Strawberry-No-Jam 014 Part 2

December 5, 2010
Elena Hotel, Iligan City

Dear Jam,

I hate to admit it but I think I am enjoying this after some indecisiveness whether among all of my gigs I should like this the least or forgive it all. I am not being a prima donna, I just can't seem to escape the automatic differentiation that goes over my mind, comparing one event after another. Which shouldn't be as in anything in life; like, don't compare your ex-lover to the present one, your former boss to the new one or, an old job to the one in hand. You can never judge anything or anyone for that matter until the delivery is done that is why I am keeping a little more faith for this event until it is over and done with tomorrow.

Even so, I am already happy to be acquainted with a couple of people. I am working with Hip 101 again, the cutesy, fun, and noisy girls I worked with during the Eight O-Clock Barangayan. They are a fun to be with, they remind me of a little old me when I was younger, funner, and drawing a lot of attention from boys. I envy the fact that they go as a group and suddenly, I missed my girls! *sigh* To be with friends with the passion to perform! Those were the days! Then there's your Tito Renz who is (and I envy the fact that he is) a Mass Communications student. We spent the long pauses and waiting together discussing about talents and experiences and I am so thankful that he didn't hold back tips for photography from me. I am so excited to have a go at them. This is going to be the first big event he is to host and my first time to work with a first timer. Well, we'll see how it goes. He has proven to be quite the companion as we have a lot of likes and dislikes in common. We made a little escapade into the night and invaded Iligan's famed performer's square, El Centro.

Wow! I tell you! We just took on that stage as if Iligan was Cagayan de Oro City! Tito Renz was...well, for a lack of words, brave! Damn brave! When the lead singer asked if anybody from the crowd wanted to sing, he wiggled to his feet and went up the stage and just grabbed the mic. As far as I understood it, there WERE people allowed to be on the stage but it looked to me that these were friends of the assigned acoustic group and performers from the city. But Tito Renz didn't care, he called me right up on stage after he performed. Haha! Well...I DID, Pumpkin! It felt so great to be doing what I most passionately want to do! To sing! To perform! To be heard! To be applauded! Dangit! I knew I should have listened to Tito Renz telling me to bring a camera! I took a picture of him and he took a video of me, we'll see how that goes.

Now then a little later as the square was closing off, and when I came out of the water closet, I was flagged down a seat in the bar by an interesting woman. She told me that I looked familiar and after comparing "Nurses' notes" we realized that we were schoolmates in Nursing back in Capitol University. Even more than that! Our world becomes smaller with Alphard Regulus, the band where your Nohnong and I used to sing with Ninong Gerard and Tito Geronimo. It turns out that she, Tita Tina, was invited to stand in as vocals after I left. Hahaha! Small world, yes! Funnier is that we have a common suitor and a common ULTIMATE CRUSH! Secret! Hahaha!

We took the fun even further as we proceeded from El Centro to Shoppe 24 where we were a little bit tipsy, downing two bottles of beer. Here, your Tito Renz starts with the shimsham of speaking in British. I was like "OHMYGOD!" He said he did it intently to piss off a table of nosy, arrogant drunkards who were dissing us. Amazed to hear me respond with an equally believable British accent, your Tita Tina convinced us to continue doing it. Since we started it, we might as well go the whole nine yards. So there we were making up these crazy stories about Tito Renz being half German, half British and that we understood Bisaya and stuff. Man! We were way in over our heads, really!

But wait! There's more! It's a scary part though. Tito Renz finally got tired of the blithering idiots, repeating after every word or topic we threw them, not withstanding our little theatrics - we decided to leave. Funny that the only ride that would take the three of us back to the Hotel was a snail of a "sikad". You know what happened? The boisterous group mounted their fancy white truck, drives to us until they could slow down to taunt us with nasty words. Thank God! Thank God that everyone from our group kept our calm. Had we sparked up an argument, that night would have been a bloody hell to the finish!

Whew! Mommy had a lot, you can tell? Hahaha
But this doesn't make me miss you less.

Until here with all my love,
Mommy