Race to Starbucks; Race for Something I Really Want. *or I maybe I thought I wanted.

For the past 4 days, I have been racing to and fro every Starbucks branch in Makati to find this stupid green tumbler that I have seen last Friday from Standard Chartered. It was the last piece of its kind in SC Starbucks but since they would not accept my 500 Sodexho GCs as payment, which I got for being the Top Supervisor for my pod last February, I had to leave it and went home sulking.

That night, my colleague Febes agreed to have her Starbucks GCs be exchanged for my Sodexho's for which she gives to her bankers whenever they get 2 straight hundred surveys. So I had my life straightened now. Tomorrow, I said, the tumbler is mine.

I was excited to take home the tumbler the next day so I arranged my pick up point for the shirts that CJ ordered in Standard Chartered Starbucks and to my dismay, Starbucks was closed on a Saturday. Perfect.
So I raced back to PeopleSupport where my team was patiently waiting for me to tell them that we could finally ride a bus going to Fairview as we were to spend the weekend in Bhadz home and off to LaMesa Ecopark on Sunday. So I checked the Starbucks in our building, no green tumbler; crossed Gil Puyat and checked Starbucks The Columns, no green tumbler; final destination: Starbucks RCBC, still no trace of the freaking tumbler. I had no choice but to go back even as I thought that there are still a couple more of Starbucks branches in Ayala-- Makati being the city with the most number of Starbucks branches in the country. I had to go back. My team was waiting.

A few more hours, 60 pesos worth of travel from Ayala to SM Fairview, we opened their Starbucks branch with coffee jellies, frap, green tea and some pastries but I got the same frustration as they also no longer have the green tumbler that I slowly turn to some search of the Holy Grail.

I managed to keep the tumbler quest off my mind for the meantime. I was, after all, picnicking barbecueing and having the time of my life with my superstars, my team. Over barbecue and Zipline in LaMesa Ecopark, I was able to forget the darn tumbler until Monday, when I had to replenish my tshirt stocks for orders and had to go to Greenhills. I was going to check the Starbucks branch and restart with my new found profession now until I noticed while flipping through my Belle de Jour planner that I left the GCs at home. Great, I muttered. I didn't bother to check Starbucks, as the addage, What you don't know won't hurt you, reminded me.
On my way back, which originally I planned to go straight to the office, I had to go back home to get the GCs and drop by Standard Chartered to finally get the tumbler. So I did. Only, the last mug that I was holding 3 days ago was no longer in their racks.

At this time, I knew that fate was doing intervening and I had no plans of retreating. A few minutes after I said Hello to my team, infuriated and frustrated, I crept out of the building to again check the Starbucks stores close to where I work. PeopleSupport, The Columns, RCBC, Valero, Insular, Security Bank, dela Rosa, Makati Stock Exchange-- walking! Finally, upon reaching MSE, and gazing up Makati Shang, I realized that I have gone so far not to continue walking until I reach Greenbelt and Glorietta. I remembered Starbucks 6750, the first ever Starbucks in the country, how could they not possibly have it? But yeah, it's possible for they also didn't have what I was looking for. Determined not to get back to the office tired and empty handed, I started counting the Starbucks left for me to go to. Greenbelt 3, Glorietta 4 and the one in Rustan's. I decided to go to the one in Rustan's, right beside the Lacoste boutique. And there, a few meters away, I could see green stuff waving at me-- I knew I have found it.

--

I wanted the tumbler so much that I had to pursue to find it up to this far. The more that I get frustrated about not getting it, the more driven I was to aim and get it. And when I know I can do anything to get it, I am sure, I am going to have it sooner than everyone else expects it.

--

I was for the longest time looking for love. Some said it can be found somewhere, just around the corner. I said, then, I must be walking in circles.

I wanted to have one like everyone else.

I am 23 years old, and my society is expecting for me to have one. It is dictating that it is but not normal not to have someone by your side at this time of my life. And that this, could be my sweetest escape against people accusing me of being a person belonging to the third sex. *no I don't have issues with them, only, I am really not one of them.

Or maybe not.

Because if I did, I could have run after it the same way that I did to the darn tumbler which now I fill with distilled water from the pantry.

Yes. Maybe not. Not at all.



March 17, 2009