Close encounters with the Kris Aquino kind

Yes, she’s really beautiful.

Yes, she’s awfully fair-skinned, with just a sprinkling of freckles on her shoulders.

No, she may be the star of the show but she seemed well-liked by the staff.

Yes, she’s really sharp. She easily spotted that an assistant writer sports a new hairdo, for which she teased her no end (“May date ka ‘no!). She was kind enough to remind me that I seemed not to be swiping at the sensors correctly. She noted that she’s seen me swipe ahead of the rest of the contestants but it’s not registering. After that, my answers did get through- so much so that I reached three million-peso jackpot rounds. She made the team re-tape a segment because of a hardly-noticeable factual/grammatical error (“This may just be a game show but we have the responsibility to give correct information to our audience” or something to that effect).

No, she’s actually quite pleasant, gracious, engaging me in short conversations during commercial breaks. She seemed genuinely interested in the things you say. She was concerned-slash-curious why I was apparently melting despite the blasting cold air in the studio. She repeatedly asked me if I’m feeling okay considering that, according to her, I’ve become ashen. She applauded my decision to become a community doctor and she said the country needed more people like me.

I was sending SMS entries almost everyday for more than a year and a half- the entire time we were doing internship in the PGH and even after that- before the series of fortunate events brought me to Studio 2 of ABS-CBN. Yes, I did recoup my 18-month text-vestment, several times over. But at the heart of the matter is, I would have gladly joined, even without the promise of a million pesos.

Many people would attest to this: To test my trivia-answering skills would earn me lots of bragging rights but at the end of the day, to see her would have been enough.

And so I greet you a happy first anniversary of our encounter. I wish you well. I wish you all the best.

Till we meet again.

Game na!