I could have blogged about this soon, but I’ve just woken up from my 16-hour slumber. Yes, I’ve been sleeping for sixteen hours straight. As soon as I got home, I ate a bit (I was only able to grab a bite and a cup of coffee since I had my one-hour power nap after lunch), posted the winners of the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards, and went right to bed. I wasn’t even able to join bloggers at the 2BU after-party (I’m so sorry, Pam!), the fatigue from the stressful two weeks was sinking in. I was just so tired.

I’ll be lying if I say I’m not glad it’s over, because I’m glad that it is. Planning my wedding is probably the only event I can think of that closely resembled the stress I’ve felt (I slept an average of three hours a day too before my wedding), and I was glad when it was over too. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t great. Because it was.

The Awards Night turned out better than we expected. It was our first time organizing an event as grand as this (“event planner” isn’t really a job description that we’d give ourselves), and it was quite surprising that we didn’t run into too much snag (which paranoid me expected). There are a lot of things that we can improve on, which is also a good thing for the simple reason that next year will even be better. Yes, there will be a next year 🙂

To be honest, Abe and I have been considering not having another one next year in one of our “I’m stressed, you’re stressed, omigod I can’t take it anymore” conversations. There are just some instances that we couldn’t help but ask ourselves why we’re putting ourselves through this stress. Abe already had his hands full running a Philippines web hosting company and pro-blogging (not to mention being the country’s most influential blogger), and Jayvee is extremely busy with his podcasting and other extra-curricular activities that it’s a wonder he was able to spare some time for the Awards at all. Me… Well, let’s just say it’s not easy being a blogger, a house wife, and designing/programming sites/blogs for your own design company all at the same time. So why stick with it? I myself am wondered why.

But last night, while we sat on the sidelines as the emcees talked about the Bloggers’ Choice Award, I asked him again.

Seeing the support everyone gave for the Awards is overwhelming, and makes the stress and hard work all worth it. It’s not everyday that you see bloggers of different age and profession coming together in one place, celebrating the recognition of the country’s finest. This, my friends, is the reason why we do this and why we’ll continue doing this. I might be getting ahead of myself for saying it, but we will have the Philippine Blog Awards as long as there are Filipino-made blogs on the internet.

I don’t think the Awards Night would have pulled through as successfully as it did without the dedicated efforts of the volunteers.

Special thanks to…

… the sponsors and media (both online and mainstream) for making the Awards Night possible.

… Josiah’s Catering Incorporated for the great food and excellent service.

… Jomar, Noemi, Juned, Liz, and Jun Asis.

… our good friends Sasha, Aileen, and Rico. We can’t thank you enough for stepping up even at such short notice.

… my dear husband Marc for supporting me all the way (not to mention enduring my bouts of insanity brought about by stress and pressure), for bearing the stress-driven rants Abe and I made him listen to (hehe), and for the wonderful presentation and video at the Awards Night.

Lastly, I personally would like to give my thanks to everyone who made this event worth the stress. I can’t thank you, the Philippine blogging community, enough for the support you’ve given us. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! See you all again at next year’s Awards!