Philippines - Dinner Under The Umbrellas

Today was the CPU Grand Reunion Dinner & Reception. With so many people here for the centennial celebration, there were very few venue options for tonight's event. The reception was housed in the gym with the overflow in the auditorium. There's just one teensy, weensy, tiny problem with this: the gym's not done yet. There's a roof and a floor and ... a roof. No walls, just the roof. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be an issue. It would actually be preferable to a gym with a roof & walls because we had breeze & air circulation without the walls. With as many people there, air circulation would have been a major problem. But I digress. Back to the no-walls issue.


Did I mention we are in the middle of the rainy season? Not only are we in the middle of rainy season, there is a typhoon headed to Japan & China. This means the Philippines is getting rain from that typhoon. We've been getting rain at least twice a day for the last 6 days and today was no different. We got rain as soon as dinner started. First we heard it, then as the wind picked up, we heard AND felt it. We're sitting in the middle of the gym, so I'm thinking we may be ok. The folks on the right edge of the gym started opening their umbrellas and the rest of us were gawking and giggling. Then the wind really picked up and we could see the rain blow in sideways. Umbrellas started popping up all over the gym. No one was paying attention to the children's dance troupe, our dinner entertainment. Everyone was too busy looking around at the sea of umbrellas and with all the umbrellas open, it was difficult to see the stage. Dinner was actually quite fun and funny. Everything after that seemed almost anti-climactic.




Well, almost. This is Dad singing with some of his frat buddies. This is the real reason why I went tonight, in the rain & flood and why I had dinner under a sea of umbrellas.