11/11/11

After I got home and as I was about to sleep, I was contemplating on how the day has been and it was only later that I realized it was indeed a symbolic day of firsts as much as the date numerically suggests.  I thought that like any other day, it will just pass by and nothing really significant will happen. It was a scheduled off from my lousy job and my co-workers thought of trying ice-skating. So we met up at Mall of Asia where we braved ourselves in doing it for the first time in our twenty-something lives. Being in a tropical country, it’s not usual to have snow. Scratch that, we REALLY don’t have snow. So as follows, ice-skating is not as popular as any other sports like, say, basketball. Plus, I think there are only 2 places in the entire archipelago where you can go ice-skating.

So we rented our skates, knotted its shoelaces and entered the rink one by one. And there we were with our knees shaking and making fun of ourselves and each other. I never thought it was that hard (It looked easy the way I see it on movies and TV). We were like how babies are learning how to stand up and walk. For the first hour, we were just on the sides of the rink holding on to the wall. Let’s say it was also a day of embarrassment. Little kids were passing and gliding us by.  Since we paid for it, we thought that we really should learn, even at least just standing straight without the need of holding on to something or anything. Luckily there were guides and first-timers, too. So after another hour, we finally learned how to. And for the rest of it, we were already chasing each other – albeit slow and struggling in keeping our balance. It was a fun first time and we made it through the rain, er, the ice.

Leaving MOA and the ice rink, we thought of going somewhere for a drink. It was Friday night and traffic was hell and the rain made it even worse. Although it’s highly anticipated, EDSA highway looked like there was a street party - of cars, jeepneys and buses. It’s like not even a bicycle or a person can pass through the vehicle gaps. The train too was overly crowded and the lines were snake long and we just couldn’t bear lining up with all that density, heat and sweat. So we took the bus instead – a non-air conditioned one and thought of just chatting off the traffic.

The highway is notorious of 2 things: First, of its traffic (which we all know) and second, apparently of swindlers, snatchers and thieves. But theft does not happen every single time you course through the highway. So as we were scattered by two’s in different seats and were busy chatting, two peanut vendors came up the bus (a ride-to-ride occurrence and God knows how many vendors come up on every bus in EDSA, so nothing really suspicious about them until...). At one snap of a finger our heads turned at the back where we heard a shriek from one of my co-worker. Shockingly, one of the peanut vendors grabbed and tugged with her, her Blackberry phone, speedily running down the bus and disappearing through the horde of vehicles behind. We just stared at each other and gaped in disbelief and so did the other passengers. We never thought it would happen to us. It was heart-pounding and it left me with I-should-have-known thoughts but it happened. It was another first for us that day. We still drank after we got to our destination. Luckily, none of us were harmed. It could’ve ended worse. And all that feeling of shock, awe and loss went down every gulp of booze. So I guess we still made it through the rain after all.