When I was on my break today, I was sitting with two of the managers. After one of them left, I was telling the manager about the virgin incident and she says, "To everybody? She said this outlout?" Thank you! It isn't me being neurotic!

I went to the Philipino Pavillion on Thursday with a co-worker: yes, she's philipino. It's like, whichever ethnicity you are, you're going to the Pavillion just to spot family, or friends of family you haven't seen in years. So, since I was finished work two hours earlier, I went to the bar next door and had two long-island iced teas. Off to her place we go moments later where she plies me with vodka and pepsis. "Just don't act too foolish!" she warns me as she's pooring me my third vodka. I eye-ball how much pepsi to add, thinking maybe she'll think I'm almost done then add more booze. As I'm making myself comfortable, at her request, I switch the channels and spot "Will & Grace" [Someday, I'll buy the DVD's!] She comes in after I've been watching it for 10 minutes and without thinking, changes the channel. "Hey" I say,"I was watching that". "You like this show?" she asks and I unapologetically say, "Yeah!" I see the distastefull look on her face she tries to hide from me. I ignore this, she makes phone calls and in a few moment we whisk ourselves outside where a mini-van awaits us. Apparently, there were about 7 people on this trip, but because my fellow co-worker was bringing me, one of them opted out, for the van only held so many people. I only found out about this the following Saturday. We get there and I'm awaiting my turn to pay for my ticket but it turns out that the person doing the driving is one of the sponsors, so I was taken care of. We went into the food tent and had Pepsi. My ignorant brain assumed that Philipinos love Pepsi, meanwhile the whole folklorama is the major sponsor of the whole festival! Good thing I didn't open my mouth and say anything stupid. I'd never been to the Philipino Pavillion before! I was taken it by the dancing, but bored by the singing, as good as the young woman was. After I'd gone and come back from the bathroom, there was a plate of food for me: it had some greasy meat on it and it was touching the rice! I simply slipped it off, while reminding my friend that I'm vegan; sometimes I say vegetarian or that I don't eat meat because most people go blank or are completely baffled by that word and I hate wasting time explaining it to them. Anyway, after I've slipped the meat onto another plate, my friend turns to me and says, "How about some pork then?" I just looked at her and she realized her faux pas.

The stand-out moment of the evening was when I was getting a ride home. The rest of the group had never met me before, so they naturally asked me questions like if I'm married and all that. "I never want to get married, not in this lifetime" I say. So my friend, out loud, tells everyone, "She's a birgin!" Then she repeats it twice! For those of you who don't know the Philipino accent, she called me a virgin. It annoyed me but I sat there stewing. I had some alcohol in me too, which you'd think would make me looser in the tongue. I even spilled my bag as I got out of their mini-van. I can still hear her accented blurting of "She's a birgin" and I'm even imagining her 50-something self cavorting on a gandola a la Madonna in the "Like a Virgin" video.

My friend wasn't at work today, plus she lost her debt card, so we couldn't go to the Chilean Pavillion on Saturday; I was at the African-Caribbean one when I phoned her about us going out when she told me of her loss. I was with my parents and afterwards we went to the Italian Pavillion. 'twas good. I had a piece of foccacia bread, which was the worst I've ever tasted, and I'm positive the Italians who were there would've agreed with me. I'm sure all the ethnic groups who went to their own pavillions were disappointed with some of the dishes and their authenticity.

Next year, I'm getting one of those sticker books so I can see all of them.