The ugliness was worth it

The Christmas party at this office is quite unlike my old Christmas parties. While the typical corporate celebration would have a quiet dinner, some raffles and games, and entertainment courtesy of a band, ours is...shall we say a little wilder. Take last year's, for example: The theme was Hollywood, and the opening number had our lovable office badings performing a little ditty from Chicago--remember Mya in the jailbird number? Put her costume on men, and there you have it. (Think bustiers and nearly bare bottoms. Our mag's rep was wearing a tutu.)

And then there's the talent show. No bands here; entertainment is provided by employees (myself included) who are willing to humiliate themselves onstage for a cash prize--and the glory. The cash prize isn't that huge, but we (at least the editorial group) join anyway because it's all in good fun.

Last year, we did a cheerdance number a la Bring It On, and even with just three practices, placed second. By June, we were already dreaming up concepts for this year's presentation.

Last year, we all looked so cute! And I still had a tan!

Come November we find out that the theme this year is "Back to the 80s," something we weren't too happy about. It took us a while to actually get a concept together. We figured other people would go the That's Entertainment route, so we wanted to do something different. We googled "80s dance hits" and found a treasure trove of songs waiting to be mixed.

Tata, Marie, and I (dictators that we are...and hey, no one else was moving--the party was two weeks away!) thought of a concept and decided on a mix of Tone Loc's Wild Thing, the Bangles's Walk Like an Egyptian, and Prince's Kiss.

I was going crazy trying to choreo, since I was also asked to choreo some cheering thing for another office thing. (And have to choreo yet another piece for a friend's family reunion.) But, for once, I actually whipped up something that I liked! The number was divided into three parts:

• Wild Thing - Five of us do a chair dance. A little hard to explain, unless you've seen CADs's Human Nature intro. It's based on that. Then the rest of the girls come in to do a sexy (or pa-sexy?) dance. Final pose: Egyptian.

That's me in front, second from the left with the exag-ly tilted head.

• Walk Like an Egyptian - We exit as the Egyptians come in: two slave girls and two bodyguards. Then editorial director/former supermodel Myrza struts her stuff (mesmerizing!). Then we come back out, with bangles and a cobra headband, to do a mock serious Egyptian dance.

• Kiss - The Carlo Vergara comes out to sing (more Tom Jones than Prince)! (P.S. He is now the new office heartthrob...kaso puro girls 'yung may crush sa kanya!) We exit, and then this whole little skit takes place during the instrumental--the gist is Carlo tries to get Myrza to kiss him, but the Egyptian slaves/bodyguards are in his way. The girls try to seduce him, the bodyguards threaten him, and they play tug-of-war with Myrza as the rope! Haha. We come out with bowties and do a cheesy dance (fun!). And the final final part was decided on just the night before the performance--Gwyn comes out dressed as a girl, dips Carlo, and kisses him (or at least pretends to)! A picture's worth a thousand words so...

Our rule for the night was "Bawal ang cute ha! Kailangan panget lahat!" It was the 80s after all! With the green eyeshadow, streaky blush, and teased hair, it was the most unattractive I felt in a very long time! While Cosmo's Claire was doing her makeup, I said, "Baket maganda ka pa rin? Di ba dapat panget?" To which she replied, "I tried, Tisha, I tried." Haha.

Top photo: Striking 80s poses with Tatamaps and Lara. Above: With Marie, Tata, and our Egyptian queen. My very 80s makeup up close (myghad, the kilay!).

In the end, it was all worth it--we placed first! Totally tubular!

Top: With our check! Above: With the others from the mag.

More photos to be posted in my Multiply account soon.:)