and life goes on and on and on....from music to sports.

---i've never been an NBA fan. i have always admired the locals (PBA and UAAP). my passion for basketball dates back highschool days when san miguel team was the crowning glory of all teams. now i can still remember ning ramos at the helm, hah - my memory is still good (but bless his soul, he's gone now). i've always hated crispa! followed by toyota - anywhere robert jaworski was, i hated those teams (sorry jawo, i just don't like you).. there they were - paner, estrada, miego, ohhhh, i love those guys!!! ah, but those were the years.....

---then my attention switched to the next generation in basketball - alaska. it has always been alaska team for me. well, besides those good-looking guys tim cone (coach) and joaqui trillo (team manager), who wouldn't fall for this team. not to count out alfred uytengsu (owner). my craziness over this team has led me, my daughter & eventually my husband follow them, from the games at the araneta coliseum to the dugout, onto the gates where players, officials, referees, wives, kids, relatives of the players exited. i knew each & every players' car model, even their plate numbers. i had each and every autographs (never mind if they were smelly after a game, heh heh...but they always get a good shower after every game - i think.. but i was never a stalker. who would stalk a basketball player, anyway? ewwww!

---then when mhelai was in college, and just as i lost interest in basketball, she took my energy & passion of being a UAAP fan. naturally, it had to be LA SALLE! well, i like la salle because firstly, my godson, bernardo "bo" de leon, jr., graduated there with a degree in economics (yes, la salle taft). but my favorite color was blue! but if i chose ateneo, there would be chaos inside the house... so la salle it is... joseph yeo, mac-mac cardona, jayvee casio, mike cortez & rico meirhofer, to name a few were familiar household names. another trip to araneta's exit gates and we had their pics & autographs too. we followed la salle's games anywhere. mhelai even went to the extent of applying as a courtside reporter but studies had to come first.

---in one of her subjects, she was required to interview a bunch of basketball players and surprisingly her feet took her to the moro lorenzo sports center. and later in the evening we had to fetch her and it was also a good excuse for me to get a glimpse of those ateneo players whom they called "gods", hah hah. oh my goodness, tenorio was super friendly! chris tiu, jai reyes were among those ateneans. i had to call chris tiu to make a 360 degree turn just to get his autograph. but we're still la salle at heart.

---and after a very long time and these famous UAAP players went pro, i must have gotten tired of basketball and switched to a lot of things. in college, i made myself present in st. paul university's sportsfest. oh wow, i had a hero in basketball. one from the HRM dept. her name was stacey black. she was like - kobe bryant!!! weh! but sadly, there's another story behind this basketball star.

---back to NBA, i was hooked for a while when john stockton and carl malone were big names. what teams were they? memory gap. rockets? only because malone's face reminded me of my husband, hah hah

---and i forgot sports for a long time. well, i enjoyed watching the women's volleyball on TV. of course it will still be la salle. i remember illa and the carolino sisters. i remember mhelai & i sweating it out at the rizal memorial coliseum for the championship games.

---then my love for sports turned to music. so it was one evening at the MOA when husband asked me to look for an alternative to bocelli music in the car. i browsed upon the CDs under classical music and i got attracted to the pictures of these cute boys on the CD cover. "eternal" it says. while i thought it contained children's songs. so while walking towards the car, i read the list of songs - ave maria. i like ave maria but it was not the ave maria i knew when we played it. boring.... so we put it aside. came typhoon ondoy, my foot infection, mhelai's free tickets to libera concert...and that was the start of a beautiful friendship & admiration for libera & libera fans i met on the net. the rest, as they say is history....