But more on that later. So what did I do since the time that I arrived back home?
Absolutely NOTHING.
There I was, waiting for a new event or wedding to come from Concept Magic... but nothing materialized. I was getting desperate. I had credit card bills to pay, payables left and right, get-togethers with car peeps, Spirit Quests, JDMU YNs ("Yabangan Nights") and Honda Club EBs day in and day out, gas to worry about, some getting-fat-and-gaining-poundage concerns, and dates with different guys almost every week (hey the single life is terrific!)... but no income was pouring in. I was spending more and more everyday, but what little money I had left was not enough to compensate for all the expenses that I incurred.
For the life of me, I cannot quite recall how I was able to survive the draught... but hey, when it rains, it does pour, and somehow, for some mysterious reason unknown to me, I pulled through.
Which brings me to the eve of my first day at work: December 14, 2008. What was so significant about this night? Well, for the first time in a very long time, I was able to sing in front of a crowd again - and not just any crowd, mind you. I'm talking about a huge chunk of my friends and acquaintances from a car community gathered together in one major event: the 2008 Honda Club of the Philippines (HCP) Christmas Party and Graduation.
It all began sometime in October when HCP President Juno approached me and this group of music-loving Honda owners (affectionately called the HCP Shredders.) He was asking if it was possible that we form a band (it was very possible, actually, since most of the guys from this group are true-to-life musicians) and perform at the Christmas party.
We all got excited about it! We all knew that we were going to be a part of something great - nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of HCP. We were pioneers! Since most of the guys were rockers by heart, we stuck mostly to alternative songs which I could sing, but I was still able to include some mainstream hits into our lineup - just to grab the crowd's attention. ^_^
And so that was how it went for the past two months: Saturday (and sometimes even Sunday) jamming nights - just to complete a significant amount of songs. Due to severe time constraints and conflicts with regard to the rehearsal schedules, we had to take out a lot of songs, but in the end, we were able to come up with a solid lineup of eighteen songs - and this was a wide variety of rock, pop, alternative and mainstream melodies. I was truly blessed with such gifted and dedicated bandmates: Rich (Pudong) on lead guitars, Edu (pooch) on rhythm guitars, Ronnie (Graffiti) on bass, Jet (shoji_shingo) on drums, and my very good friend Mikko (papa_boss) took the male lead vocals. We were complete, and we were ready to kick some ass!
From old Goo-Goo Dolls hits (sung by Mikko of course) to Alanis Morrisette's very famous "You Oughta Know," Tina Arena's "Burn," my uber-favorite "I Don't Wanna Wait" by Paula Cole, and even some OPM songs wherein we asked for some jammers from the guests - we were a big hit! And for weeks after the performance, we kept on getting good reviews and comments from the HCP members, and the praises that we received went straight to our hearts.
Never mind that we were completely exhausted from all those rehearsal nights. Never mind that we had to sacrifice a lot of time and money just to perfect those songs. Never mind that I had to get up 3 hours after the performance just to make it in time for my first day at work. Never mind all that. The warm applause and support that we received from our friends made it all worth the effort, and that alone, is priceless. :-)
*Photos courtesy of Raymond Cruz. Click here to view his wedding packages.
*Click here to view his works and designs.
