Despite the fact that today is Labor Day, we had our first rehearsal of Doubt.

I had to take the bus, expecting loads of traffic jams along the way, but to my surprise, I got to Makati much earlier than any regular day when I take the shuttle. I had ample time to go claim a mango tort cake in the next village that was going to be a little something from Bobby for the cast and crew. After dropping by the office and gathering the things I needed, I headed for the rehearsal venue.

Hehehe, I was watching Chari and the cast out of the corner of my eye while they were doing warm-ups, and I noticed that they were a little too familiar... because those were the same exercises that we do in CCP. I just had to supress my chuckles when I heard Chari say "red leather, yellow leather" and the others followed suit.

"Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather..."

As I type this, I get a couple of text messages and IM's, and a quick touch of the remote, I suddenly saw Nicco on QTV's H3O! HAHAHAHAHA! Go Nicco!

My mind's blank. And tomorrow's another busy day.

Ending this week has never been so eventful.

Last Thursday at Dencio's Harbour Square (thanks to Michelle, by the way), our BA class had finally decided that our Friday out would be at Michelle's condo in EGI, instead of another round of videoke at Providence. We even joked that we weren't inviting Ian because of how rowdy he got last week.

So yesterday, after class, we all headed for EGI Tower, minus Ian. Miss Tess had to decline, as usual because of her dance class. We ordered pizza and people prepared the drinks. It soon became a night of singing and drinking, and for a while, I even got to hang out in Michelle's room with her, Tin, Gem, Jonna and Julia and entertained ourselves with tarot cards and the internet.

After a while, we trooped back outside to the common area, where the rest were still drinking and singing. When it became quiet, we started this sort of game of true confessions, and suddenly all our inhibitions started disappearing. It was crazy, but it was fun getting to know everyone a whole better. It was such a great choice to just hang out at someone's place instead of videoke-ing the night away because it was a perfect chance to finally get to talk to each other. It was a blast bonding with this crazy bunch of actors.

Then we all packed ourselves inside Michelle's bedroom, still talking the night away. The funniest part was at exactly 4 in the morning, when someone had simply asked if Ian was still going to catch up. A few moments later, I heard Michelle gasp from outside upon opening the front door, and when I took a peek outside the bedroom, Ian was there! Hahaha, he actually managed to catch up!

We decided to continue the round of true confessions to include him, but I guess he was still kinda drunk coming from Penguin. Ahehehe...

Sometime when it was around 6 in the morning, Tin urgently said that she had to go home, otherwise she'd be in trouble with her parents. WE all kept saying that she should wait until the sun is up so it would be safer for her to go home. We were persistent, but she was persistent as well, so we got her in a cab before her tears had spilled. Aw, we love you, Tin!

I found myself later in the common area outside the bedroom with JP, Nicco, Fiancee, Carmela and Jonna. Talked about the workshop, theatre in general, and someone's lovelife. The rest of the group stayed in the bedroom and had their own conversation as well.

What time did we finally leave Michelle's condo? 8:30 in the morning. When I got home, I went back to bed and woke up an hour before Rosa and Iam and I were supposed to meet at ATC for PJ's birthday dinner treat.

Photos uploaded to my Multiply site can be found here.

To the BA class '06, you guys have been truly a blessing. I have never imagined that we would all be this tight and so united, but now it's a joy to know that it can happen, and I'm thankful for that. To old and new friendships, to theatre and to love (nyahahaha...), and to anything under the sun, you guys rock! I love y'all!

I realized that I haven't finished blogging, hahaha.

So anyway, when I got home yesterday morning, I watched Whose Line Is It Anyway? then fell asleep immediately. When I woke up at 5pm, I only had an hour left before I had to meet Rosa and Iam. So I quickly took a bath and sped to ATC.

When I finally found them, Ge was with Iam, heeheehee. They actually look cute together, and they sort of dressed the same. Anyway, we set off to look for a birthday present for PJ, and as usual, we got him a T-shirt from Spoofs, Ltd. While we were paying for the shirt, PJ had called to say that he was already at North Park, so we headed there to meet with him. He was there with Ramon, then we all went inside to wait for a table. Ge was supposed to leave by then, but Rosa and I had asked him to stay so he could meet the rest of our clique, so he obliged, hehehe.

Mike, Jenny, and Seph also came, and soon we were all contentedly digging in. Whee, we didn't know what to Fookien rice was like, and we got so amused that it came with a sauce. Hahaha, the most hilarious part was when we started singing "Happy Birthday" while PJ was still ordering. He quickly banged on the table to shut us up. So OK, let's just wait until after he pays for dinner to sing it, hahahaha!

After dinner, Rosa had to leave to go to work, and Jenny had to leave as well, so we said goodbye to them. I was planning to go home with Grace, but she was still working at Banana Leaf and wouldn't get off until half an hour later, so I asked Iam and Ge to go with me to play one game of Dance Maniacs in Timezone, hahaha. Iam took the first 2 songs, then Ge took the last song. When that was done, we finally went to Banana Leaf. But Grace wasn't replying, so we headed back and checked out Hobbes for a while until I got a text from Grace.

Ahehehe, she was still in her uniform when we found her, so she asked us to wait a while. She let us sit at a table inside and got us drinks while we waited for her, but to my surprise, she followed it up with some chicken satay and 2 kinds of bread. Oh no, more food... But before any of us could realize it, I was involuntarily nibbling at the bread, hahaha. The bigger one was yummy, but I forgot what it was called, though.

Oh yeah, thanks for the ride, Ge! Hahaha, I'll never forget Rosa's message sent to the wrong person.

Anyway, I'll go back to sleep now. I still need to catch up on more zzz's.

I had planned to meet with Nikki after work in Glorietta, so I waited for her at Starbucks in G4. I was sitting there by my lonesome for quite a while, and I was happily content fildding with my phone while I waited.

After a while, I smelled something funny behind me. It was the familiar smell of Sir Tony's skunky cologne mixed with some foreigner's own smell. Sure enough, there were two Mediterranian looking middle-aged men with some girl getting the table behind me. 10 minutes later, I think they noticed I was alone, so one of the men came up behind me.

Man: Hello.
Me: I'm sorry?
Man: Are you waiting for someone?
Me: Yes. (But thinking: Why the hell do you want to know?)
Man: [in halting Filipino] Babae or lalaki?
Me: A girl.
Then he left me alone, to my relief. After a while, their group had finally left.

Nikki then messaged me 10 minutes later after that, saying that she's finally in Glorietta. I quickly replied where I was, hoping that she'd get there quick in case those foreigners would come back.

Then I was back to fiddling with my phone, playing this obscure card game I found in the games folder. Then this guy in business attire walks up to me and says, "Beauty!" I looked at him strangely, because I wasn't sure at first as to what he had said earlier. He was vaguely familiar, but I don't think I've really met him. What's creepy was that he looked like a younger version of Chiquita. Anyway, I think the guy saw my blank look, so he said that he had seen me in CSB's production of Beauty and the Beast. Ahahaha, so I just chuckled and said an "Okayyyy..." Then I think he also noticed that I got a little uncomfortable, so he introduced himself as Reese. As it turned out, he was the musical director of Lawyn's thesis, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Well, at least he was better than the Mediterranian guy, hahaha. Though he did also ask if I was waiting for someone as well, a boyfriend in particular. Nyak...

Yay, I was so glad to finally see Nikki again. After eating something light at Food Choices with Remus before he had to go home, we went to Timezone and played a few games, then hung out at Starbucks. It was great to finally have a decent conversation with someone again. That was how much I enjoyed her company.

Anyway, I'm out for now. I need to memorize my poem for workshop class. G'night!

My right shoulder still hurts. It was from all that rolling Ian made us do at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute during the first part of our class on Tuesday.

That day, we had to recite our poems one by one in front of the class using two contrasting verbs. After being told by Miss Tess last Friday that we Benildeans were too nice, I still kept "punish" (which I did with Jenny that day) and "soothe". My golly, my poem had too many highfaluting words that I myself got a nosebleed. But we weren't tackling the meaning of the poem, but how we deliver our lines instead. It was quite the biggest challenge yet that I had encountered in the workshop. But it was quite a great challenge. It was better than doing gibberish before in previous workshops. Gibberish was easier, though.


I had to help out producer John Kevlin and Dobi this afternoon at the King and I auditions. Only three people were trying out. There was Calvin, John Arcilla, and Raymond Bagatsing. I had to be Dobi's right hand the whole time, and while it was still early, I got to sit at the table where Calvin and John A were at, and they were gracious enough to include lowly me in the conversation, hahaha.

Anyway, because I was helping out at the auditions, I knew I was going to be late because I was coming all the way from Libis. When we were done, Dobi had offered that I ride with her and John, who will be driven back to his hotel. I thought I'd be intimidated by him because he was this Broadway producer, but he was pretty nice while during the drive back, and we had a good conversation going. Then when he asked if we could drop by a liquor store so he can get those travel bottles. After stopping by a second liquor store without finding any, John had realized that he had lost his wallet. Uh-oh. It meant we had to find it and trace his steps, because my golly, he had everything in there from his money to his credit cards. Dobi had quietly sent me a text message apologizing that I will be uber late for my workshop class because we can't possibly leave John in that situation, but I didn't really mind then. To our relief, we managed to get the phone number of the Starbucks John and Liza had gone to before the auditions, and his wallet was there. Yay! So we managed to get it back then we drove him back to his hotel.

After settling all money concerns with Dobi while we were still in the car, she had asked Kuya Noli (the driver) to drive me all the way to CCP. Yay, I don't have to take a cab, plus I was uber late enough already. Thanks, Dobi!

I arrived at CCP when our class was halfway done. They were still doing the poems when I got to the Main Theater lobby, so I quietly joined them. It took most of the rest of the time to finish everyone's poems, then Miss Tess took out the script of Our Town and did a read-through with Ian, Nicco and Julia.

Auditions for the showcase will be tomorrow! And I have no idea what role to try out for. Then while we were eating at Pancake House after class, Nicco reminded me that I should audition for something and I shouldn't hold back anymore. Argh... I don't know what role. All I know is that I don't feel like playing a guy, because most of the roles are male, and our class is mostly composed of females.

Oh well, we'll see what happens.

I had told myself earlier that I'll go straight to sleep upon arriving home, and blog about everything another time. But I guess I'm not as tired as I thought I was.

So yes, I was at another audition. This time, I was an auditionee. It was the auditions for Our Town, our BA class' showcase. After warm-ups at the Main Theater lobby, Miss Tess and Ian distributed copies of the script plus audition forms, then they showed us the pages that served as the sides. Ian then collected the completed forms, and said that they'll be calling us one by one, in alphabetical order according to our last names. Santa banana... I was the first!

I barely had no time to prepare. After changing from jeans to a skirt, I quickly read through the lines of one of the characters. I actually had no idea which part to try out for, so I guess I'll just wing it. After a few minutes of running through the lines another time while I was outside the lobby, I heard people calling my name. It was time for the auditions to start. Holy kamote, I didn't even have time to be nervous.

Hahaha, the first thing Miss Tess asked me was that if I could sing. I said that I could, but not that well, then she added that she had noticed that all my previous workshops were in musical theater. Ahahaha, so she asked me to sing a song for them. The first song that popped in my head was "Change In Me" from Beauty and the Beast. After the song, we started with the lines from the sides, avoiding Miss Tess and Ian's eyes in case I falter. Phew, when that was done, I got the perfunctory "thank you" before they let me go.

The others followed one by one. I spent the rest of the time sitting around, just talking to forget my audition. Afterwards, when everyone was done, we all pulled our chairs in a circle and read through the entire script, each person reading a different role. I actually had the most fun doing the lines of the Stage Manager 2. That was the role Nicco had suggested me to try. I enjoyed the role's lines, hehehe. But the role I got wasn't what I had expected, but Mimay was good at guessing. Anyway, I'll go back to that in a bit.

When the whole script was done, we were finally dismissed. A bunch of us then decided to have a late dinner at Harbour Square as usual. We then debated whether to eat at Tapa King or Mang Inasal, but when we saw Miss Tess and Ian at Tapa King, we assumed they'd be talking about the casting, so we went to Mang Inasal. Hahaha, every once in a while, Nicco would hold up his phone and pretend to get a text from either one of our teachers announcing who got which role. Though Miss Tess and Ian dropped by while we were still in the middle of our food, but didn't say anything yet. When we were almost done eating, Ian returned alone with a sheaf of papers. He started announcing the roles of everyone who was at the table.

Santa banana. I never expected I'd get the role I got. Mimay, I can't believe your hunch was right.

OK, now I'm sleepy. G'night, world.

These past couple of days have been pretty busy.

I'm supposed to be catching up on my sleep right now, but of course I make time to blog.

So anyway, on Friday, we finally found out what everyone else will be playing. Mimay and I will be sharing one role, while the rest either has only one role, or will be playing multiple characters.

We starting blocking the first act until it was finished, and then we ran through the whole thing. Because the script was in English and we didn't find a Filipino translation, we were to translate the whole thing to Taglish ourselves as we go along.

After the rehearsal, most of us went to Julia's house this time for the night until morning. My goodness, another night of bonding and drinking and no sleep. Because Julia and Kai weren't around during our "true confessions" episode last week, we got them to say their own and we repeated what we had said then. Then we got into more deeper topics, and we didn't stop talking until a couple of us had decided to retire. Julia had took out cushions and pillows and blankets into the living room, where a bunch of people had settled in happily. For a while, I joined Michelle, Mimay, Fiancee, Kai and Pong at the table while Michelle was still at it with her tarot cards.

When I realized the time, I knew I had to take a bath and get ready soon. Because I didn't come home, I decided to go straight to the Atlantis office from Julia's. But after I had emerged from the bathroom, I realized I still had time to take in a few minutes of sleep, so I settled in one of the couches. I woke to the voice of Fiancee, who was talking with Julia and Nicco. I joined them for a while, then left with Michelle and Kai to go to the office.

Quiet morning, so I spent my vacant time reading through my Our Town script. Then when we got out, I quickly headed home to dump my things, clean up a bit, and change clothes. Then I headed back to CCP.

Oh yeah, auditions for the Actors Company was held Saturday afternoon, and Nicco, Betty and Fiancee all tried out. Nicco got called back, wheee! I knew you could do it, bro! I'll be crossing my fingers for you for the callback.

We then started blocking the second act of our show once there were enough people in the class. My golly, it was total awkwardness in the last French scene of this act. And yes, incest, HAHAHAHA!

After blocking the final act, where Mimay took over the role we share, we were dismissed. Most of us then went off in Mervyn's vehicle to Malate, where JP's indie film, Balay-Daku, was being shown. I only got to stay for an hour, though, because I haven't had any sleep.

And speaking of sleep, it's about time I got some. In the afternoon, Miss Tess will be rehearsing the scenes that Nicco and I are in. G'night, world!

Another look back.

I found an old entry in my other blog about what had happened sometime exactly 3 years ago in another workshop.

Exactly 3 years ago, a bunch of us always got together to pour out frustrations after class. It was usually composed of the older group, including me. We would always talk about the faults of certain people, our frustration over the show, stuff like that.

This year, it's completely different. Our entire class is always together before, during and after class, though with the ocassional one or two missing people. We love our teachers and gave them the respect they deserve (even Ian? Hahahaha...). We're gradually making the show our own, and things are going pretty smoothly in the span of just a few days.

3 years ago, I was just an ensemble character with a name.

This year is totally different. Yet the pressure scares me.

It's still all fun, anyway.


This afternoon, a bunch of us were asked to come in to rehearse our scenes. When I arrived, Miss Tess and Ian were conducting a gibberish exercise with Mimay, Betty, JP, Julia, Jenny and Tupe. Nicco had arrived a few minutes after I did, so we joined in. Afterwards, Miss Tess focused on the scenes with Mimay, Betty and JP, while Ian with Julia, Jenny and Jonna, so Nicco and I ended up throwing lines.

When Mimay, Betty and JP were done, it was our turn with Miss Tess. It took quite a while, and I really need to get everything in my head. Rawr.

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, the showcase is less than a week away!

Time for more shut-eye. G'night for now.

I'm supposed to be with my script right now, but here I am again, back online.

Hahaha, I'm supposed to put this in the Atlantis blog, but I'd rather let the cast do the honors of writing the first post there. But this is just too funny for me not to post.

Anyway, in Doubt rehearsals this afternoon, while the cast was warming up, I found myself and Bea standing nearby. Then after Chari made the cast do a "run, freeze" exercise, she made Bea and I join the next one, which was a game of freeze tag. Holy kamote. After appointing Nic as the It, Cherie, Cathy, Tita Jay, Bea and I were off and around the whole rehearsal area. I was trying to stay as far away as possible until I realized that I was the only one left that wasn't tagged. So I hastily ran over to where Bea was and unfroze her by crawling between her legs (yes, Chari had said that that was how to unfreeze someone, hahaha). Before I had gotten back on my feet, I was tagged and frozen. Hahaha, what a workout. And I thought I wouldn't have to deal with workshop exercises on Mondays, hahaha.

Throughout the entire rehearsal, I was observing how Chari was as a director, because I had always been so used to Bobby. Plus now that I'm making another attempt as an actor, I wanted to see how one director is different from another. I like how she kept seeing whether the actors are comfortable doing a certain action or not. I like that approach. Sometimes I want to come up to her and ask how I should work on my character in Our Town, but I'm still kinda intimidated by her.


We're supposed to have our lines memorized by tomorrow, my golly. Good luck.

Once again, I'm supposed to be sleeping right now.

So we've been rehearsing for Our Town every night at the Silangan Hall. Done with the blocking and we've ran through the entire play about 5 times at least.

We started using accessories and costumes that are to be worn over our basic costumes yesterday, and this evening we even got to use the ladders that George and Emily will be using near the end of the first act. My golly, that ladder I was on was so wobbly! Rosa, I'm already warning you of something, hahahaha!

DTR tomorrow at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute. Oh my... the cold, cold black box theater that swallows your voice. Oh nooo...

Well, I wasn't really supposed to post this because a bunch of us are kinda shy, but here goes.

To those interested, please watch the Beginning Acting showcase, Our Town, on Friday, May 19. The show starts at 7:30 pm at CCP's Tanghalang Huseng Batute. Tickets are P50 each.

Rosa and Iam, no waving or crazy moves in the audience. This theater isn't big enough to hide you from my sight, HAHAHAHAHA!

Right now, my mind is a muddle of all sorts of thoughts. When I'm supposed to be sleeping, as usual, prepping up for the showcase, here I am online again, trying to organize my thoughts.

First of all, the workshop is finally coming to a close. I can't believe that those weeks flew by. I'm going to miss these days when I rush to go to CCP right after getting out of the office that I hardly have time for a breather. Plus all those Friday nights out with most of the class, just talking the night away right on up til the morning. What am I going to do with my vacant evenings after all this?

My expectations for this summer were to just meet people, learn and hone a thing or two, and hopefully find more quality time with some friends. I guess I got more than I bargained for. I found a whole new bunch of new friends, and we all got to learn a huge deal about ourselves and each other as well.

And now, the showcase will be in less than 24 hours, meaning we all have less than 24 hours left as workshoppers in the vicinity of CCP. We will soon unfold the story of Our Town with our hearts on our sleeves.

I don't really want to get all sentimental, but in the privacy in my own room, I guess I can.

I'm feeling a lot of things right now. I'm feeling sentimental, but I also feel cranky, misunderstood, annoyed, anxious. Argh.

Usually, most of my innermost feelings are reserved for more private blog posts, but because of my crazy moods, I figured it's alright to post it here.

I don't like what I did these past couple of weeks. I totally regret it, and I wish for things to be back the way they were. Hah, as if I have control of it. I just miss the old times.

I'm too lazy to blog about the rest. That last one was cryptic enough, I hope.

To the cast of Our Town, BREAK A LEG!

The showcase is over. But even though the stars have dimmed over Luntiang Parang, which we fondly call Our Town, I believe this is just the beginning for its denizens.

Last Thursday, we held our DTR at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute. It was freezing cold, and though we were warned to bring jackets and anything to keep us warm, we eventually had to shed them off because we had to get used to just wearing our costumes.

Yesterday, after call time, we started throwing lines, and then somewhere in the middle of it, Miss Tess stopped it and she started going over a few scenes. As we rehearsed the 3rd act, suddenly the play's message got to me. We've all been hearing the lines since the very first script reading, and as Mimay fleshed everything out, the lines started poking...

"Do any human being ever realize life as they live it... Every minute?"

Then suddenly I felt as if I was up on the balcony, looking down at all of us as we ran through the scene. I saw everyone's faces, and as they looked on the scene as well. I've spent most of my evenings for over a month with these people, and sometimes it feels as if spending most of my time with them was never enough, even with those Friday-night-until-Saturday-morning sessions.

And then before I realized that I was about to go into withdrawal period, I shrugged it off and rehearsed the curtain call.

We took a break and ate at the buffeteria, then we returned to the theater and started getting ready. We were called onstage by Ian for warmup, then at one point we were told what we could give to one another. A hugfest ensued, aw. As we filed back to the lone dressing room, organized chaos occured. A whole bunch of people (including me) flocked to Fiancee for makeup help. Then when most of us were all ready, Miss Tess came in and hugged each of us and gave the perfunctory (but sincere) "break a leg." Aw...

Showtime! By the time we filed into the theater during the chimes, I didn't feel any anxiety or anything. I guess I didn't have time to be nervous. Everyone nailed it, and when we heard the laughter and other similar reactions from the audience, we all got comfortable and I kept seeing and hearing adlibs everywhere.

After the show, a bunch of us retired to Julia's house to hang out and talk and drink and think over mind games. It's never boring at "BagTay", hahaha.

Now I'm at home, and back with a cough. Rawr.

Some photos are uploaded to my Multiply site and can be found HERE.

That's the title because our BA class' last day was always moved back, hahaha.

Our workshop class' official cast party was held at JP's place in Makati last Saturday night. It was scheduled after dinner, according to the mass text message he sent to our entire class, so Mimay and I had agreed to meet up in Greenbelt way before the time. We had planned to watch The Da Vinci Code that day with Tin, Nicco, Jenny and Carmie, and anyone else who wanted to come along.

Met Mimay at Powerbooks Live at around 2 pm, then after a while, we headed down to Starbucks so I can get some tea with honey for the darn cough that returned. Well, at least it was kind enough to give me back my voice for the showcase before it attacked again. Anyway, Tin had met us there about over an hour later, and then Betty joined us as well. Then we met with Carmi upstairs by the fountain when she messaged us that she was already in the area.

Because the text invite had said "after dinner," plus we were already hungry, we all went to Jollibee to eat while waiting for Jenny and Nicco to arrive. I was already losing my voice by then, so I hardly spoke. When the latter two had already arrived and we started repeating the mind games we played the night before, I only uttered the ocassional word. Jenny was going crazy when she was trying uber hard for Tin to get the "close/open" thing, HAHAHAHA!

We all piled up in Carmie's car and off we headed for JP's house. We found Pong already there when we arrived. We mostly hung out in the living room, just sitting around.

Spent most of the time talking. Michelle got out her Tarot cards again and did her thing at the terrace. I was mostly with Miss Tess and a bunch of others as she talked about her (love?)life and other stuff. I sounded so funny while I was talking because my voice was almost totally gone.

We also got to view the video of the showcase that JP's friend had recorded. Hahaha, everytime I see myself on the screen, I would cringe. Ew, hahaha.

My golly, what time did the party end?

5:30 in the morning.

We were all saying goodbye in the living room as we started to part ways, but then suddenly Pong picked up the guitar and started playing "Moments to Live By." That did it. Waterworks galore as a hugfest ensued.

Once we were all out of the building, we didn't know what to do next. Ian suggested we all go out for breakfast, so we walked to Sinangag Express, which was a few blocks away. While we were inside, I shared a table with Julia and Carmie, and we were suddenly caught up in our discussion while the rest had their own.

After breakfast, we walked back to JP's building, because that's where Carmie and Merv had parked their cars. We spent quite a long time just standing there, thinking of what to do next.

To be honest, I was kinda annoyed at that time because everyone was so undecided. I didn't say so then, but what I really wanted was to get my ass headed for home, my bed, and a nice bath. But what held me back? THEM. I didn't want to leave them, because I wanted to spend as much time with the people as I can. Plus I have this thing about being exclusion. I don't want to be left out of things.

We ended up where? Bagtay. Julia's house. Hehehe. Once we arrived there, Ian wanted to drink again. But most of us wanted to crash, so we slept in the living room. Anyway, most of the time was spent sleeping and just bumming in the living room until after lunch.

At around past 2 in the afternoon, I left Julia's with Carmie, Mimay and Ian. Carmie dropped Ian off somewhere near Shang, then we were off to the south. Mimay, Carmie, Nicco and I had initially planned to hang out at Carmie's house, but then Nicco had to leave Julia's house earlier to join his family. While we were somewhere along South Superhighway, my mom was already texting me, so I had to cancel plans as well. I then asked to be dropped off at ATC so it would be easier to get home from there.

I had suddenly remembered that that day was also when a mall show for the Blend CD would take place. So by the time I stepped into the mall, I called Nikki to ask where she was. She gave lousy directions as to where she and Remus was, but I found them somewhere in the Activity Center anyway, hahaha.

I finally got to meet the Bystanders in person, ahahaha. What was so funny was when I was sitting with them and Nikki, and when we saw Paulo and Karl walk by somewhere, and I suddenly waved at them. They were sort of glad to see their "kuyas", but Jam made this quip that they were just waving back at me instead of them, hahahaha!

The groups that performed at the mall show were Kilyawan, the Bystanders, and the Akafellas. I spent the entire time sitting with Nix, and we were just talking and laughing as we watched the groups perform 3 songs each.

After the Fellas' set, I went with Nikki and Remus up to Food Choices to have dinner. Got to meet 3 of Remus' high school friends, who were as crazy as he was, hahahaha!

My golly, I can't believe a lot can possibly happen in a weekend.

Still gonna try and get used to the withdrawal. We'll see.

Anyway, I uploaded more photos in my Multiply. Check them out HERE.

By the way, I'm still brooding over something I regretted doing. Sorry to be cryptic, but I just hate it when I'm bothered by something, specially when I need to focus on a lot of stuff even now.

Got home about half an hour ago.

After work, the only plans I had was to watch The Da Vinci Code in Greenbelt 3 with Dave. While I waited for the time before I was to meet him, I decided to hang around and browse in Powerbooks Live. Once I arrived at the second floor, I heard someone call my name. It was Julia! Hahaha, there she was, sitting on the floor with Jonas. Hahaha, I was so thrilled to see her on the first Tuesday after our workshop days.

Anyway, after a little chat here and there, we went our own ways. I settled on one of the seats with another random book as Julia and Jonas left the store.

After a while, I went around the area, just walking around aimlessly, until I found myself in Music One. I suddenly got so amused with the Putomayo CD collection. Oh please oh please oh please, to those who love me, please buy me those CDs, hahaha.

Dave arrived then, so we went upstairs to get tickets. Rawr, the 8:20 screening was sold out, so we had no choice but the get the next one that's an hour later. So we killed the time by going to McDo to eat. Hahaha, I haven't eaten much fastfood before I joined the TP workshop, so I wolfed down my food within minutes. Then I suddenly wanted to go to Timezone, so off we went.

We had to pass by Greenbelt 2 to get there, and as we did, I heard someone call my name. It was Sundee, someone that I haven't seen in ages. As it turned out, there was a show there by Rep with his brother and some other Rep actors. When he asked what I've been up to and I said that I'm with Atlantis, he then asked, "So you're with Nicco?" Then I thought, Nicco??? What does that have to do with it? Then Nic suddenly appeared from their makeshift dressing area. Oh! Niccolo, no Nicco! Wahahahahahaha!

Yay, Timezone. Back to Dance Maniacs for me, hahaha, and even made Dave join for a second round before we went up to finally catch the movie.

Thanks for the movie, Dave, hahaha! Sponsored by Hari ng Duga, hahaha.

Once we had left the cinema after the show, I was surprised to see a familiar face somewhere behind us. It was Julia again! Hahaha, as it turned out, she was watching the same movie in the same cinema! Hehehe, great minds think alike, I guess we're kindred spirits. Or maybe it's just a sign for both of us that we need to get together soon and talk, hehehe. Yes, Miss Julia, we will soon!

Anyway, I gotta get some sleep now. Rawr, I still haven't caught up on my sleep.

It's funny how people miss each other so easily. Specially after being together almost all the time, then wham, a sudden change of routine.

I'm part grateful that I'm going to be a little busier starting this weekend to notice withdrawal syndrome. Sometimes I do believe that keeping myself busy helps a lot with letting go.

But one drawback is that I might get this tendency to brood once I hear that so-and-so all hung out together during times when I wasn't available. Once again, as I had mentioned last year, I hate feeling as if things went on without me. From simple stuff like chance encounters, spur-of-the-moment get togethers, stuff like that. And when I go back to them, suddenly things became different. That's when the brooding begins.

So even though I wasn't really up for watching a movie this evening (plus lack of funds on my part), I still went to meet up with Mimay, Tin, Carmie and Michelle at the SM Mall of Asia.

Man, that mall really was huge. When I got there, I decided to check out the area that I went into, and then I returned near the entrace for fear that if I went to far in, I might lose my way, hahaha. Then I decided to walk around near the entrance, and found myself following the sound of some music. That's when I finnaly found myself at the skating rink, where a figure skating competition was taking place. Then I met up with Mimay, Tin and Carmie at Figaro, and then we decided to walk around inside the mall again.

After checking out the screening times of the movie they preferred, we decided to look for a place to eat, preferably a place that served pasta. We then looked at a map for reference, but it was so confusing to figure out with all the people crowded around it, rawr.

We settled for Sbarro, and waited for Michelle to arrive. When she did, she practically brought her entire family with her, hahaha. Kidding. She was with her brother, her cousin, her dad and her uncle, I think.

They were finally off to watch X-MEn, so I said I had to go. I didn't want to stay out late, but I wanted to see all of them before I left.

Anyway.

I mentioned brooding again near the beginning of this post. I actually am brooding over something. Rawr...

During rehearsals today, the cast finally started rehearsing in their costumes. Hahaha, I actually thought that we had it easy with this play because there were only 4 characters. And only one person needed costume changes. But when we looked again, Bea and I were suddenly cured from rehearsal sleepiness when we had to help Nic with his costumes while we also took care of the set changes.

Met up with Julia after work and hung around in Starbucks and talked. I had mentioned something that was sort of bugging me last Sunday and because we were walking together, she wanted to know what it was. But being of a secretive nature, I didn't say right away. And because she was going back to Nueva Ecija soon, we decided to take advantage of the free evening. Jonas also joined us after a while, but being warned in advance that it was girl talk, he kept to himself but armed with the company of his cell phone.

Some people are getting sentimental as they experience all the withdrawal symptoms. I'm one of those guilty people. Enough. Time to sleep.

As much as possible, I hated showing that I'm mad, annoyed, pissed off and the like. But I almost did last night, and I guess it showed. Now I feel guilty. But more on that later.

Friday, I met up with Bei and Maje at SM Mall of Asia after work. Bei had just returned from a 2-week vacation in the US, and we thought of getting together to hang out. Plus there was a fashion show in that mall that Jed and Arumi were part of. When they found me at Starbucks, off we went to find the venue of the fashion show. When we were almost at the venue, I heard someone call me from one of the food places near there (Cafe Mediterranean?). Hahaha, it was Robi, with Essy (who I was just introduced to) and a bunch of their other friends. Apparently Essy's also part of the fashion show, so there was no surprise that she was even more made up than usual.

Anyway, the fashion show hasn't started yet, so we decided to get something to eat. Rawr, we couldn't find a good place to eat, and we couldn't bear to stand in line at Sbarro. So we ended up at good old Mickey D's. We spent quite some time there, and we ended up not going to the fashion show anymore. We hung out and talked and talked at Starbucks instead.

Hehehe, while we were there, and Bei was sort of fretting about not being able to see Nicco, I told her about his upcoming audition the following day, and suggested she drop by to wish him luck, because a bunch of our BA classmates were already planning to go there to support him as well. It took a while until she finally agreed (when Maje had volunteered to go too, hahaha). Plus it would be a good surprise for Nicco if she's there without his knowing.

Saturday, my only plans were just to go to CCP to support Nicco at his auditions as planned with the BA gang, then there the Merrily We Roll Along showcase at Onstage in the evening. I had expected that Mimay be one of the first people to go to CCP, but she was one of the first people who messaged me. Turned out she had a migraine, and will just meet us at Greenbelt afterwards. Oh well.

Bei and Maje once again found me alone at Starbucks, hahaha. Upon their arrival, I called Nicco to tell him to drop by before he goes off to his audition, and he kept asking why, even though I had said that I was alone. Hehehe, Bei had even told Nicco earlier that day that she was grocery shopping with her mom. Sure enough, when he arrived, surprise surprise, but he didn't show it. He was mighty quiet for practically the whole time he was there. I don't know whether it was because he was tired from shooting that Fanstastikids thing, or anxious because of the audition, or whatever. I didn't really want to press much because he suddenly said, "Wag kang makulit, Hogi." Oh well, as if we’ve been talking to each other much lately. He's hardly spoken to me since... whenever. Wahehehe, I have no idea.

When Nicco had left for the audition, Bei, Maje and I transferred outside, and then the BA friends started trickling in. First there was Julia, then Michelle, Fiancee, and Tin. We all just sat at one table and talked while we waited for Nicco to finish his audition. When he arrived, he told us a bit of what happened inside. Coolness, Miss Tess was there at the auditions, hehehe.

We finally left for Makati via the LRT-MRT way, and by the time we got to Greenbelt (with a brief stopover at Glorietta to pick up Mimay at Burger King), we were kinda out of it. Quickly bought tickets and fell in line. Santa banana, the line was uber long that we almost reached the stairs that led to the parking area. Hahaha, I even found some familiar faces along the way as we walked to the end of the line. There was Jay (with his boss), Dan, Jepoy (with Blue Rep friends), and Karl and Tycel. Carmela (with a new haircut) managed to catch up with us when we were about to enter the lobby.

Found seats at the last row of the loge area. Jonna joined us as well when she arrived about 10 minutes before the show was about to start.

So OK, on with the show. It was good, but I guess I expected too much. Maybe it was because I had put the musical on a high pedestal because it was one of my favorites, plus I had enjoyed Blue Rep's production of it. I loved the simplicity of their set, with just the use of pedestals and apple boxes with Monobloc chairs and even a frame of a piano. Congrats to Harold! Jonna wasn't the only one who was proud of you, hahaha. And Congrats to Joy as well! Sorry I didn't get to say hi to you. The place was just too crowded for me to bear. Teena! Congrats to you too! Hahahaha, you had another shining moment at Onstage as an ASM.

OK, let's go back to that very first paragraph in this entry.

After the show, everyone had been so undecided that it kept wasting our time. Heck, I can be undecided, but I don't like wasting other people's time. I'm sorry if any of you guys are reading this right now. I guess it was just late, I'm tired and I'm expecting a pretty long week apart from all of you. You guys were all just sitting or standing around by the gutter, and it was taking a long time to decide on anything. I guess that’s why I decided to just walk and get out of there before you all finally decided on a destination.

Anyway. Coming up are random ramblings.

It's easy for people to say some things just because they don’t have to go through those things. Can’t you guys consider other people's situations from time to time?

"As much as I want to do everything, you can’t always prove the phrase Kung gusto mo, maraming paraan. Kung ayaw mo, maraming dahilan" true. Well, it can be true at times, but you can't force people into it all the time.

To quote from Doubt, "The most innocent actions can appear sinister to the poisoned mind." Wahahahaha...

I remember while Julia and I got together one late afternoon and told her about how I brood when I feel left out. I’m actually in that brooding stage right now, hahaha. Whatever.

So yeah, this week is the perfect week to let go, detach and brood, all at the same time.

A lot of things are running around in my mind, as usual. Add the fact that I'm becoming overwhelmed with the surge of various emotions that I'm feeling, I'm beginning to believe that I'm going crazy.

I've been pretty thankful that the weekend had passed, because I don't have to think about how to deal with withdrawal and the like. But what I'm afraid of is that everything would suddenly just sink in.

I guess that was why I was so out of it this afternoon until evening. Man, I was lousy. What in the world is happening to me?

Oh well.

In other news, Congratulations, Nicco! You made it, baby bro! Tanghalang Pilipino has opened its doors for you! I've always believed in you, and watched you grow as an actor these past couple of years, and now you're finally there! You deserved every bit of it. *hugz*



Man, don't you look gay in this pic, hahaha.

I gotta get some shut-eye. G'night for now.