Sleeping on a Valentine’s Day

falling asleep while waiting

When I was still working at a University, I had gained some students as my close friends. Days before V-day, we made plans on spending it together at a Korean restaurant called Topokkiman in Banilad, Cebu City. However, Feb. 14 was a work day and we were deployed to different schools for the NAT (National Achievement Test), which I was assigned to a school that was 4.2 km away from the restaurant. Since it was a half day there was probably more time to spend with. So we agreed on meeting at a mall nearby. However, my day didn’t start on a good note.

I remember that day, it was raining hard early in the morning so I decided to book an Angkas driver once the rain stopped. But it didn’t even come close to a drizzle so I had no choice but to go since I was almost running late for my own allotted schedule. I waited at the chapel nearby and got lucky booking a driver. But as I was looking at my phone’s map, he was at the fast food chain near the neighborhood and wasn’t even making a budge. So I spammed him with texts where he was since I was running late, and the rain wasn’t even stopping. I was getting impatient so I fired him one last text and told him, “Kuya asa na diay ka? Late nako hapit. Ug wa man diay kay plano muari nagsulti nalang ta ka daan.” (Mister, where are you? I’m running late already. If you didn’t have plans of coming here, you should’ve just told me). I cancelled my booking and looked for a random motorcycle driver which good heavens, I found one and even agreed for a hundred bucks since it was just a 20-30-minute ride.

I wasn’t that drenched during the ride thanks to my cute umbrella (which I also lost after that V-day), yet the driver was quite annoying because he wasn’t even listening to my instructions so we exceeded a few walks from the school’s location. Out of frustration, I just walked back after paying him rather than him counter flowing haha. It was already a bad start for me so when the exams finished, I tried contacting my friends only to find out that they were all backing out, and the bad signal wasn’t helping either haha.

I was close to sulking when Tea, one of the back outers lol, tried consoling me and said she was coming. She even invited 3 more namely Al and Ab and She (Al and Ab are actually a couple). Tea and I waited for the two A’s at the mall where I fell asleep waiting since my day started exhaustingly. She also made it at the Korean restaurant despite the heavy traffic and we had a feast with our grumbling stomachs. We also got charged for an extra topokki maybe because the server thought we asked for 2 extra servings when it was just one. The highlight at the restaurant wasn’t only the food and the company we had, but we actually stole chopsticks from our table lol I know it sounds crazy but we just thought they looked cute and we wanted some souvenir from the restaurant. We even had to do it discreetly lol.

When it was 4 pm, we decided to go home but Ab was going to buy an art material at the mall nearby so Al had to go home first. The rest of the group was all for walking Ab to the mall but when we saw a jeepney ride home (Tea, She, and I, including Ab actually all live in the north), so the three of us ran after the jeepney and left Ab alone. Along the way it hit us and we were like: hoy ngano gibyaan nato si Ab?! Atu man ta tung kuyugan mupalit ug art material! Manaog ta! (hey why did we leave Ab?! We were supposed to accompany her to buy an art material! Let’s get off!) Since we were kinda far already we had to run after Ab like we were in a marathon. We probably looked as if we were having the biggest crisis of our lives since the passengers looked at us with amusement.

After that we walked to the what we called as “short cut,” since the highway was already cramped at that time with traffic. But when we were able to ride a jeepney for the “tricycle terminal,” I think we should’ve just continued walking since we only got to ride it for a good 5-minute drive. We rode a tricycle again only to walk 4.8 km from where we stopped, to McDonald's. We found it pointless riding a jeepney that were full and a traffic that won’t almost budge.

When we arrived at McDonald's, we just went inside to rest and converse and eat the topokki take out.

 

In less than a day, so much had happened. To some this might sound absurd or nonsense, but for me, that was an adventure. It was an unforgettable Valentine’s day for me, a day that’s only just another day to work my ass off or to get by. But that day was different. Even if every day is a V-day, to celebrate it with people who are close to you, it hits different.

It doesn’t really matter how you celebrate V-day but rather who you spend it with. May it be your significant other, your family, your friends, or even yourself. It’s the memories that matter, not what you spend.

Though today I may not be in my top shape to celebrate Valentine’s day with a friend, at least I have these memories to look back to while recuperating. I hope you celebrate yours with good memories too.

Happy Valentine’s Day reader!


Writer,

Thin Girl