It has been almost a month since that Saturday when Ondoy hit us. I'm sure many people have done whatever they can to take their minds off that traumatic event. I myself have had positive events happening, such as the birth of two new cousins, a back-to-back championship with my Judo team, even a back-to-back of the school's basketball team, and a couple of other events just to ease the trauma of Ondoy.. However, for every drop that i see falling from the sky, to the point that these go from a drizzle to heavy, i am easily reminded of the fearful day that Metro Manila sank.

It was at 10:00 in the morning of September 26 when i woke up and saw that outside my house, it was already flooded. I was a but puzzled that it was already flooded so early in the day, but not surprised at all that it was already flooded since i knew growing up that my street was known to be the "basin" of the village and has always been the first to get flooded during strong rains. I didn't worry that much about the flood and even decided that i would push through to go to my doctor's appointment at 11:00 and just attack the flood with my sports utility vehicle. I continued to have breakfast, read the newspaper, and just went through the hour like everything happening outside wasn't that bad.

The flood and rain only caught my attention when i saw that the water was rising up really fast. (My house is already build on an elevated land, and to see that the water was building up fast, i knew that the water on the street must have been above waist-high already.) This put me on alert, and i knew that i had to brace myself for anything that might happen. As the water started to creep up to my front door, i decided to put those who were home at that time (my two siblings and one maid) on alert as well and ran to the back to turn off our house's main power. But when i got there, i saw that it was already flooded in the back of our house as well. Ironically, our ground floor began to flood because of the accumulation of water from the back of our house instead of from the flood water creeping up in the front.

Eventually, the water from both sides converged, and our ground floor was flooded calf-high. As for my sports utility vehicle which i was supposed to use to attack the flood, the water rose so fast that it was too late for me to get it out of the garage. On the street i saw one sedan almost completely submerged, and people walking in the floods had the water almost their shoulder-level. Somewhere down the street, a wall that was holding a creek cracked open due to the heavy pressure of water and eventually flowed to the street and caused a wild river-like flow of water. I saw around ten cars submerged in water, random things floating around which came from different houses, and many other unbelievable things.

Even if my street was known for floods, never in the history of Palm Village did we ever have it this bad. Many of us in the village were overwhelmed by what transpired that most of our focus was on our own homes and village. I mean for something that devastating to happen, it would honestly be quite difficult to worry about other places when you had to focus on saving your own home first. At the back of my mind, i knew that it was also bad in other places (i was informed of Katipunan being flooded by my mother who was stranded there, and of UST by my father who was also stranded there) but didn't anticipate that it was A LOT WORSE in other areas.

Once the floods went down and i put our power back on, only then did i realize how bad the storm hit Metro Manila. I always had this idea that, although we were not the most developed area, we would be more developed than provinces to which we wouldn't suffer as much from a huge storm. Never in my mind could i imagine the majority of Metro Manila being submerged. I always thought that i'd only see cars floating and streets with high levels of water in movies. Boy was i wrong.

It was also only the next day which i learned that an entire village (Provident) was completely flooded. Again, i could just never imagine the possibility of that happening while living in an urban area. And upon seeing more photos and videos of the aftermath on the web and on TV, it was really only then i that realized how very devastating this storm was.

Initially i thought that nobody could really say their experience was worse than others because we were all hit the same way by the storm. But then i realized that there are indeed people who can very much declare that they had the worst experience of their lives. In my home, one of our cars and our family photographs were damaged by the flood. As painful as it was to see some of our memories washed away by the water, it still wouldn't be as painful as seeing your entire home, your family, your entire life, drowning in the same water. My mother told me, and i agree with her on this, that we were actually still lucky--others truly suffered much much worse than we did.

Another thing that i didn't anticipate was how powerful this Bayanihan spirit that Filipinos have. I always knew that each of us had this spirit, but didn't anticipate to see shiploads of love and support coming from generous people who were very willing to share and be of service to those who really needed it the most. All the countless relief goods and relief centers--i was overwhelmed myself by them. In fact, choosing which relief center to help out in was quite difficult because there were just so many of them. Still, this was a very beautiful thing to see in our country. I got so used to seeing most Filipino people very much focused on their own goods on a regular basis that it became unimaginable for me to see how generous they can still be when it mattered the most. And in that case, i was so glad to be proven wrong.

Maybe i should start charging everybody for every little thing that i do for them.

That way, i might start feeling a little bit of appreciation for my efforts.

Just a little bit of credit for me to know that i still matter in this world.

I'm not that impulsive. Really.

Today, i was able to be. With JUNK FOOD!

530 pesos worth of junk food from the Isetann grocery:
- 4 bags of Tomi
- 5 bags of Loaded
- 8 packs of Tic-Tac
- 2 pieces of Demolino
- 6 pieces of Hershey's Chocolate bars
- 1 giant bag of Mentos (420 pcs.)

...among many other goodies. All because i couldn't find any good clothes to buy in their department store :))

For the record, i am no longer a heavy junkie. I gave that up more than 10 years ago. So this stock that i have now...it's supposed to last me til the end of the semester.

Work with me here, metabolism! No to big bellies!

Is it really for others to be better off without you or YOU being better off without others? Think about it before you do anything. In both cases, we all lose.

Don't be stupid.

My apologies to all the other girlfriends of other guys out there...but the fact remains...

 
I have the best girlfriend in the whole world!



Ain't nothing you can really do about it but accept it.

Forgiveness
Is more than saying sorry
Forgiveness
Means accepting people's thoughts

To forgive is divine
So lets have a glass of wine
And have make-up sex
Until the end of time, time, time....

-Samantha James (from the movie "Just Friends")


HAHAHAHA. I'm bored.

Last night, i reached 160 kph with the Accord on the free Skyway. I probably could've reached 200 kph if I went to the last exit instead of the Don Bosco exit. Hmm...apparently i dont have the consciousness of an F1 racer that i thought i had. Well, that sucks.

A harsh realization perhaps? Or a foreshadowing of what was to come afterwards?

Keep your head in the game, Lugo. Being stupid only leads to trouble. It's sucks to ruin another's night because of you, stupid.