His best friend's wedding

Mac and Sheryl got married last Saturday! I never did see the invitation to the wedding, but Best Man H said that it was at 4:00pm. So there I was at 4:00pm--I missed all the readings (thankfully, I wasn't up til Prayers of the Faithful) because apparently it started at 3:30! Argh. It was a mildly stressful afternoon with the dude at the salon taking his sweet time blowdrying my hair. The last dude took all of 15 minutes. I thought I was gonna be at that salon for 20 minutes tops. But no, this dude took FORTY bloody minutes to DRY MY HAIR! Some people have no sense of urgency, I swear.

At the reception, we feasted on Albergus's roast beef before H gave his short-but-sweet toast. And for some reason, the groom announced when the Best Man was getting married! And I just had to be surrounded by all his friends when this happened. I didn't hear the end of it all night. (Kilig naman ako. Hahaha.)

Afterwards, we headed to Dencio's in Capitol Hills in our wedding finery (nice view, by the way). Spent the better part of the evening trying to keep my eyes open. I'm fast earning a reputation for being antukin (ask people at the office...put me in a car going to a shoot and I can snooze. Even if the location's a mere 10 minutes away)! I've been needing my eight hours every night, and I don't think I could go back to my sleepless nights in college. I don't like it. I feel like I'm losing precious hours by staying in bed, so I've resolved to try to stay up a little later and/or get up a little earlier. Let's see how that goes. Last night I got about six hours...but then I have a Cavite shoot today so I have a long nap ahead of me.

Makeup c/o of Marie! Bong-bong Marcos, ikaw ba 'yan?

Fly my pretties! Releasing the butterflies

Our token awww pic

"Table 10" (three tables in one! Gutom na kami eh...)

When fear gets in the way

It's not complicated--it's simple. It's just not easy.

I just have to do it.

Highlights from the past few days

• Went salsa dancing! It ended up being a managing-eds'-night-out, me going out with Tata and Zo. Had dinner with Chingy beforehand and ended up dragging her along--I owe her one; she sorta took a bullet for me. (I have a thing about dancing with strangers...all the guy friends I asked had one reply: "Are you serious?" Luckily, Triska was there to serve as my partner!)
  
• Got to see my kumare and my godson after nearly a year and a half. It's weird that Kyle's running around now! Last I saw him, he was barely walking. Twas also great catching up with Q, and the rest of old marketing. I imss that group. Ahh, the good ol' days.
• Discovered that it's possible to get full just by eating (er, drinking? Slurping?) soup. Did soups in cooking class and I now know how to whip up a mean French Onion Soup and Cream of Tomato Soup (and a bunch of others, but these are the ones I really paid attention to. A little hard to do considering I had about three hours' sleep). Also, had my first kitchen accident--and of all injuries I could possibly get, it had to be a ridiculous paper cut from my handouts. And it was actually bleeding.
• Watched Pride and Prejudice on DVD. Really liked it. Kilig without the cheesiness. I was in my bro's old room, on a bed propped up with two cushy pillows, and with chips and dip by my side. Am just discovering what a joy it is to stay home and watch movies that I missed. H and I are envisioning our future couch potato days together.
  
• Watched a fashion show showcasing some of Mads's stuff. Coolneth!

Lowlights

• Found out we're not going to Bora for work.:( That's pretty much what's got us all down at this moment. Sigh.
  

Quotable quote

"Sa dami ng timbre ko, wala na ngang 'dong' eh--puro 'ding ding ding ding' na lang!"

Hahahahaha. Panalo ka, Jill.

...and more job perks

I just got my first-ever authentic art piece, and I am effin' thrilled!

Up until the recent past, I've never really been one to have an interest in collecting art. My knowledge and appreciation of it was virtually limited to comments like, "Ooh how pur-ty. Me likey!" But for work last week, I had to coordinate and attend all these gallery shoots for an upcoming feature, and while some pieces made me scratch my head, others made me pause, made me feel, made me want. I thought I was the worst possible person to be assigned to handle this feature, but right before the shoots began, I resolved to make it an education of sorts. (Or, more appropriately, a crash course.) I got to meet a bunch of artistes--very interesting, but I don't see myself becoming a member of their little world any time soon. I'm just oozing with normalcy!

After shooting at this one gallery, the owner texted me asking for my full name, saying they had a small sculpture for me as a thank you for including them in the feature. I was drooling because this was the same dude who made "The Dancers," this kaching-thousand-peso sculpture that I fell in like with. Then reality came in the form of art whore (and I mean that in the best possible way) Gino, who actually wrote the article and chose the gallery. I told the owner that the statue should rightfully go to Gino, who, in all fairness, offered joint custody. Haha. A few days later, the owner texted again saying he prepared a sculpture for me too.

Can you say, "Woohoo!"?

And here it is now, lovingly wrapped, and sitting on my desk. (But no way am I leaving it here! Magazine nga lang nawawala na eh.) It's called "Oracle," a heavy mixed media piece by SEB, something I will forever treasure. It even comes with a certificate of authenticity. I'm sure it'll find its way into H's and my future home, way before we could even afford to buy a sofa.

The only thing I'm afraid of now is that I'm beginning to like the idea of collecting art. Pricey, ain't it? Should've stuck to snowglobes.

...And now, back to one of my job pitfalls--actual work! Got 30 minutes to spew an article, so here goes...

Job perks

One of the great things about my job is that I don't have to spend day after day in front of the computer (ironically though, my eyesight has gotten worse since I started this job). Last Tuesday, for example, I had an excuse to go to Divisoria for work! Had to shop for props/materials for Friday's major shoot (another one of my harebrained ideas). The past few times I was there, I think I got the sanitized version of the Divi experience--my tita's idea of Divi shopping is going to 168. Last year, though, I convinced her and my mom to take me to Tabora so that I could buy my gift wrappers and ribbons. Since wrapping gifts is my joy in life (well, right up there with eating and dancing), I was super excited to step into stalls selling nothing but wrappers and trimmings, without the hefty mall price tag!

This time around, Is and I were on our own. Is is more of an experienced Divi shopper, knowing what each street sells ("This one is for fabric, this is for gifts, this is for kitchenware..."), but still whispering, "What's singkwenta?" And the winner of the Conio War is...

We waited for Jill along Kitchenware Row, where some dudes not-so-discreetly took our photo with their camera phone. (Hello? You think I don't see you standing in front of me? That I don't hear the tell-tale click?) When Jill arrived, we met up at Fabric Row where she inquired about some masks, which she needed for her setup. Jill told the manong that we would look around first. We headed inside, where she found some really pretty ones at this stall selling costumes: angel wings, fairy wings, headdresses--a drag queen's dream! Back outside, the manong saw what she had purchased and said, "Ay, nakabili na siya," then wistfully added, "So sad." Hahaha.

I was able to buy me the feathers that I needed (a steal, I'm told, at P25 per yard), and some things I didn't need (not for me though!). It's a good thing Is couldn't find Costume Jewelry Row or I would've spent all the moolah in my pocket.

I imagined what it would be like to be there with the 5 Takes hopefuls. That would be a blast! They're the type who would totally relish the experience (or at least pretend to). All the tinderos/tinderas would probably stop and stare at the blondita Aussies though, and there would be no such thing as tawad for us!

Which reminds me--I still haven't finished blogging about the Singapore trip, and things are getting a bit hazy. Another thing on my endless list of to-dos.

What yesterday smells like

Tried this new perfume I was curious about. At the start it just smelled like this other perfume I used to use, but after some time it smelled of...memories. Of nights alone under starry skies, of running around the Big Field one afternoon with my friends, of my first Midnight Madness (10 years ago!), of Shakespeare on summer evenings, of schoolgirl crushes and adolescent giddiness, of dreams and plans and hopes.

So it's true what they say about smells--they do have the power to take you back. BFF Ching sniffed my wrist. "It reminds me of high school!" she said. Ahh, nostalgia in a bottle. One of these days you'll catch a whiff of me smelling of something vaguely familiar. You probly won't recognize what it is or who's worn it before (for the life of me, I can't seem to pinpoint it), but it'll make you remember.

This morning, I saw this girl standing outside the mall. OK, so I didn't just "see," I actually looked. This happens every now and then when I see a beautiful girl, and it's not because of any lesbian tendencies (down, boys). When I see girls like these, I often wonder what it's like to be them. What's it like to be a headturner? To have people stare at you wherever go? To have girls hate you for the simple fact that you're hot?

~*~*~*~

I'm still not over it. Maybe that's why I haven't been in the mood to post anything lately. It's not because we lost to this particular school. It's because we lost, period (in spite of Kramer's and Intal's great season, and Escalona's spectacular last game. In spite of the fact that I cheered and yelled and swore like I was back in school--er, sans the exposed stomach or tiny skirt. In spite of the fact that we had Cheska Garcia on our side. Haha). Man, UST's fairy-tale season was just too damn perfect.

I could hear people going, "It's just a game." But I guess some people will just never get it. I became a cheerdancer for the love of dance, but along the way, I fell in love with basketball (which led to my getting interested in the NBA, and rediscovering PBA), and fell even more deeply in love with my school. I consider myself lucky to have been able to feel that kind of school spirit--watching a game a few weeks ago, a friend (who went to a small school not part of the UAAP or NCAA roster) remarked, "I feel like I missed out on something." I just smiled politely, but inside I believed that she did.

"Win or lose..." right? But it sure would've been great if we had won.

Tangina

When will my personal busy season end?

Soon, I think. The concert's over (boo), I'm done with one of my more demanding rackets (yay!), and my gym membership has expired. But that's all been replaced by: regular dance classes for conditioning (a brilliant idea by the CADs alumni), bikram yoga (which I'll be trying with True Friend, maybe next week), a bit of boxing (at least before I enrol in the gym again), and an even more demanding racket...well, OK, maybe it's not that demanding, but I'm anticipating that the "client" will be. Then there's my cooking class. And that baby shower I've been planning. And, oh yeah, work.

Hmm, so much for soon.

Typhoon Thursday found me at my bro's house early in the morning for a shoot. Headed back to the office just when things were getting bad, and only later realized that I put all our lives in danger! Yikes. Then I was stuck in the office with no airconditioning and no computers--although I did have stacks of magazines to keep me entertained. On the way home, saw uprooted trees, toppled parking booths, and heavily damaged signs. And in our garden lay yero that came flying in from other houses. Spent the rest of the day wasting the laptop batt and reading a book that I've been avoiding (fine, Miguel, it's not that bad. But again I say it needs a bit of estrogen. Haha).

Saturday had me learning cooking methods in my cooking class (ah, yes, I've started. Haven't been able to blog about that...). Then had to go to the hospital, and this time the doctors were very attentive. Could it be because I cleaned myself up a bit? (Last time I was there, I looked like crap, and also got somewhat crappy attention.) From there, I was off to NSG, and on the way, a friend texted that he was able to get me a ticket to the game. Damnit. I was almost in Makati so decided to just give the ticket up. Met up with some of Hamil's friends--well, yeah, they're my friends too now--to watch that blasted game. Kinda glad I didn't watch live. That was painful. What was up with the shooting? Was so down that I ended up going to Cold Rock by myself to get some ice cream. (Excuses, excuses.) I'm over it. But ask me again at the end of the day.

Then went over to Dindi and Jan's for a slumber party! It was supposed to be in honor of Wowee, her despedida, but she didn't show up! We didn't have much to do, so H played knight in shining armor; he picked us up and drove us to Metrowalk for the Rockmoto event. (As if he needed more pogi points! Hehe. I swear, he's the best.) Thankfully, True Friend had some friends in the Moto tent, so we were safe from the chaotic mosh pit (no place for a lady--people were getting hurt down there). For the first time, I got to see a friend perform live as part of a popular band. It was a little weird, same way it's weird when my other friends tell me they think he's "cute" or "sexy." It's one of the those things you don't get about people you've known since before they were famous I guess. (I wonder if Brad Pitt's childhood friends find it weird that he's the "most beautiful person in the world.") Anyway, we got free drinks, ordered a Peach Melba at Icebergs, and headed back to the condo. Dinds, Mona, and I ended up talking for two hours in the dark (Jan was just knocked out). So great catching up with them. Unfortunately, none of us had a camera.

A few hours later, Mona and I had some pasta and lots of bread at Dindi's then went to mass before heading to Shang. Had some fruit shakes at Cibo...then a chocolate lava cake at Goodies N' Sweets. Aaaaaahhh. Evil evil cake.

Then I met up with H to watch Step Up. Loved it! And no, it wasn't just because of manly man Channing Tatum. Haha. It's one of the better dance movies because it didn't take itself too seriously (like Save the Last Dance--didn't really like that one), and there's a mix of dances (You Got Served was all hiphop--and yes, I'm street, but I do like seeing some ballet and jazz moves up there). The final dance in Centerstage had a greater effect on me, but over all I liked Step Up more! It's the kind of movie I'd watch over and over again on HBO. Haha. I got kilig watching the two leads. Hahaha.

Sooo that's what's been going on. I wonder when I'll find time to squeeze in a beach trip?