Pacquiao is watching over us

Now that John Park got the boot on American Idol, Manny Pacquiao is driving the Asian American pop culture train. He is our only hope. All of our eyes are on him. He is our God. He is watching over San Francisco in the form of a billboard perched atop Nike Town in San Francisco’s Union Square.

But this is not the first time the Pac-Man gazed over our city like brown-hued Zeus. He was also there a couple of months ago:

How brooding and menacing. It looks like he is ready to kick some ass.

As soon as I saw him in that special edition N98 Nike track jacket with the gold embroidered MP with the trademark Filipino sun (similar to the one he’s wearing in the first pic), I wanted it. I am a sucker for celebrity endorsement. Besides that, I thought I would look really good in it. It would make me look athletic.

It just so happened after work yesterday, my friend Steve texted me and asked if I wanted to meet him at Nike Town. So I thought it would be a good time to buy the jacket.

Finding a size small in any retail store in San Francisco is a difficult task – mainly because nearly every guy here wants a snug fit shirt or jacket to show off their pecs and the sensitivity of their nipples. I just want a small because it fits my puny build. As expected, they did not have my size so it was a colossal fail for me.

In fact, the Janeane Garofalo look-alike salesperson said that the jackets have been selling like crazy and they didn’t even get a shipment of smalls.

As for Steve, he was politely fighting for the last medium jacket with this too-friendly-of-a-guy who was on the phone with his friend asking him if he wanted the said medium jacket. He was a diehard fan. He was walking around in the special edition Nike Pacquiao shoes (which he hadn’t even purchased yet) and was going back-and-forth on whether or not the jacket would fit his friend on the phone.

Steve said, “If your friend doesn’t want it, I’ll take it.”

Diehard Pac-Fan said, “Yeah, I don’t think it will fit him – you want to try it on?”

Steve tried it on and it fit better than the large.

Diehard Pac-Fan said, “It fits you well.”

Steve said, “Yeah, it does.”

Diehard Pac-Fan took the jacket back and continued to talk to his friend. He even brought us over to show us the the Nike shoebox for the special edition kicks. He was getting really excited because the shoebox had an eagle on it.

Steve and I continued to shop and Diehard Pac-Fan came back to us and said “The jacket has a small stain. You want it?”

There was a tiny little black mark near the golden MP on the chest.

“I’ll take it!” Steve said. “I can get rid of the stain – it’s no problem.”

Still on the phone, Diehard Pac-Fan looked at us and then went back to his phone conversation telling his friend on the other end, “Oh- you can easily get rid of the stain.”

He walked off and made his purchases as Steve said, “What a tease!”

Being insistent on finding another medium, Steve asked another employee to see if they had anything in the back. Janeane Garofalo look alike said that there weren’t any more, but he wanted a second opinion.

Lo and behold, the Dave Chappelle look alike came back to us 10 minutes later and said, “This is the LAST medium!” and handed it over to Steve.

He got the unstained one, while Diehard Pac-Fan got the flawed one.

Busted him.

Steve got what he wanted and I had to settle for a $28 T shirt.

Moral of the story: Pacquiao is really watching over us.