For those of you who regularly check out my blog, you may have read my post about my defective keyboard and how it made me realize that "little things matter". Yesterday, my PC experience got worse: my desktop randomly shut down a number of times. Aargh. Luckily, I had a "spare" CPU in the house. I thought I would regain my writing life again.
Then I encountered my next challenge: the DSL connection. For some technical reason, I couldn't connect to the server. Kainis! After several attempts to tweak the network connection, I gave up. This blogger needed to go wireless.
I gathered my urban essentials: my Acer Aspire (thanks, mom!), my Palm TX (which I often use as a WIFI catcher), my personal Starbucks tumbler ("seaside", stocks running out?), my BayanTel wireless landline (the cellphone type, not the chunky one ok?), a digicam (in case I spot a celebrity and I get star-struck), a couple of memory cards for maximum space, my now-obsolete and actually-defective ipod shuffle (the original version, I might sell it soon for P500 --you need to bend it to get sounds on both sides of your earphones hehe), my Blaze OpticalMini mouse, and of course, a cellphone that has unli credits.
My first choice was Starbucks Tomas Morato since it was near my home. I was already anticipating the coffee I will order: a tall White Chocolate Mocha Americano in my personal tumbler, with a P5 cup discount and a small token of appreciation to Mother Earth. Unfortunately, the WIFI was offline. Aargh No. 2!!
It started to rain, but I didn't let it dampen my spirits. Briskly walking along Morato, I let my PDA did the searching. And that's how I ended up here at CBTL. For someone who needed to go online, this place was just right. It had Airborne Access, e-yellowpages, and the coffee shop's own network. The peace and quiet on the 2nd floor was a bonus! There were lots of empty tables and chairs, an available outlet, and just a handful of customers. Perfect!
But the nirvana was too good to be true. A dozen ladies in their 40s suddenly appeared and settled in the tables right in front of me. Can you imagine all the chattering?? 12 ladies! So I had to do what I had to do, i.e. eavesdrop. Yes, as a writer it is better to keep one's senses open and learn as much as possible from your surroundings.
I figured they were former classmates preparing for a 3D2N out of town trip for their reunion getaway. One lady in red, who complained about the size of her pistachio pastry, and acted as the "organizer" of the group declared it will be safe to go in August since it will not be rainy, but September will surely be a stormy month. Another one wanted to have it in November, but somebody said it will definitely rain too. My gosh, these ladies are weather experts! Someone was distributing flyers, an invitation to a spiritual event somewhere. I couldn't get much details since the font was too small for me to see from my seat.
After some time, I realized that this "thing" before me is something very beautiful. It is not just chattering but an exchange of experiences among the members of the group. It is about sharing your passion to the rest, may it be religion or a penchant for asking discounts from the right people. It is about sharing time with people and enjoying a cup of coffee with them -- never mind if the pastry was too small! More importantly, it is about friendship and how they attempt to nurture it despite the time that has passed.
My afternoon was not so bad after all. 
