the saga continues

yesterday was the third sunday of the bar. same as with the first 2 sundays, woke up at 430 to prepare breakfast and lunch, brought them to the gates at 7, slept till noon. i went out lunchtime to meet an old friend i haven’t seen in years. we talked for a while, then i headed back to the hotel.

tom brought a newspaper so we started reading and job-hunting. i was so disgusted with the lack of job prospects that had i been serious about looking for a new job i would have cried myself silly. anyways, ended up with the crossword puzzle.

when i was done with the puzzle i saw an insert in the papers about the opening of shopwise manila. we decided to go.

big mistake. since it was opening day, the place was packed. we just needed a few essentials so we mapped out our path. the music was lively and i was high on adrenaline. so i started dancing while walking, much to reyna’s eternal shame. she didn’t try to stop me though since i think she was enjoying it just as much as i was.

when we got back to la salle we waited for my sisters and my cousins to come out. i still had my grocery bags with me. they all looked shell-shocked.

we piled into the elevator, waited for the door to close, pressed the right floor and waited. the elevator moved. then stopped. yes, stopped. and all the lights on the door panel winked out.

tom counted the people. the elevator said 15. there were only about 10 of us. i told tom, gently, that i think it was the 1000 kilo limit we were supposed to be looking at, not the number of people. (insert evil grin here)

my sister was panicking. she actually screamed for help, and one stranger told her to not hyperventilate. heyng? as if it were a voluntary thing. they started fanning her. i remained calm, although the heat was making me sweat. i had 10 bottles of C2 iced tea and i knew we wouldn’t get dehydrated anytime soon, and i had water too.

then i had this brilliant idea of trying to open the door. it did. easily. and we faced a blank wall. oooops. i hurriedly closed the door. we were stuck in the express zone.

eventually help came and the elevator started going down. apparently the elevator was overloaded but the sensors closed the door anyways.

we took the elevators 4 at time to get to the 29th floor. we burst out laughing at the thought, although my other sister didn’t find it funny. we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when we made it upstairs.

thing about it is, they stopped being depressed about the exam and focused on their mortality instead. dinner never tasted that good.

we’re alive, and we live to see another bar sunday. it’s still something to be thankful for.