the night the atenistas made lusong in the putikan

i didn't know i could make it. my flight from cdo was at about 4pm that day and i knew getting a cab from the airport late in the afternoon was a mean feat in itself. i was so much hoping i could make it to the 6pm mass at the gesu by i knew it was already futile.

oh well, i got home at past 6pm and rested a bit. of course i woke up at past 8pm already. i felt i was too tamad to go but i realized i need to go out for dinner anyway and i was so bent at getting the autographs.

what greeted me was the long line of cars from gate three and more throngs of people in blue from all ages. there were young boys and more young giggly girls everywhere. there were moms and dads even lolos and lolas and babies carried by their parents in blue too.

i wasn't expecting the putik, my gawd! i should have known that it has been raining in manila the past days that I've been away.


i was hungry so i looked for the food stalls first. there was a lot but there were queues in the booths too. i decided to go around a bit, take pictures and maybe look for some people that i know. a few friends that i was supposed to meet that night backed out because of the heavy traffic everywhere in the metro.

after grabbing spaghetti from some both and free mineral water from a sponsor i looked for a shirt, poster or anything i could have signed. then i started joining the ones in the already long line for the autograph signing. man, even the basketball players were still on stage making kwento about their recent win and yet we were already lining up for their autographs. yeah, i remember i did line up years ago when wes gonzales' team won too but i've forgotten it was that long! i started lining up at around 10pm. a friend of mine has arrived and was somewhere in some booth but i was determined in getting my autographs haha! yes, so many times over i did ask myself if i wanted to go on waiting. and i realized that i was already there, i didn't have anything else to do anyway. my feet was already dirty and muddy and i didn't want to go home empty handed.

i was still so tired and sleepy from my trip. everything was just so heady i felt like i was just in some dream. i know i can go home anytime but as i stood there in my queue amidst all these young girls and boys with their moms or yayas i knew i needed to go on.

through it all, some bands did play to cheer us on. there was spongecola, parokya ni edgar, miguel escueta, kjwan. bianca gonzales hosted and a few other celebrities showed up. even wes gonzales, doug kramer, rich alvarez could be found milling along with the crowd. i even saw jim paredes and boboy garovillo. too bad i got shy to take their pics as well. it was pretty hard to go around but everyone seemed to be enjoying walking around the putikan hehe.

at almost 1am i finally got inside the tent for my autographs, wow! just as well as the rain started pouring in. everything was a haze inside the booth, i didn't really know all of the players so i just handed them my stuff and took pics. i was actually more startstruck at yael yuson who joined us and lined with us for the autographs ahihihi.



it was a good thing that i had an extra poster with me to sheild me from the rain. i wasn't able to meet with my friend already, sorry crise! i stayed at the office a bit while i waited for the rain to stop. i was dead tired but i had to clean up my tsinelas and my feet. i think i still left some traces of mud back in the office.

oh well, i got what i wanted, i didn't care anymore what body pains i got from all that standing and waiting. and oh, i'll do it again, make my kids do it again, if they have to when the chance would come once again.

haaay, masarap talaga ang atenista...

ooops, masarap talaga maging atenista pala. wahehehe.