Fate and Ham

I got to attend my first "Provincial" christmas party last week. As new member of the provincial work force, we were encouraged to attend the party, which, from what I heard, was much-awaited because of the veritably fabulous prizes that were raffled off...

(I didn't expect anything, you know, I'm not a big raffle-winner type of person, so I just did the usual, snap pictures here and there, and just people-watch.)

 

I just got off duty, and hitched a ride with my duty partner, whose husband came to pick us up. He drove about an hour plus to get from work, to the Macias Sports Complex, where the party was always held. We got there in time for the invocation.

A choir from a branch/office (I forgot which) did the invocation.

This was the view from my seat...there were people from the different provincial offices, and the enclosure in the middle was where they kept the "coveted" prizes. :-p

Actually, to be perfectly honest, for fun, I whispered a prayer, "If so-and-so (i.e. person/place/event) was meant to be, let me win a cellphone or a laptop...and I'll take it as a sign..."

That's the governor, Emilio Macias II (actually, he's the guy whose signature appears in my employment papers.hehe).

My seatmates...and workmates.

Being the only unmarried person in the staff kind of makes me feel (and look, haha) like a teenager. :-p

Case in point. :-) My other  co-workers. They were off-duty. Everyone, on-duty or not has equal chances of taking home a prize.

Before anything, though, they had lots and lots of numbers for entertainment. Hehe, including this spoof (and very sparkly) interpretative dance number from the engineering department. 

And so, the gamemaster would call out a name, and then the people mentioned would go up to the awarding area and get their prize.

So guess what, the first prizes they gave out were the 10 pieces of ham. At the time, I was deeply "involved" with a paperback (Love in the time of cholera) in my seat...and then suddenly, I hear my name being called over the loudspeaker. 

("Rats!" I thought, "What does this mean now?" :-p To my chagrin (although I am grateful for the additional ham), I didn't get the "sign" that I asked for. Instead I got something else. My friend Bambi says that maybe it's time for me to get something I need in life, rather than something i WANT, because I could always take care of it when I needed to later.)

 

The wildly popular ABS-CBN Christmas song is being played yet again, with peeps from the provincial hospital lip-synching to it.

People waited til the end for the announcement of the grand prize. I didn't. I got my ham...and I wasn't going home empty-handed, nevermind that I didn't know what my getting ham was supposed to mean.  Either way, I'm lucky, I suppose, because at least I won something, and in the first few minutes of the raffle too. :-p

 

Dr. Q won a...plastic drawer set? It's pretty nifty, I would have liked to have won it to keep all my odds and ends in...

Or a pressure cooker... (no paperbacks/hardbacks raffled off, mind you.)

'Nong Migs flashes his hotdog pillow proudly (I wondered if he asked for a sign too.).

Although I didn't get what I wanted, it was no big deal. Maybe raffles weren't my thing...maybe I was just supposed to win the ham this time, and win big in another.

And besides, it got me to thinking about something someone I know said to me, "Signs are for people who need constant reassurance..."  (That was a paraphrase, but I've been quoting this friend so many times, I'm now hoping it's not too annoying. :-p)

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All in all, a good piece of ham. I like it best when it is sliced chilled...with a good book opened. :-p