The Masquerade Ball

January 18, 2007. My Grandmother's 85th Birthday Party. Theme: Le Grande Masquerade. Let me tell you a bit about my Mother's Mother. Soccoro Robillo (Nanay) is the mother of eleven, grandmother of thirty-six, and great grandmother to a still-growing number. She speaks several languages, three of which (Japanese, French, and I think German) she learned by herself. She used to run Maguindanao Hotel, and now she runs Maguindanao Centennial Credit Corporation. She is a member of an Ikebana Club and the Soroptimist Club, and she goes ballroom dancing twice a week. And she's eighty five.

Friday started out busy for me. I spent the whole morning laying-out standees for Sagay, Tsuru and Hanoi. I planned to go to Casa Leticia to talk to my cousin, Christian, about plans for the three restaurants for the year, but I didn't have time. Before I knew it, it was time to leave for my Talecraft demonstration at Davao Central High School.

It went smoothly. There were about ten teachers present. They seem to be interested. But, like in my Ateneo de Davao demonstration, they were clamoring for a Filipino Talecraft deck, too.

I was back at the Big House, Nanay's house, by five. But, too late! Her hairdresser had already left. No choice. I had to fix my hair myself (which actually meant not doing anything to my hair). I loved my dress for the evening! I wore a billowing white skirt made of tool, and a leather corset. Very Gothic Lolita. Plus Maita made me an ice mask. I liked it a whole lot.

While I was putting on make-up, my mother arrived from the parlor. Wow. She suddenly had long hair! It made her look a lot younger. And, well, she felt beautiful and that was what was important. She had been feeling ugly and haggard lately because Daddy was sick and she had to take care of him, and the fatigue and worry were burning her out.

We rented Summit in Mandaya Hotel for the event. With a clan that's currently composed of around eighty people (including children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and outlaws... ehe! I mean in-laws), we really needed a big place to have a party. A lot of my cousins, aunts and uncles from abroad came home just for Nanay's birthday. The ones who couldn't sent video greetings (ah, the power of the internet). There were friends at the party, too. Dom was there (Nanay thought I should invite him since he had helped me so much with my event). And I'm glad he came. I wanted my family to meet the friend who'd been helping me with Talecraft. I hope he didn't get too bored.

So, the total number of attendees was around 120 people.

Since it was Nanay's birthday, there was dancing. I gave up and went home around 11:30pm. But Nanay apparently stayed until around one in the morning. My other cousins were out all night going to clubs after the party.

Then the morning after that, January 19 (which was Nanay's actual birthday), we were awoken by a Manyanita for Nanay. Her former employees from Hotel Maguindanao came at six in the morning to render a Harana, a song, for her. Isn't that sweet?