Rants & raves » Hip to be Mom

Can a week have more than one Monday?

Jan 102012

I want the holidays back!! It would be an understatement to say I wish we were carrying over our laid-back days from last year. Going by the first 3 days of my topsy-turvy taxi schedule, it’s going to be a REAL stretch in the coming weeks, and it’s only the 9th day of the year.

I’m usually indifferent to Mondays but this last Monday takes the cake. I barely got 3 hours of sleep on Sunday night. Must be the tea I drank at dinner time or something. For someone who needs 8-10 hours of sleep, 3 hours is almost no sleep at all. So clearly, it’s not going to work!

Nevertheless I had to be up at 6:00a Monday morning to have breakfast with the girls and drive Skye to school. I would’ve jumped straight back into bed if I hadn’t just washed my hair and had to wait for it to dry. And no, I do not own a hairdryer and I’m not one to dash out in my jammies without brushing my teeth either. Not me!

As we turned the corner to Skye’s school, Mrs BA aka Bad Attitude (lots of those around these parts!) turned right into my path as I was turning into the opposite lane. Clearly I wasn’t in a good mood so I gladly waved my middle digit. Not proud of it but she asked for it.

We usually try to eat lunch together which, on most days, means 3:00p when Skye gets home from school. That’s why you keep hearing me rant about the long school hours. If you ask me, 3:00p is tea time, not lunch time. And do longer school hours make smarter kids, I wonder?

The last taxi run of the day was at 7:30p with one stop for gas. Note to self: fill up on the weekend, why don’t you? Dinner was at 8:00p by which time our tummies were in knots because dinner is 2 hours later than usual. Shower at 8:30 and by 9:30p, we were ready to call it a day and hit the pillows!

The past 3 days have been Mondays for us. I wonder if it’s time to move to another planet.

The chauffeur

Posted by Clairity 3 Responses »

Oct 202011

Three days ago, Raine, my darling 17-year-old, hopped into a sardine can of a car (it’s so small you can practically put it in your pocket, yes!) with a strange man. Yes, the driving lessons have begun!

Her driving instructor is the same guy who taught Steev. He was so patient with Steev that I just had to get him back. Raine, however, is just a little less than enthusiastic about learning to drive. Like her mama, she much prefers to be driven.

Oftentimes while sitting in rush hour traffic, I would reminisce about the days when I was dropped off at college and at work by the family chauffeur. Those were the days. All I had to do was get in the car and be magically transported. Nice!

No throbbing head, no fugly 2-tone arms, no overworking my middle finger! No circling like a hawk for a parking spot, no loitering in “no stopping” zones, no double parking hoping I won’t get caught. No matter how long the road, how bad the traffic or what time it was, I would arrive with nary a hair out of place.

Life doesn’t get much better than that. That was before I stupidly got married and moved out. That’s why they say love is blind. How could I not have seen that I would end up being the chauffeur, rain or shine, any time, any day .

Dare I even dream now that my secret wish might come true – that I would soon have a chauffeur at my beck and call? Then again, doesn’t she only want to be driven?

Stress and the Stone Ages

Posted by Clairity 3 Responses »

Oct 082011

Today’s the day to unwind from that huge dose of stress I mentioned in my earlier post. In recent weeks, I’ve been living in the Stone Ages and dealing with someone who has trouble following instructions. Much less from a woman younger than him. Or at least that’s what I was told.

No matter what I say or do, he’s off doing things and making decisions on my behalf, all without consulting me. Add that to the fact that nothing he says is without a spin or three away from the truth. I’m sorry, dude, it doesn’t work that way around here! Back in the Stone Ages where you came from, maybe. Not here. Not now.

Although I’ve dealt with guys like him before in my corporate days, it doesn’t make it any easier. Long story short, it was stress from the word go. Every time I deal with him, I feel like I’m going to bust a corpuscle.

Enough is enough. I just couldn’t take the stress any more! I had to put an end to it. Okay, he’s gone! Poof, glad that’s over!

I took the day off yesterday, literally. Turned off my phone, turned off my blog (really, did I do that?) and spent the day decompressing! I think I owe myself that much. Well, the weekend’s here and there’s no better excuse to celebrate!

Of dinner, collateral and pampered morsels

Posted by Clairity 5 Responses »

Sep 022011

We finally decided we had to get out of the house, sniffles and all, or risk cabin fever. Japanese, anyone? In our household, no one says no to Japanese. So we headed for the unknown, a restaurant we’ve never been to.

As we entered, a line of restaurant staff quickly formed to bid what we assumed to be a very warm welcome even as they started relieving us of our jewelry and items of value. We were led inside. The place was empty because well, we were early. Or could there be another reason?

Flipping through the oversized menu, we were both impressed and overwhelmed by the choices. It wasn’t easy to decide.

The tri-fish sashimi came with 3 slices each of salmon, salmon belly and tuna. The presentation itself, as you can see, is worth 20 pictures (according to Raine, our resident photog), what with the dried branches and yellow chrysanthemum (a real flower, yes!) providing such a rustic backdrop to these tasty morsels.

Then came the assorted set that included a stone slab of sizzling wagyu beef. Wagyu beef comes from pampered cows who’ve lived the good life of air-conditioned comfort and routine body massages ~~and spa treatments~~ to ensure their meat would be beyond tender.

Flipping the beef over, listening to the sizzle and flipping it back to see a nicely browned other side was half the food adventure. We’re simple folks and little things such as a few slices of beef can get us all excited. By the way, when savoring this melt-in-the-mouth morsel, it’s best not to linger on details like, um, the price .

And finally for tempura freaks like us, what’s a Japanese meal without this?

It was only when the check arrived that it became clear to us why we had to leave some sort of collateral at the door. Safe to say, our next trip back there will be delayed indefinitely, at least till my credit card recovers from the damage!

No time for courtesies

Posted by Clairity 5 Responses »

Aug 292011

We’re by nature an impatient lot. Living in the rush and bustle of the city does that to you sometimes. As a rule, we don’t like waiting but it seems that’s what we seem to spend the most time doing. We have things to do, places to go and people to meet!

Parking is a perpetual problem and when your car is double-parked outside, you obviously want service – fast! But wait till you see the lines, they’re miles long and the cashier is working as ~~slowly~~ fast as a tortoise. And there will always be some person attempting to cut the line.

I don’t think I’m overly impatient though compared to the people who rush into the elevator before the people inside have a chance to get out (and how does that help to speed things up, I wonder), or the ones who cut right into your group as you’re trying to step on the escalator, or those who slam bodily into you in their rush to get ahead (hell-lo?!). Kids do it, adults do it !

I take it that they’re in a bigger hurry than I am, so I usually step aside and let them through, and I remind my kids to do the same. I’m not sure if being in a hurry is necessarily the same as being rude though. Do you think so?

Because quite frankly, we’re all in a hurry and we all hate waiting but uttering a simple excuse me, sorry or thank you barely takes 1 second… so my question is, is being in a hurry an excuse to be rude?

It’s a Monday alright!

Posted by Clairity 2 Responses »

Aug 152011

I can so smell it in the air and feel it in my bones. If you read my tweets, you might’ve heard me say a little craziness is okay but I ended up getting a boatload of it.

It’s the first day of the fall semester for Raine. She only has a 2-hour class and she’s done for the day. So we’re off battling rush hour traffic first thing this morning. We needed to get to college early so she could locate the classroom.

So I drop her off, she manages to locate her classroom and I’m ~~happily~~ on my way home, right? Not so fast! I’m almost home after an hour of inching along in barely moving traffic, my foot numb from hitting the brakes 500 times per minute, and Raine calls me to say… class has been cancelled!

You gotta be kiddin’ me, right? On the first day of school? Well, if you’ve been a mom of 3 for this many school years, you know nothing surprises you anymore. So what else is there to do but to turn around and go back?! Duh! Two whole hours wasted!

The rest of the morning was spent answering questions about the bags we lost flying from Tokyo to San Francisco oh so long ago. No, I do not have those boarding passes, but if and when I do decide to start a collection, I promise you’ll be the first to know .

Because of that, I started lunch late. Dumped the scalloped potatoes in the oven, went out to pick Skye from school, and happily thought we could get down to gobbling lunch right away. But the potatoes weren’t cooked through and had to go right back into the oven while our tummies did cartwheels and drumrolls!

Like the weather, the rest of the afternoon took a turn for the worst when I realized I had to deal with a bunch of unreasonable women (think I’ve mentioned them here before). Yes, the same ones you can’t knock any sense into if you talked yourself blue. I’ll spare you the gory details.

So now I’m home, showered for the third time today. My freshly shampooed hair smells so good. Can’t wait to work some of this stress off tomorrow at the gym. Hope you’re enjoying your Monday/first day of school. Right now, I’m all for happy tales of Monday so please humor me if you’ve got any to share .