then and now

february 14, 1999

valentine's day. *first* date with my long time high school crush, none the less. how'd did it go? well in a nutshell, let's just say that she didn't have a grand time.

for starters i was very very very late, about three hours late. but before you lambast me, i have a "good" excuse why i was delayed. traffic. yes, it's not the best of excuses and it has been used as often as "my dog ate it." i know i should've have left earlier and i should've considered that the traffic would be horrendous and factored in the travel time from los baños to quezon city and expected that my friend would swing by manila to pick up his date and..... good thing(?) that she was with a friend who was keeping her company.

arriving very very very late for a date is baaaaaaad. but arriving very very very late with no flowers for your date is wooooooorse. (isn't it a requirment to give your date flowers on a valentine's day date?) ('di bale, bumawi naman ako the following year e.Ü) but wait! there's more... arriving very very very late with no flowers for your date and with no concrete plans on what you two would be doing is much much more woooooooooorse...

it was close to dinner time when i got to meet up with her. and since my supposed *plan* for the our date wouldn't work now due to time constraints, i was left with no choice. i had to ask her what she wanted to do. (believe me when i say this, you should have something planned out when going out on a date. have at least a plan c.)

we ended up eating somewhere in katipunan. i think i had a pork dish and she lamb(?). that dinner burned a hole in my pocket but it was well worth it. at last there was something good happening. but that would be the last good thing that was gonna happen for the night. i should've talked to her more during dinner but up until that time i still couldn't find *anything* to say to her.

after dinner we went back to campus and wandered aimlessly. there was little exchange between us. this was turning out to be my best and worst night ever. i was quite relieved when she said that she had to go home already. i offered to take her home but she said that her parents were around campus and that she'd go home with them. so i settled to make her hatid to where her parents were. i did meet her parents and after hasty goodbyes, the date was finally over.

(hmmm... i sense a pattern here. whenever i *prematurely* meet the parents of a girl i like, things don't work out. hmmmm... maybe i should... i digress.)

this was my first and last valentine's day date.

~~~

february 14, 2005

valentine's day, yet again. no date. no worries.Ü

or so i thought...

yesterday started out as a normal day. work work work. after work, tekken!

we, new tekken buddy mike(this guy reminds me of amado g-style) and i, left g4 timezone about twenty minutes after seven. he was going to take the mrt home and i was going to ride a van going to pacita parked at sm carpark. we were happily chatting our hearts out about tekken and other games we love. we exited sm, walked pass ace hardware and was just about to turn to edsa when something exploded(!). as expected total chaos ensued afterwards. people were running away from the scene. me and mike, being the uzis that we were, decided to have a closer look. but in the commotion got separated.

i was constantly cussing and very nervous with all that was happening. i then remembered that the last time i had a bite was seven hours ago and i was concious of my hunger pangs. indeed it is weird to think of your stomach at a time like that. and because of lack of other options on what to do (can't go home yet. and if i could, how?) and because of the way my mind was reacting i ran towards the nearest mcdo. i ordered meal number five, cheese burger, twister fries and large coke. got me a seat and started gobbling the food. this is where i started to collect my thoughts on what i should do next.

called my mom to tell her that i was fine and that i would be home shortly. i didn't divulge any information about what happened so that she wouldn't worry. texted my friends whom i thought where near the incident to check how they were doing. thank god they were fine.

when i was just about to finish my food a thought occurred to me. what if we left the arcade thirty seconds earlier? crap! we could've been one of the many victims of that horrible incident. tekken saved me.Ü (or you can think of it this way: tekken could've killed me. if i didn't go to the arcade to play i would've sidestepped the whole incident and would be just a spectator of the event rather than a participant.) so to tekken i returned while i was weighing my options on what to do next.

at the tekken machine i saw mike. we left the arcade and headed off to landmark to get our respective rides home. but of course not before a few games of tekken. (my character bryan a.k.a. dranreb has an all red costume now.Ü)

arrived home at about ten thirty and was very happy to see my mom and my sister. (i'm still in one piece!) i then told the incident in my point of view. they were surprised that i was very near the explosion and very thankful that i wasn't hurt or anything. i then proceeded to scan the channels for the latest breaking news.

i can't help but to feel relief for myself, sympathy for the victims, and rage and anger towards the minds behind the bombing after what i saw on the telly. damn those bombers!

bahala na ang diyos sa inyo...