DAY FOUR

Just scratching the itch to write something in english again. I miss this.

Like pretty much everyone else who's a little bit insecure about their lives, I felt that my life is boring. I mean, nothing much happens to me. The usual stuff. So I thought, for 2010 I should do something spontaneous for 10 days. Something out of the box for me. Things other people will see as stupid.

Today was Day 4.

So to keep you up-to-date with the three previous days that I have not chronicled in this blog, here is a rundown of all the things I did before today:

DAY 1: Locked myself in a cubicle in the office washroom to... pet my stiffy.
DAY 2: Flirt with a random stranger... she turned me down. Epic fail.
DAY 3: Close a blog (it was either Gillboard or the other one... I loved this more)

Now we're on Day 4.

A little trivia about me. The company I work for, they only pay us once a month. Huge companies in the Philippines apparently do that. Anyway, so after a long period of hefty paychecks from my employers, last March there was nothing really special that came in terms of bonuses or what have you. So we were paid our basic salary, plus night diff and the usual.

Needless to say, three weeks later I no longer have budget to last me until next payday (which is April 15). So earlier this evening, I took out the rest of my cash from the bank to budget for the next 8-9 days.

I didn't have change. Not even twenties or hundreds. And I'm embarassed to pay using coins because that would mean I'd have to take out my ziploc plastic bag to get my coins (my coin pars' zipper broke last week).

With no change, and no plans of getting my crispy bills changed, I decided to do Day 4. I won't pay for my commute for the day.

The FX was easy. I only have to fake sleeping, and since alot of people get off in Baclaran, I'd only need to wake up at the precise moment and get off. And that's what I did. Not to say that the whole thing was easy because my heart was literally trying to escape from my chest the whole way. I was paranoid. Does this woman beside me know I didn't pay my fare? Will she tell? Will the guy on the other side of me by the door let me out if the fx driver says I did not pay my fare?
Twenty bucks is not worth all this crazy shit I went through.

It was a long twenty minute ride. Snow Patrol, Aiza Seguerra, Sponge Cola, Kris Allen and Taylor Swift can't drown the guilt away from me.

Thankfully, the Kuya who was beside me also got off in Baclaran. So that was a relief. Now comes the hard part, THE BUS.

That is harder. How do you outsmart someone who deals with these things on a daily basis. I mean, I have coins, I could pay them the eleven pesos easily if I want to. But I don't. I'm already in the zone. It's don't-pay-your-fare-day today.

I had an idea. I actually took the greedy bus. The ones that wait until it's almost full before they leave. I sat at the back. I took different colored tickets that were left on the sides of the window, at the back of the seats etc. Midway while travelling and while bus boy (don't know the english of kunduktor) was busy getting tickets from my fellow passengers, I moved to an empty seat towards the front (in Libertad) where some people get off. So now, the bus boy just passed me, and when he got to my place to check if I have tickets...

I paid him. I did not have the same colored ticket he was giving the passengers.

Nice try though. 50/50. Not bad at all for a first timer.

I'm not going to do that again though. The guilt is going to give me aneurism or a heart attack.