It’s two in the morning and I’m still awake. I don’t have insomnia nor come from a graveyard shift. My body clock is not disturbed. I can’t sleep for the simplest reason that I’m thinking of my current situation. I’m single by chance and not by choice.

Almost half of the day, I spend my time working and mingling with happy couples in the ERP crowd. Shububu, my barkada at office, friends are either starting a new and promising relationship or planning their wedding and married life. Interesting to note that they are all celebrating their monthsaries and anniversaries on either 12th or 14th of the month. On our upcoming gimmicks, it’s very easy ‘to single out the single’ among the group.

Oh yeah. For real and for reel. The J-M love teams.

Well, I’m trying to look on the brighter side of being a single – the lifestyle of a bachelor (of Science in Computer Science) and all of the ways to pamper oneself that I never had for the past years that I focused on grabbing a diploma of the said degree. While being optimistic, I came across with these facts and experiences that could affect my decision for the next coming days.

1. The bachelor and bachelorettes of the ERP team are UP alumni. Also, three names start with letter ‘M’ and followed by ‘A’. All of them are managers. Yung isa, ‘manager talaga’. The second one is ‘dapat manager na’. The other one is ‘duty manager’.

2. Someone commented this to me… ‘Gusto mong tumaba, mag-asawa ka na.’

3. I think shampoo commercials are saying something. If girl is hair, then ‘Change my girl. Change my destiny.’ and ‘Beautiful Girl Now. Life Can’t Wait’.

4. Read this text message. I imagine myself, Jeff, Kido, Jay and Led.

Kpg nnli2gw: “Lunchtym n. Kain na u. Wg kng pa2gutom. Luv u.”
1st 3 months nlang mag-on: “Bby, kumain kna? Kain kna h. Luv u.”
4-8 months nla: “Bby, ka2in muna aq. Kain kna rin. Luv u.”
9-13 months nla: “Bby, g2m na aq. Kain muna aq.”
14-above months nla: “Eh sa hindi aq mkapgreply dhl kumakain aq,eh! Kumkain ung tao, txt ng txt! Epal to!..”

5. From Answers.com:

At Sparta, citizens who remained unmarried after a certain age suffered various penalties. They were not allowed to witness the gymnastic exercises of the maidens; and during winter they were compelled to march naked round the marketplace, singing a song composed against themselves and expressing the justice of their punishment.

6. I wrote an essay about ‘When A Boyfriend Becomes A Husband’ as part of an examination given to the applicants by a prospect printing company. The other topics in the list are ‘The Profile of A Leader’, ‘Two Things You Will Say To Your Manager In Vain’ and ‘Filipino Parents’. I started it by saying ‘This is from a standpoint of a neither a boyfriend nor husband.’ and ended by this line. ‘I’ll be one of the two, soon.’

7. Most of the time on barkada gimmicks, I’m a (2n+1)th wheel where n is a whole number.

8. It’s either ikakasal ako or ako ang magkakasal. Nye. O kaya, ‘Groomsman ka lang!’

9. Bakit hindi mo ligawan si ___?
Baka kasi isipin nya, ‘backup’ ko lang siya.
Ubkp 901 or 902?

10. What does the ‘Oracle’ tell you?
Um, she might be the one.

Waah… nonsense ang blog post! Nakakabaliw na ito!

It’s an almost but not quite readable ambigram. Yet, I’m happy to have a lengthy inversion.

“Almost But Not Quite”. Nazty Ambigrams by Jonas Roque

Para sa patas na pagba-blog. Walang kinikikilan. Walang pinoprotektahan. Perwisyong totoo lamang.

“GMA Kapuso”. Nazty Ambigrams by Jonas Roque

Rejoice, mga Kapuso! May groceries na tayo! Yahoo! This ambigram comes from a Kapamilya na may puso, Orasid.

I enjoyed the UP Centennial Kickoff last time so I was expecting UP Fair would be a blast. So I blocked my Valentine’s week off. It’s when the week-long concert event, UP Fair falls – FYI for those who still don’t know. When I was assigned to be slated on 3:30PM – 11:30PM support, I immediately swapped February 4 and 11 ironically with another UP alumnus, William. Thanks that he won’t go. I will do anything just to go to the university fair.

I learned UP Cursor is one of the presenters of the Loverage which is now on its second year and kicking off the UP Fair Week of 2008. They’re giving away backstage pass for eleven Cursor alumni. I immediately reserved my access. And sobrang makulit talaga ako sa kaka-followup kay Roanne and Arvin and all that stuff just to make sure that I could grab the chance to be there. I also reserved three tickets also for my officemates that wanted to rock on with me at the LoveRage. What excites me more is when Penshoppe is sponsoring the event. LoveRage must be big time!

And Penshoppe and UP Cursor did not fail me!

Backstage access becomes front row pass. I am lucky to have a cool camera so the ‘bouncers’ of the event would think I was a photographer of the bands to the dismay of my brother who has the same access but can’t pass through with these bulky guys. (Kilala nyo si Ho and Ha of Eat Bulaga? Ayun ganun sila kalaki!)

Here are some of the pictures from a 200+ photo album found in my Multiply.

Stone free literally. Emo folks are still calm.

Read! Victor Basa and me!

Victor is accommodating. He always welcomes his fans to pose with them and smile. Even the newbie models of the Penshoppe will walk their way to Victor and ask their idol for photo op. He’s been there for more than 4 hours before he was called to go up on the stage. While waiting, he’s conversing with co-hosts, organizers and alumni. I was able to have a short chat with him. I showed him the ambigram I created for him and other inversions. He appreciated his ambigram and high-five’d!

Chicosci made emo folks too emotional!

Juris and Chin making their mamas proud!

P4. Matteo, Vicky, Victor and Dawn of Club Pen!

Aia! Kaaya-aya! Go! Imago!

Rock couples, Raimund Marasigan of Sandwich and Myrene Academia of Imago.

Beautiful girls… They’ll have you suicidal, suicidal…

Margaret Wilson. She’s hot!

Cursor alumni clicking the event!

HP ERP friends Francis, Rach and iska Caress took time to watch the concert after their busy shift.

Silent Sanctuary agitated the crowd with their hit ‘Ikaw Lamang’ and have the audience a feeling outside the sanctuary. Emo talaga!

Itchyworms catch the early crowd! Yey! They played Love Team!

Listen! I’m with Stonefree lead!

By the numbers. 6 Cyclemind and Moonstar 88.

Sige! 6 Cyclemind and I.

Heto na! Heto na! Doo bi doo bi doo!

Bagsakan! Celebrity duets. Parokya ni Edgar, Kamikazee and Gloc 9 back-to-back-to-back hit-after-hit.

Funny thing with Parokya ni Edgar and Kamikazee is that they are acknowledging the event as Bamboo concert. Although, nobody can’t deny that they fully connected with the audience and owned the show.

Hallelujah! Bamboo sings Probinsyana to Iska’s of UP!

It’s time for me to go also because my batteries and memory were already drained. Actually, while Bamboo is performing, I’m already running out of bytes and power. I kept on replacing batteries and deleting pictures. It’s hard to capture Bamboo still and the image stabilizer feature can’t handle him. As expected, right after Bamboo’s performance, most of the spectators went home or dispersed themselves and enjoyed other fair fun booths like wall climbing, ferris wheel and caterpillar.

LoveRage 2 gave me a breathing space. That’s what you call life outside echpe!

My early signature during first year high school included a pencil similar to the former Penshoppe logo. Later when I started to earn money on my own, I become true Penshoppe fanatic. I am visiting and buying their stores during paydays and mallwide price-drop sales. Usually, I shop on TriNoma because the branch at Glorietta near office was bombarded. I love their jackets and ‘Blue’ scent.

Tonight’s Loverage 2, the UP centennial fair kickoff concert is sponsored by this favorite clothing line of mine.

“Penshoppe”. Nazty Ambigrams by Jonas Roque

It was only after my birthday when I was able to create an ambigram for myself. Not that I have difficulty in creating an inversion but I’m obsessive-compulsive with regards to my own ambigram.

I’m quite flaky on the extra detail of letter S and the illusion of letter S in letter J. As a workaround, instead of having my name spelled on a straight fashion, I have it the curved way.

“Jonas”. Nazty Ambigrams by Jonas Roque

‘Sige, ikaw na ang may birthday.’ This is one of the many punch lines thrown by presently-taken previously-my sweettart, Ayza.

‘Sige, ikaw na…

… ang may magandang cellphone!’ while I’m inviting more batchmates to come.
… ang postpaid’ when I opted to call instead to send messages.
… ang may mahal na camera!’ while I’m taking pictures with her.
‘Sige, si nikki na namimiss mo’ when I mentioned Nikki’s sweet gestures during high school
… may Multiply, Friendster lang kami’ when I asked them to check my Multiply account for the pictures.

Ang dami-dami nyang reklamo! Wahaha! At least, she went to the party as she understood Sheena’s invitation.

I was overwhelmed that after seven years I finally met and greeted Melvin, Lorraine, Shey, Jelly, Anna, Roxan, my fellow kaloots gangsters Gerald, Duke, Jacob, and the loveteams, Sheena-Chard, Tophe-Riya. They all prove that friends are just one text message (One call away na pala. Mayaman na daw kasi ako which is not true, of course.) Although some didn’t make it, Pam, Nikki, Rupert, Ren, Ejay, Carlo Ercia, sent their birthday greetings too.

I somehow failed when Jelly and I bought a hard drink on top of cans of Lone Star Beer which Sheena, the host of the event, provided. Since I am not a tomador and had chosen to stay away from being drunken, I thought Gran Matador will suffice. Reklamador naman si Ayza kaya sana daw tequila man lang. Wushu. I know that once alcohol passed through their throat, no matter what it is, ‘ibuhos na ang beer sa lalamunan’ at ayos lang basta’t pulutan, na ang drama. But the night continued. Mahaba-habang inuman!

A decade-old high school memories are reminisced as we tease each other and the love pairs and triangles formed. Enumerating them: Riya-Melvin-Ayza, Ayza-Jacob, Roxan-Richard-Sheena and me-Riya-Tophe. I remembered an article I wrote for Jas 4 Fun enumerating at least a hundred pairs from the pool of 52 or so individuals. I suddenly stopped joking about Riya and Tophe when Shey cut me once and said, ‘Eh panakip butas mo lang naman si Ayza. Si Gina talaga ang gusto mo!’ It is not true! Si Tophe kaya yun. Wahaha!

They also remember my 27-minute speech that made their parents hungry. Of course, these parents won’t appreciate the moments I enumerated one by one. At least, Shey remembered these are the moments I shared with each one them. It’s sad to confess that sometimes I feel it was really unnecessary (as how principal scolded me after that). Sometimes, when you talked to some of them na ‘walang amor’ or don’t even waved a hello kapag nakasalubong or nakatabi. Worst, there still existing unresolved issues way back high school.

People change. It’s a fact. But some manage to keep the spirit of Singkolar Society alive still. I’ve never been that close to Joey, Chavz and Paul but short YM and Friendster messages have me feel their sincerity to meet the batch once they come back to the Philippines. So, I’m expecting more people to join us in the reunion this summer.

Masayang mahalin ang mga kaibigan ko and batchmates. Ang salubungin at ipagdiwang ang unang segundo ng ika-24 kong kaarawan ay espesyal talaga.

More pictures at this page.

Subuan!

The merged Campus Batikan Girls.

The merged Anay-Revo Boys.

Toast for the birthday boy!

Pang-friendster pic!

Roxan and Carlos, I mean Richard.

Sa’n ba haharap?

Sana… dalawa ang puso ko!

Humabol din sina Duke and Gerald.

Ang Mga Lalaki Sa Buhay ni Ayza

Waah! Ang sikip!

12 sardines inside the car

Just like John Estrada and Gretchen Baretto!

My high school friends are throwing a party for me!

Sheena is too generous to have her place as the ground zero of the double celebration. It’s my 21st birthday and the reunion of my beloved batch. I miss my batchmates and berks. Their presence is definitely a good gift for me.

I found her invite so sweet, too. So I’m posting it here.

Hey there brothers and sisters! Hope you can still remember me. How’s life kickin’ you out there? Busy with work, huh! It’s been seven years since we’ve last seen each other, for some, it may even be more than a decade. I think it’s time that we leave our busy lives for a moment, let’s meet up coz we’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

It’s our beloved valedictorian’s birthday on Feb.2. [Jonas: It's actually Feb 3!] (FYI to our elementary bros & sis, I’m talking about Jonas Roque. Don’t worry coz you won’t be out of place). Anyways, I’m expecting to see you all guys at my house on Saturday (Feb.2). Yep, that’s right! It’s going to be at my place.

Oh and Nope, Jonas and I are not romantically involved (‘case you have that question at the back of your mind). I just volunteered to hold the party there coz I remember that aside from Acay’s playboy mansion and bar or E.J’s dance studio and movie house, you guys used to hang out at my place for group reviews, movie reviews, dance practice and beer-tasting sessions. So let’s do it again, just like the old times!

I know most of you have been to my house, for those who haven’t, here are my contact numbers: [Jonas: Number deleted for security] text or call me, and I’ll give you the directions right away!

For our brothers and sisters who are at the other side of the world, below is a list of some airlines with their corresponding flight schedules, hehe. You can still make it guys! Especially for those who will be coming from Saudi Arabia and will be utilizing Saudi Arabian Airlines, guys, I’ll contact our reservations department to have your flights confirmed. So be there! No excuses! Mwah..

Japan Airlines

JL 741 ETD NARITA 0935H ETA MANILA 1330H M/T/W/TH/F/S/
JL 745 ETD NARITA 1825H ETA MANILA 2220H M/T/W/TH/F/S/

Philippine Airlines

PR 105 ETD SFO 2105H ETA MANILA 0540H M/T/W/TH/F/S/S

Emirates

EK 332 ETD DUBAI 0345H ETA MANILA 1545H M/W/F/S
EK 332 ETD DUBAI 1030H ETA MANILA 2230H T/W/TH/F/S/S

- Sheena

It’s going to be feb-alous! Ang saya-saya!