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Here are my other Philippine Blog Awards related posts – Obrigado and Valediction.

Do you think that being in the Blog Awards is a walk in the park? Think again! We all know that the organizers and volunteers had to move heaven and earth to get everything ready for the big night but for nominees and  finalists, it was also quite an experience. Shutters were literally going off at every second and at photographers were definitely ready to moments as they happened.

This was how I spent my time on the lead up to the awards night:

Saturday, September 20
7:30 AM
I was actually supposed to be on duty on the 21st but since I had a nice classmate who agreed to swap duty schedules with me, I opened up my Sunday afternoon (clerks may go home by 12NN if not on duty during weekends) and set myself up for a very challenging physical task. Going on duty on a Saturday meant that I was only A  DAY removed from my last 24-hour tour of duty at the Medical Intensive Care Unit. Translation: I’ll be lucky to be awake at One Esplanade if I ever wake up on time.

Fortunately, it was an uneventful tour of duty without any mortalities. I had a couple of hours of sleep inside a very humid and poorly ventilated box with a serious mosquito and cockroach infestation. By the time I woke up, my feet, arms and other exposed parts of my body were covered with pruritic erythematous  (that’s itchy and reddish) wheals. After the sole endorsement round of the day, I called up my Mom to ask where she was. I wanted her  to accompany me to the Awards to: 1) give her an idea of what the blogging community is like and 2) make sure that I don’t do anything stupid.

My Mom arrived at around 1 PM and we still had plenty of stuff to do.  We had to grab lunch , as well as get new contact lenses, a new tie and most time consuming of all, get a haircut! My mom actually bought a new top for the event but she actually chose to stay with what she had on at the last minute. On the other hand, I wore clothes that I bought just before the 2008 Worlds. Actually, I’ve been so in love with this combination that I can remember at least three times that I went somewhere with that EXACT same look – a black pinstripe shirt (from of all places, Maldita), a spiffy gray vest from Topman and a skinny tie (for Sunday’s event, it was a new 170 php *LOL* silver tie from Robinsons Department Store). These were worn with a forgettable pair of pants and an even more atrocious pair of leather shoes (my only workable pair of dress shoes!).

We actually did the shopping part rather quickly but the the whole haircut plan totally exploded on my face. My appointment was at four but for some reason, I had to wait until 30minutes later until the first snip at my mane was made. By the time I was finished, it was already 4:50 – we were already running late and I  still had to get dressed.

I saw Helga, Nina and Eric near the registration table so I guess our level of tardiness wasn’t that reprehensible yet. With a spring on my step, I went inside the venue and absorbed the grandness of the event that I was about to be a part of. Before I could fully take  in the scenery though, I was approached by old media folks who wanted me to answer questions for them. Being the seasoned TV-show-guesting whore that I am, I obliged and soon after Karlo was already asking me to appear in a documentary about the Blog Awards.

In the documentary, they asked me if I wanted to win. Hell yeah, I want to win. It would totally suck to be in the short list for three awards and get shut out, right? Random photo ops and glasses of Coke later, Marcelle and Tiff were already giving out the awards. Despite officially having three chances  of winning, I knew that the only realistic chance  of getting a trophy lied with the Personal Category. The Travel Category is literally FILLED to the brim with heavyweights while the Commentary category is similarly stacked.

The people who prepared the programme this year were  more sadistic this time around. They made the finalists  to what is arguably the most contentious and exciting category wait until the very end to find out who the winner was. As luck would have it, with a chuckle and amazement, Marcelle (while channeling German  Moreno for effect) called out my blog’s name for the recognition. I gave my mom a nice long hug before standing up to go up the stage.

And then… instincts took over…

Aside from Bim who took his merry time and played to the crowd when he took his award, the rest of the winners seemed to be very adamant about staying on stage. I knew I wanted to share this moment with my Mom and having her there in attendance wasn’t enough. Upon receiving the trophy, I shouted I love you Mom! to my Mom’s general direction and as this photo would prove, I was facing the right way. Haha

THIS IS MADNESS! Are you serious?! I think I handled this mob fairly well but could you imagine being engulfed by a horde of reporters and cameraman after a euphoric moment?! And yeah, this also includes Cyberprince’s bilingual approach to interviews due to the nature of his mother networks. I literally had to squeeze out every neuron to make sensible 100% Filipino answers to questions that I had just answered in English!

 Since my category was the last major award to be given out and I still had to weather an phalanx of shutterbugs and cameras, I was MIA in the first few shots. Weirdly enough, my Mom still took this photo:

Uh, Mom… I’m not yet on stage! LOL

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