My computer's back! Hahaha, it's been living in Ate Maui's condo for quite some time while I was happily content with the laptop. But since summer ended, the laptop conked out and I've been too lazy to do anything about it. So I had to resort to the good ol' internet cafe that was just a couple of blocks away from my house. Their rates are cheap, the owner's pretty nice, and there's a lot of coffee to go around.

Anyway, so here I am, reunited with my trusty computer. I spent the first hour checking everything out then uploaded all the cluttered photos from my phone, hahaha.

Well, not much has been happening lately.

Though a couple of Saturdays ago, Tin, Betty, Peachy and I had planned to watch Godot, Wer Is U?. We've been planning this since before the 2nd run opened, and we kept postponing it due to certain schedule changes. But before that evening, I met up with Betty to this audition in Ateneo for Jescom. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision for me the day before, so I went with her. Jonna was also at the audition. After the entire thing (which only took a few minutes), Betty and I took a cab to CCP, where we found not only Tin and Peachy, but Nicco as well, at the LT lobby. I found out earlier that afternoon that Nicco had really planned to watch Godot that day. If he hadn't texted me to say hi, I wouldn't have known. But let me ask you something. Did you really just drop a line out of free will, or just because you were told to do so? Just a thought.

After the show, we had a photo op with the cast, thanks to Peachy's trusty camera with the signature "bling-blings", hahaha.


Crazy Milenyo. Even with the typhoon, I was still ever so persistent about going to work last Thursday. What a waste of fare. Ate Sally and I didn't even stay for an hour, and I got stuck in traffic for 3 hours. I was starving by the time I got home. And I got crazier because of the power outrage.

Despite the blackout, which led to my phone ending up being a paperweight all weekend, I felt calmly muted. I forgot what it was like before text messaging. I resorted to using the landline, though I only talked to just a couple of people. I spent most of my time reading, which I haven't done much of in ages.

Saturday was Dad's birthday. Ate Maui was supposed to come and visit us, but she called early that morning to say that she wasn't feeling well and will be late. So that's when my parents decided that we go visit her instead. We had food prepared, so we brought them with us to her condo in Greenhills. But somewhere along Edsa, our car began to overheat, rawr. So Dad and the driver ended up taking the car to the nearest gas station and eventually bring it home, and Mom and I were the only ones who went to Ate Maui's. Had lunch there, talked, and then Ate Maui insisted that she drive us back all the way back home. Her reason was that it was totally boring in her condo, plus she wanted to return the PC.

When we arrived at home, Tita Tess and my cousin David were there. Dave was at the piano, just tickling the ivories. I just found out that he's studying at UST's Music Conservatory, majoring in Choral Conducting and minoring in Piano (did I get that right?). Glad to know that I have relatives that are more inclined to the arts than sciences, hahaha. He talked about his trip to Europe with the Ateneo Choral Glee Club, and every once in a while, my mom and Tita Beng would bug him to play another song on the piano.

Our electricity was back on Saturday evening. Yay! Hahaha. It was nice to see the lights back on in the evenings again. Back to modern technology.

I'm getting hungry. Time for a snack.

I had met up with Mimay on Monday of last week because she was asking for help with her thesis. When we talked it out, her plot reminded me of The Coffee Shop Within The Play and Noises Off. I mentioned this to her, including the fact that a bunch of friends had performed a Filipino version of the former. Mimay asked if she could borrow the script, so I contacted Bei about it.

We had planned to meet last Thursday, but because of the typhoon, we rescheduled it to today. I had also planned to meet with Nikki then so she can get her ticket to the Akafellas concert.

Mimay, Nikki and I met up at Burger King as soon as I got off work, then we walked to Food Choices. Hahaha, on our way up the escalator, we ran into not only Bei, but Arumi and Aris as well. Anyway, up to Food Choices we went. Yay, food! Hahaha. I've been waiting for this for quite some time, hehe.

After a while, Mimay even got Leo to join us, but then he left after he ate. Misch managed to catch up, yay, then Mak. Leo returned with Ayn then, then Jed even dropped by. Oh my, people came and went so fast.

Of course, with all the talking and laughing and joking around, we were still the camwhores that we are...


Reunited!
Hahaha, Misch, Nikki, Mimay and I are together again!



With Bei.
Ang magkaibigang galit in their past lives.


And this is my favorite, all due to Mimay's quip...


"Ang mga babae ni Nicco."
HAHAHAHAHAHA!


That last photo cracked us all up. Nicco, are you still reading this blog? Wahehehe.

To sum the whole evening up, I had a blast. Since a couple of months ago, the simple pleasures of seeing friends are my prime highlights of any day. It always makes my day, specially if they are friends that I haven't seen in a while.

Blogging early in the morning. I haven't done this in ages. I'm just actually testing if I can finally cross-post this entry in Multiply. If I can, this is gonna be my first post in my Multiply blog, yay. If not, well, I'll try again later.

I still feel uber-guilty about going to the Akafellas concert last SSaturday instead of going to Aris' birthday party. Rawr. Darn that Typoon Milenyo. If it weren't for that, plans wouldn't have been mixed up, and I would've seen my high school clique again.

Anyway, I met up with Nikki in Makati that evening. While she was still on the way via the MRT, I decided to go to SM and wait for her at Toy Kingdom. I found this guy playing the plug and play tick-tac-toe game with his girlfriend, and I was dying to try it, but they were hogging the entire game. So I went to the other Toy Kingdom which was right across it, and found the PS2 games. There was this game that was a lot like Guitar Freaks in Timezone, so I gave it a shot. Hahaha, I was a little dressed up, and there I was carrying this toy guitar, so I was feeling a little self-conscious when a bunch of guys came over to watch. Arg...

The concert was pretty great. There was a whole bunch of new songs that I've heard right then and there, and I loved their Boyz II Men medley. And they even have this girl group medley, with all of them donning different colored feather boas, hahaha! Gladys Guevarra was such a hilarious guest. She kept hitting on Karl!

Yesterday, I went to Podium to meet with Tito Sunny, Tita Sherbet and Jill, who were going to Nyoy's album launch. Hehehe, when they got there, we kept going around the mall, just window shopping, hardly going to the gig. Been there, been that. Honestly, I got tired of the whole gig thing. We dropped by the show briefly, said hello to familiar faces, then went to Yaku for dinner. Jerald finally managed to catch up after his audition, but I think he got kinda intimidated with the Ilacads, so we sat at the booth next to theirs. Hung around a little longer after they left, then we went to Metrowalk and just chilled out at Starbucks before we finally left.

OK, I'll cut this now because I'm off to the office. Ciao for now.

Arg... I wrote a long post elaborating on what I posted earlier this morning. One wrong press of a button... and the whole thing was GONE!

Rawr...

Anyway.

Darn it, I totally got thrown off guard by what you said last night. I didn't know how to respond to it, so I just kept quiet. I'm pretty content with how things are going right now, and I'm just not ready for anything else yet.

I miss talking to certain people. Again. I make an effort to drop a line, anything. Some do appreciate what I'm doing, some simply acknowledge it, and some don't even notice. Oh well.

Ups and downs are here again.

This world is still so full of crazies. I wonder when you guys will get over that phase.

I mean, honestly. It's normal to be protective, but with some people, it's almost like paranoia or just plain, downright crazy. Sorry to be mean, but that's how you people come out.

And I had thought you'd shed some light on this. Well, it was close to nothing, much you made it such a big deal, yet you never helped.

Totally petty. So ridiculous. Que annoying.

Oh well.

Anyway.

Check out it. I heard from Mikki yesterday that Zobel will be holding auditions for a school production of Once on This Island. And it's gonna be under Rep, coolness. Too bad I can't make it.

Why am I getting affected with this one particular thing? Oh yeah, there's that. Thanks for reminding me, Betty.

My mind's still a flurry of thoughts. Arg...

Most people would say that they're on this "emotional roller coaster," because they have their ups and downs, and whatever.

I don't really see a roller coaster in sight. I believe what I have is the "emotional wheel of fortune." Spin the wheel, and that's my mood. Funny as it may sound, that's what I feel like. Crazy.

Today at the office, Ate Sally and I ended up answering this quiz she got in her email. Hahaha, we kept racking our brains the whole day. Hahaha.

Betty, Mimay, Peachy and I were planning to visit Tin in the hospital because she has dengue fever late this afternoon after I get off work. Then we found out that she'll be getting out of the hospital then and didn't want anyone to come visit her at home, so we cancelled our plans.

So instead, Mimay and I met up at SM Mall of Asia. After meeting her mom, brother and sister-in-law, we went around the mall, then settled down at Starbucks. Talked the evening away, a little update here, angst there, all that stuff. Hahaha, of course, she just couldn't resist opening up the topic of Jerald. Ano baaaaa... So there, Mimay, now you know the story, hahaha.

I want to write about something else. But maybe I'll save that for tomorrow. We'll see. I don't know whether to rant about this certain thing that irked me. But I guess you guys are tired of my rants.

First of all, do I have to put a disclaimer in this blog saying that everything I put here is my opinion, my points of view, my personal preferences and whatnot?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this or putting down this entry because I'm mad or annoyed or whatever. I just want to let this out and make things clear.

One of my closest friends had just recently checked out my blog and noticed something I had put down that might upset a significant other. Said friend had asked to change it because of what the significant other might think. He had even messaged me out of the blue just to say so. But this is my blog. I put that down because the group involved thought it was funny. And I enjoy capturing those funny moments in my blog. It was all in good fun. If I had put this in our shared blog, it would've been different and I would edited it at his request, no problem.

The funny thing in all this was that he had never made his presence felt to a whole bunch of us that some of them were a little tampo with him. And now he made his presence felt... but just to say that?

My dearest baby bro, I don't put anything here to intentionally hurt anyone. You know me well enough already as to what I think and what to put down here. This is just my outlet for things I enjoy and keep and share and whatever. Plus you haven't been around much lately so we never get the chance to talk anymore. You once apologized for that particular behavior when you come across new friends. I understand that. But not even a hello to any of us? It only takes a few seconds to type a "hi" in your phone. If I were a different person, I would think that you'd be completely ignoring us just to be with new people. Oh well. Forget about it. Peace na tayo. Love you, bro.

Just got home.

And I just re-read my last entry. My golly, was I that mad when I woke up this morning?

Anyway.

Met up with Betty at SM Centerpoint this afternoon so we could watch The Necklace together. Jerald had put us on the guest list, so off we went. After a quick bite, we went up to the cinemas. Oh my, to our surprise, there was this uber-long line at the cinema where the show would be. Most of the audience was composed to students, oh my Lord, so there would be a whole lot of noise.

By the time the previous show had ended and its audience filed out, Betty and I immediately slipped in. Ahehehe, we were told by one of the women out front that we had to sign in somewhere as guests. But we didn't find the spot where we had to sign in, so we quickly took our seats at the third row.

I honestly have to admit that I didn't really know the story of The Necklace, but it was pretty entertaining. The first thing I noticed was the set. It looked like something from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, hahaha. Everything was 2-dimensional and exaggerated, specially the props. Then the show finally started. Oh man, the speakers were lousy. Most of the ensemble numbers could be understood because they sounded muffled. But it was still a delight. Johnson was quite the audience's heartthrob, ahehehe. Melissa's singing and the way she moved her head reminded me of Lea Salonga. I believe she was in the German production of Miss Saigon before (wala lang, trivia lang, hehe). Though her movements were always jerky, it kinda annoyed me. I haven't seen Juliene perform since 2003, and was glad to see him onstage. I loved Kalila's character (and her costume designs, hehe), but her accent keeps changing. And of course, Ate Naomi, hahaha. I just had to describe her as cute when her character gave money to Matilde.

After the show, Betty, Jerald and I had dinner at Shakey's then Betty had to go home. Je and I, on the other hand, ended up at Dematisse in Malate. The place wasn't as comfy as Penguin, but since that place was closed, this one will have to do. It has couches on the first floor, and low tables with pillows on the second. Just hung around and talked while we watched TV on the first floor, then moved upstairs to the second floor when it opened and stayed there until I had to go home.

All in all, I guess it was a good day despite the drama. I'm not used to that. Peace, bro. And thank you, dear.

Things were going crazy since I started spinning that emotional wheel of fortune. Then I felt a bit of contentment when this week had started, and then another thing comes up.

Funny how the words "what if" can open up a whole big thing.

Oh yeah, because Mimay brought it up, I guess I might as well do so, hahaha. I came across Irene's LiveJournal last night and found this...



Uhm, yeah, that's me. Maria Milagros Barbarosa. Sheena and Irene had entered the film in Cinemanila's short feature category. Yayks. People are gonna see me make a fool of myself. Good luck, ladies!

Yesterday was Day 1 for Lea's Tomorrow: A Concert for the Future. It's been ages since I last saw Lea live in a concert. My golly, that was about 4 years ago for her Broadway concert. Liza got us all good seats for that one, thank you!

It seemed that everyone was all excited to see "the Lea Salonga" perform again after giving birth to her baby daughter. Oddly enough, there wasn't enough excitement in my bones. OK, so you can kick me now. I guess I've just been kinda preoccupied with a lot of things that I wanted to get this week over with.

So I met up with Tin and Peachy in Taft as soon as I got out of the office. Found them at Red Ribbon and we stayed a little longer until Jhack arrived with our tickets. Then we took off for CCP. There were already a lot of people milling about in the lobby, and we checked out the table where the Sony BMG people were selling CDs. Nothing much to do, so we spent most of the time just wandering about, until we settled ourselves on the 3rd floor and sat around on the stairs. Igh, there was even this couple nearby that gave quite a huge show of PDI. Jeez, get a room, people.

Anyway, the concert. I love the set design. Pretty flys, very apt for kids. And I've forgotten how deep the stage can go, hahaha. Ass for the repertoire, nothing too extraordinary, but it was pretty good. The Madz were spectacular. Of course, the song "Tomorrow" wasn't left out. Hahaha, duh. The entire concert seemed... kinda short. Or maybe it just felt that way.

President GMA came to watch the show. Right after we had exited the theater, we had opted to take the stairs because the escalators were too crowded. Then one of the ushers said that the stairs were closed. Rawr, so we had to squeeze ourselves in with the rest of the crowd on the escalators that was meant for people to ride on one at a time. I hate crowds, most of you know that, and by the time we had merged with the people, I wanted to run over them just to get some air. Peach, Tin and Jhack, on the other hand, just wanted to find Lea to get their pictures taken with her. So anyway, as it turned out, the stairs were closed because that was where GMA would be passing along with the people from the concert. Jeez. Grand exits are so annoying.

We went backstage along with Tin S and Mimay S and found the AFLS group. Everyone was crowded around Lea, asking for her signature, having photos taken with her. Of course, Peachy, Tin and Jhack squeezed in while I sat on one of the few chairs I found. I was kinda sleepy and hungry by then, so I wasn't in the mood to mix with the crowd. Everyone was fussing over Lea, so I took the opportubity to nab Calvin so Peach and I can have a photo with him, hahaha.

Ahehehe, my companions were prodding me to get Lea to have pictures taken with them, but I couldn't seem to get close enough, and by the time I was about to tap her shoulder, she had to go. Nyak. But of course, knowing Peachy, she'd persist. That girl won't leave unless she gets what she wants. The AFLS people were still hanging around as well. Then suddenly Lea emerges from her dressing room after changing out of her dress. There we go again, the ones who hadn't had their picture taken surged forward. I suddenly felt Peachy's camera in my hand, and found myself face to face with Lea, who turned to me with a surprised look and said hi. That was my cue, and finally got to ask her to have a photo taken with the company I'm with. Peach jumped to her side, and Tin on the other. Then I suddenly found them multiplying. Everyone wanted to be in the photo, hahaha! Ay, que funny. So I after the photo, I asked to me next. I think I even uttered an apology because we were delaying her. Anyway, yay, thanks for the camera, Peach! Soon after, Lea really had to leave (I love your bag, by the way), so goodbye. After a photo with the AFLS people, we finally trooped downstairs.

Late dinner at Pancake House with Mimay, Tin, Edcel, Carmel, Betsy and Jeff. Everyone was talking about the concert. The songs, where they've heard this and that, all that schtuff. They practically had everything memorized. What caught my attention in the entire conversation was about how close they want to be with Lea. Mimay then said that I had known her personally because I've worked with her. But hey, that was it. I used to adore her as a fan, yeah, but I'm done with that. Now I just admire her as an artist. I think it was Jeff who had mentioned that he was perfectly content with where he is now, so as not to take away all the magic.

Hahaha, now I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when he said that. Getting too close really takes away all that magic. A bunch of us had tried to get too close to someone. It can get crazy. I don't want that anymore.

Oh yeah, in other news, I found out from Sheena and Irene that Maria Milagros Barbarosa is one of the 5 finalists in the student film category of the Catholic Mass Media Awards. Oh my oh my.

In my previous post, I had mentioned getting close to a person of a certain status.

Let's just say that I heard quite interesting news a couple of days ago. A circulating rumor that was confirmed. I've known this from the beginning, and I sort of wish I didn't. So now it seems that one of the parties was pissed because of what happened. I was disappointed in the other party. I can't believe someone would stoop so low to do that.

Then I remember what AJ had said. "Good publicity or bad publicity... It's still publicity."

Oh well.

What a surprise. Because today was a holiday, I didn't really have any plans in particular yesterday after work. As it turned out, Jerald was in the area then because he and Lao went to this VTR, so we met up and hung around Glorietta during the evening until he had to go to QC for a friend's birthday party.

Then back to a boring day today. Noonienoo.

First, I just want to share what I found while re-reading Robert Fulghum's It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It earlier. The author was quoting Horace.

"Quid rides? Mutato nomine, de te fabuls narratur."

Translated, it reads: "Why do you laugh? Change the name, and the story is told of you."

I like that.

=========================

Early Saturday morning, my mom and I had left for Zambales along with her sister, Tita Sitang and my cousin Nemnem. We were to visit my maternal grandparents graves, clean the place up a bit, and beat the November 1st crowd. Plus it was my very first time to visit the place where my mom grew up.

I haven't seen Nemnem in ages, so when we were at the bus terminal, we were chatting up a storm, even though she hadn't had any sleep yet.

Man oh man, the last time I sat so long inside a vehicle was 4 years ago, and every couple of hours, I'd always have to flex my legs because my left knee always hurts if I sit too long.

By the time we got to Tita Medy and Tito Nick's place, I was starving, hahaha. And I finally got to see our cousin Jing again. My goodness, she was just this little kid with a bowl cut years ago when she had first visited us in Manila, and now she's a teenager with this long curly hair.

Anyway, after a really late lunch, we went to visit the cemetery to my granparents' graves, swept up the place, then we went to the market so Mom and Tita Sitang can shop for food for dinner. Then back to Tita Medy's house, sat and watched TV, talked, and basically just hung around. Hahaha, then during dinner Tito Nick challenged me with all these crazy questions. He thought he could outsmart me, but those were all old jokes, ahahaha.

The following day, technically yesterday, my mom woke me up early so we could hear Mass with Tita Medy. Went to St. Michael's Parish in town, then after the Mass, my mom introduced me to a couple of her high school friends. Mom and I even had breakfast at Tita Mila's, who was also one of her close friends in high school. Man, those two were hilarious. They hadn't seen each other since they graduated high school, and I could finally see my mom's crazy side. While we were all seated at the breakfast table, she did admit that she didn't show much of that at home except when she's feeling really wacky.

What was frustrating during the entire visit was that everyone was mostly talking in their native dialect. I couldn't understand a word, unlike when my aunts from my dad's side speak Cuyuonin.

Anyway, after fixing our stuff back at Tita Medy's house, it was back to the cemetery. Cleaned the place up more, and one of the workers even came by and re-painted the writing on the headstones. AFter an hour, Mom and I had to go back to Tita Medy's and fly to the bus terminal to catch the 10am bus. Ahehehe, Mom kept saying that we'll be leaving at 10 in the morning so I made plans to catch AC's showcase that night in CCP. But alas, when we got to the terminal, the bus had just left, so we had to wait by a waiting shed for the next one that was to leave an hour later, rawr. But we even got to chat for a few moments with another one of Mom's old high school friends, Tita Gloria. Hehe, we were standing outside her house when the bus had pulled up.

Mom and I reached the terminal near UST with lotsa time to spare. Hailed a cab and she let me get off at CCP so she can head straight home. Met up with Tin at the LT lobby then we hung around outside the Conference Room until open house.

First play was The Maids, which featured Tad, Joel and Nicco. Ahahaha, they were great. And they were all donned in ladies' clothes. Oh my, Nicco, why oh why did you have to look so pretty? HAHAHAHA! Those girls, er, guys, rock!

Next up was Besame Muchos. There was Wenah, Marj, Chromewell and Randy. Hahaha, everytime Randy would rise up from behind that upright piano, everyone would chuckle and laugh. He looked so freaky that first time he rose. And oh my, there was a shirtless Chromewell in one scene.

Too sleepy to critique the two plays. Maybe tomorrow, er, later when I get back home from work. I gotta get some sleep.