Blue Thumbs

(Our badges of honor.)

You probably aren’t interested about how long we stood in line, or how bad our “lumbar area” (c/o Tim) felt after a while, or how amusing it was to see people uniting in riot (okay, so it wasn’t really a riot. Just a civil complaint against people cutting lines), so I won’t bore you with it. Um…except maybe that last bit about the riot, but later, later, my dear.

Last night Ryan texted me and asked if I’d go with Tim and him to register. He plans to leave at 6AM because “3 am may nakapila na raw =s” I didn’t mind. It was about time for me to re-wind up my circadian rhythm anyway. So I agreed.

Today I woke up at about 5AM, snoozed (twice, 9 minutes per snooze) until I couldn’t afford to snooze anymore and took a shower. I wonder why they invented snooze in the first place. It’s not right. Afterwards, I had about 15 minutes left to fix breakfast. Let me tell you a secret.

Onion Omelette

 You need about half a big onion and a scrambled egg. That’s an okay ratio.

1.       Slice onion into thin wedges.

2.       Toss into a hot pan of oil. Wait a little and then

3.       Pour in eggs. (It would help if you add salt and pepper into the scrambled egg beforehand.)

4.       Flip. Voila.

How about that? Simple yet unbelievably delicious and healthy. (Mum taught me it.)

So anyway, before I could finish eating, the doorbell rang and I had to go. I left the rest for mum. (Later she texted me and said it was delicious. See? You must try making one.) Ryan was driving. Apparently, he is also pro-Erap. I don’t know yet who to vote. I used to like Chiz, but I realized too that I hardly knew anything about him (must gather intelligence).

The Comelec people were nice. I felt like they especially stored up extra patience in preparation for this day. The first one I met called me Darling. Another one called me Popo (actually, that wasn’t very nice, but I don’t think she meant anything). Most of them smile a lot and joke with the registrants. Ah, the Philippines.

Later on, we saw Wendy with her sister, Wynette. It was very nice to see a familiar face amongst the strange hundreds.

While waiting in line, we met a certain Mr. Roy, who was waiting for his daughters to finish. He asked what Ryan’s name was.

                “Ryan Uy.”

                “Uy! Ryan Uy, okay yun a. Alam mo may kakilala akong technician na Ryan.”

                “O?”

                “Oo! Pag may idadala akong appliance sa kanya, sasabihin ko: Sira yan! Eto din, sira yan!”

                “Hahaha!”

Then he asked Timothy:

                “O, etong Intarmed, anong pangalan mo?”

                “Tim.”

                “Tim?”

                “Tim Lim.”

                “Wow, Tim Lim. You know there’s a TimLim between ______ and ______.” (Forgot what he said.)

                “Hahaha!”

Afterwards, Tim said he thought it was corny (woah!) Mr. Roy didn’t ask me what my name was, but it’s fine. He might not be able to come up with anything funny with it (except maybe Popo again, and I’d do my best to laugh if he did). He was a really nice guy. He taught us how to eat lunch properly while on a line, how to make a business out of the elections, how to tell if someone’s gay, why gays are good for his fruit business, etc., etc. Neat stuff. He was very helpful, too. A lot of people thought he was with the comelec office.

After a while though, people got a bit tense and jittery and were being unfair in the lines. Over the PA system, you’ll hear:

“Hindi po ito basketball na puwedeng magsubstitute. Hindi rin po ito restaurant na puwedeng magreserve…” Heehee.

Sometimes (or a lot of times, rather) they let people into the building (the one we were all lining up for) for no good reason at all. The woman behind me recorded those instances on video.  I pity the guard posted on the gate of our district. From time to time, people from the back of the line would come up to the front where we were and mob him with complaints. He avoided their eyes and responded only to well-meaning inquiries. Then the woman behind me threatened to expose the videos to news networks if he won’t stop letting illegitimate people in. The guard actually looked at me for support.

“Pinapapasok ko lang ang may stamp,” he looks at me. “Ipakita mo ung stamp mo, iha.”

That wasn’t the point the people were making. Because they were against illegitimate people entering, not legitimate people like me. So even though I put up my arm a little, nobody paid attention to me. I’m sorry, Mr. Guard.

To while away the time, we played mental HESIA (why was it called that again?) It was Ryan’s idea to play that. Then Ryan lost and asked us why we were playing mental HESIA in the first place. We also played “Guess What Animal/Person/Disease (c/o Tim) I’m Thinking Of.”

Answers were: Caracal, Michelle Abigail Tan, Mrs. Bautista, and Bulimia. Nobody got Caracal :(

All in all, it was an epic day. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Afterwards my sister texted and asked if I would accompany her to register tomorrow. I hope she’s kidding.