Cruising in Midtown

October 10 – Saturday. I watched my very first musical, Spring Awakening, at the RCBC Plaza in Makati.

How was I supposed to know that the following Monday, I was to have my own spring awakening right in the very heart of Manila? No… wait, that doesn’t sound right, does it? Let’s put it another way: I had my own awakening to... the hidden wonders of Manila, if you get my drift.

Before you proceed, let me warn you that the following entry contains elements not suitable for immature audiences. Pornography included.

So it was Thea’s birthday, and she treated us to five giant pizzas and five giant bowls of pasta at Brooklyn Pizza in Rob Ermita (Pedro Gil Wing). We ate. Then, it was time to leave. And no, this isn’t the big story yet (as if something pornographic would have occurred between pizza and us).

I had decided to let the Larry pick me up, since riding the jeepney would have cost me eons of me-and-my-term-paper time. Therefore, with the Larry still being miles away, I decided to take a little walk around Midtown.

I arrived at the 4th floor. And decided to take a leak at the… where else? In one of the best CRs in Rob Ermita – the ones at 4th floor Midtown. Of course, there was no ‘tanananan’ music to warn me not to enter the place.

I entered the CR, which by the way, is located at the end of a narrow hallway that diverges from the smaller Midtown atrium (just pretend to be geographically acquainted with the place).

There was no one there.

I entered the second to the last cubicle.

Then, a clinking sound. A rapid clinking sound.

I looked up. Nothing. I looked down. Something.

Now the CR is tiled, and the tiles are so shiny and clean, they might as well have been floor mirrors. Because the tiles on my cubicle reflected not only what was in my cubicle, but in the ones beside me as well.

And there, I saw… (explicit content deleted by author).

Simply put, two guys.

And they were… moving. A hand was (explicit content deleted by author), and the hand wore a wristwatch, and the watch was also shaking, thus, the clinking sound.

So it dawned upon me that the 4th floor Midtown CR, usually empty, is actually a ‘cruising place’. And the cruising lives happily ever after.

Gorilla

I miss talking about the nasty high school that I attended and all its minions. No, I’m not being nostalgic (well, not as of the moment). I just happened to remember yesterday an incident involving me and my 4th year Chinese class adviser… something that screams of pure, genuine, untainted absurdity.

Now, if you don’t know who my teacher is (and not many of you readers do), let me introduce him by saying that only a dimwitted gorilla can ever compare to him in this world. In short, he teaches crap and, somehow, is crap itself. A piece of advice: If you want to learn Chinese, he’s one of the last persons you’d want to approach.

My fellow math team members and I were reviewing for a contest that morning, when the pseudo-queen a.k.a. gay overall director of the high school math teams barged in during the session. He-She asked, “So what have you been doing lately in Chinese class?” Humorously, we answered, “Nothing.” I answered, “Uh, nothing… it’s actually just rest time.”

Note that the pseudo-queen is also somewhat dimwitted; thus, he-she took our reply seriously. Without further question. And that the pseudo-queen has a seat of power in school, which he-she uses to lure his-her prey (if you know what I mean).

That afternoon, while still reviewing (therefore, not attending class), the gorilla called me and said it wished to have a quick word with me outside the faculty lounge where we were. Of course, without any idea as to what it was going to be, I followed suit.

When I got outside, the gorilla said, “Pseudo-queen called me earlier and asked why I'm not teaching you kids anything during class, why I haven’t been conducting ‘real’ class. I said, who told you that? He said, (I, author of this blog) did.”

I was utterly speechless, my mind racing to come up with the most reasonable excuse for that ‘statement’.

Then, the dumbest part came.

He asked me, “Are you mad at me or something, that you said that to him???”

My mind raced even faster.

Why would I be mad at you??? I don’t have time to be angry with gorillas. Stupid pseudo-queen took our answer that morning for real - and the slimy vixen name-dropped!

The gorilla, with that statement, made it clear to me that he believes himself to be an excellent teacher.

Anyway, I came up with a brilliant answer, and the rest is history. What’s bad-worse-worst though is that the gorilla is still there, in my former high school, teaching the unfortunate kids crap.

remembering tagaytay... but it's not dead

Er, how do I phrase this? Tagaytay was a beauty? A beatiful beauty? A beautiful?

The field trip had essentially six destinations: The Ilog Maria Bee Museum and Farm, and Bee-Sting Therapy Center; Mushroom Burger; The Hallelujah Diet monastery (this ain’t its real name); The T-House; the church beside the T-House where someone in the controversial Arroyo clan of the Philippines got married; and the pasalubong place somewhere along the road. Just a few words, and I'll let the photos in my Facebook do the rest.

Highlights:

1. Hitting my head on the bus’ damned TV twice.

2. The Ilog Maria photo session – and man, was it one long photo shoot.

3. The ducks/geese (couldn’t tell which) at Ilog Maria.

4. The kid who was attracted to our cameras. The attention wasn't unrequited.

5. The most beautiful environmental CR I’ve ever seen.

6. The mushroom lunch.

7. “Eat only living food. Everything else is not good for your body.”

8. The drink. The living-food drink.

9. Photo shoot again at the T-House.

10. Finding my long lost “T,” made of bamboo, at the T-House!

11. The visit to the church

12. 3 boxes: 2 Buko Pies and 1 Buko Tart

13. Ang mga samu’t saring hirit sa loob ng bus.

14. Playing Taboo with the Taboo people: Tella, Ginnie, Phyl, Thea, Jio, Vince, Josh, Clems, Jim, Clint, and Madi. Marami nito sa Orosa! Ito ang favorite ni Jim! =D

FINALLY, RAINWATER THAT HAD COLLECTED ON THE LINOLEUM ROOF (it's not a real roof) AT THE ILOG MARIA MUSEUM FOUND AN OUTLET. HALF MY SHIRT WAS SOAKING WET AFTER ONE GIANT GUSH OF PUZZLING IDIOCY.

P.S. Hoping that Spring Awakening will be a good one tomorrow.

how i finished my term paper body

It’s true: Tita Glo finally had her Katrina, but with a name that stinks by a mile.

It’s probably the first time (unless I’m wrong) that an entire week’s worth of classes got suspended. All because of environmental disequilibrium. To say that the victims are countless is worse than an understatement. Numbers don’t mean anything in such a disaster anymore; it’s inefficiency that does.

Much has been said about the recent supertyphoon, so why don’t we talk about the no-classes side of the issue then?

When I first heard the news that classes for Monday (Sept 28) had been suspended, I was all joyful kid. A few hours later, Tuesday got cancelled as well. And since we had a field trip to Tagaytay scheduled on that Wednesday, that spelled three beautiful classroom-less days. The best part was, I finally had time to work on the body of my term paper, as well as the reaction paper, for Comm II!

Then, we thought CHED had finally lost it: Classes suspended until October 3 (Saturday).

Success became disaster. How in the world were we, the ultimate braniacs of the country's ultimate braniac university, going to survive an entire week without sitting inside a classroom, basking in the thrill of quizzes and long tests?!

The worst part was, it meant that sembreak would no longer be on the 14th. If the school sticks to the original schedule, then the break will fall exactly a week after, on the 21st. (Update: That's now the case.)

I guess the only consolation that that weird week brought was my actually finishing the body and conclusion of my term paper, as well as the reaction paper. And now that sembreak has officially been moved, it just means more time for the paper… or better yet, more free time after finishing the paper.

Beyond the cumulonimbus clouds, there lies the yellow star of our solar system.