Hanging out | Hip to be Mom

If I could dance like that

Apr 122012

If I ever said I was hooked on The Voice, well, I’m so over that now. Dancing With The Stars is back and that’s where I’m at. This is the first season I’m actually watching from the beginning. Last season, I only found out mid-season that Nancy Grace was on (have I been living under a rock? seriously!) and went to have a peek.

I got hooked right there. I’m a big fan of Nancy Grace’s. Maybe I see a little of her snarkiness and outspokenness in myself. Maybe a part of me wishes I’d gone to law school. But that’s a story for another day .

Nancy’s pro dancing partner last season was Tristan McManus and they made a really cute pair. He seems like such a regular nice guy. Totally adorable, Irish accent and all . He’s back this season with Gladys Knight and I’m officially a MacManiac.

This has been a particularly hard week. The music was rather weird, at least to me. I was sad Jack Wagner had to go home last week and now Sherri Sheperd. They clearly can dance (better than some). He’s so funny, she’s so bubbly and they both have super positive outlook but sadly didn’t garner enough votes to stay in the game.

Gavin Degraw, never heard of him before this but my girls like his songs, and omg, that smile is so adorable, so okay, we’ll go with Gavin. Gladys Knight, I really admire folks who don’t let their age limit what they can and cannot do, and she has such a great attitude about this.

So that leaves me wishing, darn, if I could dance like that! With 2 left feet, I guess I can only dream. If you need me, you know where to find me Monday nights!

In the presence of beauty

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Apr 102012

So there we were, the girls and I, waiting for our lunch to be served when who should strut in with a wisp of a 10-year-old girl but the beauty queen herself? I say strut, not walk because that’s simply the grace with which beauty queens stride. They don’t walk, like us minions. They strut. Head held high, shoulders back, tummy in and they make sure everyone in the room is watching them.

She was my classmate from the day we first tripped into school, bags heavier than us. Unlike me, she’s come a lo-oong way from tripping. Apparently descended from a line of beauty queens, she has, since those early school days, been groomed to become one herself! I completely understand, of course. Beautiful genes are passed on like heirlooms. Some have ‘em, others don’t and there’s no use crying over it. We can’t all claim to be Samantha Bricks now, can we?

Yes, my old school friend became a beauty queen. I can’t really call her a friend though because I was far from being in her league and she never saw the need to befriend someone like me. So our paths ~~never~~ hardly ever crossed. All I know is that she is tall and lithe with long hair and a brain the size of a pea. But so what, when you have genes like hers!

Fast forward to the present and there she was, ordering sushi for herself and her ~~almost anorexic~~ daughter whom she’s grooming to be the next supermodel or beauty queen, no doubt. If you ask me, her daughter’s a tad too skinny for a growing child. But maybe there are sacrifices to be made if you want to make it in the world of beauty, I don’t know.

Sitting in the same room as Beauty herself, it struck me that true beauties are often oblivious to their own good looks and seldom see the need to be validated by the world at large. That’s my theory anyhow. I’m not in awe of beauty, are you? We shouldn’t be, simply because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. And to put it (loosely) in the words of our guy Shakespeare, some were born beautiful, some had a little help, and if all else fails, there’s always Botox, Spanx and Photoshop. Just sayin’.

Ready for the holidays

Posted by Clairity 3 Responses »

Dec 142011

I’m done with classes. I can’t believe today went that quick. It’s such a relief but I will miss my students for sure. Some came up to shake my hand. Some said they hope I’ll be teaching them next semester. A few said they wanted to take me to try the food from their country.

I really enjoyed this bunch of kids. Well, technically not all of them were teens, I had students in their 20s and 30s. Just some really nice people to work with and a few naughty ones too but I will miss them just the same.

Anyhow I came home, dropped off my bags and took the girls straight out to lunch…

… at Nando’s, one of our favorite places where we even have a table we call our own. We haven’t been there in like months. Love their grilled vegetables and peri� wedges.

What the girls and I really enjoy is the luxury of just sitting back and having a leisurely conversation over an unhurried lunch. This is probably the best time of the year for us to be able to do that. The holiday season is truly just that for us, the holidays where the girls are completely free from anything to do with school and homework.

I’ve never ever signed them up for any holiday classes or school camps of any sort. Come on, don’t be ridiculous, I would never do that to my kids ! The holidays are for kids to be themselves, to hang out, to do the stuff they’re too busy to do during the school year, and to pursue new interests if they so choose.

Such as canine psychology which Skye is so into these days, and exploring fashion and nail art which is Raine’s area. As for me, I’m giving my girls baking lessons at home even though I’ve never attended a single baking class myself, ho ho ho! Stay tuned for where we went after lunch.

Of dead phones, French movies and writing late into the night

Posted by Clairity 3 Responses »

Nov 112011

I’m not one for numbers but 11.11.11 does look pretty cool… and just for the heck of it, I’m going to post this at 11.11 o’clock since this date only rolls around once every 100 years. As for what’s been happening in the days leading up to today, read on.

First off, my pocket PC decided to give up the ghost. It crashed once, twice, a few more times and that’s it, pretty much! So I’m officially disconnected from the whole world. Have been since last Friday. What a lonely place to be! Never thought I’d say this but hee-lp, I need a new phone – bad – considering the amount of texting that goes back and forth to synchronize our (Raine’s and mine) college schedules.

And that new phone I’m looking for -right now, it’s a toss-up between the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S (which phone do you have and what do you like about it?), both of which are, by the way, out of stock right now.

What a bummer! To sweeten things up, the girls and I stayed up one night to watch a French movie. It wasn’t supposed to be a funny movie but it cracked us up so much the neighbors must’ve thought we’d gone completely off our rockers. I’ve not laughed so hard – in a long time. We couldn’t understand a single word of it but the incredibly stupid subtitles (which made no sense whatsoever) sent us ROTFLMOAO. Watched a foreign movie lately?

Oh, remember I mentioned I won’t be attempting NaNoWriMo this year? Well, guess what? My girls have ganged up and sweet-talked me into joining them, and after 3 days, I’ve only managed to crank out a measly 1,038 words. Raine has raced ahead to 21,855 and Skye has 5,738 words to her credit. I know, I’m in trouble . My story isn’t even much of anything right now. Expect me to be sitting here into the wee hours of the morning (aka 10:30pm) trying to cough something ~~intelligible~~ out.

Morning with a jetsetter

Posted by Clairity 16 Responses »

Sep 212011

Today did not start out well. I dropped the girls off in the morning as usual. As soon as I arrived home after being stuck in rush hour traffic for an hour, I received a text from Raine saying she wasn’t feeling well and could I please pick her up again?

Oh, great, I thought, I’m meeting my Scottish girl friend for breakfast at 10 at a mall that’s in the opposite direction. She’d flown into town yesterday and I didn’t want to be late. I texted my friend that I was running late, then jumped right back in my car and headed out to get Raine.

Traffic had eased somewhat and I got Raine home at a quarter till, still enough time to make it halfway into the city without being overly late. I’d been so looking forward to our breakfast meeting. It was just like old times. We met at our usual place and sat at our usual table.

So it all worked out. My girl friend who’s been living in Vietnam for the past couple of years had lots of stories to tell, all intriguing to me as I’ve never been there. An hour and a half was obviously not enough to catch up on 2 years’ worth of chitchat and gossip. But I had to cut it short to pick up my girls from school/college.

Still it’s always great catching up with an old friend. I felt happy for the rest of the day. She has another year in Vietnam so I guess we’ll save round 2 for next summer. Maybe. She still doesn’t know where she might end up living after that. Such is the enviable life of the jetset!

Do you dream of living life in distant countries experiencing far-flung cultures? If so, which ones? Or would you prefer to live in a familiar place close to home?

Punishment by pebbles

Posted by Clairity 11 Responses »

Aug 182011

In the days of old, pirates made their prisoners walk the plank. Wonder if they ever thought to make them walk the pebbles instead.

This pebble path running through a small scenic garden is specially constructed to feature protruding pebbles. Looks harmless enough, right? But have you tried walking on the pebbles – barefoot?

Don’t be fooled by these innocent-looking pebbles. They are thin and sharp and they send bolts of pain shooting up through what doesn’t even feel like your feet after a while. Yup, they make you dance around in pain and make you wish you’d never stepped on them with your bare feet. Yikes!

My girls are always game to attempt this Walk of Pain. They think it’s fun waving their arms and going ouch, ouch, ouch all the way down the pebble path like it’s some kind of ancient war dance.

Me? Not so much. I rarely even make it a quarter way down and that’s all the punishment I can take. Give me Lady Gaga or Justin Beiber any time! (I never thought I’d actually say that but yeah.)

Apparently having the nerves of your bare feet stimulated in this way is good for blood circulation and health in general. I tend to look at this as some sort of medieval punishment even worse than walking the plank .