There's Something About Mary (with apologies to the Farrelly brothers)
For those of you in the know, my full name is Ma. Felixberta Pascual Macasaet, Jr., formerly Ma. Felixberta Arias Pascual, Jr. My nickname is Marife.

Being a newbie in the United States, I have had the misfortune, if you can call it that, of my new "kababayans" here mispronouncing my nickname, doing tongue-and-lip exercises. So, I decided to baptize myself with a new nickname -- "Maria", since my first name has a Maria in it. From then on, I made sure my mind was always on "Maria".

While on a recent trip to California, I told my cousin, Billy, and his wife, Brenda, that I was going to re-nickname myself "Maria", but only for tongue-twisted foreigners. One thing led to another, and they convinced me to forego the "Maria" and think of something else. Okay, "Marie", I said. After all, "Marie" sounds like a contraction of Marie and Fe (whatever!). Marie, Marie, Marie.

The next day, I went to the taping of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" at the Burbank studios of NBC. As I was queued, this kind senior lady asked me if I already got taping tickets from the NBC gift shop. Dang, I didn't know about that! She whispered sneakily to me that she would hold my position in line, until I came back with my ticket (you see, the damn gift shop was almost a block away). She was so kind and gracious! I thanked her, then she introduced herself as Barbie, and her companion as Randy. I was about to introduce myself when I stalled (suddenly confused that I was no longer "Maria"), then blurted out "Mary!", instead of the revised "Marie". I almost died, silently laughing at myself as I walked away and headed for the gift shop. I didn't know what my fake nickname was anymore! When I later told my husband, Joey (who joined me for the taping), about this, he teased me and asked, "So, Mary, where are your little lambs?". Aargh, what a mean person! Hahaha.

So, that's the story of Mary, and this is Mary's little lamb, er, blog.


NOTE : many thanks to Louie Araneta -- he did magic superimposing my face on Cameron Diaz's! But now I know ... now I know I will never look good as a blonde!

Firsts
Don't you just feel uneasy about "firsts" -- first day at school, first day at work, first time to have your period, first kiss (oooh, but that's another story ...), first time to drive a car, yada yada yada. Well, I feel foolish and techno-challenged right now as I do my first post in this blog. I've had my own version of Dear Diary before, as a kid, with real journals (one was a Hello Kitty diary) but this uneasiness I feel right now involves not only spilling my thoughts and guts to the entire human race, but, also, worries as an OC (obsessive-compulsive) who is concerned about appearances, grammatical correctness, and creativity, to say the least. I cringe, thinking that my headline is not too creative, the fonts' colors are not pretty enough, my sentences are rambling, and what-have-you. Oh, the agony of firsts! Firsts can be both torture and sweet pleasure. I think I need a pill ... Sigh.

Marife Pascual-Macasaet on her supposed last day of work at Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, Philippines (April 15, 2005)