Kris’ Brain Activity

The missus and I went to SM Mall of Asia yesterday to do a little bit of post-wedding shopping.  Officially, I went there to purchase a tent for the local Red Cross chapter in my district.  We discovered two new and cool things in the mall.

1.  When Ria and I were conceptualizing our wedding invite we didn’t want it to be the usual kind of invitation–you know, the traditional and standard design.  In one of the wedding fairs we attended we noticed pop-up invites.  We immediately knew that was the kind we wanted.  Most of the designs had the couple as pop-ups, with the husband in barong and the bride in white gown, and a church as background.  Nag-isip kami ni Ria pano maiba.  Since both of us are lawyers, naisip namin na business suit damit namin and courtroom yung background.

How ironic, no?

Even if I want to concentrate in preparing for my wedding in Sarrat, I cannot avoid my duties and obligations as Board Member.

After 3 days of delivering the bulk of the Manila invites, I had to travel back to Laoag for a couple of weekend commitments.

The Wedding

On September 20 Ria and I attended the Reyes-Cua Wedding in Sta. Monica Church, Sarrat.  Yep, the same venue of our wedding.  We wanted to see how a wedding looked like in that church.  At the same time, we also wanted to visualize how our wedding would look like.  Thank you to Junie and Elaine for inviting us.  Congratulations to the both of you!

Ria and I missed the reception in Fort Ilocandia because she had to fly back to Manila and I had to rush to a pageant.

The Pageant

I went to San Nicolas to attend the Ms. Primacare Pageant.  I was excited to judge the event.  I was expecting girls and a swimsuit competition.  After all, it was the MS. PRIMACARE PAGEANT.

Hollee Mollee, it was a cross-dressing pageant!

Now I’ve judged everything.  I’ve judged little kids in a pageant.  I’ve judged young ladies in a pageant.  I’ve judged senior citizens a pageant.  And I’ve judged gays in a pageant.

Judging real men dressed as women completes my pageant bucket list.

I thought to myself, ‘I missed a wedding reception for this?’  I wanted to leave.

But that changed when the talent competition came up.  My god, I never laughed so much in a long time.  This guy, who looked like a government official in drag, stripped within 4 ft away from the judges’ table and shook his booty.

He was wearing a wig, a bra and a g-string.

A 230 pound man in his late 30s.

I couldn’t look at him straight in the eye.  I was laughing so loud.

And then there was this other guy whose talent was to draw in a legal size pad for 20 seconds with a pencil, and show his ‘work’ to us at a distance of about 30 feet.  I saw a blank white page.  THAT was his talent.

Anyway, the pageant lasted until 1am!  And there were only 9 contestants.  It took us 5 hours to choose a winner.  My gulay, daig pa namin ang Miss Universe.  Imagine, there they get to select a winner within 2 hours from a pool of 80 contestants.  And here we are taking us 5 friggin’ hours to choose one guy winner among 9.

And the guys smelled of liquor pa ha. 

The Race

Early Sunday morning I had to wake up to participate in the 32^nd Milo Marathon – Ilocos Norte leg.  I only had 4 hours of sleep.  I was the first Board Member there.  Governor Keon came.  So did Board Members Barba, Ranada, Galano, Peralta and Castro.  But they weren’t in running attire.  I thought we would all run, the governor at the very least.  But he told me he was out of shape.

Anyway, before the race nag-ribbon cutting kami sa recently renamed President Ferdinand E. Marcos Memorial Stadium and blessing of its new synthetic track oval.

Afterwards, marathon na.  Madaming participants.  They said there were about 15,000 runners.  First to run were the 21K participants.  Mostly composed of runners from out-of-town (Baguio, Manila, Iloilo, etc.)  Then the 3K runners—children 12 years old and below.  Last to run were the 5K participants.  Obviously, this is where I ran. 

I am not fit.  The only training I did for this race was last Wednesday when I walked around the village for about an hour.  That’s it.  I tried to run, but after one kilometer I was panting already.  I had to slow down and brisk walk.  But when I saw teenagers wearing jeans and sneakers and carrying knapsacks passing me, I just couldn’t take it.  Imagine kids in heavy jeans, flat sneakers and bags beating me?  Aba, di naman pwede yan.  Kahit ang sakit sakit na ng tiyan ko, sige takbo, kris, takbo.

It took me 41 minutes to complete five kilometers.  It was embarrassing.

But at least natapos ko.

And I beat most of the kids in jeans, sneakers and bags.

Now, my body is starting to hurt.