Holiday Inn Monrovia

This is the Holiday Inn Monrovia, right off the 210 Freeway at Huntington Drive. Strangely, while the weather today was mostly gray and overcast, the sky in this picture looks strangely blue. Sorry, I guess I'm not that great of a picture editor. Anyway, I was here Friday to do another 18th birthday party (for someone I knew as a baby - man, how time flies!). This hotel seems to be popular for the debutante parties - last time I did a party here, it was also an 18th birthday party. This is not a bad hotel to work at anyway - the catering staff is generally easy to work with and they oblige us when we need several hours to set up and decorate.

However, we got one of these guys - a picture taker. We actually wouldn't have known he was there, taking pictures, if his flash hadn't gone off. The dude just walked in with his wife (I presume) and, I guess, thought, "sure, I'll just take pictures of everything you guys are doing....." He didn't even try to chat us up or say hello or anything - just came in and started taking pictures. I even tried to push the point to the guy by saying, "hello, how are you? I'm good, how are you?" He didn't get the point, so I got down from the chair I was using to decorate and stopped until he left.

Sometimes, we're OK with other people taking pictures, but usually I have to get the signal from my mom - it is her business, after all. But it's not cool when people just walk in and start snapping away at another person's hard work - c'mon, at least say hi. Some people do get real sensitive about other taking pictures of their work - I remember once, when I was maybe 14 or 15, I was at a trade show, helping my mom out. My mom told me to wander around and take some pictures, so I did. I happened to take pictures of what I think was a balloon display, and the lady who did it went after me - yelled at me, said there was a sign that said "No Pictures" (I didn't see it), then even wrested my camera from me and tore my film out. I was so steamed - I mean, we were at a trade show, what did she expect? - but what could I do. I was a little teenager at the time.

Anyway, thank God that dude left before I finished up - here's the finished product. Well, at least the front. I had to leave early to go to work, so not everything was finished. I kinda don't like the colored lighting, but hey - it's what my mom wanted.

Here's a picture of the backdrop, closer, without the colored spotlight.

And here's the front entrance arrangement.