Do not fall in love to people like
me.
I will take you to
museums, and parks, and
monuments,
and kiss you in every beautiful
place, so that you can
never go back to them
without tasting me
like blood in your mouth.
I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible.
And when I leave
you will finally understand,
why storms are named after people
                                                                -Caitlyn Seihl

I shouldn't date a Glenda then.

It was past nine am of July 16th when I tried to walk across the bellowing storm that is you Glenda. I walked across piles of leaves, river-like waterways, dislodged tree branches, electrical post with their sphagetti like wirings on the damp streets, and dancing trees like a psychedelic dream synchronously swinging with the whistle of the wind--only difference is, I'm not dreaming, and that any second I'll be one of the casualties of this bitch.


This image pales in comparison to what I have to overcome during that time, not to mention the storm had already left my neighborhood here. If you are a 90's kid, then maybe I am not totally insane when I ask you to look closely then ask yourself, "Is this freaking Jumanji?" Some will probably say I'm insensitive, anti-poor, or whatever, but to me, this affair with Glenda, it was priceless. I felt alive by being near-death. I saw beauty... such marvelous catastrophic beauty.

"Glenda was a rude reminder of how precariously dependent we are on power supply" said UP-Diliman Chancellor Dr. Michael Tan on his column in Inquirer. Amen. Upon arriving at my house, it is ironic that everything else is wet including myself but the aridity of the atmosphere inside the room is dry like a dessert. For a good twenty minutes we were talking nonsense and when there was a deafening awkward silence I knew I had to do something. This isn't a John Travolta and Uma Thurman moment 'when you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence' because in essence it's from the movie Pulp Fiction, and this is reality we are living. The sad reality that the society had made me, us--to be precariously dependent on electricity. So in Robin Scherbatsky's tune, I just said to them, "Let's go to the mall.. today."

It didn't cross my mind that the mall is probably close. But the weather has been calm for a couple of hours already. And I just had the gut feel that it's open. On the way, I can't help but notice the freedom the vehicle I am riding in has on the road. It is such an unusual sight for East Avenue and EDSA be this smooth. It fascinated me that an hour or more ride to get to SM Megamall only took us less than 20 minutes. Can you imagine the amount of savings in gas this bus had incurred?

If time is money, then the Philippines is losing P 2.4 Billion a day in potential income due to traffic congestion that could have been used for productive pursuits.

Stressed by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary, Arsenio Balisacan. This issue reminded me of my 2010 presidential candidate Dick Gordon, and how he wants to empower the transportation system of Mega-Manila. But nevertheless, it is nice to picture a world without traffic.

Upon arriving, my gut feel was right. The mall is open. While subconsciously noticing the thin crowd Vincent shared to me a skit on the ever nostalgic show Bubble Gang. The theme was called "Balitang News" where Ogie Alcasid will deliver a news in tagalog and Michael V will translate in English.

Ogie: May isang lalakeng may malaking nunal

Michael V: Mega mall

Ogie: Sa sobrang laki, ito ang tinaguriang pinakamalaking nunal sa Asya

Michael V: Mall of Asia

The thought that we are going inside a giant mole is what made me laugh here. As we entered the building, the three of us were clueless on what to do on this place. There was an opening of a Chinese Restaurant and the people are flocking in it. Justin, the film student roommate enlightened us that these are mostly Food bloggers because it is imperative for them to go to openings like these.

It is really weird going around with these two as they follow me on my pursuit to lavish my eyes on stuff I wanted to buy but I won't. We were on Cotton On's boutique when suddenly we went from three boys who can't get their shit together on a mall to three men who are having a philosophical conversation on this super commercialized facility. When Vincent asked Justin why he hates Malls, these were the lines (non verbatim)

"Malls are architecturally designed for commercialization. Have you notice there aren't windows at all? That's because they don't want you to think that there is a world outside of the mall. They put everything inside like a labyrinth where every corners leads to something."

Bold lines, but we really need to do something that can occupy our mind. It's enough already that we are losing our mind and talking philosophy on a freaking mall. I remember Vincent said to us, "This is the part na hindi na lang nunal ang isang mall." Consensus? We decided to see The Dawn of the Planet Apes.

Before it started we had a good 30 minute stroll on the 4th floor of the Mall. It surprised me that it was a line of art galleries. I had fun checking each of them. A shop named Contreras reminded me of some girl I wanna murder, with love. There was this antique Filipino shop that sells commonwealth and Japanese era money. Oh the irony of using money to buy money. I did get one for myself though.

I realized the prevalent hierarchical design of malls. Level four was mostly artsy stuff which is basically not for the less privileged. Then you climb one level more and you see the Derma Clinics, the Gyms, Airline ticket booths or other aesthetic stuff. In correlation, as you go higher the people becomes less and less as well. I remember my sociology professor argued that malls become more expensive as you go higher. Very reasonable, the elites probably don't want to hang out with the general masses. In comparison, I remember an observation from the Korean variety show Running Man. They said that stalls that are most expensive are found on the first floor. What does this say about their society and economical status then?

The movie was fun, as usual I am noisy as a cow tandem-ed with the ever foul mouthed friend Vincent, and Justin the film student with the intelligent remarks and jokes. I'm pretty sure the ladies in front of us we're annoyed as hell. Or turned on by our awesomeness? :)

Dinner time. Probably one thing I can't hate about the centralized nature of malls is the fact that foods are perfectly lined up and I can just mix and match, specially on food courts. I've been craving for a decent vegetable meal. I miss the Ilocano cuisine my mom prepares--Pinakbet with lots of okra and a legit bagoong on the side always makes me raise one foot on the chair while eating. Since I remembered korea a while ago we ended up eating the korean dish Bibimbap. I feel sorry for Justin because he really can't take spicy foods. I hate spicy as well. Spicy is a kind of pain. I don't understand the masochists that loves the thrill of the spice.

Before we went home, we stopped by this interesting and obviously Chinese manufactured boutique because of the panda yin yang logo. It is called Panda Glasses, a unique looking glasses with frames made of bamboo.

Fashionable isn't it? These high-end glasses crafted from sustainable bamboo and recycled polycarbonates are yours, if you have a whooping seven thousand pesos. What can we expect? This boutique is found at the very entrance of the mall. I wonder how many Chinese farmers were underpaid to produce these capitalistic behemoth. I can't even begin to calculate how much I would need to produce these on my own, and just how much would go straight to my pocket.

Well, some research here and there informed me that this company is partnered with a non-profit organization that most of their income are directed to the ideals of their partner org to help people that has blindness and other eyesight problems. It is interestingly enough that they are helping the underprivileged, but they are also environment friendly because of the bamboo stuff, not to mention extremely unique in fashion sense. And they are also based on Washington DC not in mainland China. LOL, what can I say, we are bunch of judgmental dorks. But madam saleslady next time, please mention this to other people while selling your stuff, aren't you proud you are selling to help other people. Oh, I guess you are too underpaid to think about that.

The road home continued to fascinate me. It was as quick as when we got here, but not quick enough to hinder me ponder on some things. I realized that in this life there are lots of Glenda's. They come and go. They hurt us. But the beauty is there when you try to look at that pain they left on their wake. Just like my daredevil encounter with nature, I found beauty. By recognizing that the damage was done, only can our triumph be real.

So Glenda, the storm or the human one, you think you can destroy me just because you are a hurricane? To me there is one important thing we can always hold on to when you try to swept us away. We have our false judgements on some bamboo glasses. We talk about how spicy is a kind of pain. We criticize the structural design of malls. We appreciate a no traffic day. We will smile after every storm. We call this humanity and you can never take that away from us.

P.S. You may be an unbeatable foe. But we climb mountains and become their sons. Sadly, you are nothing against them.