I’d like to thank Ricky Lo and April Boy Regino…

A funny thing that happened to me last week.

It was about 3:30pm and I was skimming through the local papers when I read an update by Ricky Lo, an entertainment writer, on April Boy Regino, an artist who migrated to the US last year. Now Philippine showbiz is my Waterloo, but I really didn’t have much else to do until 6:00pm (the end of my work day). To my surprise the article mentioned that April Boy was assisted by an immigration lawyer whose name rang a bell.

Flashback: In the summer of 1993, I took a flight from San Francisco (spent a week with cousins) to LA (spent the remainder of the summer with my Dad). On the plane I was assigned a seat beside a Filipina and her African-American husband. She asked if I was Filipina, too, and we hit it off from there. This is how dated it gets…her husband was a dolly grip (drives a cart that carries one of the camera men?) on the Arsenio Hall show so we exchanged phone numbers before leaving the plane and I eventually got to watch two live shows of Arsenio Hall that summer. I forget who all the guests were at the time but I remember 1) My new-found-friends forgot to tell us that you had to be 18 to get in so my younger sister proudly told security that she was 13 (and ended up going shopping with our Tita while I watched the show) and I lied (I was still 17 at the time) and 2) Arturo Sandoval (a South American trumpet player?) was a guest on one show and my friend gave me a cassette tape of Mr. Sandoval’s album after the show. My Dad eventually moved up north to Marin County, CA near Monterey, CA then to Pittsburg, CA in the Bay Area so I soon lost touch with the couple.

Last month I was actually wondering what had happened to them then (call it serendipity?) I came across that Ricky Lo article. He even plugged her mobile phone number in it. My best friend and I were thinking it was worth trying to get in touch with her since it’s not a very common name. I actually felt like a ditz afterwards because I decided to check with my friend, Google, and this girl’s name was all over the place (her own law firm website and a plethora of local newspapers that covered April Boy’s move from here to the US). It really was her, and, apparently, she’s like some lawyer to Pinoy celebrities who go to the US for business or pleasure. I ended my day by giving her a call (after midnight here) and I was so touched because when I said my name she was like, “Where are you?!?!” Imagine, after more than a decade, she still remembered me :D We talked for a while and I got her e-mail addy so I sent her an update later in the day.

Okay, this story would be so much better if it were some hot guy that I could have a future with, but who would’ve thought I’d have to thank Ricky Lo and April Boy Regino for helping me touch base with an old friend?