I accompanied my friend Ross last night (which is actually just several hours ago) to Sanctum. She wanted to sing a couple of songs she wrote this summer, after years of not writing anything at all. I first heard her demo tape early May, and I thought it was really good. Marge and I thought we'd go with Ross to provide her moral support. The thing was, I was stuck at home yesterday writing my project, and could only go out of the house for the open mic, which starts at midnight. I had dinner with my mom and was watching some TV. Then I told her, Hey, I'll be going out later with some friends to this poetry reading thing. They'll pick me up at this burger place later. That was 10pm. I shouldn't have told her. She said she'd go with me to the burger place and wait with me while I wait for my friends. Dums.

I went to my room and made several phone calls. Marge couldn't go and pick me up because she's the designated driver and had to accompany her sister someplace else first. I couldn't reach Ross on her mobile. There wouldn't be anyone to pick me up at all. If so, I doubt if my mom would just let me take a cab in Malate sometime past midnight. Trouble. My mom is a cool mom and all, but she still is my mother. And I'm her only daughter, and I'm the eldest so going out late at night still bothers her sometimes. I knew I should have left the house earlier.

But through sheer persistence, I finally managed to convince Ross to drive by and pick me up, in a different burger place this time so my mom wouldn't have to go all the way to Malate. It's hard to make conversation when you're standing around your local 7-11 with your mother and explaining how you met this people ("She went to this school, and she also knows Wendell. Everyone knows Wendell, mom."), what you intend to do ("It's somewhere in the wall crevices of Intramuros, and people go there to read their poetry stuff."), and how you're supposed to go home ("They'll drive me right to our doorstep."). After several minutes of that and a combo meal later, Ross finally arrives. She's with this guy who follows us around in a car. Bad bad thing. It was supposed to be a girls night out.

When we got to Sanctum, Marge was still someplace else. There's this girl Denise who sang some "Galileo" by the Indigo Girls. She also sang Lisa Loeb's "Stay" -- my last song syndrome for most of last week. We had to wait for Marge to come so Ross can go up there and sing. Finally, after a glass of bubblegum lambanog (for her, not me) and pithy conversation with the guy who kept on cooing "She's really good, you know," Ross' turn finally came. She read this poem first, and then borrowed somebody else's acoustic guitar. She did "River of Love" and "Set Your Soul Free." A bit nervous, but good enough for a first timer. We hung around some more, and then Denise did several covers more. She didn't know some of the lyrics, so she'd egg the crowd to sing along with her. Fun time.

We went home sometime around 4am. And just as I thought, my mom was in my room waiting up for me. Hope we could do that again sometime soon.