Waitering at Elbow Room

It’s a pattern of sorts. Someone walks up to you, asks if you know what he’s thinking, knowing you couldn’t possibly have any idea what it is. He would have a smug smile on his face, like what he’s about to tell you is the coolest thing since the TV was invented, though what usually comes after is a story about a cell phone dropping. You, trying to be polite, ask, “did it make a cool sound when it broke?”

Wait. No, what usually happens is, trying to be polite, you make the mistake of asking, “no, what?”

This leads to a very compelling story about how many times the person’s cell phone has dropped, dating all the way back to 80s.

So it’s something of a relief when people say surprising things, things that make you want to scratch your head, and not think about call waiting.

Enter Elbow Room. The place is a kind of nifty pool/ videoke place in Ortigas. It’s generally a festive place, where you can relax, rock the house, or mingle with random strangers who can say wicked things like,

“Sir, isang oras lang po yung table namin.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know what you’re supposed to say when you’re confronted with other people’s time management issues involving billiard tables. I leave that to the pros, and even they fumble. But I had to say something quick and snappy, and my instincts told me go for something like, “good for you.”

Unfortunately, that was not a friendly response to make, that good for you, at least not for my health. So I elected to say something more neutral.

“Dun nyo po tanungin,” I told the guy, pointing toward the Elbow Room staff.

He had no clue what just happened. I had no clue why I didn’t just blurt it out. We were in interesting territory.