On a brisk fall afternoon, Mariesol and Mike decided to attend the 2010 Fall Filipino American Student Association mass meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As fate would have it, they were both placed in the same ice breaker circle. After learning each others' names and locking eyes across the group circle, Mariesol and Mike personally introduced themselves, fell in love, and they lived happily ever after. Just kidding. This is real life so things like this take more time to develop so let's fast forward two months later to the preparation of FASA's cultural night show.
It should be worth noting that Mariesol only participated in the modern (hip hop) dance group while Mike was partial to the cultural dance group. Considering these two groups were on entirely separate dance rehearsal schedules, M&M didn't cross paths for the second time until the final rehearsal in late November of 2010. If you know FASA dance, you understand the dedication (and sometimes desperation) to perfect a routine, even if it takes until 5:00 AM of Performance Day. Per typical FASA fashion, this rehearsal was no exception.
Around 2:00 AM, the boys' traditional group was up first to run through their dress rehearsal. The performance known culturally as Maglalatik, the Coconut Boys took center stage and practiced in front of the rest of the FASA dance troupes. Their Coconut Boys moniker originated from their costumes...pants, shirtless, and wearing coconuts used as instruments to maintain the dance beat. Since their costumes involved the lack of shirt wear, the ogling of the shirtless Coconut Boys commenced by some of the modern dance ladies. Mariesol was not among the admirers, rather, she was slightly annoyed.
As you are familiar, Mike is the local Hawaii boy so even after their rehearsal was finished, he did not put his shirt back on for the rest of the evening. This proved to be a distraction for a few dancers in Mariesol's modern dance group. Wanting to finish the clean up of her routine to go back to the dorms to sleep as it was about 3:00 AM at this time, Mariesol's patience was wearing thin quite quickly. She indirectly blamed the lack of dance practice efficiency to the unsuspecting Mike. In her mind, the formula was quite simple.
Mike - shirt = distracted modern dancers = no sleep for Mariesol. Mike + shirt = focused dancers = Mariesol gets to go home.
At this moment, Mariesol thought, strike one with this guy.
Eventually, rehearsals were complete and the performances for the cultural show went smoothly. Exhausted from the all-nighter bouncing between the CCRB dance studio and Angell (pseudo dance) Hall, a full day of classes, and an evening of FASA fun, Mariesol just wanted to eat, clean up after the show, and then proceed to have fun with her FASA family at the after party. Mike, who also had a similar past 24hrs shared the same agenda as Mariesol, sans the after party. He made it to the food line first and picked up the tray of chicken adobo and carried it throughout the room asking if anyone would like a serving. Mariesol, who did not hear his generous requests, assumed he was picking up the tray only to eat directly out of it. After giving it half a thought and him a selfish label, she just continued to eat...without adobo.
Strike two with this guy (meanwhile, Mike was completely oblivious this list was being compiled).
Happy with FASA's cultural event and fully fed, Mariesol felt recharged and itching to get to Fifth Quarter (R.I.P. to this iconic yet slightly sketchy establishment) for the after party. The only thing standing in her way was the clean up of the East Hall Atrium venue. She busily packed up costumes, took down decorations, and moved tables back to their original positions, when once again Mike caught her eye (and once again, not for a good reason). Mike had also been efficiently helping clean up the atrium, but because life is ironic, at the exact moment Mariesol was within his vicinity, Mike was dared to bench press one of the cocktail tables. The goofy, fun loving guy Mike is, naturally he complied as he is always willing to give his friends a good laugh. Too far to be within earshot to hear the dare, but close enough to witness his muscles at "work", Mariesol stood there annoyed once again that Mike is wasting clean up time to show off his strength.
Strike three with this guy.
Mariesol left after clean up to get ready for the night out with friends while Mike departed to spend the rest of the night with his Wilmot House friends, far far away from the Fifth Quarter night club. You know Mike, he is not one for night club adventures and would much prefer an evening of sports highlights, video games, and Pizza House strawberry lemonades. This evening was thankfully different; he was convinced by a couple FASA members to attend the after party where once again he and Mariesol would meet face-to-face.
Later that evening, Mariesol and Mike ran into each other at Fifth Quarter. Unsure if it was the pure relief that the show was over or if it was something else, Mariesol agreed to dance with Mike. She did, however, have one condition: they had to keep an eye out for their friends and make sure they didn't wander off. And so the two began to dance the night away, but fate once again looked to be playing a cruel hand on the duo as strobe lights began to go off and blinded Mariesol. Not wanting the dancing to end, Mike did what he deemed the simple solution - use his hand to block the strobe lights from Mariesol's eyes. The duo continued to dance the night away and the rest, as they say, is history.
