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I did my usual birthday routine of renewing my driver's licence.
I went to the LTO at Ayala MRT.
There was this corporate-y looking woman there, late 20s or early 30s in a blue dress, lined up in front of me.
She seemed very jumpy and uppity, every time there was a bump or tap she'd look around.
When she gave her papers in, they told her she was already late for renewal, she had an expired license and has to get it done at East Avenue. Then her voice and body language totally flipped!
Her tone rose and she became very combative. She said she was abroad during her birthday, so she couldn't have it done.
All the men and women behind the desks changed at once. Their expressions smoothed over into neutral, polite masks that I guess govt workers use when faced with people like this. Their body language became less expressive, but they kept giving each other knowing glances.
One told the woman that she could have renewed her licence 2 months before her birthday, and she just said "Eh di ko alam, eh! Paano na yan!"
Looking around, I saw everyone in the waiting room was reacting to her presence and tone of voice. Shaking heads, chuckling, staring.
When she FINALLY accepted that she HAD to go to the main office in East ave, she was shouting though the glass, trying to overtalk the people behind the window. "Teka. TEKA! Wala ba- Wala bang resibo o papel na maibibigay ko sa pulis pag pinapara ako na wala akong lisensya? MAG-ISIP NAMAN KAYO!"
The counter lady just slid the paper she was currently processing over to her "Ito na po."
She left quickly.
Then it was my turn, and the counter people were chuckling and whispering to each other, jokingly speculating that she probably got high on her birthday so she skipped the drug test (which is already cancelled, btw).
"Nag abroad? Palusot lang yun! hahaha!" (*looks at my paper) "Happy birthday, ser."