Making a difference

February 21, 2007


Today is Ash Wednesday. Many of us managed our workloads in the morning in order to have time for mass at noon. Len, Emper, Ria, Nina, Regie of EETA and I heard mass in Chinabank. On big church events like this, the mass is held at the penthouse (looks like a conference room or executive lounge). There were plenty of people but we were able to stand near the front where we could see the priest well.

The priest had a funny story about a local priest who made one of his Ash Wednesday masses memorable for those who attended. Our priest did not know if that priest was licensed to do what he did but he did it anyway because that was his nature. The priest in the story is Fr. Sonny Ramirez, who usually holds masses for showbiz celebrities.

During one Ash Wednesday mass, he asked the people to line up for the imposition of the ashes on their foreheads. But instead of dipping his thumb on a small container of ash, he placed a large bowl of ash on the altar table, dipped his whole hand in the ashes and applied the handful of ash on the faces of the people. According to our priest, this was the traditional way of imposing ashes on Ash Wednesday in the old days. Fr. Ramirez then requested the surprised mass attendees to bring out their handkerchiefs and wipe the ash off the faces of the persons beside them.

Thankfully, our priest did not imitate Fr. Ramirez. =)

After mass, Nina and I waited for Rech and we all joined Len, Ria and Emper for lunch at Chowking. Regie went out of the mass early but we didn’t see her outside.

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We are all excited about what we plan to do for Marco’s birthday tomorrow. We had agreed on a scavenger hunt and the clues will be given to the five accomplices: Van, Rose, Ria, Emper and Nina, in that order. Why them? Marco had played the biggest practical jokes on them in the past and they would have been more than willing to get back at him.

They would each keep an item that will be taken from Marco’s desk and when he comes to claim it, they would make him do something as ransom payment for his things. And after claiming the item, they would hand him a piece of paper containing the clue to the next item he was supposed to search. Everything was set. We just had to wait for him to leave—which took some time, because he was preparing for his training session with Chie tomorrow.

But it did not turn out the way we planned. It was better. The accomplices were willing to take part in the game but in the end, they had second thoughts about making him suffer on his birthday. Good girls. They agreed that once he figures out who’s holding what item, he’s free to claim it without a “ransom”. In addition to the five girls, Monch also wanted Dennis to be part of the scavenger hunt as an accomplice and Cecile will be the last person in the list, and the one who will hold his gift.

I started preparing the clue sheets right after Marco left. Monch and Cecile went off to give the thing-nap items to their respective keepers. As we were doing this, Allyn came to Marco’s workstation and decided to rearrange his stuff. Moving some of his things on one side, she got Lynnie’s stuffed toys and Melanie’s bonsai plant, Harvey, and transferred them to his desk.

Other officemates, seeing what she did, volunteered their own desk decors—stuffed toys, picture frames, pen holders, small pillows—until Marco’s monitor and keyboard was surrounded by several mementos and desktop personal items. It began to look like a girl’s desk. But it was so pretty we had to take a photo of it.

Unfortunately, we’re not sure if any of us can come to the office early enough to capture Marco’s expression when he marches into the office and sees his desk all dressed up.