Remember, Rejoice, Renew (or, Thank Jehan for Free Tickets!)

Last Saturday Batch '84 hosted this year's Saint Jude Catholic School grand alumni homecoming and also celebrated their Silver Jubilee. Batches '89 and '94 were in their 20th and 15th year, respectively, so they each got 10 free tickets, and 2 of them ended up in my hands. Neither sisters Mona nor Melody could/would make it, but luckily batchmate (and one of my favorite phone-pals) Irene was nice enough to accompany me to SJCS (where she currently works at their Administration Office).

By the time we arrived the buffet dinner had already started. Irene and I deposited the gift bags the folks at the registration table gave us at her office before riding the elevator up to the 5th floor dining hall. Food was courtesy of North Park (other restaurant sponsor Gerry's gave meal coupons as raffle prizes), and there was even a photobooth set up. Ran into other batchmates Stonibert and Jean Agnes, both of whom were set to perform later. Their being cousins was the closest thing my batch had to a singing duo resembling the Osmonds.

After dinner we went up to the auditorium, where fellow alumni and current prep-school teacher Lourdes Tiu (and sister to my batchmate Paul Eric) managed to snag us seats near the stage. (Helps to know someone on the inside.) After the requisite "thru the years" video montages, tributes, song and dance numbers by various members of Batch '84, we got to the meat of the program (no pun intended).

One look at the Mocha Girl's outfits and I had to wonder (aside from "Are those real?") if whoever hired them knew that there were going to be kids in the audience. And priests. And nuns. And in general a relatively conservative Tsinoy crowd. Ah well, if the old guard of Tsao, Yang and Tchou were still in charge they wouldn't even have made it past the side curtains. Good thing the new guard was game, albeit reluctantly in the case of poor principal Fr. Nicasio. The Mocha Girls dragged him onstage, where he repeatedly looked up and half-jokingly (I hope) had his hands clapped in prayer postition w/ that "Lord, lead me not to temptation" look on his face. Good thing the whole bit came out more funny than risuqe, especially when the girls asked to give him his "first kiss." ("Never been kissed," he said. Also: "Why in front of so many witnesses?") In the end they settled for a group hug. Hooray for audience participation.

After a mock awards ceremony the program headliner came out onstage (after the "male" dancers). I first saw Ai Ai delas Alas perform a couple of years back at the Folk Arts Theater, and seeing her now I noticed a definite improvement. She was more energetic and confident with her body, if not her costume, as she kept pressing her hand to chest in case her ai ais jump out of her reverse-worn leather corset. And ang galing humirit. Only she could turn something as mundane as a scholarship awarding (where was just supposed to hand out prize bags to the scholars) into a laugh riot.

After Ai Ai's performance it was getting late and most of the people were ready to leave (especially since our hosts give their "wrapping it up" speeches), already accepting "special guest" Kiko Pangilinan's and billed 2nd Act Christian Bautista's no-show. But the announcer asked us to wait for the latter, so we did. When he appeared we were still calm. When he decided to sing alongside a die-hard fan she went gaga (w/ husband watching). When he sang Jose Marie Chan's Beautiful Girl while walking along the aisles the wimmen went gaga. All throughout the barely 3-minute song he stopped (or was held down) to take pictures w/ the audience. Even after the show he was gracious enough to stick around for more impromptu photo sessions.

Overall I'm glad I went, storm signal warning notwithstanding. (It seems every time we overprepare for a supertyphoon it never shows, or vice versa.) It was also a chance to see the latest renovations in the old school building (e.g., all the teachers' offices on the 2nd floor are GONE, as well at the stairways leading to the 2nd floor, and they have a sunken badminton court as deep as a well-built mineshaft). Didn't win any of the raffle prizes, w/c was just as well since I didn't really pay for anything tonight except the parking fee. Also I may have learned a thing or two about what not to do in a grand alumni homecoming program when our turn comes up in 2019 ("No more dance numbers from the 80s").