Missing Places

NP: Sam Smith, Make It To Me

I'm currently missing a lot of places right now. Usually i miss a place because i've attributed value to it, or because of other reasons.

Missing a place is weird. It's not like, say, missing a person. People can be tricky to contact, and oftentimes when you meet with one it's hard to predict what would happen.

Places, on the other hand, are more predictable by the simple value of they don't really move. They're pretty solid and consistent, and it's hard to move a place. Well, relatively consistent until the next condo or mall comes along. Right now, this is a list of places that i miss and might go to more in the future, because well, i just fucking miss them. I'm missing a lot of things lately, it seems.

The Stretch of Ayala Avenue 

The past year saw me working in the night shift from 9 at night to 5 in the morning. It's such an awkward time - I don't think I've ever mastered the schedule, haha. You stay up late to catch the mall or wake up early afternoon to do your shopping and go to work laden with bags. It gets crazy sometimes, especially when Christmas comes along.

I used to carpool with my batchmates, and they'd drop me off at around PNR Buendia. I'd then catch a bus up to MIA or, if i'm feeling pretty terrible, up to the Word Trade Center. I'd then walk to Harbor Square and try to convince myself that i'd catch the sunrise (i always never do; i keep forgetting the sun doesn't rise around there). 

Sometimes though, I walk from our building (near SMART ayala) to EDSA. I reach EDSA a sweaty mess, but who cares. Aircon naman sa bus eh.

Now it's this stretch of road from Ayala Ave to the station that i really like walking on. Sometimes, the weather would cooperate and give me just the right amount of sunshine and wind, and it'd be such a joy and an incredible experience to walk slowly while people rushed past you.

Tropical Huts

Other kids had Jollibee. More privileged ones had KFC or Mcdo. I had Tropical Hut. When I was young, we had this old stainless steel jeep my dad built from scratch. It was an old thing, but I remember it being so solid and just so manly. It was like your regular old owner jeep - the kind that really looked like a jeepney with a door. He modified it though so that the first row of seats faced the front instead of each other.

Anyway, we were kind of religious then, and we used to spend Sunday breakfast with hearing Mass at 7 AM(!!) before speeding off to a Tropical Hut near our home.

I remember thinking that it was the coolest place to eat ever. They gave you pineapple juice AND coffee! I always ordered the hamburger plate, and relished how the beef tasted. After eating, we'd go to the bakery near the back and to be honest, i don't think we ever brought anything. I just liked looking at the brightly colored pastillas, and my parents let me. 

I later found out that that Tropical Hut was close to the subdivision my family first settled in. Nostalgia? I think so, too. For a family out of the province and with the dad away so often, it must have been nice to have a sense of familiarity now and then.

Starbucks @ P.Gil, facing Roxas Blvd

This one needs timing. Whenever i find myself free at the afternoon and i have some spare moolah left, I try to go to this specific Starbucks. Usually i have my hair cut at a particular shop near the cafe, so i time in my haircuts every month and allot some time for a cup.

During the sunset, the light floods the whole store, even though they bring down the curtains. I sit at the corner near the bathroom, and this was where I would often write. 

I could begin to describe it, but it'd ruin the moment. Please do try it; it's really amazing and pretty. Everything is golden, and it hurts my eyes just to look at it, but it really is beautiful. 

Kama, UST

Ahh, the kama. 

I think it was around our second year when we first started calling it that, simply because we liked to sleep there. There's a specific spot (which i almost always forget, haha) where we gravitate to.

... sigh. 

I remember playing. I remember hiding and seeking the others in the golden light of it all (the lamps emitted sepia light instead of fluorescent)  and running with all of my might after one another.

I miss the yearly badinggles. We were still complete for all of them, but a voice at the back of my mind just won't stop nagging. I think deep down, we all know it wouldn't last forever. We can't keep on coming and going. I dread the badinggle i go to when we won't be complete, because i fear it would be the start. I want us to be the kind of friendship that would last, the kind of friendship that HIMYM inspires. But even the cast of HIMYM has it's moments - there were times a lot of the people weren't there, and even though, in the everlasting words of Ted Mosby, "our booth was wherever the five of us were together" were said, it still won't be the same to have a big moment and not have all of us there.

I told myself earlier I can only hold on to so many things. I thought that was the end of it. But the thing with lessons is sometimes we forget. Sometimes we have to relearn things, swallow the lesson all over again and chew the bitter pill that life gives us.