About Us
Picnic 2007
History
WEDDING BILLS
Back in Chicago, the amigas were faced with footing Ildefonsa's "easy" instalment fees, having vouched for the "couple's" joint capacity to pay. But trust the resourcefulness of the amigas to revert into a molehill the mountain they have created. Not only did the "wedding mass and banquet" took place, the number of "invited" guests had tripled.
How? Just 24 hours after Rico's "callous desertion of the devastated Ildefonsa," the Filipino-community grapevine in the Midwest was sizzling with at least twenty totally different versions of the Valentine's Day fiasco. The amigas immediately seized the opportunity to cash in on the hot issue. Whether or not the wedding ceremony and hotel reception took place, the creditors would like their money in full, thank you. So they improvised by turning the entire proceedings into a "mass and concert for a cause." The whole-day affair started with a Catholic ceremony at the wedding chapel (replete with the flowers and the matching bows). The offering of special prayers for the safety and well being of Ildefonsa was the highlight of the service.
The "concert" that followed at the hotel wedding hall was sold out. $40 per plate was a bit too much for an early morning meal of coffee, ham omelette, Danish pastries, and five kinds of cheeses, but everybody was there. Not so much for the worn-out kundimans of the Filipino choir but for the first-hand account of what really, truly, and actually happened -- straight from the mouth of the wedding-gate conspirators.
There was a suggestion to raffle off the "Contessa," but even at one dollar a chance, there was a severe shortage of marriageables wanting an XXL meringue in their hope chest. It was auctioned before the concert and generated a lot of chuckles and a small profit of $85.
After the quick meal, the choir opened with the inevitable "Dahil Sa Iyo." Followed a dozen Filipino classics about undying love and eternal devotion which were ignored by the crowd. The Ildefonsa jokes and knock-knocks having been exhausted, the tables were now in heated debate over who was mainly to blame for the blunder, the silk clingy shift and the Shirley Temple curls or the meddling amigas.
But the verbal hubbubs were soon dampened by the haunting "Ako'y Iniwan Mo" and the comically choreographed "Nasa-an Ka Irog" which brought the house down.
Rico believed he was being punished for his abandonment of Ildefonsa. And so early one morning in April, he downed a bottle of a potent local rum and confessed his crime to his mother.
Net proceeds after the creditors was $1,725.86, representing the initial fund for the newly instituted BRIDES Incorporated. (Obviously an acronym. The I could be for International and the D perhaps for Dignity, Desertion, even Debts and Distress but let's hope R is for Rescue and not for Retribution.)
WINE, WOMEN, & KARAOKE
What about Rico? Did he fall in love with sauna bath attendant number 69 who turned out to be a virgin and a long lost heiress? Or did he return to Riyadh where he became addicted to DIY vodka and was castrated for molesting a sheep?
After a whole week of painting Manila red, he went home to his mother in Mindoro and did absolutely nothing during the next four weeks. He has told no one about his aborted wedding. His two brothers in Riyadh were not even aware that he was getting married. Everybody thought he went to the USA to fulfil his boyhood dream of visiting Disneyland.
If the wedding actually materialized, Rico's plan was to make it to appear that he met and fell in love with Ildefonsa during his American holiday. Years of courtship and absolute familiarity with the partner's lineage were pre-requisites to respectable unions in Rico's part of the country. He did not want to embarrass his family by coming home with a pen-pal bride.
