a Citi-series of unfortunate events

It all started when my good friend "Bay" and I decided to take an afternoon merienda break from work and walk over to the food stalls next to 7/11 in Eastwood for a little chow, namely some sweet corn that was the rage among other Citibankers.

The skies were clear and the weather seemed fine, so we didn't think twice about walking the short distance from Citi. As we started eating and were chitchating a little bit... boom! It seemed as if the skies were going to fall down with the heavy rain that came pouring. At first, we didn't mind it so much, figuring it will slow down before we knew it.

20 minutes later, we were done but the rain wasn't. In fact, if it was at all possible, the rain came down even harder. And worse, the ground was starting to flood up.. Holy crap...

Bay: I know, let's walk to the front and see if the guard at 7/11 has an umbrella we can borrow. After all, our only problem is how to get to CyberMall. Once we get there, we can walk safely na to Citi.

Gladys: Great Idea!

Voila! The guard did not have an umbrella. How now, brown cow? The rain showed zero chances of stopping. And we were about to be late for a management meeting.

Gladys: Oh, let's run the 3 steps to 7/11 and see if they sell umbrellas.

Bay gamely agreed and we rushed to the convenience store. Once inside, whew, finally, something went our way. They did sell umbrellas-- the cheapest of which were the foldable, floral-designed ones that were 63 bucks each.

We looked at each other, shrugged, and just picked one each and paid.

We walked out of 7/11 and opened our cheap umbrellas. Tried to open, rather. 5 seconds went by with us trying to push open the gaddamn umbrellas, whose locks seemed to be non-existent. No matter how many times or how hard we push up, the umbrellas just wouldn't lock.

We walked back in.

Bay: Miss, miss, sira itong payong!

7/11 cashier: (rolls her eyes) Sagarin niyo kasi. (opens the umbrella effortlessly)

Bay and Gladys: (wide-eyed) Wow, ang galing mo, miss!

So we walked out of 7/11 with our open umbrellas and waded through the about-to-flood way to Cyber and then all the way back to home-sweet-home Citibank.

Once inside, you would think our ordeal was over. But no...

As we were waiting for the elevators, we were laughing at ourselves while shaking our 'brellas dry. Just as the elevator doors open and a bunch of guys come out, the tip of my umbrella's handle broke off! And, to make matters worse, 1 guy bent down and picked it up. With a look of uneasy disgust, he handed it over to me using only his thumb and index finger, as if the thing was full of germs he didn't want to spread to the rest of his hand. How embarrassing!!

And so we forged on, wanting nothing else than to have this string of bad luck to stop. We entered the lift along with 2 people from Credit (14th floor). The elevator moved on up and stopped at the 14th floor, where those 2 people got off.

A second after the elevator closed at the 14th floor, brownout! Bay and I looked at each other with disbelief. You've got to be kidding me!

Ironically, it didn't occur to either of us that we should push the alarm button in the elevator panel. We were just too stunned by the series of unfortunate events.. all in the span of an hour!

Sigh... So after a few seconds, the power came back on and we finally arrived safely in our floor and at our workstations. My gohd. All that trouble for corn!? Heck, I'm never touching that stuff ever again! =P