A sweet lesson on patience.



a NYC Taxi driver wrote:

I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.

There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard
box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.'

'Oh, you're such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, 'Could you drive
through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly..

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued in a soft voice..'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired.Let's go now'.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' She asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut.It was the sound of the closing of a life..

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day,I could hardly talk.What if that woman had gotten an angry driver,or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one. :)

[ref]

Here's another essential part of event styling, the Centerpiece. My inspiration for the centerpiece are the beautiful skylines of New York. Since the tables of the reception are small, we have to create a small but elegant centerpiece without too much expense. It's all DIY here :D Here is the final look of the skyline silhouette centerpiece.



The centerpiece is made of black special board paper and we cut out the windows and shape of the buildings. A candle illuminates inside so the windows glow like the buildings at night. We also embellished the inside of the buildings with crystal stickers so when you peep inside you can see the sparkling details. Aside from the skyline cutout, we also made card numbers. It's made of white specialty board paper. I made the design in photoshop inspired by musical symbols and floral patterns. We printed it in the back side of the board paper and carefully cut them out. To put some color, we used the excess doodle pattern from the invitations. We placed them inside but not directly on the backside of the cut-out so there will be depth. You can slightly see the shadow of the cutout in the pattern when light hits it. Here's how our card numbers look like.

 

I love how the light casts through the window on the table! In addition, I also borrowed wooden decorative furnishings and little lamp post candle holders by Gerry DCarpio of GDC Events. Thanks so much Sir Gerry! :D You can also see the specially packaged sparklers that was used during the program. Finally, we added more candles and glasses, and sprinkled the table with sweet delights.

Thanks to my brothers, Mark and Aljo, and Wella and Lance. I couldn't have done these without your help!

Last month, i had my first opportunity to become an event planner for our thanksgiving party. I'll share little by little every detail of the party and share my thoughts and tips in a series of post called Project Red Party. I posted the moodboard that i created here which involves firetrucks, skylines and things related to music. The party is a double celebration since its my dad's 50th birthday and their 25th (Silver) Wedding Anniversary. They both work at the Fire Department where my dad is the city fire marshal and my mom is a government employee. Thus, the color motif that I chose is red, silver and black.

The first thing we planned out are the essentials of the party: the date, time, venue, and theme. After finalizing them, I started to create the moodboard and eventually the invites. I wanted to create a simple, fun-looking, hip yet elegant looking invitation without much cost. So here's the final look of the invitation. :)


The inspiration for the design is fusion of NYFD (New York Fire Department) and Jazz. We printed it in poster paper and embellished it with crystal stickers to give it a sparkling finish. The envelope is a 6-inch wide special scented envelope with a nice pearly texture. Then to give it a color, i printed a doodle-ish pattern in red paper and covered the inner side of the flap. On the other side of the envelope, we labelled it with the name of the recepient with some musical symbols. And finally, we sealed the invitation with a specially designed emblem of the event which is inspired by the logo of the fire department.

I'm personally satisfied with the design of my first-ever DIY invitation and my parents liked it too. Each invite roughly cost 15 pesos only. With a creative design and resourcefulness, you can really make a cool, cheap but expensive looking invite for your party. Here are some fun behind the scenes photos of us during the process of creating the invites.


Thanks to my brothers, Wella and Lance for helping me out :D More updates soon...

Here are the latest photos of Lady Gaga's latest fashion when she performed at the Madison Square Garden last July 6, 2010:










Credits to mtv.com for the photos.