I had brain freeze for lunch

since my sister is off gallivanting in boracay until thursday (for free, the minx), i was the lucky homepartner who was tasked to pay her bills, all due today. so at lunchtime, i slunk down alfaro street in the scorching heat to line up at a rather dingy branch of rcbc.

brain freeze hung in the air like a wi-fi signal. there were signs that should have leapt out at me, but coming from a mind-numbing morning of uninterruptible power supplies, i was hardly in tip-top mental condition.

the prehistoric atm by the door was offline. actually, offline is an understatement. its guts were practically hanging out.

i stood dutifully for ten whole minutes where a sign said "line starts here." several meters away, two office drones sitting on a couch gave me a strange look.

after ten minutes, i squinted at the two drones and saw that they were clutching deposit slips and wads of cash.

"miss, nakapila ba kayo?" i asked.

one of the drones nodded, except without the downward part.

i paused. whatever happened to line starts here?

line = here. couch = there.

go figure. i sat down beside the two drones and tried to look apologetic. meanwhile, the three available tellers performed some top-secret banking rituals that took the greater part of an hour. i couldn't tell exactly what they were doing, but it definitely involved texting and hair flipping.

thankfully, my wait was peppered by cheery, nasal "correct!"s. yep, lucky me. game k n b was on the telly in the lobby. i secretly prayed for some interesting trivia to protect me from the deadly onset of brain freeze, which was assaulting me from all directions.

final round. kris yelped: "sa tagalog animal names, kung ang kiti-kiti ay mosquito larvae, ano sa ingles ang TIKI-TIKI?"

silence as the contestant, studio audience, and the entire rcbc alfaro branch pondered this question.

said the drone beside me: "gamot!"

silence as brain freeze tickled my nose hairs.

drone: "tiki-tiki -- gamot!"

pause.

"ay ingles pala! vitamins!"

then i think the teller called me. or the contestant answered "spider." or maybe alients took over my body and shot laser beams out of my eyes, incinerating everyone in the bank instantly. i'm not entirely sure. my brain must have frozen over.

update: thankfully, i believe i am starting to thaw a bit despite mitigating circumstances at work. i think it's because i'm listening to "all i wanna do is make love to you" by heart. with lyrics like, Oh, he did everything right/He brought the woman out of me, so many times, easily, and I am the flower you are the seed/We walked in the garden we planted a tree, how can you not emerge from a stupor and giggle?