fortune (teller) cookie

my friend p asked me yesterday to accompany him to this fortune-teller whose ad he saw in some paper. :D i had nothing else to do (i forgot my american idol/amazing race combo was on) so i obliged. we had dinner first and killed time at the coffee bean on sunset and fairfax (my friend jojo and i once saw lenny krayzelburg here).

anyway, so we went to the fortune teller's house around 9 pm [one has to call in advance and get an appointment]. her place is in a good area near west hollywood. it's a stone's throw away from the fred segal store on melrose.

we both alighted the car but when we reached the front door, the fortune teller told us that she was only accepting one-on-one 'readings' and unless i wanted my fortune told, i had no business being there. so i stayed in the car.

after around 45 minutes, my friend emerged from the house. i thought he was done but he told me he needed to withdraw some money. okay, so off we went to the nearest b of a. so we parked near the atm [melrose and la brea] and after 30 seconds, a silver audi parked beside us. my friend was already by the atm and i was doing some stretches. the guy in the silver audi threw me a glance and smiled. hmmm, friendly. and he looked familiar. in a millisecond, i realized it was rob from manhunt. oh well.

so we went back to the fortune teller's house. after a few minutes, my friend returned. on our way home, my friend told me about how this lady knew stuff about him as if she knew him from wayback. he told me that she is good. color me impressed.

i have my own manghuhula stories.

a few years ago, my friends from abs and i travelled all the way to this town in laguna (or was it rizal?) to have our fortunes told to us by this "really good" manghuhula, according to people who know her. anyway, so we slept-over at my friend's house in angono, in order for us to be there early. anyway, to make the long story short, we were at the manghuhula's place before 8 am. it was quite early and we were among the first in line. the thing with this lady is that she has this stone submerged in water while she is doing her thing. if something goes wrong, the water becomes black. she asked us to write our birthdates (numbers only) on this piece of paper she provided.

i think i was the fifth or sixth person in line then. (and there was already a long line that was forming behind us) when it was my turn, she read my paper and started concentrating. apparently, she was having difficulties. she looked at my paper, then asked me, 'kailan ang birthay mo?' i replied 'august 2 po.' and then she fumed, 'eh bakit ganyan ang pagkakasulat mo? nagkamali tuloy ako!' she got her container, shook it, and exclaimed, 'ayan! itim na ang tubig. hindi na ako makakapanghula!' and walked away. i could feel the eyes of the rest the people behind me. if looks could kill, i would have died a thousand deaths then.

just how did i write my date? the way i still do, up to now. today's march 23, so i would be writing it 03/23. i wrote by b-day as 08/02 and apparently, those extra zeroes caused her not to be an effective manghuhula. oh well.

and yeah, there's this other manghuhula who gave me the creepiest hula ever. to think i did not even want to have my fortune told to me then. she was on a break from her manghuhula chores with my co-workers and when we got the chance to talk, out of nowhere, she just told me, 'alam ko kung paano ka mamamatay'. before i could muster enough courage to ask, 'wtf?' she said, 'dalawa lang yan. sa tulog o sa pamamagitan ng baril.'

without even wanting it, i found out how i was gonna die.

according to her, either in my sleep or a gunshot. or probably both? how morbid. that same afternoon, i applied for a membership to the 'gunless society'. i tried not to sleep, but i couldn't. hah.

bottomline: that hula about my death freaked me out. my point is, i did not want to know. of all the stuff i did not want to know, this is the top one. and how dare she play god, and tell me how i was gonna die.

my personal relationship with manghuhulas, and the way i look at them now totally changed after that experience.

but then, that's just me.