A pearl beyond price

The Gao Foundation will be hosting a charity ball at the end of this month, which coincides with the Chinese Lunar New Year. It will be held at the Champagne Room of the Breakers Hotel. There will be an Asian-inspired menu and performances.

Seats are $750 each, a pair of seats at $1450 and a whole table (which seats 10) at $7000. Proceeds will be donated to the Neverland Women's Center and the ongoing relief efforts in various parts of the City.

I hope you will join me in this opportunity to help the less fortunate.

This has to be my favorite time of the year. I personally celebrate Christmas, but it's nice to think that there are other holidays for those who don't. Of course, even if you don't celebrate any of them, it's always a good time to help others.

The house is all decorated and my shopping is all done - there weren't that many people to buy presents for, anyway - and now I'm working to put together a charity function for the Gao Foundation, to raise money for the Women's Center and St. Mary's. I'll let everyone know once all the details are finalized. It's been a difficult year for many, so those of us in a position to help should definitely lend a hand.

[Private]

I miss Mama.

And I miss Robin.

I wonder where he is.

I wonder if he's thinking about me.

I miss him.

How is everyone? Is anything interesting happening on the outside world?

I'm still grounded (although my father hasn't come right out and said it; he just refuses to let me out of the house).

This is ridiculous. I'm not a child. I know I did something rash when the riot broke out, but the situation was urgent and I wanted to help. (And I did do something helpful while I was there, so it wasn't as though the outing was for nothing.)

I guess I should just be happy that I can coordinate relief efforts from home, but still...!

It's my birthday next week.

I should be excited and I guess I am in a way - for me, birthdays are like a personal New Year, a day for celebrating the year that was and making plans for the year ahead. This past year has been a good one for me, and there are things to look forward to in the coming year.

However, Baba is talking about throwing a party for me. It's very nice of him, but I know he's doing it mainly to dangle me in front of prospective husbands I would much rather that he donated the money to Mama's foundation. Parties are enjoyable, but the money that goes into them can boggle the mind. It doesn't feel quite right for a few to have a fancy dinner when so many others are going hungry. Besides, Robin won't be there

Written on monogrammed notepaper and hand-delivered to the Forest Grove Theater:

Ms. Claudia Caldwell
Curator
Forest Grove Theater

Dear Ms. Caldwell,

St. Mary's Orphanage is celebrating the 87th anniversary of its founding next month. As a treat for the children, I would like to hire your troupe to stage a play for them, preferably something amusing and age-appropriate that also teaches good moral values.

If you would like, I can set an appointment with you to discuss this matter further. You can get in touch with me at [phone number] or [email address].

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Very truly yours,
Marian Gao

I'm very pleased to announce the establishment of the Lijuan Fan Gao Memorial Foundation, set up in loving memory of my mother, Agnes, who taught me from an early age the importance of sharing what you have with the less fortunate. The foundation is envisioned to support a wide range of social welfare programs, but at this early stage we're giving priority to improving living conditions in poor areas.

Our first project is to set up, in cooperation with the Neverland Women's Center, a free clinic in the Neverland slum area. If anyone is interested in helping out, whether in cash or in kind, please let us know. We are also collecting warm clothing and surplus building materials to assist the people in the slums. With the degree of need in that area, every little bit helps!

I would like to extend special thanks to Attorney Paul Barlow for his invaluable help in establishing this foundation.

( Excerpt from this morning's Page Sixty Six )

---

This is the first time I ever made the gossip pages.

Dear Mr. Locksley,

Could you please tell me what my watch and earrings are doing back on my dresser? I clearly remember giving them to you to sell for whatever anyone in the slums might need. And tonight, after leaving the room for just a short while, they reappeared like magic.

Also, couldn't you have at least stayed and said hello? (Never mind, nobody needs to see what my hair looks like after I get out of the shower.)

Yours,
Marian

I am cranky and need cheering up. Does anyone want to come with me to buy some new shoes? One of Sabrina's friends I forget which one is having a "Dark Side Masquerade" for her birthday in a few weeks and I'm gradually coming up with an idea for a costume. (And no, it won't be at the Satin Slipper.)

( Private to Robin )

Well, the visit to the Satin Slipper last Wednesday was interesting, to say the least. I did not get to visit private rooms upstairs, where I hear all the action is, but I was quite happy with enjoying myself on the dance floor. It's been such a long time since I'd gone dancing or even out with girl friends that I had forgotten how much I loved to dance, and how important it is to have true friends. But what can you do when your best friends keep disappearing?

I could have done without the little incident outside the club, however. Mr. Naylor John, if you are reading this, thank you again for your invaluable help and advice.

I hope tonight's outing with Arnold will go more smoothly.

( Private to Aurora )

Dinner with Arnold was OK very pleasant. We did not talk about OzCorp's janitorial services for three hours as I had feared; instead, we had a very nice chat about many different things. Needless to say, dinner itself was marvelous, too.

He has tickets to the opera next weekend. That's Valentine's Day, but Arnold says it doesn't have to mean anything if we don't want it to. I think it's very nice of him. I'm glad I gave him a chance.

While at the restaurant I bumped into Sabrina Larroche. We knew each other from school, but we weren't very close. Anyway, she invited me to go clubbing with her and the rest of the girls this week. I said I would love to. I know that everyone calls her and her crowd "celebutantes" and thinks they're a bit too fast, but I remember they were very good dancers and I haven't gone dancing ever in a very long time.

If anyone wishes to join us, we will be at The Satin Slipper on Wednesday night. (It's Ladies' Night then, Sabrina said.) I checked and it's somewhere in Neverland - my first impulse is to think that the place sounds rather dodgy, but I've never been there so I cannot rightly say. Sabrina and her friends should know where the best dance clubs are, right?

This past week was... taxing, to say the least, but I'm glad to say that I am feeling better now. Sometimes the pressures of day-to-day living can reach a point where one forgets to stop and simply take a breath.

Well, I have done that, as well as treated myself (finally) to a day at the spa and some new books. Never mind if the books were all silly romance novels featuring heroines who drive their incredibly pigheaded suitors to their knees Doing something nice for myself did wonders, and all feels right with the world again.

While at the spa I had plenty of time to think, and I've realized how much I've allowed to pass me by because I wasted all these years pining It's time to put an end to that. There are adventures out there to be had, and new friends to make...

...starting, perhaps, with Arnold, the man inviting me to dinner. I think I should stop thinking that I'll be bored to tears because he doesn't compare to and instead try to find something positive out of the whole experience. He seems to be a nice enough man; perhaps there won't be sparks (although we can never be completely certain at this point), but I believe I will have dinner with him, and I will have a good time.

( Private )

He's back.

After years of no communication whatsoever, Robin Locksley is back in my life. Or maybe not, since I haven't the faintest idea how to contact him. I know he's still alive at least.

( Read more... )

I'm tired of being kept in the dark about things that are important. I'm not a toy that some man can just put away whenever he feels like it. I get enough of that treatment from my father. I thought Robin Locksley would be different, but apparently I was wrong.

I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, but I'll show him.

It seems that I lost my wallet while in town the other day, and before I had even treated myself to anything. I know I could have called Baba to send me some more money if I really wanted it, but the loss ruined my appetite for shopping.

(I suppose at this point, all I can do is hope that my wallet, if stolen, was stolen for a good cause.)

If anyone finds it, I would highly appreciate it if the wallet were returned to me. I do not mind the loss of any cash, but it is a pain to replace identification and credit cards.

---

Arnold sent flowers again today, and is asking me to join him for dinner one night. My father is, of course, pressing me to accept the invitation.

I'm afraid I have no real grounds for refusal - Arnold appears to be a very pleasant man of good standing in the community and in OzCorp. However, I don't know how in the world Baba expects me to feign interest in the intricacies of finding the perfect janitorial service for OzCorp for three hours.

The holidays were extremely busy, with all the parties that I had to organize and attend. Christmas itself was incredibly tiring, but only because it's such a strain to be alone with Baba. I never know what he's going to fixate upon next.

Baba introduced me to another man on New Year's Eve. I suppose he thought the occasion would make it more romantic, but unfortunately, it didn't work.

There was also so much to do afterward, but at least the Women's Center donations have been collected and allocated. Now I find myself with some free time, and believe I deserve a little treat.

Any suggestions on what this treat should be? (Nothing too ostentatious, please.)

My deepest thanks to everyone who attended our New Year's Eve charity gala. With your generous donations, we were able to raise a decent sum for the Neverland Women's Center.