We left for Angelus at about half past 5 yesterday afternoon and inched our way for 40 or so minutes (normally takes only 15) along the two-lane Toclong route. A sea of humanity met us when we reached the general vicinity of the cemetery. First thought that came to mind: nagrampa ang kabadingan. Yep, the freaks do come out at night and Halloween wasn't enough. Haha! I'm bad with crowd estimates but it seemed like there were five thousand pedestrians coming and going at any given time. They reminded me of Moses and the Israelites, minus a plan.
It's a well-known fact that this part of the year is when the rainy season unleashes its last torrents before the dry season begins. Thankfully, these past few days have seen relatively milder downpour but enough to make the ground boggy under foot. On top of that, we had to wriggle our way through a million tents pitched all over the place to reach Bino's grave. It was obvious how cramped our spot had gotten; a stark contrast to the sprawl we enjoyed on our first Undas there four years ago. Ate Lele and Kuya Cesar, who didn't seem fazed by the reduced space, were watching over their boys with Janet and Chessie when we reached the place.
I wanted to eat dinner soon as we got there but the burden* we had with us wanted to transfer to Ninang's right away. She, of course, could've gone ahead but due to her inferiority complex and inate/baseless overbearing personality, she wanted us to join her, immediately, "because nobody was there!" She said this with the affected sincerity they acquired growing up. This person doesn't/can't/won't think if her life depended on it. The truth was she wanted to leave so she could meet with her cohorts and gossip. Famished as I was, we (Jonas, Ynah, and I) got up and went with her.
How could you not be annoyed at this person? You make every effort to accommodate her into the group because, by some cruel trick of fate, she is family, and yet all we get in return is constant refusal to act like a mature adult--and she's older than us! Her parents really messed up. But I digress.
Once at Ninang's, we sat all quiet until our burden's guests arrived. We had to endure an eternity of pretentious talk: references to people and places we could care less about but are supposed to be impressive or interesting topics to them. It was obvious they were performing as opposed to talking. Why do I say so? Because the names and topics they mentioned have such affinity to them that it's impossible to believe they haven't talked about the same things before! Well, finally, they decided to leave for heck knows where. This burden didn't stay but fifteen minutes at Ninang's when she flaunted to us her fervent desire to get there! As she started to leave, she had the gall to order us to remain for a little while and forego eating dinner until later. That did it for me so I jokingly got up and said, "Let's go, let's eat!"
We decided to return to Bino's and have dinner. Lola Alice made some good adobo and menudo, as always. Then Eloi received a text message saying Nanay Mely wanted to be admitted to Medical City because her ear infection had become unbearably painful; she and Mark left for Pasig. Back at Angelus, talk revolved around the kids, their newly acquired chicks, food, chatting with Irene earlier that day, and other relevant things.
Dada came and invited us back to Ninang's. Where has he been all day? I didn't care to ask because he wouldn't say anyway. He fed us kikiam and slices of pizza--both at ridiculously jacked up prices. By 10:20 PM, my father was feeling tired and wanted to go home, but we didn't. So Wicca, Jonas, and I stayed on for another two and a half hours then returned to Angelus to eat some more. Heh! Eloi and Mark were also back. Some of us wanted to pee so back to Ninang we went. We sat and chatted for a little while, cleaned up a bit, and rearranged the flower pots before returning to Angelus.
At 4:10 am, everyone decided to pack it up and call it a night. We took Te Mato home to Meadowood. We saw the big-ass house she lives in, too. Nice digs although we didn't go inside for closer scrutiny. Finally, at around 5:30 am we got home and went to bed.
I had fun writing all that.
It's a well-known fact that this part of the year is when the rainy season unleashes its last torrents before the dry season begins. Thankfully, these past few days have seen relatively milder downpour but enough to make the ground boggy under foot. On top of that, we had to wriggle our way through a million tents pitched all over the place to reach Bino's grave. It was obvious how cramped our spot had gotten; a stark contrast to the sprawl we enjoyed on our first Undas there four years ago. Ate Lele and Kuya Cesar, who didn't seem fazed by the reduced space, were watching over their boys with Janet and Chessie when we reached the place.
I wanted to eat dinner soon as we got there but the burden* we had with us wanted to transfer to Ninang's right away. She, of course, could've gone ahead but due to her inferiority complex and inate/baseless overbearing personality, she wanted us to join her, immediately, "because nobody was there!" She said this with the affected sincerity they acquired growing up. This person doesn't/can't/won't think if her life depended on it. The truth was she wanted to leave so she could meet with her cohorts and gossip. Famished as I was, we (Jonas, Ynah, and I) got up and went with her.
How could you not be annoyed at this person? You make every effort to accommodate her into the group because, by some cruel trick of fate, she is family, and yet all we get in return is constant refusal to act like a mature adult--and she's older than us! Her parents really messed up. But I digress.
Once at Ninang's, we sat all quiet until our burden's guests arrived. We had to endure an eternity of pretentious talk: references to people and places we could care less about but are supposed to be impressive or interesting topics to them. It was obvious they were performing as opposed to talking. Why do I say so? Because the names and topics they mentioned have such affinity to them that it's impossible to believe they haven't talked about the same things before! Well, finally, they decided to leave for heck knows where. This burden didn't stay but fifteen minutes at Ninang's when she flaunted to us her fervent desire to get there! As she started to leave, she had the gall to order us to remain for a little while and forego eating dinner until later. That did it for me so I jokingly got up and said, "Let's go, let's eat!"
We decided to return to Bino's and have dinner. Lola Alice made some good adobo and menudo, as always. Then Eloi received a text message saying Nanay Mely wanted to be admitted to Medical City because her ear infection had become unbearably painful; she and Mark left for Pasig. Back at Angelus, talk revolved around the kids, their newly acquired chicks, food, chatting with Irene earlier that day, and other relevant things.
Dada came and invited us back to Ninang's. Where has he been all day? I didn't care to ask because he wouldn't say anyway. He fed us kikiam and slices of pizza--both at ridiculously jacked up prices. By 10:20 PM, my father was feeling tired and wanted to go home, but we didn't. So Wicca, Jonas, and I stayed on for another two and a half hours then returned to Angelus to eat some more. Heh! Eloi and Mark were also back. Some of us wanted to pee so back to Ninang we went. We sat and chatted for a little while, cleaned up a bit, and rearranged the flower pots before returning to Angelus.
At 4:10 am, everyone decided to pack it up and call it a night. We took Te Mato home to Meadowood. We saw the big-ass house she lives in, too. Nice digs although we didn't go inside for closer scrutiny. Finally, at around 5:30 am we got home and went to bed.
I had fun writing all that.
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