A wedding singer is born...

It seems the feathers are piling up on my hat as a singer.

The wedding went well, although not without frustration. There were last-minute changes to the song lineup and the singers which irked Ate Maya, Ate Edith and me to no end. A friend of the couple actually approached us at the choir balcony with chords to a song in hand. We were surprised and irked because it was totally uncoordinated, but we let the woman sing her guts out anyway.

As the designated chauffeur, I was also faced with the hassle of having to find a decent spot to park at the reception. The Oasis is a good place, I'll give it that, but parking there is a bitch. I reluctantly had to leave Aibo's keys to the valet because I was threatening to leave.

There goes my beginning as a wedding singer. I'm hoping this isn't the end. Probably not: Aileen's wedding is on December 26 and I'll probably sing there as well.

Flattery will get me singing...or vice versa

This Sunday morning I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary. In my head I knew that I just had to go to the usual 9am mass and sing, then go home afterward.

After the mass was done, Ate Edith pulled me aside and told me that someone wanted me to sing for her daughter's wedding.

It came as a complete surprise. I was really, really flattered, but a little embarrassed at the same time because I had no idea if I was good enough to sing for anybody's wedding day.

So we talked it over and I was supposed to sing Gary Valenciano's "How Did You Know" at the Mary the Queen Parish in Greenhills sometime in November. The mother, Lorna Cruz, sent me the song via Bluetooth so I could practice it.

I didn't know I had developed such a reputation just by singing at mass. Here I was, disillusioned with my job, trying to start out an unknown quantity as a wannabe automotive journalist, and yet I had overlooked one of the talents I was truly highly regarded for.

Color me thankful I guess.

Of grunt work, singing and a kid on a mega-tantrum

Mother's Day 2009 was a pretty busy one.

Firstly, we sang at four different masses today, singing the a capella "We are an Offering" and an accompanied "Inay" for all the mothers in the parish. When you're up and singing from 7am to 6:30pm, that's a pretty big ask.

Second, I finally got to install the Recaro SRD seats I bought three months ago. This project couldn't be completed because the Bride RO-type seat rails I ordered took their sweet time getting here, only arriving two days ago. Removing the stock seats was an easy task, but fitting the SRDs to the car and mating them to the Bride seat rails, and transferring the seat belt buckles to them was a much larger and more demanding task than I thought. Quite a bit of grunt work was involved as well, moving the parts around with muscle power. Unfortunately exhaustion and general clumsiness set in and led to a few scratches on Aibo's interior and my bedroom floor.

Last but not least was the ultimate irony to this Mother's Day. While I was removing the stock driver's seat from inside Aibo, Bianx, Mama and I all heard frenzied shrieking that sounded as if someone had finally snapped. It might as well have been because across the street from our house, at the church parking lot, was a little kid no older than 10 years old, the source of the huge racket that lasted almost 20 minutes. He was throwing a massive tantrum toward his mom, who was seated inside the family car. He shrieked, called his mom names, and was punching and kicking the little Toyota - even a car owned by another family wasn't spared the beating.

Equally shocking was that no one, most of all his parents, seemed to be stopping this out-of-control brat!

Wanted: enthusiasm from fellow choir members

Lately it's become rather disheartening and disappointing to stay on as a member of our church choir. The level of commitment and enthusiasm is a far cry from what I see in the Accenture Chorale...heck, even from just the Cybergate Choir. I daresay we don't even sound as good as we should be. To top it all off, we just essentially celebrated the departure of yet another member.

It's rare that I wax religious in my posts, or even my thoughts, but I will keep on singing as much as I can. It's a good way of serving the Lord. I'm afraid to say how long I will keep singing in my own church is still up in the air, however. Without opportunities to learn something new, or encouragement from other members, it has become truly tempting to ply my trade somewhere else.

Chalk up one more recent disappointment in a year that's been full of them, I reckon.

As long as I sing...

After five months away, I am back with the Cybergate Choir. I'm very happy to report things have only gotten better since the pressures of work whisked me off singing for the First Friday Masses.

The Choir itself has grown. I remember the days when there was just six or seven of us singing; when we rehearsed last Wednesday we were close to twenty. The sheer number of us means we should now have a more balanced sound where us male singers had previously overpowered the ladies. I saw a lot of new faces, most of them volunteering from the Accenture Chorale.

Nelson joined Agnes as choirmaster and pianist---a welcome development as he was very effective in teaching us the voicing of our new songs. Speaking of new songs, we've got a fair number of them now. My current favorite is "Hesus ng Aking Buhay."

I want to keep on singing with them as long as I can. Work will be a lot more manageable if I have an outlet for my pent-up creativity, and the new crew seems really fun to be with.