a rain of memories

When I was a child, I remember a house construction going on in our neighborhood then. The workers made this huge rectangular pit meant to be a septic tank. When the rainy season came and the pit remain untouched by the construction workers, it filled up with brown water and mud. To us kids, it was a time of rejoicing, because our swimming pool just got made. :) woohoo! We placed narrow wood planks across the pit to serve as support and of course as our diving board. We paddled, did our version of swimming in a 5ft by 6ft pool, we jumped geronimo, we splashed each other with brown (am sure dirty too) water, we threw each other mud balls, painted our face and arms with mud . We'd have a contest on who can stay the longest time deep in the water. Crazy stuff from crazy kids. We didn’t leave the pool till we were shaking, gray, wrinkled and our moms turned blue from screaming at us to go home. Good times. :)

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I live in a flood prone area, so naturally the school I went to in high school is flood prone too. On my way home from school, during a typhoon (and only the grade schoolers didn't have class. Bummer), water's up to my knees. My dilemma was, do I lift my skirt and risk showing my undies or just let my uniform skirt down and let the flood water lift it up? Both options are yucky. As I continued to walk, another girl in uniform was walking ahead of me. One second she's on my sight, the next step, she's neck down with flood! WTF?! Uh-oh. She just stepped on an "imburnal" (manhole). One second I was eww! The next millisecond, I was laughing. Hehe. Twas a funny sight! Admit it! :) Sorry, schadenfreude moment for me. :D

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One day in my college life, my bf and I broke up. No matter how logical I tried to be about the whole thing that's somehow meant to end anyway, I couldn’t help myself from crying. I was walking out from class to my dorm in catatonic stance. The rain started falling and I just went on walking. Soon the rain was torrential and am wet all over (not in the way you're thinking ok? Hehe). The people in umbrellas looked dumbfounded and insisted that I share in their umbrellas. I declined of course. Pinangatawanan ko na! Actually, masarap pala umiyak sa ulan. :) Later, the rain stopped, but my tears did not. And the drama queen in me was born. :)

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On my first job as a programmer, my bf (again? I know. Pre-firewomyn phase. Hehe) and I got trapped in the office building because of the heavy rains. We both didn’t have umbrellas and twas late night from overtime work. The building lobby already turned off its lights. But the lights outside were all bright, putting a spotlight on how intense the downpour then. Helpless, we just slumped on the floor, scanned at the darkness around us, looked at each other, smiled, and then boom! French kissed in a public place where our only witness was the rain. Hay, good times, adult version. Hehe.

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Rainy season is tough especially in Metro Manila and most especially when you commute. But I learned that as awful as the experience can be, it's a character building opportunity only if we let it. :) Uhm, if not, they're still memories to amuse us. =)