The Bummage Chronicles, part 2

June 21, Saturday: With yesterday’s mini-kabuhayan showcase in my pocket, I went to Alabang Town Center to a. buy me a new PC, and b. find the Japanese store for Rica’s Japanese pillow (2 hours late = Japanese pillow). I asked Bryan, an old friend from high school/ex-boyfriend/back to friend, who agreed to help me pick out the parts I needed and also help me carry the stuff back home.

Why did I ask him along? He knows more about computers than I do. Plus with all those times he dragged me along to weird trips and for that time I half-dragged him home, I still have friend cards with his name on them, and he has sufficient muscle power to lift the CPU. Arguably, I can lift the CPU myself but I can’t lug it around along with two big plastic bags full of PC stuff and a bag of Japanese pillows, now can I?

Side comment: I barely recognized him with less hair.

After we got the PC (my new baby: Dual Core 2.2GHz, Seagate HD 160GB, Kingston 1GB RAM, ECS motherboard, and LG 22x Lightscribe!), the bloody cabbies from hell refused to take us for anything less than 350bucks. Note that I can take a cab to Makati from Las Piñas and back with that sort of cash. Since I drained my mini-kabuhayan showcase on the PC, I barely had money left for the celestial cab fare, so we decided to take a jeep. And so the misery began.

Alabang Town Center is approximately 30minutes away from my brother’s house, but since it was a Saturday and it seemed like everybody in Alabang was on their way to SM Southmall, we spent 30 minutes sitting on the same spot. The jeep inched its way toward Toyota, an entrance to BF Parañaque and a shortcut away from the traffic. Bry suggested that we take a tricycle from there and spare ourselves an hour. We still had to go to another shop to pick up a monitor for my PC. And so we went. It started to rain.

When we got to the tricycle station, the queue was loooooong and we spent another 30 minutes with only tarp shielding us (and the PC) from the rain. Water dripped on Bryan’s head and he shivered all over – the cold water dropped onto his spiky hair and slid straight to his scalp.

We finally got a trike and it rained harder. Bryan’s famous last words: Sana hindi baha. Batman/Bruce Wayne was not going to let us catch a break. The water was ankle deep and as usual - filthy. I told Bryan, “Please do not slip.” We had to take another tricycle to the main road so we tried to flag the ones parked across the street.

Tricycle Driver across the street: Trike kayo?

Me, screaming: Opo, papunta po sa labasan! (Gesturing toward the direction where we were going)

Same Tricycle Driver across the street: Trike kayo?

Me, screaming louder: OO NGA PO! (It started to rain harder and water squished and splashed around and in my Chucks.)

Tricycle Driver across the street: (Kicked the trike’s engine to life and drove away.)

Me to Bryan: Is he turning around or is he deaf AND retarded?

Bryan: He’s turning around to get us, look.

Tricycle stops in front of us. Bryan puts the PC on the seat and assists me. Tricycle drives away.

Tricycle Driver: San po kayo ma’m?

Me, trying hard not to burst into flames: Uh, manong, yung kasama ko po.

Tricycle Driver: San po kayo ma’m?

Me, louder: YUNG KASAMA KO PO MANONG.

Tricycle Driver: Ay, kasama ba sya?

Anyway, we got to the main road and got to the shop selling second hand PC monitors. The rain was by then minimal so we thought the trip back to the house was going to be easier. I got the monitor and as we were prepping to leave, the heavens fell again and kept falling.

The thing about cabs is that there aren’t any when you need them. The shop closes at nine and we stood in the rain (with the PC and monitor stuff inside the shop) for 45 minutes. We were worried that if we were to wait for the rain to stop, the shop might close and the PC would be drenched outside and cause me to kill everybody within a 30kilometer radius.

We did get home. As we slumped on the carpet on my brother’s living room, my bestfriend Ayee (she’s also Bryan’s bestfriend) sent an SMS: Is Bryan still with you? I need you both NOW.

Apparently, Ayee still has the most friend cards among us and so we went. She was depressed when we got to her house. Because she had attended a wedding earlier that day and – horror of horrors! – caught the bouquet. Now, if you think that catching a bouquet just means that you’ll be getting married next (in superstition), you’re wrong. It also means that you have to be subject to a number of games involving a garter.

So we ended up comforting ourselves with a round of floats, shake shake fries, and cheese burgers.

I was quite nice really and funny now that I think about it. I’m not quite ready to go on another big purchase while it’s raining small animals though.