Entertainment | Hip to be Mom

Don’t ask me what I did this weekend. It went so fast I didn’t have a chance to see where it went. Not that we did very much, mind you. Just lunch and a grocery run on Saturday afternoon and a couple of late movie nights. Very late by our standards! 1:00am, to be exact, two nights in a row!

Here are the 3 movies me and my girls watched.

1. Letters to Juliet which I really like for its schoolgirlishly romantic plot. If I’d written a book in my teens (wish I had!), this is exactly the kind of story line I would’ve come up with. It’s about a writer wannabe who inadvertently finds herself helping a lady find the love of her life after 50 years.

2. Win A Date With Tad Hamilton which is about a small town girl who wins a dinner date with a big movie star. Well, if I ever won a date with Paul Walker, I’d be a lot more light-headed than her . Chances are pretty slim but still a girl can dream, can’t she?

3. She’s the Man which is a really fun movie about a girl who pretends to be a guy to get into an all-boys soccer team. Hilarious! It reminded me of the time when my family was moving to the big city, I almost ended up in an all-boys’ high school so yeah, I can so see how it could’ve turned into one big laugh.

By now, you’re probably seeing a trend here. All 3 movies are charming in their own way. I loved them all, went to bed with a big smile on my face and slept right through my alarm.

Okay, now let me explain why my alarm clock was going off on the weekend. My phone is set to go off at 6:00am on weekdays, and 7:30am on weekends… no particular reason except that I hate getting to the grocery store late and not finding a parking spot.

I really should learn to relax and kick back . But how? More movies? Any good romantic comedies you’d care to recommend?

Time for a random post simply because this Chinese New Year is so quiet I can hear a pin drop. No doubt, it’s because we miss Steev. No one has officially voiced it out but I think we all feel it . Skyping with him every day before and after his classes helps but it’s not the same.

To kill the boredom, the girls and I had 4 movie nights in a row. We watched both parts of “National Treasure” which had us on the edge of our seats. And we watched “The Losers” again because we like Jensen and his elevator song , and “Eclipse” for the first time which, if nothing else, was good for a few laughs.

We scaled down our reunion dinner partly because Raine and I have been working out so hard at the gym we didn’t want to pile those nasty calories right back on. So a very simple meal it was – takeout fried chicken (mm, so fattening!) and chicken curry, and 2 homemade dishes of stirfried Pacific clams with shiitake mushrooms and fish maw, and stirfried broccoli with ginger.

We haven’t visited anyone but my Dad stopped by as did one of my cousins and her family. Her husband is one of my favorite relatives simply for the fact that he does his own thang and could care less about the family politics and what the herd does.

Random quote from him this time: I don’t have an iPhone. I don’t have an iPad. I don’t have an iAnything. And I’m not on Facebook because I don’t have any friends.

Priceless! Now there’s a man I respect! He took the words right out of my mouth!

On an even more random note, Skye and I are missing these Danish cookies (and I’m not even a big cookie person!). I bought two 4-pound boxes of these at Costco and we finished one-and-a-half boxes while we were traveling up and down the coast, and left the rest for Steev and his Roomie. Heard the cookies are almost gone now .

Nostalgic river boat ride

Posted by Clairity Comments Off

Dec 302010

Whenever I go to Disneyland, the Mark Twain river boat is a must-ride for me. It’s right across the street from the Haunted House. Those of us chickens who don’t do the Haunted House will go on the river boat ride.

The ride takes us on a leisurely cruise down the river past scenes familiar to the early pioneers. All along the way, we’d be peering into the bushes trying to spot if something is part of an animal or a steel drum and we’d be going look at this and look at that over there.

When Raine was 3, we went on this ride and she loved when I pointed out a teepee or a deer grazing in the shrub. She still remembers so this was a pretty nostalgic ride for us.

The river boat by night is stunning, don’t you think?!

Nothing can dampen my trip to Disneyland. Not the rain. Not the crazy traffic jam on the San Bernardino freeway going into LA. Not the long drive through the Grapevine in heavy rain, fog and almost snow.

The minute I set foot into Disneyland, Anaheim and seeing this 65-foot high Christmas tree decorated with over 4,000 ornaments and 10,000 lights, I felt like a child again. With my 3 children in tow, that is!

This is my 4th time here and each time, I feel that same tingling excitement at what’s in store. I’ve not been to any of the other Disneylands around the world because heck, why go to any other when you can go to the original one, eh?

We did the Small World ride twice – once in the day and couldn’t resist another ride in the night when this display was lit up like a fairy tale.

Caught Mickey and Minnie as they were riding around on the Disney parade at night. One of my favorite couples of all time and imagine, after so many years together, they’ve not aged at all !

It rained the first day and a half we were there but by the 2nd afternoon, the sun was out! We walked from early morning till night for 3 whole days. Thankfully we could always find some atlantic furniture to sit down, have a drink and rest our tired feet while waiting for our rides or for the brilliant fireworks to begin .

So yesterday turned out to be one of those days! I had a shouting match of sorts with my mechanic. Too bad I’m not your everyday sweet as candy women who will quietly stand there, head bowed and take crap from someone just because he’s a man!

I don’t know, I could be wrong but I’m assuming he assumes he can get away with bullying me, a woman driver who, he assumes, has no idea where anything is in the car she’s driving except maybe for where the steering wheel is situated.

Okay, so maybe he could’ve gotten away with it if he’d said something even remotely intelligent but in this case, he really, seriously should consider using his brains before he even opens his mouth. Yes, he would be surprised to know that I DO know the spare tire is located in the back underneath the undercarriage of my minivan!

Good thing the day did eventually take a turn for the better in spite of a morning spent in a stuffy gym and being trapped in my car with a garbage truck parked right next to me!

To make up for our stinky morning, the girls and I went to Chili’s for a quick bite to eat before going to watch “Takers”. Any movie with Paul Walker has got to brighten up my day though I was feeling a little dizzy. Not sure why but I’m guessing it’s either got to do with Paul or the way the movie sequences were pieced together. Gotta be Paul, swoon!

And it would’ve been a great night out too if not for the person sitting next to me in the cinema!! Yes, the woman decked out in costume jewelry who walked into the cinema late, positively molested my kneecap (eww!) and rubbed my arm just to ask what movie it is we’re watching?!!

Kinda kills your mood, ya know! I had to spend the night sitting like the Leaning Tower of Pisa slanted west towards Raine trying to avoid being assaulted again! Just one of those days! What can I say?

Playing games?

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Oct 242010

Steev has just found out his roommate is a big xbox 360 fan and that he’s saving money to buy more xbox accessories. My first thought is that I hope my Steev doesn’t become addicted to it too. Well, I sure won’t want it to affect his grades.

I’m a little worried when Steev tells me he’s starting to enjoy playing xbox games now. Uh-oh, sounds like someone’s getting hooked and is busy checking out xbox new releases instead of hitting the books. I’ve made him promise his grades won’t suffer as a result of this cute little game.