December 19, 2017, MORNING 

LEE had just arrived at our gate when I came out with a big backpack. He opened the car window to greet me and he was grinning. The sun was bright and the birds were chirping. My heart was pounding faster and louder for reasons I did not know. Everything seemed fine. Or so I thought.

Lee remembered that he had to stop by SM North to have his ECC extended. Aww. Okay. Fine.

At around 10 in the morning, we were driving along EDSA, the circumferential highway in Metro Manila. We were finally, happily going north. Suddenly, we were stopped by an MMDA officer for a violation which, in the first place, we weren’t warned about.  The officer said that we were using the lane for the U-turn but we could not see any sign of a U-TURN anywhere. Just, the MMDA officer appeared out of nowhere and stopped us. Lee went as far as to get out of the car, and in an irritated but still polite voice, he asked to be shown the sign that we were not supposed to use the lane we used.  And for the record, we were on the outside lane, middle lane to be more exact, contrary to what the officer was accusing us of.

Lee further argued that at least,  in the absence of a NO-U-Turn sign, there should  have been traffic cones to signal drivers like him  to stay away from a certain lane.

The traffic enforcer declared that ours was a major violation, and that the car had to be taken somewhere for reasons I did not understand, and that it would take a week before the car could be cleared again, and I did not even know what he meant by “cleared”.

Also, Lee and I, according to the officer, had to be taken somewhere for further questioning.I opened my mouth to reason with the officer but I could not say anything. I was just there, sitting on the passenger’s seat, staring at the two arguing men like an idiot.

When I finally  regained my composure, I intervened. I explained that we were a couple getting married soon and that we were on our way to my hometown up north to meet my mother. (Of course, this was a lie.) I even asked him to take a peek inside our car and check our personal belongings there. We promised the officer that we would be careful in observing the traffic rules and begged him to just let us continue our journey. We gave the officer P200.00 as his “early Christmas” gift, and he let us go. 

As soon as we were out of Metro Manila Area, and when we began to see vast skies and seemingly endless plains, Lee turned up the volume to enjoy The Best of Jason Mraz on the USB. We chose Mraz hits and some other Korean classics as our companion for our nine-day road trip. As Lee accelerated to 100kph, he and I sang along with Mr. A-‘s 93 Million Miles like crazy.

“Just knooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww

That wherever you go,

No you’re never alone

You will always get back hooooooooooommmmmeeeeeee”

At that moment, I realized how good it was to be just crazy and let loose.   We were  two half-crazy people in the middle of nowhere,  relying on Waze 100 percent to guide us to the places we wanted to be.