|
Some reflections during the 18 hours I spent to get ticketsdate posted: 2008-09-24 17:25:55
By ILMPI
I promised my son we'd watch the Thursday game live
Part 1: 9 Hours at Araneta. Eating, texting, reading a newspaper, doing crosswords, standing, sitting, sleeping, stretching, exercising, playing games, thinking, drinking, looking around, laughing, smoking, talking, listening, calling on a cellphone, shouting, snoring, praying, studying, memorizing a lesson. And me, writing this story by texting on my cellphone.
These are the things people around me are doing. We are in a line; a very, very long line which began 10 hours earlier. I estimate this line to be about 1,000++ people. It's Monday, 5am here in the Araneta Coliseum, which means these people started lining up right after the game yesterday. I promised my son that I'd get tickets for the game this Thursday. You can do this, I tell myself.
Go back 20 years to 1988. I was a senior in college. Jun Reyes, Alex Araneta, Nonoy Chuatico, Jet Nieto, Jayvee Gayoso are the players whose names I still remember. It was at the Rizal Coliseum, the one at the back of La Salle at Taft. The shorts were really short back then, compared to today at least. Ateneo won the championship that year of 1988 (and the previous year, 1987). It was the perfect cap to my years at the Ateneo.
From 1988, go forward 14 years to year 2002. I had just brought my family back to Manila after living and working in the province. I hadn't watched any of the games since 1988, not even on TV. But there I was at Araneta watching the 3rd game of the 2002 championship series versus DLSU, and score is tied, 1-1. I see for the first time the great players of that season: Enrico Villanueva, Rich Alvarez, Wesley Gonzales, Larry Fonacier, LA Tenorio, Paolo Bugia, Quimpo. Intal and Cramer were still benchwarmers back then.
Ateneo won that game, needless to say. And I remember I immediately realized that in the only two games I watched live in a span 14 years, Ateneo won two UAAP championships. I was the lucky charm, I said to myself proudly! Ateneo was waiting for me to be at a game live for it to end the championship drought of 14 years.
It's 2pm and my spirit just got decimated. No more tickets, the Araneta official shouts. I am so close already to the yellow gate. Nine hours down the drain. Hungry and dehydrated, I go home worrying how I'd tell my son.
Part 2: Blue Eagle Gym, 9 Hours. It's 5am, Tuesday, and here I am at the Blue Eagle Gym. I knew it, the moment I read the website announcement that tickets for the Alumni, the high school and the grade school would be given out starting at 2pm today, I should have come here immediately. I am maybe the 500th or 600th in line. I asked my son to pass by the gym yesterday on his way home to see if there was already a line starting. That was at around 5pm, and he said he didn't see any line. Now I know why. The line was inside the gym.
I just came back from talking to the man who is the first in the line. He started lining up 4am of Monday. Golly, that was about the time I left our house to go to Araneta. I should have gone straight here. Maybe I'd be number two on the line.
Interesting man beside me. We've been talking for about 3 hours already. Two daughters: one, a Junior here in Ateneo and currently in Japan on an exchange program; the other daughter, currently a high school senior but planning to enter the Ateneo also. Proud parent he is. Very kind guy.
Just woke up. My back hurts from sleeping on the wooden chairs. My neck is stiff. Have no pillow.
Am walking at the side of the gym facing the Ateneo grade school. On both corners of the gym I see this great dumping site of old chairs, tables, signages and other wooden and metal trash. And it's open to rain and the elements. Mosquito heaven. Snake hiding place. Dust gatherers. I'd be interested in the old sofa chairs there. Scrap wood/metal garage sale?
Finally, it's 2:30pm and I have my 2 tickets. They are gold to me. General admission. Fifty pesos each. I am a proud Father.
I know what you're thinking, dear readers. "Eighteen hours for 2 general admission tickets: is he insane?" You know what, I completely agree with you! HAHAHAHAH! But it wasn't about the tickets. It was about keeping the promise I made to my son. Got you, didn't I?
See you on Thursday -- live at the Araneta Coliseum.
|
