These past two days of school opening have been filled with very tight driving situations.
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Yesterday, when I drove back to school to bring Bianca, I had to park my Honda in one of the tightest spots I've ever been in. The usual parking lot at Leon Guinto St. was already full, save for one pretty cramped corner boxed in by cars and a concrete wall.

I came to within millimeters of scraping a green EK Civic's left front bumper time and again, trying to maneuver my City into the spot. Finally managed to wedge my car in with sufficient space to disembark. All the while I was maneuvering, I didn't realize I was still quite a ways from scraping my car against the concrete wall.

Extracting the car from the lot was pretty tight too, albeit with much less effort. This time I was a smidgen away from getting fresh new dents from an AUV's bumper.

The experience convinced me that I was pretty good with parking, and I could probably do the old car-driving Lasallites justice back in those days when parking was scarce. But I'd really rather not do that again.
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The second tight situation happened on my way home today in Mom's Pregio van. I'd been tailing an old gray Mercedes-Benz 250TD station wagon who happened to be going the same way I was. The Merc had an AAK sticker on his back window, which meant the driver was probably a karateka.

At the foot of the Buendia flyover, the Merc was attempting to move to the left lane avoiding the traffic going to the Skyway. I flashed my lights signaling that I was going through, but he ignored me and crawled to the left anyway, without signaling the lane change. Had I not braked and let him through, I might have hit his D-pillar.

Same thing happened on the on-ramp to the Magallanes flyover, still without him signalling and ignoring my headlight flashes. With the Merc effectively crowding my lane, this time I inched as close as I could get to the left-side gutter and sped through. Watching my right mirror, I avoided swapping gray Merc paint by a couple of inches, but the Merc driver was blowing his horn in protest.

Funny how he didn't realize that it was mainly his fault and he did the crowding maneuver to me twice.

Approaching the 3-lane off-ramp to Magallanes, I was behind a slow-moving light truck. The Merc flanked me on the left and tried to crowd into me AGAIN. He was trying to make me crash into the passing AE101 Corolla on the right lane, or the cement barriers on the right side. At this point I was pretty pissed at this wagon-driving asshole.

The AE101 went by, freeing up the right lane with a comfortable gap. I then made my move, moving the Pregio's tiller to the right and flooring the gas. Following the AE101, I overtook the light truck, returned to the middle lane and powered through clear of the maniacal Merc.

The Merc driver might have kicked the gut out of me out of the car, but when strapped to a steering wheel and pedals, I'm sorry to say that I am a better and more alert driver.

I will repeat my mantra: "Overtake decisively and responsibly."
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Denise now has a boyfriend. The two of them were an item since the day after Christmas, and they were the last thing I saw before I went on home.

Honestly I was...shocked. Maybe it was pretty stupid of me to think so, but I always thought she'd be single and she wouldn't delve into a relationship anytime soon. Probably cheeky of me to say this but I thought she and I would end up together. At least now I can say "BLARGH! WRONG!" to that thought.

Right now I don't quite know how to feel---happy, sad, jealous, cheated or whatnot. At least I managed to act civilly in front of them. I know the latter two emotions I don't have any right to feel, but I can't help it.

Then again, in the back of my mind I knew she wouldn't stay single. Denise just knows too many guys.

To think she was pretty much the only person I was looking forward to talking to after the holiday break.

Sigh...
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Pam wrote about attracting the wrong kinds of men. I wonder if I was the "fuckwit" in her life. Honestly, the realization hurt and I want to make it up to her somehow, immature as I may be.

Trying to mend my friendship with her is like talking to a wall, methinks. I know my attempts at it have been somewhat feeble at best, but I know it's pretty much all I can do when she's remained as civil but cold as she is toward me.

Guess I'll just have to swallow that bitter pill called futility.
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Sigh...I don't know what it is with women. The more I try to win their attention, love and respect, the more they seem to run scared from me. What the fuck am I doing wrong?

What an overwhelmingly sad realization.

I might as well profess my undying love to automobiles.
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By the way, happy birthday Cher!