Wimbleydoom!!!

Track: Circle of Friends by Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians

i shall

drift
over the souls that
moved me and
instilled in me
nothing but yearning and
insecurities; i shall haunt them
countless times.

anger is not within me
greed was nothing like me; i
court depression, and i
attract those of no use to me.
over and over, i am
inspired by those
loveless idiots and
imbeciles.

Title: Untitled acrostic
Date: November 24, 1993 @ 11.20 pm

I'm not actually a tennis fan. I'm not into sports. The only foray I had in sports was in grade school when I became part of the soccer training team of San Beda. I lasted one school year simply because I didn't realize we were supposed to practice in summer, too. Natch! I could have been a great full-back! My brothers are all seasoned basketball players. My only interest in basketball is watching it with the hope of seeing a brawl - between teammates! You know, players from opposing teams getting into a brawl is old school. Why not two players from the same team slugging it out? That would be a hit!

Anyway, back to tennis. Last year, I learned who Roger Federer for tennis fanatics. I admired the guy and his humility. So when he lost to Rafael Nadal on the clay court, I got sad but was optimistic that on the grass, he'll bounce back. He did! I was happy. Happier still when I read in an interview this quote from Federer:

"He (Nadal) is a fantastic player and is going to be around for so much longer so I am happy with every one I get now before he takes them all."

The excitement builds up once again because here, you find someone so humble. In my excitement, I did something stupid. Well, I later found out it was a stupid thing to do because of the reaction of the person involved. I searched for the website of Philippine Tennis Association just to drop them an email asking them to bring in Federer, Nadal and Andy Roddick (yes, the ex of Mandy Moore). You know how fans are, they'll simply write to authorities thinking these people gives a hoot!

And this is what this blog entry is all about. I emailed them just so I can have my release. Others would have theirs in chocolate, some in Starbuck, still others in masturbation, or all of the above (not necessarily doing it in Starbucks), mine was to let someone know about how I feel. So I emailed, quote:

"I'm excited because my idol Roger Federer has won the championship again at Wimbledon. Don't you have plans of bringing him over for an exhibition game? Bring Rafael Nadal, too. And Andy Roddick.

Thanks.

It was an honest-to-goodness inquiry. I know it was a long shot, but hey, we're talking about a person who had applied for a promotion five times in a span of 19 months and failed every time. So odds don't bother me! 

Imagine my surprise when a couple of hours later,  I got a reply! My, I was excited. I know, they'd probably say that would be expensive, but thank you for taking the time to email us. Now, let me just refresh your memory, I work as a Customer Service Representative handling emails sent by customers to our client. Mostly it's disputes and I must say I have this knack of delivering bad news in a not so negative way. So email ethics is not something I am unfamiliar with. I was hoping they'd say, you know, very diplomatically, that they can't because that would be asking for the moon, but no! Here's what I got as a reply, verbatim:

"Fyi, bringing top-ranked tennis players like Federer, Nadal & Roddick entails enormous amount of budget even if it will only be for exhibition only. Their tight schedules which normally is prepared well ahead of time by their respective managers and/or private coaches/parents is also one factor which will make the proposal not feasible.

"Why not just try and go watch Grand Slam events like the US Open, French Open, Australian Open, etc ??? Tickets for these tournaments can be purchased thru their respective websites."

Regards,

Loxxx Mxxxxre
Administrative Assisant
Philippine Tennis Association

Ok, I just imagined middle aged administrative assistant laughing their assess off with my email. You know, office workers who, the moment they get to their desk, would kick their shoes under their table and start wearing slippers that should only be worn in the bedroom (imagine red fluffy slippers). Then re-touch their make-up and start gossiping with each other! (Ok, that's utterly unfair, they are not government office after all, but I simply imagined that the instant I finished the email!)  Anyway, I knew how expensive it is to bring international celebrities to Manila. I worked for an public relations firm a few years back and, well we never brought any celebrity here, heck!, we never produced an event at all! So my point is, if we who never produced an event find it expensive, imagine how much it would be if we actually did? (The joke got lost in the semantics, I know, so..)

I never thought they can just douse my enthusiasm like that. So I wrote back with:

"Thank you for your kind reply.

Although I am aware that bringing in top seeds like the three mentioned players entail a lot of money, it was more of a suggestion. After all, in the 80s, they were able to bring in top seed players to stage an exhibition game entitled Fire and Ice here in Manila. At that time, no one told tennis fans like us to buy ticket a ticket and watch their games somewhere else.

You totally missed the point, if I wanted to I can watch them in cable. It was more of hoping that PTA has plans of making public and accessible to Filipinos tennis court titans like Federer and Nadal. Obviously, your sarcasm got in the way of the whole point.

But thanks anyway, your reply by the way is now posted in the internet for the whole Filipino tennis fans to read. Nice job!

Ok, I was lying. I couldn't find a single Filipino forum where I can vent out my disappointment (not at the thought that they can't bring in Federer, but the way it was said in their reply).  So I posted it instead in my Friendster bulletin and here. Or maybe I'm this frustrated because as an email CSR, I'm used to replying with niceties and when I get a reply for an email at that kind of tone.. well, makes me feel convinced that customer service is something Filipinos can give to foreigners but not to the natives! (Hmmm, but if I make a bogus email, used a fictitious foreign name and inquired about the same thing, they'd state it in a very positive way, I bet!)

So there, I sent that reply. An hour after, I got another email from them! In big red, like 18 font size, all caps letters, it said:

GOD BLESS YOU!!!

 Poor girl…. she thought I was picking a fight!