Toldja I'm a Star :P

When I was seven, my very first best friend Marie and I took on a project for the pre-school we went to. The Learning Tree is where most of my happy childhood memories were built and where gifts were nourished.

I do not remember how it all started just that days after our senior kindergarten graduation, I was told to listen to a series of tapes with recorded music, learn the words that came with the melody, and meet Marie every so often to practice.

Then came the days when we had to go to a recording studio (a super feat for pre-schoolers who recently transferred to the 'big school') to sing and 'play' and sing some more. I remember thinking we were like Celine Dion (whom I did not know back then) in their video of Beauty and the Beast, singing to a hanging microphone with headsets on.

We even had an album launch. :)

On its first release, the albums were on cassette tapes. Gimme a break. It was 1992. Then after selling like, I dunno, a whole lot of copies, it is only but right to produce a CD version. So yes, Marie and I are like, platinum record holders. LOL. Of course, Teacher Francie gets props for being the mastermind in all these. :)


(Btw, did you know that she collaborated with the Megastar Sharon Cuneta in the latter's children's album? And that Miel went to the Learning Tree, which means the Megastar's daughter sang our songs, hahaha. Funny thought.)

Later, the grown ups will tell us that we liked holding hands on the way to the studio, at play, or simply to talk. Pang-Hallmark moment lang talaga. :)

You hafta squint a little better and zoom in to see our names, and recognize our faces. I'm second from the left, Marie's the pretty girl with long hair. :)

Anyway, those are the best days, weeks, months I can ever remember. One, because I got to share it with my best friend. Two, because we bonded over music. Three, hullo, we're recording artists. Four, we were probably the most spoiled first graders ever. Five, because Teacher Francie took us to all these expensive restaurants (that I thought was 'common' for most people, yun pala something I cannot afford as a grown up, LOL) and because she is such a darling.

I truly thank God for the experience for it has made a lot of things uber cool in all my years on this earth. And I absolutely praise Him for the beautiful, long-standing friendship Marie and I have. And music, I thank God for music. :)

friendstering for five

wow, five years in prengster.

remember how friendster started with only five uploadable pictures? ngayon may pa-album album na. i don't use the album features- that's reserved for multiply. somehow, i want to keep it old school. and i'm not a fan of the friendster apps; that's facebook's job. and for the blogosphere, i have LJ for that. (oh yes, i'm making myself stalkable by being everywhere)

consider this a trip down friendster memory lane, at least in my POV. or you know, consider this the evolution of the xaris. haha.

in all five years of profile changes (mine reads the same as it did in 2003 except for the about me part), these are the pichoors that the world knew of the xaris.

thank you prengster, because of you...
1) i learned that there's such a thing as 'pang-friendster' na picture. haha.
2) i have practiced my best angle and the best way to tilt a camera to capture that 'pang-friendster' look,
3) i stalked much of the stalkables on my list.
4) i can keep track of old friends, new frenemies and everything in between.
5) i made friendster friends.

yay! i'm a geek loser so i still have only one friendster account with less than 500 friends. in fairness to me, i pretty much know the people on my list. and yes i have gone places but all you can see is my perfected angular shots. haha.

hello, mortal. good to meet you. will you add me in friendster? haha.