in case I had to commute home late. I easily found Lara outside the church with the rest of the entourage. I loved the colorful motif, hues of blues and purples (and bronze, I think). So thanks to the dress my aunt gave me during her last visit, my royal blue cocktail dress fit right in. Found Rieszel with her boyfriend once I got inside the church, and hung out with them for a while as there was still an ongoing mass before the wedding. After a while, I found Sean and Roan, then Roan and I finally decided to sit down, with Sean sitting one pew behind us so he can sit next to a fan.

I have to say, this is the first wedding I went to where every member of the entourage got applauded by all the attendees. Plus Sophie looked sooo adorable in her fairy flower girl dress, complete with wings! And I love love love Nina's dress as maid of honor. Good choice of bridal march for Lesley, as they played "Only Hope" while she walked down the aisle. I was afraid to take a blurry photo while she walked, so I decided to take a video instead, hahaha. The bride was gorgeous. Lesley had said later that she was crying, but she was still beautiful the whole time.

I saw a few acquaintances in the wedding. Bing, a classmate from college was there, as well as Sheila (high school classmate) and her sister Bertha (Playshop classmate). I didn't realize until after a while that Sheila and Bertha are related to Pipo until I thought about their surnames, hahaha.

Took a cab to Manila Hotel with Roan, Sean and Gio for the reception. I love that we were all put in the same table along with Lara, Micko, Athena, Andro, Dana and Astarte (who came pretty late but managed to catch up). Table 26. The craziest table. We started to believe that we were put in the corner for a reason, hahaha! There was no topic that we didn't crack up or whatever. I love this crowd. We even hogged the photo booth for a while, plus the dance floor until the whole party was over.

Still wired, we headed to the Tap room after the reception for cake and drinks. Athena, Andro and Dana had to go though, but the rest of us still stayed. Talked about typecasting, wedding motifs, and drag queens, hahaha!

Nina had insisted that we sleep over in the hotel with her, and Lara had decided to stay as well. Roan was fine with it, and considering it's not really safe for me to commute at that hour in that dress (blame it on my forgetfulness for not bringing commuting clothes), I agreed to stay as well. Nina and I ended up wearing the hotel bathrobes to bed, as Lara and Roan had their own extra clothes. After a little freshening up and chatting, we eventually fell asleep at around 3 or 4 in the morning, with Lara, Nina and me on the bed, and Roan on the divan.

Woke up to Nina's phone's message alert tone during mid-morning, as I was the one on the bed nearest the side table, where Nina had placed her phone. Ended up just talking the hours away all morning, while eating whatever we could find inside the suite. Conversations galore over fruits, chocolate, coffee and tea before we took turns prepping up in the bathroom. Thank goodness we were allowed to stay an extra hour, as Nina wanted to enjoy the bathtub, hahaha. Lara and I even had time to drop by Lesley and Pipo's room to get cupcakes.

I had a blast spending the evening until the following morning with these friends. I miss girl bonding like this. Sure hope there'd be more, and I sure hope I get to spend more times like these with my two best friends (when Iam comes back from Poland).

And attending this fairy tale wedding made me believe in love again. I just know there's someone out there for me. =)

A little update.

I should learn to stop over-analyzing and overreacting. Just like in my previous post. Apparently it was no biggie. Thank goodness for that.

In other news, we're been rehearsing for D' Emperor for a few weeks now. I guess things are shaping up, albeit slowly, and there are still a bunch of things that are yet to be revamped. But at least we now have a complete cast (hahaha), complete with eye candy for those who would want to watch this in January (plus one weekend in February).

Oh yeah, I had finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. I didn't give in to the ages of prodding by Peachy and Tin, though. The primary reason was to follow a couple of YouTubers that I'm a big fan of. If you want to follow me, you're smart enough to know my username (as I only go by 2 usernames online). I didn't really broadcast my Twitter account as I had already put quite some rants and raves that I don't like to put as shout outs on my Facebook wall.

Because of certain renovations in our house, I've moved from my own current bedroom back to my old room (from over a decade ago), when they started changing my bedroom windows. Considering my old room has an air conditioner and my current room doesn't, even now that the windows have been finished, I still haven't moved back, hahaha. Anyway, my mom took this as an advantage to temporarily move all the kitchen stuff to my current room while the kitchen is currently being re-tiled. I actually love all the revamps in and around the house lately. They started with the annex in the back of our house, extending it with an extra room to serve as a library for our old books and encyclopedias (yes, we had a lot of those when I was a kid), then they also turned the side of our house into a decent receiving area where we could put our old upright piano, and it now looks like a beautiful extension of our living room. The floor in the back of our house is now cemented and replaced with decent flooring, and the current pending revamps are just in the kitchen (re-tiling), and putting a little roof (something that looks like a canopy) over the steps leading to our front door.

Speaking of revamps, I've been keeping my hair short for over a year now, after always sporting long hair for over a decade. Later this week, I'm planning to have an even shorter cut (a pixie cut, no less), just to see how it looks and feels like on me. If I like it, good. If it's not really for me, it will always grow back.

A little break from that blogging, how about a couple of quotable quotes?

During rehearsal of D' Emperor, Riki was facilitating a script reading of a scene between one character and the two con men (of the classic Emperor's New Clothes fame).

Riki: Bulaklak niya ang titirahin niyo. (Pertaining to the character's flowery words).

Hahahahaha!

During an early morning shift in the office, I keep getting refusals.

Me (in between calls): Bakit binababaan nila ako?

Nina (from the station next to me): Eh kaysa naman taasan ka nila.

Ahehehe, good point. So in turn...

Me (after a few more refusals): Wag niyo akong bababaan. Tataasan ko kayo.

Now it sounded corny coming from me.

Just yesterday after rehearsal, Minay, Martha, Tamtam and I ended up at KFC, though only Minay and I were the only ones who ate. I was happily chowing down on my Kung Pao bowl, when Martha said, "Sarap na sarap si Hogi sa kinakain niya."

Hahaha, it seems like to most people, I have a bottomless pit for a stomach, because I'm always hungry, I eat a lot, and I enjoy every moment of it. I guess I'm grateful for having fast metabolism for about a couple of years now. So unlike weight-conscious and crazy calorie-counting people, I don't really have to watch every calorie I consume, because I easily burn them anyway. To be honest, it annoys me how people would look at food and say comment on how many calories they are. Oh for goodness sake, just eat it and just get some exercise. But I guess I'm guilty of that too. I haven't been out jogging for over a year, and I actually miss the feeling after a good run. Though I enjoy the occasional Zumba while inside my room.

Anyway, I'll end this here for now. Time to watch another episode of Game of Thrones.

Confused.

Just when I thought things were alright, they suddenly change abruptly in the opposite direction. What the heck happened? I don't really want to assume the worst, because I never really assumed the best.

Then you dropped a hint a couple of months ago. Well, at least I thought I heard you drop a hint. And then a few days ago. "Utakan na pagdating sa pag-ibig," you said. Pag-ibig? Pag-ibig ba ito? You actually called it that? I don't know whether you were saying it in passing or just joking around. What the heck?

And now you suddenly recoil just because I was joking around during a text exchange. It was just a little inquiry at first, and then a little quip, and then you suddenly give a final word. Then nothing. What the heck is wrong with you? You really blow hot and cold.

I think you just ruined my weekend. And all I have of you right now is a cough and a cold that I caught from you.

I don't know now what I'll say to you when I see you next time.

Stomp!

Back in high school, idle times were made for the simple drumming of fingers against any surface, and sometimes the really wacky classmates would stomp around and slap their hands on their thighs to the beat of the La Salle spelling song, which I easily caught on by shyly imitating their movements while still seated. In senior year, I resorted to taking drum lessons to have any semblance of musicality in my life as a wallflower, and easily read the drum notation my classmate wrote for me when we tried to start a band in our first year of college.

When I heard that Stomp was coming to Manila, I was so excited, but I had no idea how I could manage to get hold of a ticket considering I never set aside a budget for it. I thought I would never have a chance to see it. Until my phone rang early yesterday afternoon, waking me up from a nap. It was Paulo, saying that he had a spare ticket to the show that very afternoon at 3pm. And when I looked at the time, it was already 1:30pm. I immediately said yes to the ticket and flew to CCP as fast as I could. Woohoo, made it to CCP in record time, just 10 minutes before the show. Super thank you for the ticket, Pao!

My goodness, those guys were amazing. They came up with anything that made even the slightest bit of sound, from simple claps, brooms (one of them--whom I heard was half Pinoy--first came in bringing a walis tambo, hahaha!), buckets, tubes to even plastic bags, Zippo lighters (that part was one of my favorites!) and even the simple sound of a foot or a chair sliding against a surface. All this was done as they crossed the stage in perfect choreography, or sometimes even suspended from a harness. Awesomeness. I was practically on the edge of my seat the entire time, anticipating what they would come up next.

Stomp was quite the experience, complete with audience participation. I sure hope they'd come back soon. I'd willingly audition for something like this, hahaha.