Pisces Iscariot

Day 3: Saturday, September 30, 2006
I woke up with sore muscles due to yesterday’s walkathon. Today is a new day and today is Game 2 of the UAAP Finals. Tickets were sold-out so we’re just watching it in National Sports Grill (electricity is still out). My hubby got home from work at past 12 noon. He wasn’t ok coz of the traffic and the lack of sleep so we were on the verge of fighting. But we got to NSG just fine. There were still a number of empty tables when we arrived there. My hubby ordered pizza for his late lunch while we watched the Blue Eaglets defeat the Baby Tamaraws. We had to wait long coz of the awarding ceremonies and all while more and more people flock to the place, some are even standing at the back, to watch the Seniors’ match.

The game started at around 5 p.m. already. We are watching it with my hubby’s friend, Jaypee. After two hours of basketball, the Blue Eagles lost by a whopping 16 points to the Tigers. Championship? Not tonight.

After the game, we headed to our Las Piñas home to get clothes coz power is still out. Looks like we’re extending our stay with my mom for a few more days.

Day 4: Sunday, October 1, 2006
Got up at 5 in the morning to go to Araneta Coliseum and get tickets for Game 3. We arrived there at around 630 a.m., that early and the line is long already! Some camped out just to get first in line. My sister’s friends were there since 3 a.m. Wow! Anyway, the wait for the ticket booths to open at 9 a.m. was surprisingly pleasant. However, as 9 a.m. approaches, it is noticeable that the lines are getting thicker and not longer so the chances of getting good seats are slimmer. But I still got two Upper Box B tickets, thanks to my friend’s friend. Our other colleagues, Jaypee and Clint, had to go to Ateneo to buy their tickets there since the tickets in Araneta have been sold-out. We got out of Cubao by around 11 a.m. Whew! So much for a college basketball game…

Wow! Finally! Power is back!

Day 5: Monday, October 2, 2006
I decided to call in sick… because I’ll be watching the UAAP Finals Game 3 at 3 in the afternoon today. We had to be there early for fear of not getting good seats. We just got back from my mom’s house this morning and we have barely settled but we had to prepare to go to Araneta already. It’s so hot outside and my colds and headache were killing me. Add to that my hubby’s migraine and his car sans the air conditioning. All these equal to a petty fight. We were not speaking to each other until we had to. Due to the expectedly heavy traffic at the Araneta Center, we left the car at SM Mall of Asia and took the MRT to Cubao instead— a much more convenient alternative to bringing the car. We reached Araneta at half past 1 and proceeded to the Upper Box where our friends saved seats for us. We were dressed up in our school colors— me in a blue shirt and my hubby, in his Ateneo jacket over his white shirt— all geared up for the much-awaited game.

Drums beating, people chanting their respective school cheers, a dome packed full of fanatics clad in blue and yellow… That’s Araneta as we saw it before game started. First two points went to Ateneo. Cool! Second shot was made by UST… whoa! The cheer was louder than that of ours— the yellows very clearly outnumbered the blues in attendance. Good job by the Blue Eagles in first half, ended 37-31 (if I remember it right). Here comes the pep squad. Ateneo… traditional. UST… galeng! I find it amazing that their entire squad can do cartwheels! Is that a requirement or something? Anyway, it’s the third quarter now. WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Puro foul trouble ang Eagles. Damn! Ateneans are chanting: Luto! Luto! (It sure feels like it.) The second half went by so fast and so frustrating for us. Luckily it ended at 64-all. Overtime… 5 minutes of wasted chance for the blue side. Fate sides with the Tigers. Championship? Not this season. There’s always next year. Oh well… Give chance to others. Win or lose, it’s the school we choose anyway.

We had dinner at Aristocrat in SM Mall of Asia after a tiring and disappointing trip to and from far away Cubao. It’s now raining very hard. We picked up some groceries then headed for home. Unfortunately, the streets are already flooded by now and the car is not in top shape (there had been no air conditioning since two weeks ago). The engine would suddenly stop but my hubby was able to make it “crawl” until we reached the street before our house. We couldn’t go any further coz the flood was already a bit high. So we left the car where the water level is low and walked towards home amidst the rain and the mid-calf waters.

Wow… my 5-day weekend (actually, it’s 6 but there’s really nothing much to say about the 6th day)… everyday there is a disappointment or a misadventure.  Who can get any more misfortunate than I did on those fateful days?

Last Friday, amidst all my misadventures due to the super typhoon that struck the metro the previous day, I promised to myself that I would write a blog. So here it is…

Day 1: Thursday, September 28, 2006

I filed for a vacation leave for that afternoon because the Game 2 of the UAAP Finals between Ateneo and UST was happening then. Getting a ticket to watch the match live was not an issue. Catching the whole thing on TV was ok so long as I don’t get interrupted. But due to my very lazy nature, I decided to skip work in the morning thinking that I could use some quality time with Halo. I wake up at 5 a.m. on weekdays. At that time last Thursday, the typhoon was yet to arrive. But as the morning went by and the storm was really intent on destroying everything that stood on its path, I thanked the lazy me for being lazy; otherwise, I might have gotten stranded somewhere with that kind of wind. I had my breakfast at around 830 a.m. and the lights were already going on and off. At around 1030-1100 a.m., the lights finally went out for good without my knowing that it would take days before they would be restored. By the way, the game was postponed for Saturday. It’s ok, at least there’s a storm. My VL wouldn’t be wasted.

Day 2: Friday, September 29, 2006

I didn’t go to work as usual. The previous night went on all right in spite of the heat, the darkness and the mosquitoes. I thought lights would be back at any time before today’s daybreak but no. Add to that the fact that there is no more water coming out of the faucets. Patience, patience (even if my daughter, who is always hyperactive, was naliligo na sa pawis)… I am a very impatient person. I hate waiting. But iss there anything that I can do? Nothing really. The least I could do is to open the telephone directory and look for hotel phone numbers. It’s time to evacuate. So the whole morning, I was calling hotels and asking for their rates— but not really reserving a room (stupid me!). So I packed our bags (Halo’s bag was the heaviest) and headed straight to Greenbelt to have lunch. Since it was lunch time when we got there, the restos were jam-packed. My hubby made a comment that later would be known to us as a premonition: “I feel like Jesus,” he said, referring to that fateful night when Mama Mary and Joseph had no place to go to but the manger. So we had lunch at Blue Ginger then started our trek to Makati Shangri-La where we planned to check-in. We left the car in the Greenbelt carpark and walked to Makati Shang. My hubby approached the reception and inquired. Unfortunately, they were fully-booked so they wouldn’t accept walk-in guests. Our bath-tub-and-aircon dreams vanished but there’s still hope. So off we went to The Manila Peninsula just to get the same answer: “Sorry, we’re fully-booked.” But not giving up all hopes, we proceeded to the Mandarin hotel without any luck.

Our feet were tired but we had to get to somewhere for Halo’s sake. We took a break by going to Citibank Makati coz my hubby had to get money and pay for credit card bills. While waiting for Wacks to settle his transactions, I texted our college blockmate Zarah, who works in Citibank together with our other college blockmates, so she could see Halo. She replied excitedly. After a while, we saw her coming with Camille, her bestfriend and also our blockmate in college who was celebrating her birthday on that day. We chatted a little and took pictures before we said our goodbyes to continue with our “journey.” After trying even the cheap hotels with no luck at all, we decided to quit Makati and head to Pasay and Manila.

It was already 4 or 500 p.m. when we reached Pasay. It’s fully-booked in Heritage hotel. In Hyatt, the one beside San Juan de Dios Hospital, there are rooms available but there’s a catch… there’s also no electricity! Hahahaha! That was funny! I mean does the hotel staff honestly think they can attract customers even if they offer discounted rates? Yup, they said there are rooms but there’s no electricity so room rates have a 500 peso discount. 500 pesos! Hahahaha! That explains the empty parking lot. For a while there we thought we could finally check-in. With that, off we went to a number of other hotels, most of which I can barely remember the names, but still without any luck. By the time we decided to call it quits, my patience as well as my hubby’s had run out. Halo, our inspiration, was ever so jolly even if she was all sweaty and smelly (coz she hadn’t taken a bath) not knowing that what was happening to us was bad, real bad. Our nice-comfy-bed-and-buffet-breakfast-for-two dreams have totally, totally gone away… Now, we’re truly the Holy Family looking for a place to stay but were rejected. Poor us! So instead we spent the night at my mom’s place where there is water even if there is no electricity too.