Of Friendships and Miss Lea Salonga ( The Journey)

There are people you meet today and they become good friends--- for life. At least that's what you  hope for. This is exactly what happened to me and my two sisters --- Miss HG and SolSister ( yes, we have "friendship names"-- I am Ms.B ).


We met briefly one summer afternoon last year. So brief in fact that I said hi to Girlie ( MissHG) who was the birthday celebrant on my way out the door and I briefly spoke to Sol, who was the party's host. I guess it was destined to be. Mr. Hubbs was the only one invited because he met Sol's husband Eric, and Vince who is Girlie's roommate. They met during a basketball game. For some "universal powers" working, I was "friends" with Girlie on Friendster---you know, that innovative social networking site that has gone to oblivion?  So, I figured what's there to lose? I would only be there for a short time and if I am surrounded by total strangers who are not very friendly, my exposure should only be minimal because I was only going for my breaktime from work, which is about an hour less travel time of about 15-20 minutes each way. Mr. Hubbs does not like going to events without company, so he asked me if I could join him. The trooper that I am, I went, and the rest, as they say is history.


Miss Lea Salonga is my favorite. I have seen her perform on stage and had seen a concert of hers. Well, what do you know? My sisters love her too! Coincidence? No. Great minds think alike. Her voice is powerful but soothing, she is pure talent, no hype! So when I saw that Miss Lea is staging a cabaret style concert at the historic Carlyle Hotel in NY City, I was thrilled. I immediately asked people who wanted to join me ---- in Facebook. The only 3 people who replied were my niece, Fridah, Sol and Girlie.


The show is titled Lea Salonga, The Journey. As with many relationships, you need to put time and effort to friendship, it's a journey that is inspiring and beautiful yet with its own roller coaster ride.Yeah, we've heard  "you know I am always there for you" line and the "we can pick where we left off" line... but really, if you want to develop a deeper and  more meaningful friendship you need to be genuinely involved. Our journey as friends is past the the "i know we jive really well" and "we can talk about anything" stage--- but if we stopped from there, there would be no more time together, no little conversations, no just going out for some dinner time or the usual chatter. The journey of Miss Lea Salonga is one to reckon with. A simple young girl from an upper middle class family in the Philippines, her mother and her worked tirelessly to improve and market what is already acknowledged as talent beyond compare at that time. She excelled in school but inspite of that, even herself admits that she was never voted class president because of other's perception of her --- being snotty and overly goody goody. Then, the opportunity came, she auditioned to be Kim of the famed Oscar award winning Miss Saigon. It was difficult to be away from your home at such a young age and be a star with a very tedious routine as Kim. But, she did not only win the hearts of Broadway regulars but the famed Tony Olivier Award--- the Oscar of stage theater. Worth mentioning is her speech where she said she only used to watch this show in Manila--- what a roller coaster ride!


Sol, Girlie and me have more years to develop this friendship, just like Miss Salonga who did not become a star overnight--- yet because there is genuine talent, it naturally flourishes. So as with our friendship---the natural caring for each other is there but we know we need to put extra oommph if we want to have a deep and engaging friendship. As I always say, I need and want friends, not acquaintances. I have too many acquaintances than I could care for. Personally, I would rather spend the day just watching reruns of 24 with Sol or abusing the karaoke with Girlie than have a  fancy 'dress" me up dinner with an acquaintance. ( Hmmm. I like that last line, I can actually write.) LOL.


So, off we go to NY city. We all prepared for this day because we said we would spare nothing to pamper ourselves this day--- silly us, we discussed to not even look at the menu prices, that we would order as if we do not have all care, that our credit cards are corporate sponsored.  Girls can dream! I'll tell you a funny story. Girlie travels a lot because of her work. She flies back home on the weekends. Not having enough shopping time for this, she went to Ann Taylor, saw the mannequin on display and asked the sales associate to give her all that the mannequin has. The frazzled SA asked.: " Even the necklace?" Girlie said, yes... and the shoes and the bracelet, and and... She did not have time to think of her wardrobe so she figured it would look good seeing it looked good on display. Only Girlie can do that--- not checking the prices. Me? I am a fabulous bargain hunter! Really, I am.  Anyways, Sol was the default driver just because we were bringing her car. I was the designated" non stop talking girl". Hey, that is essential in any trip, so the driver won't fall asleep and that the travel would go by fast. Needless to say, the trip to NY city went so fast. We had stories to tell and people to talk about. NOT! I'll let you in on a secret. Girlie graduated from the University of the Philippines, the premier learning institution of my beloved country while Sol is a graduate of Ateneo de Naga, another premier school. So, here I am with this scholarly ladies, we talk just about anything in the world, from Nelson Mandela to properly pronouncing Louboutin. Lo-bu-tahn.

We parked right beside the hotel. We arrived just a tad early. The Carlyle Hotel is a very iconic hotel --- meaning OLD and rustic and beautiful--- meaning--- very COMPACT- SMALL- CROWDED. Got the peechur yet? In any given day, I'd rather stay here than in mega big hotels. I l love places like these. I see grandeur in the old and rustic things, plus service is impeccable. The best thing though is people watching. But that's a different post altogether. Did I mention that parking in NY City can cost you an arm and a leg? Wha-at? Not an arm and a leg! More like my whole being - the whole size 14 me! But as I mentioned-- we are not considering cost here mah dear, we are going to see Miss Lea Salonga--- ONLY THE BEST.

It was a dinner show so we were seated an hour or so before showtime. The Carlyle only seats 90 for performances. If I may say so, the place is , shall I say-- shoulder-shoulder. But it made it more personal and charming. The food is okay and VERY expensive. I think the bottled water is about $10.00. Duh, Bernadette. Then comes Miss Lea Salonga. Suddenly the food is better and the bill is forgotten. She is a gem. I declare her Philippine national treasure. A true beauty. Is it obvious yet? I am a superfan. I like that--- superfan. I should adopt that title. Miss Salonga's superfan. The night is filled with her powerful voice and everyone was mesmerized with her performance level. I loved it, she combined classics and pop music so well you can forget all about all those  non talent all hype artists.


It was my first time to tip the waiter and the head waiter. Is there such a thing? Whaddap? But I guess, that's how we roll. We PRETEND we are so used to tipping. NOT! But, I can tell you, I know between me and these two lovelies, there is no pretending. I can be myself as I can be. I can laugh until I snort with them, I eat fantabulously ( oh, yeah, that's a word) when around them and sing out of tune even in their presence. We are so different from each other, I love it! I am a laboratory scientist ( a fancy way of saying medical technologist, oh yeah!), Sol is an accountant and Girlie is a computer analyst. Wheew. But we share love of so many things. We love food, hell yah. We love books, we love to sing ( they are good singers, I am a good performer-- I claim performer award), we love traveling, we enjoy kids and we adore Lea Salonga. We laugh a lot, we like the same movies and we are all hopeless romantics, not to say we are very independent successful women. We know each other too well, we can finish each others sentences and laugh out loud without saying a word, and know we are laughing at the same thing---or person. I can be ignorant and not be shamed by it, I can tell them what I think and they know it is given with great consideration. They can tell me things I probably would not take well coming from a different person, but because it's them, I take it with love knowing  they would not tell me if it is not true or not in my best interest.


So, the show ends in great encore. What a fabulous show! I loved the storyline of her songs telling stages of her life--- hence The Journey. I adored her way of injecting humor along the line. I love, I love, I love! Ev-ree-thang! But the friendship does not end. We will develop great stories of our lives and probably cry in between and laugh a lot--- yet we would love each other as real sisters. You know how they say you can sometimes find family in friends? I say, you can make your friends family, make your friends necessary family. In that way, you have woven your lives together, you are integral to each others success and failure. Knowing us, failure is not an option, we may fall but not fail. Every show has and encore--- whether it will get great reviews or rants will be noted in the following day reviews of the so called critics. But I heard nothing but spectacular review of Miss Salonga ( can this be considered a review?). I know I love these girls to bits and hopefully our friendship will not have an encore, but some breaks if it must. I also know that if I critique our friendship, it will all be spectacular. 


I have bestfriends in different stages of my life. I have 2 in high school ( Angelita and Jennyrose), 3 in college---Beng, Allen and Elvie and in my working years, I have Jerome and Ricky. What makes Sol and HG different then? Because there is no reason for us to be together! We don't have to go to school together, we do not have to work together. It is plain obvious effort we put in to see each other. It is genuine love and sharing the same passion of friendship we have. We love to be friends. We want to be friends. We exert effort and develop a deeper meaning of what we see so much around now--- just casual friendship. We have real friendship, where there is no room for jealousy, competition and pretension.


We have more years to go, but here's to friendship and Miss Salonga--- The Journey need not be all roses , the important thing is you triumph along the way with our friends.