As a Christmas gift, Lawyn bought Mugshots and distributed them to us this past weekend. Ever since I saw this inKristine's Multiply, I was so curious about those little cakes in abottle, and was thinking of buying a whole bunch myself. When Lawynlaid out the bottles on the FOH table, I immediately picked out thestrawberry flavor, and thought of saving it to eat on my birthday.

My mom was asking for a snack this afternoon, so I decided to make some pasta. Then I thought it might be bitin, so heck, why not make the strawberry Mugshot now?

I was too lazy to make carbonara, so I resorted to Lucky Me's instantMac and Cheez. Because the cheese sauce was a wee bit salty, I used onepack of cheese sauce for 3 packs of pasta noodles, then I added adifferent kind of cheese to mix in with the one pack of cheese sauce. Anyway...

I was a bit hesitant to pour out the contents of the Mugshot, becauseit looked so pretty just sitting there inside its little bottle. Ohwell, I just hope it's good as Lawyn had said. I poured out the contents into a mug, then popped it in the microwave.

It only took 2 minutes for the Mugshot cake to bake in the microwave.

Yay, early little strawberry-flavored birthday cake for me!

I have to say, it does taste good. I even drizzled it with chocolate syrup, hehe.

Curious about Mugshots? Check out The Fundamentals' Multiply account!

A 2-week stint as an usher for the Christmas run of Atlantis' 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is finally over. Because I'm not able to attend the Atlantis Christmasparty this very evening, my consolation was a couple of new pairs ofshoes as a birthday gift for myself, hahaha. (Naman, pagbigyan niyo naako. I hardly shop for shoes, as I practically live in my ChuckTaylors.)

What I enjoyed most about just being an usher instead of manning theentire front-of-house is that I'm not tied down at the table, handingout guests' complimentary tickets, and also selling tickets and othermerchandise. At least I get to walk around and mingle with the guestswhile waiting for the celebrity guest spellers to arrive (though somecelebrity spellers can stress you out because they're super late). Ican be hyper when I want to, and kulang na lang is mag-tumbling ako allover the lobby whenever I'm on a sugar rush, hahaha (like that timeClaire gave me the leftover cake that they had in the office). I loveit when I see friends watching the show, especially those that you'dnever expect.

Just last Friday, I was so thrilled to see Tricia and Dandan watchingthe same show. I haven't seen these two since the old forum days, andin my excitement to see them, I sent text messages to our commonfriends. Of course, every time I text Tita Sherbs about seeing ourfriends, she would always reply, asking for a reunion, hahahaha.

Speaking of reunions, I didn't get to attend DLSZ's alumni homecoming last Saturday because of Spelling Bee.But I don't think it's a big loss, really. I was actually uncertainabout attending the homecoming, plus the upcoming 10-year reunion ofour batch. And hey, Jericho Rosales was our celebrity speller alongwith Sarah Meier during the evening show that day, hahaha.

Other than that, Marnie also watched the Bee'sSaturday evening show. Some of you may laugh, but I have to say thatshe was my first musical theater idol, as I've always looked up to herwhen I was a kid. I was actually starstruck by this Ang TV alumna every time we cross paths in school, and I was content enoughthat she knew me even as just one of the chorus kids in our schoolmusical production, because the only things we have in common is thatshe's in the same class as my brother, and we're both into theater(though I hadn't realized it yet at that time).

So when I saw her in the lobby last Saturday, I was inches away fromher yet I reverted back to my shy, 7th-grade self until she noticed me(and I was grateful that she still knows me) and we said hi to eachother. Haha, ayun, natuwa naman ako when she gave me a hug and agreedto have a picture taken (after a bit of small talk about my brother wholives in Canada).

(Thanks to Lawyn for letting Ceejay and me use her camera to have pics taken with Sarah, Echo and Marnie, hahaha.)

Last Thursday, my initial plans were to go with Lara to Marillac butthings fell through because of the usual house rules. I was alreadybummed about not going out that day, and I was still brooding oversomeone who didn't even try to invite me to some event that was goingon that same night. Oh well.

Then I got a text from Lawyn and Claire at the same time, asking if Iwas free at 8pm that night for the DTR of Lea's concert. Haha, ofcourse, I just had to go. When they said I could bring one friend, Iimmediately thought of Tin. I asked if she already has a ticket to theconcert, and she said that she didn't buy a ticket. So I invited her asmy plus one. She was the obvious choice among my hardcore Lea-fanaticfriends because the rest can even afford to buy tickets to both concertdates anyway.

Headed to Harbour Square to have dinner before the agreed-upon time of7:30pm. I was also texting Gino, who had messaged me earlier thatmorning that he was at CCP for some event. As it turned out, he wasstill there in the area, along with Vanie and Jobe. Met up with Gino atJollibee, then followed him and Vanie to Reyes Barbecue where Jobe andtheir other friend were waiting. Had dinner there until they had toreturn to CCP the same time I had to meet with Tin (who had just textedthat she had just arrived in the area).

It was almost 7:30 when Tin arrived, but she was starving so Iaccompanied her to Jollibee for a quick bite before we walked to PICC.So many people were already there, but I easily found Claire, Lawyn andMae outside. They were still waiting for a whole bunch of people whichincluded the Spelling Bee cast, because they were holding their tickets. Waited for the rest inthe lobby with Ate Sally, Ate Janine, Kuya Boni and a bunch of others,then we decided to fall in line.

That line was longer than those anaconda-like lines of the MRTstations. It took ages for the line to move, so Tin and I keptchattering away. Minutes later, I even noticed a familiar-lookinggirl... Marnie? I never got to confirm if that was her, because shesuddenly disappeared into the crowd.

The concert began an hour and a half later than scheduled. Well,forgivable, as it's just a technical dress rehearsal. At least Tin andI got to talk the whole time we were waiting. Basta pag si Tin angkausap, walang quiet moments, hahaha.

I have to say, the show was a blast. I was a little thrown off by thePhilippine All-Stars, though. Parang out of place sila. Anyway, thechoice of song requests were pretty awesome. As for the contest forgetting to sing a duet with Lea, we were treated to watching bothwinners (one for each concert date), even if it meant hearing the samesong twice. I actually liked the first guy better, as the second guytended to sing like Brad Kane a wee bit too much.

And of course, who wouldn't love having Richard Poon and Ai-Ai De LasAlas as special guests? Panalo si Ai-Ai when she came in as Annie,complete with that balloon dog, hahaha. And the Aegis duet was awesome!It was totally refreshing to hear Lea sing Aegis, plus it reminded meof Mimay.

My favorite guest would have to be the surprise guest in the form ofJett Pangan, hahahaha. I never get sick of hearing "Salamat" over andover again, and when I heard a different voice come out from thespeakers and Jett came onstage, I was cheering ever so loudly. Awesomeanthem, that "Salamat."

I guess I already sort of expected the song "Defying Gravity" from Wicked to come up along with the rest of the musical theater songs, but it wasstill pretty good. Hahaha, I was sitting between Tin and Theody andthey were both cheering at the edge of their seats, and they werecontagious.

Congratulations to Lea! Bobby and Chari too, of course! The show wasworth waiting for an hour and a half, and it was a good excuse to hangout with Tin, hahaha! =)

Whenever I take an FX to Quezon City, I always take the route thatpasses along Espana instead of taking the MRT route. Without fail,every time I pass by UST, I always remember that brief time ofindependence during that one year of studying there. The memories ofboarding houses and dormitories (and moving from one dorm to another),my first experience of budgeting my own money to fit in one to 2 weeks,having no parents or guardians to nag me all the time, plus learninghow to discipline myself without guardians.

It was also the time that I was known as Christine (or even Tin-tin). Not Hogi.

In high school, I've been used to being called Hogi by my closefriends. When it was time to move to UST, I decided to switch back tobeing called Christine because it was safe, no one knew me, the namewasn't as common as there were too many people with lots of differentnames, and of course it will take a long time to explain why I wascalled Hogi. When I transferred to a new school, I had decided to stillkeep calling myself Hogi, but that lasted for about a minute in thefirst day of orientation, because a new blockmate happened to be acommon friend that I was first introduced to as Hogi. Oh well.

So now, I'm thinking again about switching back to being good oldChristine. Weird, isn't it? Sure, Hogi's unique, practically everyonenow knows be as that, and I can easily tell if I'm the one beingcalled. But I have to admit, I actually miss being called Christine.

"You're back???" Miss Bernice had asked when I was the one who greeted her at the door at Atlantis' 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee's preview show.

Nope, I'm not back with Atlantis. I'm just ushering for this run of Spelling Bee.Charo, the usual head usher, had gone to the US, so Lawyn's sisterJohanna and I took her place, alternately briefing the celebrity andaudience guest spellers for each show.

I have to say, it's been a while since I've been with ushers from BlueRep, but every batch is equally quirky, and I get pretty amused justwatching them.

And so far, I have to say that last night's show was pretty eventful.First of all, there were no pasaway guest spellers unlike the previousones since preview, hahaha. (Oh, the horror of those spellers fromadult night.) Nikki had already been briefed the night before while Iwas chatting with Geli on YM. And Jinky? She followed everything to theletter, but she was laughing so hard while she was onstage that she waspractically in tears, hahaha! Nice to know that she hadn't changed abit after years of not seeing her.

Other than that, there's one special moment that made last night's showvery memorable. Joel had proposed to Emy in front of the entire Spelling Bee audience! Woohoo!

But let me backtrack a bit.

Sometime last week, before one of Spelling Bee'spreview shows, Lawyn and I were sitting in the audience just hangingaround and waiting. Joel was talking in hushed tones with Bobby andChari several rows in front of us. I accidentally overheard somethingthat Bobby had said and tried to tune it out. I suddenly rememberedthis one guy who had also proposed to his girlfriend at Spelling Bee's previous run. Interesting.

Then another time, Joel approached the front-of-house and asked AteSally if he could let her accommodate a couple of his friends who justwant to watch the curtain call of one show. The hushed conversation Iaccidentally saw slipped my mind, and just assumed that these friendsprobably just wanted to see the Christmas medley that the cast performsfor this run, hahaha.

(Maybe I'm just rationalizing, but I can't help but include this. Thenight before the proposal, I had a dream that I was being proposed toalso. Weirdness.)

Anyway. I found myself slipping inside the theater during mic checkbefore Sunday's evening show (to look for Lawyn, I think). I saw Joel,Bobby and Chari talking again in hushed tones, and this time withCathy. I slipped back out of the theater so as not to be rude, but Iwas suddenly thinking, could this be the day? My question was answeredwhen Bobby and Chari handed cameras to Lawyn to cover the show'scurtain call. Lawyn's look confirmed what was going to happen. Hahaha,it was all super secretive, that even the cast (save for Cathy, ofcourse) didn't know. Lawyn was even looking over a seat plan to findwhich seats were vacant so she could position herself there with thecameras. Because Lawyn was tasked to take photos and video, she handedme the video recorder so she won't harass herself doing both.

Before the show was about to end, Chari instructed us to cover theChristmas medley as well so we won't miss a single moment of the wholething. So during the final song, Lawyn and I positioned ourselves into2 vacant orchestra seats that had a decent view of everything. My gahd,funny thing was that my hands were getting clammy. Hahahaha, pati akokinabahan kasi baka shaky ang pagkuha ko ng video.

Anyway, so after the Christmas medley, I was still recording and Lawynwas still snapping away. Cathy (still in character as Miss Peretti)then made an announcement concerning an audience member about someconfiscated item, and called Emy up onstage. Murmurs and whispersfilled the air, and once Joel had assisted Emy to center stage and wentdown on one knee, even the cast members' jaws dropped to the floor!Despite my giddiness, I'm still hoping right now that the video Irecorded of the proposal wasn't too shaky, ahahaha.

Of course, because this was Joel, there had to be a classic JoelTrinidad moment. When he was about to slip the ring on Emy's finger, hehad no idea which hand, hahaha! "It's my first time to do this."HAHAHAHAHA!

Congratulations to Joel Trinidad and Emerita Alcid! We're all so happy to witness this awesome moment with you.

After the show, that's when I started thinking again about that dream Ihad. I once had a dream that I was pregnant, and it turned out thatsomeone I knew was also pregnant. And strangely enough, I had arecurring dream of childbirth, but unfortunately, the same friendsuddenly had a miscarriage. And now, I had a dream of a marriageproposal, and someone I know proposes to his girlfriend.

I was pondering over it with Nicco last night and he said na may powersdaw ang dreams ko, hahaha. Labo. Hehe, sige, doncha worry, bro. If Idream of Glee's Jenna Ushkowitz, I'll be sure to let you know, hahahaha!