Almost Disastrous Astoria

December 1, 2007

Our second event, in Astoria Plaza was one of the best challenges in our almost year-long career!

Of course November 24, 2007 was apparently the day Mr. Trillanes decided to mess up the whole Metro Manila; thus making the government react in the usual dramic way, CURFEW.

Our event as usual starts at 8PM. At around 2pm, people started texting us, "are we still on for tonight?", "will the event push thru?". Of course it will push thru we answer everyone.

It was a gloomy afternoon, it started raining and it was depressing. We were worried, and irritated.

We got to the hotel at around 5pm, starting to set up. Texts still came in asking if we would push thru, but now, people started to back out. "I'm sorry my mom said i cant go", "do you know there's a curfew? I'm not sure if I can go anymore." My head was spinning.

When we reached the function room, I was overwhelmed. My eyes spotted so many problems! The table setting was ugly, the table cloth was crumpled, crease line all over. They used left over table setting from last night's banquet. gawd, and the worst of all, empty room. I feared that at 8pm, it would still look the same.

I kept my composure, took deep breaths, and continued on working. 1 came, 2 backed out, 2 came, 3 backed out. ugh, I had a hard time swallowing, there was a lump on my throat. There was even a person who came in, looked at the place, and said he had to go home. ugh.

After awhile, a highlight came. My mom's friend brought his sons and daughters!!! oohhh... it was a relief, a bunch of great looking people coming to join my event! haha. People who attended are the ones who were pretty much carefree about whats happening and was just enjoying the moment before everyone had to go home by 12mn.

Ding, Ding, Ding! Date 1 started and continued on..."to the left, to the left" we played the song of Beyonce as we asked the guys to move to the left, to their next date. 10:45pm came and the 15th date ended...

Everyone was so understanding, maybe because there was a coup, people had lowered their expectations, and so they had more fun than what they expected. 25 people met and became friends.

We all felt like Cinderella, scrambling to go home. A sigh of relief came over me, the dark cloud was blown away as we came out of the hotel door. The night is young, but we had to go... I was happy to go, smiling as I drove away.