OKTOBERFEST NA!

San Miguel Oktoberfests are being held everywhere lately. Just last night there was one at SM North Edsa parking lot, which is just like 10 minutes away from here. I could have easily hailed a bus and walahhh! I would have been celebrating with a lot of drunkards and basag-ulo’s last night.

I remember the first and only time I went in one of those Oktoberfests. That was just last year when it was celebrated at SM Megamall (rumor has it that this mall is the third largest in Asia). I was with Ibs and his orgmates (organization mates). The organization had a booth set-up, which sold beer and foods, etc. The first few hours were okay. I was actually having fun just watching the people drinking beer after beer, looking for gorgeous guys and selling the items that we had. And since we were so far away from the stage where live bands were playing rock music and stuff, we didn’t see a thing.

Then the night went deeper and the crowd was becoming bigger. Bigger that it was hard to move around especially when you are going to the portable comfort rooms. We had to endure a lot of bad-smelling, sweaty, noisy, drunk people on our way out the place just to relieve ourselves at Seattle’s Best.

We had this girl who would I say pretty. She had this pretty small dress on with her boobs almost peeping out and greeting every costumer we had. And I think she liked the attention so we just let her do her stuff. Good enough, we sold so many beers because of her. But the downside was, there were so many guys, old and young, ugly and gorgeous, out side our booth asking for her name, number and other demographics. Haha… this made the other members agitated because they, including me, thought these drunkards were harassing her. But she was so fine with it (the harassment) that we eventually gave in.

The people inside the booth became more agitated as the night grew deeper. The supposedly happy festivity was slowly becoming a disaster for all of us. And Ibs was growing so disconcerted. So the group decided to pack up and go home. Since we borrowed some ice buckets from the management (who was so lame at managing the crowd), Ibs and I went to the side of the stage to return it and get my ID, which we left lieu in of the ice buckets. But these big, muscled, sorta-bouncer guys wouldn’t let us near the stage. We tried to enter the barricade they have made around the stage but we couldn’t get it. We tried to ask for someone who we could talk to but these bouncers didn’t know anything. It was like they were all muscles and no brain. Not even a little. I was keeping my cool coz Ibs was nearing explosion. And you would not want to see Ibs explode. God, she can be so scary. Though deep inside I was really worried because if I couldn’t claim my school ID, I couldn’t enter libraries, and might not even take the finals, which were in the same month. And Ibs knew that.

After several attempts looking for someone who actually knew stuff, I told Ibs to just bring home the buckets and claim my ID the following day. He wasn’t as keen to the idea as I am but hey, we didn’t have any choice that moment.

We were about to leave the place when out of nowhere, somebody called my name. Haha! Am I lucky or what! It was Michelle, a classmate I had in PE (Philippine Games). And she was inside the barricade. I asked her what she was doing there and it turned out her boyfriend is the lead vocal of the band playing. So a big smile came upon my face and I told her about our dilemma. She hurriedly looked fro someone (management) and poof! She got my ID back and they got their ice buckets.

After that I was hoping Ibs would be lifted from his maelstrom of agitation and anxiety. But he wasn’t. Then the first cab driver asked for an additional fee because, according to him, our destination was so far, which made Ibs even more frantic. We got out of the cab and looked for another one. Fortunately we found one immediately.

As we were riding the cab I tried to make Ibs smile, you know, just to relieve the tension that was building up, you could cut even pinch it.

Okay lang yun. Tawa naman dyan. (It is okay. Just smile for me, would you?)
Please stop! Please, it’s not you. It’s me okay!

And I was thrown aback. The rest of the ride home was silent and the tension was blowing up faster than the cab itself.

When we got home Ibs said sorry. And I took it. I shouldn’t blame him really. The circumstances called for him to act like that. I understand him. Though I so wanted to scream and act the way he did when we were behind the stage, I kept my cool and acted like it was okay. It wasn’t really okay. I never lost a school ID before coz I know it would take months to process and get another one. And the finals were coming and teachers usually asked examiners for IDs.
You see, the things I went through because of that Oktoberfest (OctoberPEST I should say). So last night wasn’t really a why-did-I-miss-it thing. I had more fun doing my laundry, watching TV and listening to FM.