exits.

I wrote this on January 8, 2008.

yesterday 5 people opened my office's door hoping it is the way out only to see another office and not lobby leading to a heavenly exit from the dusty and overused Elizalde Building. the same thing also happened for almost every day of the previous weeks, only differing in numbers and in types of people. so early today i did an experiment. before i could start working on my to do list i made a NO EXIT sign to post on my office's door. the "no" being in gray and the "exit" in black, thinking that it would make difference, if at all.
then the clock starts ticking.
surprisingly, the first people that got into my bait were, the stuart (??) couple. foreign videographers who go around Panay to film tourist spots, scenic places and Visayan cultural activities. the husband exclaimed: WHAT? no exit here?? he turned to the door and said, "But it says EXIT--"
"No exit," i said.
the lady, the wife, then said..."Oh, so sorry. it says no exit. sorry we couldn't read the gray ones," she said pointing to my sign.
then off they go.
experiment. experiment.
i need two more of the similar incident in order to change the gray "NO" into the purest, darkest black.

---------------------

after a week, a handful of people still opened my door thinking its the way to heaven (because the old building do looks like hell).
it got me into thinking that they perhaps could not really see the "NO" that precedes the "EXIT".
so i took the A4 sign and traced the "NO" with the red permanent marker and post it on the door again this time with...say, conviction that my sign would work.

PERO WALA MAN GIHAPON!!!!
LINTE!!
WALA GID MAN GABASA ANG MGA TAGA ILOILO HAW?

so i took out the signs again and rearranged them. made sure they are at the eye level.

it's been a week after that reaaranging.

and here is the statistics:

1 woman asked if my office is this certain office. (WRONG!)
1 woman opened the door and quickly closed it back when she saw me. (first time kakita tawo?)
1 old woman opened the door, closed it halfway and opened it again to ask me if this my office is not the way out. (lapit nalang gid. lord help me!!!!)
and notably they are all women. Noted down.

hmm... would a a life size sign of my agency's name across my office's glass windows make a difference?

thinking...thinking...thinking....

and just before i clicked the post button a woman in her ealy 30s (baw malagas gid!!!!) suddenly opened the door, took 3 steps and exclaimed surprise when she saw me. she asked for the exit.

tsk tsk