All the other guys in the batch had their trahe de boda, I mean barong tagalong, made by Menchu, some popular designer in Tagaytay. She went all the way to our callroom from Tagaytay, and as she was checking her list she noted that there are 9 guys in the batch, yet only 8 had their fittings done. “Ako yun,” I said, quietly slurping down dinuguan in the corner. “Meron na po ako,” I said more slurpingly, blood dripping down my chin. I of course vowed never to spend a single peso in this entire PCP convention, imagining that the crazy heat and the long hours of waiting for the prestigious people to pat each others’ backs during the convention would uglify every one anyway. The only downside, I wasn’t able to engage in conversations such as this:

John Doggett: Ay ang ganda ng buttons ng barong mo, pearls.
Barry Allen: Yung sakin gold with two black stripes.

Eventually I had to eat my own words of not spending anything, because as soon as I stretched my ancient barong to inspect it the strands all started to separate from each other, fall on the floor, and crawl to the trashcan. And I probably couldn’t justify the fact that it’s now yellow. I hang my head in shame and still bought a new but cheap one in SM. It has plain buttons, by the way. On to the PCP: There were of course damn too many doctors, and true enough more hours were spent on waiting while the prestigious people all patted each others’ backs and gave each other awards and stuff. The trophies were cool though—anitos with seemingly evil powers. And of course, the speechifications. The speechifying speeches were loooong. And… looooooong. Not longer, of course, than the time spent on… batch peekchurs! There’s peekchurs on every group, subgroup, subsubgroup, subgroup 1 + subgroup 2, females of subgroup 1 + subsubgroup 4, etc. “All UPCM batch 2006 + PGIs!” someone cried. “All LU 4 facilitators!!!” someone else cried.

And just when we thought the peekchurifications were over, everything was repeated… in a different setting (ie, in front of the SMX sign). The only amusement in this grand tradition of peekchurification is that as always, everyone instantly screams a much enunciated “YEHEY!” after each photo is snapped.

Categories: Blogs