I have 5 days of summer break...

Er... 4 days if you don't count today.

Amazing! I actually have time to kill bwahahahaha...

Thank you to all who came to help out / watch the fundraiser of Ex Libris Philippines last night: the 2nd show of our opera DON PASQUALE!! Special thank you's MUST go to Tata, PM-extraordinaire, Ogot, assistant PM-not-any-less-extraordinary, and also orgmates Richard, Christian, Nerie, Judie, Venice and Nicole, and Sangkil-mate Leo. The production was a success because of them.

Don Pasquale has been such a huge part of my life. To give you an idea, the first thing I thought of when I woke up today was: "What time did we set today's rehearsal for, again?" Hahaha!

When my brain started functioning, and it hit me that we would NEVER have rehearsals for DP again, I was overcome with a mixture of relief/ joy/ and a great deal of sadness as well.

I will miss:

* the late-night rehearsals... which were always fun no matter how tough things got because of the wonderful people I was working with

* the food! usually Rodic's tapsilog which had to be wolfed down at a highly accelerated rate while waiting for my turn to be blocked

* the adrenaline rush of running around doing production related chores

* going to Camp Suki for costumes, and getting lost in the New Manila/ Tomas Morato area

* agonizing over the darn programmes which are rather complicated to format if you're not a techie

* props-making (yes! Thanks to DP, I've realized I have a possible career in screen making!)

* being a flirt. Haha! Norina was such a hard character to play, because she's very different from the REAL me. It took the whole semester, basically, to get her in my system, and she'll always be a part of me.

I'll admit, it was rather fun to wear pretty dresses for a change, though I never really got the hang of wearing my 2-inch high step-ins, and up until the 2nd show I was struggling not to trip while sashaying this way and that. It was an uphill battle to overcome my reservations so I could be all touchy-feely with the male characters, but I learned to put everything away and just focus on getting the job done. And so I held hands, kissed cheeks, draped myself all over and even sat on the laps of my male friends... all in the name of theater, of course. YES I FEEL SO ACCOMPLISHED!!!! I did all those things... while singing Italian! ;)

Aside from doing a couple of chores like returning props, costumes, and having gowns laundered, I will spend the next few days catching up on my reading, paying off my sleep debt, and taking care of clearance. Which reminds me, I need to have everything done by Wednesday because I will be attending MuEd workshops/seminars everyday, from 8 til 4 p.m., til the end of the month.

And beyond graduation?

I'll finally know what it feels like to have a regular paycheck, and have extra money for my little luxuries (usually books and a Starbucks hazelnut latte on VERY special occasions...). Yay!

Knowing that my summer "break" is so short somehow makes it all the more precious.

It's still not hitting me that I'll be leaving UP for good.

I think it will come in one big emotional tidal wave come grad day... I'll probably be an emotional wreck, haha!

Heh! I'm in too chirpy a mood to think sad thoughts, so I'll sign off for now and play on our newly-tuned piano. And maybe watch a DVD. And finish that book I've been reading for weeks now.

*sighs in contentment*