I am back.

Five days in Bacolod? It feels like I spent just two. I guess it can't be helped. Although we were there primarily for work, we enjoyed a lot.
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We were on the last flight to Bacolod so many of the Marketing members, like me, missed the performance at the Carmelite Sisters. For most of us Marketing members, it was a case of getting to Balay Kalinungan (House of Peace) at the University of St. La Salle and getting rested for the next day.

We took the bus going north of Bacolod, to a town called E.B. Magalona where we had our free one-hour concert. We staged our show at the stadium behind their town hall, and it was packed full of school kids. After the show the kids went after our vocalists Blossom, Mark O. and Jigs---throngs of them asking for autographs.

Friday, September 3rd, was the busiest. Although we didn't travel all that much, this was the day when we had two separate concerts at the USLS Coliseum. In the morning, Burn, Gab, BJ and I went around the campus and coliseum area posting our sponsors' streamers, working with the marketing people of Honda Cars Negros Occidental.

Our 2pm matinee show was more for the young students, not only of USLS but also of neighboring schools. Knowing how teachers invite their little tikes to these things, you can pretty much imagine the coliseum was packed to the bleachers. Having been in charge of voice-over duty, I missed my cue because I did my spiel too early, but overall it was okay (it could've been a lot worse).

The 7pm gala show went pretty much like clockwork except for one of our vocalists irreparably destroying one of the songs in the repertoire, Hoobastank's "The Reason." In all three concerts, Mark T. made mistakes on this particular song, and I kinda took it hard because this, more than any other song in the repertoire, was MY song---I could sing it the best. At least there weren't any other major screw-ups. I wasted four rolls of film and two sets of AA and LR44 batteries covering all three concerts.
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After the concerts we were pretty much free to have some fun. In Pops fun seems to instantly mean "alcohol"---and these guys were serious drinkers.

I got so terrified of how these friends of mine downed their alcohol. A lot of Pops members were years younger than I am and I was quite frankly scared of how they drank. Lots of noise, lots of drunken stories, lots of groggy people dancing with empty bottles in hand.

I suppose I'm just too ignorant of social drinking sessions. I never drank a sip. The farthest I went was sniff one of the empty Vodka Ice bottles just to have an idea of how it tasted...and it smelled like clear soda. Damn. This stuff was even easier to down than Smirnoff Mule---and I hardly drink more than two Mules.

Despite being averse to all the noise and confused by the red faces and unsteady gaits, I was relieved to see my friends knew how to handle their alcohol. They didn't sleep while they were intoxicated; they were aware enough to drink lots of water to get them to piss the alcohol out. When tempers flared, they kept others cool.

I might still be afraid, but at least I know now that I can help my inebriated friends.
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I had quite a problem fitting all my pasalubong into my luggage. My mom had asked for barquillos, my sister asked for piaya, and I was curious about these napoleones pastries that Rachel kept on raving about.

I ended up ordering two boxes of napoleones, buying two large boxes of barquillos and a box of ube piaya. Yikes. It was a miracle I ever got my pasalubong to fit into my bags at all.
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On balance I have to say, Cebu Pacific should be lauded for truth in advertising. For some reason my partners-in-flights and I always get caught in the 5% that don't make it to the carrier's claim of being "on time 95% of the time."

Still, I'd rather have a late, safe flight than a haphazard one. That said, I wonder why on our flight to Bacolod, one of the DC-9's engines gave out a loud pop on landing under full reverse thrust...
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Bacolod was the site of some romantic goings-on.

Denise introduced me to her high school friend Beth, who had since returned to her hometown and USLS for college. I didn't get to talk to her all that much but I thought she was cute and charming, and quite a girl to talk to as well.

But when we were escorting her home I caught sight of Denise and PJ holding hands. It seems PJ's been wooing Denise for all these past few weeks and she seems to like him in return. It's probably irrational yet I can't help but feel jealous. Oh well. I might as well take it with a grain of salt.

As for Beth...well...what's gonna happen to that anyway? I like her, sure, but it's a long-distance relationship that doesn't even exist, and her being associated with Denise doesn't help matters all that much. Another "oh well" ought to escape my lips.

One of our violinists, Ida, also seems to be the apple of a lot of pairs of eyes. Vocalist Peter and saxophonist Sigay seem to have their eyes fixed on her.

...Ehhh! Fuck love, fuck relationships. I might as well stay single, keep from thinking with my dick, get no one pregnant and work till I become financially stable.

Hmmm. At this rate I ought to say a litany of "oh wells." Hah-hah-ha.
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This...is my second alma mater song.

If I were to live my whole life again
I'd still want to be a Lasalista pa rin
Bayaran man ako I would still say to you
I'd rather be green than be blue...

ANIMO LA SALLE!