Busiest season of all

Mitch and I were supposed to eat at a nearby restaurant from my office building, my treat, since it was my fault that we would be spending more hours in the office due to my over-Harriet exposure. He insists that I am already addicted, but I still feel it's too early to tell. He called me up to already prepare to go down at the lobby where the breeze was cold and christmas lights were flickering. I happily went down until the sight of the staggering, deadlocked traffic in Paseo-Villar-Valero-Leviste and Makati Ave sections, unnerved me.

We have become familiar that Citibank-Chinabank section in Makati is always busy. There are shitty days, and there are not so shitty days, but I have never seen it so shitty and deadlocked until tonight. People waiting for their rides at our building were easily surprised as I am. I could even see the look of impatience and frustration in some of their faces when they obviously had plans for the night. They couldn't get a taxi or their respective rides had not arrived yet. And that even if they did, I doubt if they could instantly get out of the deadlock situation.

Mitch called me up when he was still stuck at Paseo De Roxas and planned to make a u-turn and escape the torture and have dinner in Glorietta instead. We followed his brilliant plan and gracefully got to Glorietta where in return there was intense human traffic. At around 8-9 pm people were still shopping, fitting shoes and roaming around the mall. Probably they were like us waiting for the traffic to wane down, but Mitch and I ended up looking around ourselves. We went to a couple of shoe stores, which are on sale and even found the courage to fall in line just to get into SM Department Store. As much as we'd want to maximize the opportunity, we cannot see ourselves falling in line in the discouraging lines already circling the check out counters so I just took notes with my phone of the potential stuff that I saw and will try to get back to this weekend.

After glorietta, Mitch and I treaded back to my office to attend some remaining business. Good thing the streets were already semi-deserted and while we were there, we enjoyed our coffee night cap and discussed how he'll be super busy this week with Christmas parties and weekend family reunions with photoshoots here and there. I figured with Karla's birthday looming and other minor parties this coming weekend, I'm pretty much looking at a busy week myself. I guess, if not all, almost everyone has their schedules cramped till Christmas. With the lowered gas, mushrooming retail sales and dinner/lunch invitations, no wonder this is the busiest season of all.