Friday last..

I had a very very miserable day last Friday. Some asshole stole my keys the day before, which got me worried a lot. (1) It had all my keys, so I wouldn't be able to just crawl home to my other dungeon, (2) I would have to request copies of  the FC bathroom from the department people, and that was so totally inconvenient. Wasn't looking forward to it. It would have been fine if I were alone in the Dungeon, but I had a roommate to think of, and she just left a recorder so I had to make sure nobody gets it. That was Thornsday.

Come Friday, and after an entire night praying to the God of Lost Keys, and I still woke up with no keys on my desk, I really became frazzled. I came to school really early in my attempt to fix things. Whoever stole my keys knew who it belonged to, what room, and what could be in it. So I crept in the department, and as I had predicted, people weren't too enthusiastic about it. I mean, come on, give me a break--it's not like I wanted those keys to be stolen. My brain wasn't functioning too well, and I was really on the verge of just crying.

I tried contacting my roommate, but after asking way too many people, nobody still knew her mobile number. A call to her dorm said that she wasn't in, and there were notes for her on our door and they haven't been moved an inch. She was nowhere to be found. I was becoming convinced that maybe she really was imaginary. I left a message for her at her dorm and accosted everyone, asked them if they'd seen her and please tell her to call me.

I decided that if nobody was going to help me solve the riddle of the stolen keys, then I must do something about this myself. I trooped to the shopping center looking for a new doorknob. Yes, I went doorknob shopping so even if the key thief went back and stuck those keys in our hole, it wouldn't work. I would be able to say, Nyahahaha! You're pushing the wrong buttons, nyahaha! But it wasn't as easy as it sounded. The first set of knobs cost Php560+, quite an amount and I didn't really want to spend that much. On my second attempt at the local hardware, there was one for just Php160+. I asked the guy there to teach me how to install the damned thing, and they tried selling me a Philips screwdriver, but didn't have enough money for that. I just got the knob and boarded an Ikot jeep. Midway, rain started to really pour hell on earth. I was sat near the end, and boy I was soaked. I opted to get off near CASAA, thinking that taking the AS walk would at least keep me in relatively dry land. But no... The short short walk from waiting shed to that covered walk really soaked me. But I was happy--I finally heard from Imaginary Roommate! She's back from whatever field trip she took and would be going to FC in 20 minutes. Yay!

Meanwhile, since I had to keys to the bathroom, I went to the 2nd floor one and attempted to dry my jeans on the hand drier. I risked ridicule and looking like a stupid fool with her leg all stretched at a crazy angle. But well, it made my pants legs partially dry, so I can't really complain.

It really wasn't one of my good days.

I went down and turned the corner and was so extremely happy that the door was open. I asked the maintenance dudes if they could help us change the lock. By now, one of the department people warmed up and got a screwdriver and tried to install the damn thing. Except that the thingie connecting the clicker to the lock itself was short. Hardware Guy insisted that all doors are just the same size, but I suppose he just wanted to sell some. The original knob was longer, while the one I got was just 2-3 freaking inches. By now, I was getting scared that I would have to go back to the SC and get another knob. It was getting late, it's going to be a weekend, and I just couldn't leave knowing that somebody has the keys to our office.

Enter Maintenance Guy #2, who passed by and got curious. My cheapie doorknob wouldn't hold. They said it was made for inner doors--bathrooms, maids' quarters or something--not main door material. He said he had another knob and it's from one of the other offices so it would fit. Those damn things cost php1k in the market. Geez, I wasn't going to pay that much for a f*cking doorknob. They put the new old knob in. It fit, hurray.

So we had a new knob, but with only one key. By that time, Imaginary Roomie got bored and just waved the key ownership to me for the meantime. She rarely ever goes in anyway, so she got her umbrella and ran the hell out of there.

So the case of the lost keys was shelved for the meanwhile. Might still have the knob changed, but not in the priority list. Meanwhile, my next hurdle was whether or not to attend the gala of Tatarin. I had not confirmed my attendance because something came up the day I was going to RSVP. We figured out ways how to crash the event. Then BnC's officemate R texted he's going to watch and that his ticket was good enough to accomodate us both. So hurray, hurray.

Watched play, so lotsa semi-naked young men who jumped up and down and young women who moaned their way through the performance. I don't know why we troubled ourselves with the RSVP thing when they didn't even check our tickets. By the time the play ended, it was 9pm, and it had rained continuously during the performance. Got word from Tamadita that Katipunan was a mess, that the traffic wasn't moving. Even one of the actors in the play--the hot lola who turned out to be a man--said that he nearly missed the opening curtain. He was stuck in Katipunan from 230pm to nearly 6pm. He got off the jeep and ran all the way to the theater.

Officemate R and I walked over to Balara and was just in time for a jeep bound for Katipunan. However, when it was time to go, the engine refused to start. We were asked to transfer to another jeep, and was surprised to find that some other people had made singit and now we had to wait for the next jeep. When we got in, the jeep took nearly an hour to crawl that stretch from Balara to Starbucks. During the trip, I told R about my unfortunate cross-city trek one rainy day during our undergrad years. I had to hike my way from Diliman to Manila just so I could get home after a very heavy downpour. I told him I wasn't up to that kind of torture anymore. Besides, I picked Friday to wear my heeled shoes to wade in the mud. Bummer.

We met up with BnC and Tamadita in Starbucks. We had decided to wait it out, and the traffic didn't let up until past 2 am or so. And that's just Katipunan. The road going to Manila via Aurora was still one long angry anaconda of gridlocked vehicles. We decided to crash BnC's place, where we played Planet Hollywood while her mum kept on mumbling that we should get some sleep already.

Officemate R crept out of the house sometime in the morning. Was still too groggy to even wave him out. But I could hear BnC giving him directions on how to get out of the village. We slept some more and had Spam for breakfast. We had reruns of Sex and the City for Tamadita, and then BnC's nyowa came by and we watched Old Boy. It was a nice violent movie. The Koreans have this thing for pulling out your teeth. Then we all piled into the car and Tamadita and I hit Sta Lu where we had a second breakfast of pancakes and bacon and sausages.

I managed to catch the last train bound for Manila, even if it meant trudging over the mud in my heeled shoes. Got interrogated why I came home just then and I told my mum I was in no condition anymore to make cross-city treks when stranded amidst rains and floods.

Today I just stayed home because I don't want to be stranded again. And after spending several SONA seasons getting stuck in school, I just try to avoid it whenever I can.

So where were you people last Friday?