In Manila, my journalist colleagues and I would congregate after filing time in the Firehouse Bar on MH Del Pilar Street in Ermita, the old red-light district.
All of the living winners I meet congregate in their usual positions on the side of the bar closest to the door it's the shortest distance between them and a beverage, according to 30-year Frank's devotee Eric Lavalley, who proudly introduces himself by both name and title ("Customer of the Year, 2011").
1,600 miles away, I had congregated in a modest West Hollywood, California apartment to watch the event with a group of men that shared a radically different view: These dudes loved Hillary.
By requesting a room farthest from locations where people congregate, I am less likely to have my auditory well-being assailed.
Worse still, the free speech zone is far away from where most students congregate (I've seen it in person) and occupies a muddy, sloping plain prone to flooding.
The hot food table is where I tend to congregate of late, for I quite like the Meat Balls, the Salt & Pepper Pork Chop (overcooked, but so what), the Radish Beef Stew, the Mongolian Beef, while the Short Ribs and the BBQ Ribs are actually delicious.
In the center of Merced's charming downtown, the only crowd, as far as I could tell, congregated outside a Catholic Charities office.
I found people congregated in front of the mall and there was shooting going on.
I saw people congregating there because there was something bothering them.
