It was one nice morning, I am driving my Car to attend the American Bankers Insurance Association (ABIA) Annual Conference to be held at Cheyene Mountain Resort at Colorado Springs. The conference starts tomorrow but we are invited to come a day earlier since the company is one of the Sponsor's of the said Conference. Since Willie is one of the Officers of the said Association, he had to send someone to help out with the preparation. While driving I was thinking how many more Associations we are a member of that I did not know of? I made a mental note to go talk to the Admin Manager about all this when I go back to work Monday, so I won't ever be caught off guard again.

I glanced at my wrist watch, 10:20 am, I thought "I will be there in 10 more minutes.. good! I still have plenty of time to read all the documents before the Organizer comes in at 2 to check in." And since I called early this morning for an early check in... I am good to go. I smiled at myself, then I remembered if Willie mentioned this earlier this week I'm sure it would be a lot better. I made another note to lecture him next time I see him. I saw a Starbucks outlet and I stopped and felt a little sad. I didn't get to talk to Scott today but good thing I managed to send him an email . Promised myself to be online when I have a chance.

As I entered the Resort, I thought, "this place looks nice." I went to the counter and gave the lady my card and the print-out of my booking confirmation. After a few minutes the manager of the Resort, who's name tag says Bryce came and introduced himself. He took a card off from his pocket and said, "Hello Ms. Wilson, I was the one who talked to you this morning. It's nice to have you." I smiled and said, "Hi, it is nice to meet you Bryce." He looked surprised when I mentioned his name so I pointed at his name tag. He smiled and said, "you have a quick eye, I didn't catch you peaking on it and how may I address you?" Gave him my card. He read it silently and said "May I address you as Charice?". I nodded, then the lady on the counter said that my room is ready. I asked Bryce, " Can I have someone bring my things to my room? I really want to talk to the person in charge of the ABIA's Annual Conference." "Of course!" he said, he called a room boy named Nathan and told him to bring my things up and he lead me to the Coffee Lounge right across the lobby. As we settled to the table next to the window he waved his hand and a waiter came to our table he said, "Please get Ms. Wilson's order, have something to drink while I call the Banquet Manager." He took out his mobile phone and made the call.

The menu was good but not many varieties, so I just ordered a glass of Iced Tea, then I remembered to ask if they can make it frozen iced tea instead. The waiter obliged after Bryce nodded at him. When my drink came I saw a blonde lady in black corporate suite walking towards our table. She automatically smiled the moment she saw me looking at her. When she reached the side of the table she offered her hand and said, "Tanya Benson, It is nice to have you Ms. Wilson." I smiled back and shook her hand and said, " It's Charice, no use to really be this formal. Have a seat." She sat across me and opened the folder she was holding and started to talk, "Here is your copy of the Itenerary for the whole Conference. As you requested earlier, here is the list of the Organizers and their corresponding assignments for the event and their contact numbers. They are scheduled to check in at 2 in the afternoon today. Here are the list of the companies that are attending, every company is allowed to send 2 to 3 participants. So we are expecting, around 400 people from around the country to come. There are around 50 attendees locally and some of them are booked here as well."

I smiled and said, "Thanks for all this information, this will really help a lot in making sure everything is in order. But since I am not really brief about all activities for the next 3 days, can I trouble you in giving me a walk through to every activity and where it will be held?" Bryce said, " That is no problem, we are glad that you would like to know, you are actually helping us by making sure everything is settled anyway. The success of this event is good for the Resort. Just tell Tanya whatever you need and she will make sure to help you out." He smiled and apologized, "I still need to attend to a meeting, I will leave you with her and if there is anything else just give me a call." He shook my hand and left. Tanya and I went on our way.

Around noon I went to my room. Threw my purse on the bed and opened my laptop hoping to see Scott online, my boyfriend on the net. Luckily he was on. We did our usual conversation, happily joking and teasing each other for an hour. He said he talked to the boss and that he is going to attend a seminar in the next 3 days. He promised that he would try to go online when he gets the chance and I did the same. Although it feels like we were both feeling sad, we still end up laughing about other things that we talked about and end the phone call sweetly.

That afternoon I received a call from the Organizers and agreed to meet them. The preparation we did was tiring but I was enjoying it. It was nice working with Daphne, the ABIA's Secretariat Head; Sherry the Liason Officer; Lyndon the Production Officer, Kelsey and Jerry the Encoders. We prepared everything from the Computerized Registration, Name Tags and the Conference Kit. Jerry even prepared ID cards with our name and the word Organizer under it. I smiled when he gave me mine and it says "Charice, Organizer". We took a break and had some mango juice while they asked me about how I ended up just joining them at the last minute. When I said its my Boss's fault. Daphne made a face and we all laughed. I said, "normally he is a great boss but there are times that he keeps forgetting." Lyndon commented, " Old age?!" and we all laughed.

The next morning everyone was busy. People who's attending the conference started to check in and we opened the registration by 9am at the Entrance of the Colorado Conference Room. Willie, came to overlook the Event. Then Eric, Stan and Bruce, the Admin Manager came to attend the Conference. "Hey guys!" I greeted them when they came to the registration area. Kelsey and Jerry asked them to register on the laptop on the table. Daphne gave them a conference kit. Willie and I went to the coffee lounge to talk. I took a sip at my coffee and saw the boss looking at me. He pointed at my name tag and said, " since when did you use your second name, Charice?" I replied saying, "It was the manager of the hotel who called me Charice and I was too shy to correct him." He smiled and said, "Your shyness is unchangeable even if you have been dealing with a lot of people for years. I said smiling, "Boss there are just things we cannot change just like how you love wine." And we laughed. I continued to do my reporting to him then we watched the people lining up on the registration booth. Then we saw some of the Invited Speakers that arrived. We walked over to them, greeted them and we went inside the conference area to prepare. After an hour the place is almost full. I scanned the people around and saw Eric and Stan waving at me. I walked towards them across the room. I heard a familiar voice. "Hey, what took you guys so long? I've been here for ages." I turned around to look, the guys back is not familiar to me. So I turned around to meet Eric and Stan. "What was that? The conference has not started yet and you already had an eye for a guy?" Eric said joking. I punched him on the arm and said, "silly, I heard the guys voice thought I know him but when I looked he was not at all familiar."

Meanwhile, from the middle of the 5th row where you were seated you saw Steve and Chuck walking towards you. As they sat down you said, "Hey, what took you guys so long? I've been here for ages." Steve replied, "the traffic was bad, it seems that everyone is on their way to here." Chuck patted your arm and said, "hey do you know anyone here? That lady seems to know you? He was looking at you. You turned around but I turned around at the same moment you looked at me. You said, "No, I don't know her, I don't know anyone else around here except you two. You continued your conversation with them until the speaker announced the conference to start.

At noon the Speaker announced that the Buffet lunch is served at the Colorado Room and then the Conference continues as the booth openings at the Outdoor Pavilion at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I took the wireless microphone we have at the registration area and spoke, "Your food stamp is inside your conference kit. You have lunch and dinner food stamp for the entire conference. We have personally picked the best tasting food here at Cheyenne so I hope you enjoy them. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to approach anyone of the organizers. Thank you and enjoy your lunch."

The moment I spoke, you thought that voice is familiar. You stood up and looked at the stage to see if anyone is beside the speaker. You tap Chuck's shoulder and ask, "Can you see the person speaking right now? She sound really familiar." Chuck pat you on the back and said, "Nope I can't see anyone speaking on the microphone, must be a recording or someone on the back stage" You were about to walk to the stage to check but Steve grabbed your arm and said, "There she is!" pointing to me putting down the microphone on the registration table turned around and joined the people going to the Banquet area. Chuck asked, " what's with you?" You thought of telling them who the familiar voice is but decided not too since it would create too many questions anyway. Instead you shrug your shoulders and said, "Come on, let's go get some lunch."

While in line to get lunch you concentrated on looking around and narrowing the sound of the voices around trying to distinguish the familiar voice. The waiter on the buffet table asked, "white or red sauce on your pasta sir?" You did not reply the waiter asked again, Steve nudged an elbow at your arm, you looked at him and heard the waiter asked, "white or read sauce on your pasta sir?" "white, sorry!" you replied quickly then you heard Steve said, "sorry he's kind-a spaced out about a woman's voice." Chuck and Steve laughed as they continued their way on the buffet table. You continued on and joined Chuck and Steve on one of the tables. Looking at the food: fresh salad, pasta and garlic bread, fried chicken legs, buttered vegetables, seafood in oyster sauce, you thought, 'even the food seems familiar'. You murmured to yourself and said, "silly!"