the second day of the novena mass yesterday was the same as usual. crowded, as usual. only, there were the contingents from different schools and universities here in cebu, all dressed up to the nines. it was pretty exciting. from afar, they all looked very pretty. even the boys looked pretty, with their make-up on and everything. i loved looking at all of them. there was this girl i couldn’t help but stare at. i was transfixed on her because she looked very, very pretty semi-dancing there gracefully with the statue of Sto. Niño in her hand. if i knew dancing can amp up your sex appeal better than intelligence would, i would have enslaved myself to rigorous dancing lessons from infancy to adulthood. nonstop. unsaon ta man, bright ra man jud ko kutob! lol.

p.s. (and this is the bitter me talking!) the pretty girl stopped being pretty the moment she stopped dancing, though. that was the time i gained leverage on the sex appeal department. *evil laugh*

my sister loved those red costumes, by the way. red and gold motif. Sto. Niño’s all-time favorite colors. i’m thinking of buying a sinulog or a cebu t-shirt for the occasion. it looked very cool on that girl right there. but then what i hate about sinuolog shirts on sinulog day itself is that it becomes very cliché. if anything, i don’t ever wanna become cliché. well, i don’t. but i am. my life is pretty much cliché as it is.

moving on, past my undefined and unlimited insecurities, the original candle-dancing ladies (did i say that right?) of Sto. Niño church were given the chance to do their dance steps before the altar. these are the women who dance while praying your petitions, right after you buy candles from them. to be honest, i’ve always found it quite weird to pay someone to pray for you. i’ve probably only done it once. i was with my college friends and we were all getting pretty desperate to pass this certain exam. so there we were, standing beside an old woman, watching her while she danced and chanted prayers for us. i don’t know. it was pretty uncomfortable. but that’s just me, though. i mean, i have nothing against such tradition. faith works differently for different people. it’s just that i prefer to do the dancing myself. i hate competition. lol.

the contingents’ costumes were just marvelous! (and i’m saying that in the worldly way.) seriously. it made me admire the creativity of whoever made them. genius! take this elaborate headdress, for example. heaven knows how much time and skill it took to make it. weeks or months, probably. i don’t know. but it’s amazing, isn’t it?

oh, yeah, and so with the props. this one’s my favorite because i’ve always had this affinity for street lamps. i’m not kidding. street lamps remind me of moonlit walks. silent nights. star-crossed lovers. stuffs like that. point is, i love street lamps. there’s a certain sense of romance in them. the traditional street lamps, anyway. those ornate lamps with benches beside them. those kinds. hehe.

nice, right? so life-like. as if lamps are living things! lol. but i loved them, anyhow. the photo isn’t doing those lamps justice but they were very nice lamps. and i don’t wanna repeat the words “i love them.” enough about my affair with street lamps! hehe.

a hundred or so professional and professional-looking photographers showed up for yesterday’s 2:30 pm mass. those serious-looking, long-haired, stereotypical photographers with their bulky cameras slung over their necks. cameras whose lenses are as big as bazookas. or canyons, if i exaggerate it a bit. and then there was my sister and me right next to them, happily clicking away with our tiny, tiny digicam. nice! lol.

and here’s spongebob on suicidal mode: