Rants & raves » Hip to be Mom

The air that we breathe

Mar 232011

So Raine and I are back to the gym after a week’s slack. Shame on us! Blame it on Sam and Dean, and the incessant rain.

Well, we may’ve been away for a whole week but it’s still the same old, same old over there. Like it being 85 degrees outside, rain or shine. Like some people showing up in long sleeves, long pants and wrapping themselves up in bath towels to work out for 2 hours in a gym with no windows.

The minute we get in, we switch everything on – the fans, the air-conditioning. It’s a thankless task, let me you. I’ve lost count of how many glares we’ve gotten for doing everyone a favor and ensuring they can breathe!

They claim to be shivering cold or that they want to sweat it out. Either way, they don’t want any air circulating in that gym. And anyone who dares touch that switch gets the evil eye!

So far, no one’s confronted me – yet – though I daresay I often hear them cussing me behind my back.

Anyhoo, this is how I look at it.

When you work out, you tend to require more oxygen than usual to fuel those strenuous activities. So you need air!

Without any fresh air, we’ve got a closed up area rapidly filling up with carbon dioxide replacing any last bit of oxygen. So you need air!

The windows are only open a teeny tiny crack which isn’t enough for a roomful of oxygen-deprived lungs. So you need air!

Your body produces heat when you exercise and you need to cool it down so you won’t faint. So you need air!

No brainer, right?

Not to these ladies. I assure you they can’t wait to see our backs, and the moment we’re out the door, they jump up and turn everything off again! At the rate they’re going, they might as well stay home and work out on their Nintendo Wii.

As for me, I’ve got to have air when I exercise or I will feel nauseated and then I get a freakin’ migraine that ruins my entire day!

Lost but all is not lost

Posted by clairity 9 Responses »

Feb 082011

I heard that someone at the gym lost her cell phone the other day. She’d left it in one of the pigeon holes and gone home, only to realize oops! She called the gym immediately and was told it wasn’t there any more. Gone. for. good!

Steev lost his iPhone while he, me and the girls were peddling a rickshaw (like crazy, I might add, it was such great fun!) along this busy beach front in Monterey.

Have you ever lost your cell phone? Can you imagine losing all your contacts and personal settings? OMG, such a big headache!

We split up and backtracked, tracing our steps back along the entire length of the beach front but we might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack.

Finally, Steev decided to call his own number hoping its ringing would lead us to it. Instead a guy answered and said he had the phone and that he would wait for Steev to meet him along that same stretch of beach. What a dear soul!

So Steev got his phone back. Quite effortlessly, I might add, though we were really doubtful at first. It was a happy ending, one that we didn’t even dare to hope for.

In most cases, chances are if you lose your cell phone, you will never see it again. And you can only hope and pray that whoever’s got it isn’t using it to call the rest of this planet and beyond before you can make a report and get your number deactivated. Peace!

At the boarding gate

Posted by Clairity 5 Responses »

Jan 222011

Announcement at departure gate in Hong Kong: We are now boarding passengers from rows 50 to 70.

Hordes of people jump up to get in line.

Me to the girls: Oh, that’s not us yet. Let’s sit back down and wait.

Big mistake!

Next announcement some time later: We are now boarding the rest of the passengers.

We get in line. There’s only like 30 people behind us. We get on board and practically the whole plane had been filled and I don’t mean just the overhead compartments!!

Hello??!

The almost annual meatball run

Posted by Clairity 5 Responses »

Dec 082010

We were out Saturday morning trying to figure out what to eat when Raine suggested meatballs. We happened to be in the vicinity of I-k-ugh, a place we have no reason to visit at any other time of the year except for the maybe once-a-year cranberry sauce Swedish meatballs.

Their cafeteria is reminiscent of a school canteen minus the flies – thankfully. In spite of that, somehow, it’s always packed which probably explains why they never bothered upgrading the place or the service. Tsk tsk!

Oh did I mention the cafeteria is governed by an old school marm who bosses you around if you so much as step out of line. The coffee line, that is, where the coffee machines are more often out of order than not.

Anyhow seeing as how the store is a tourist attraction for out-of-towners and a playground for kids and extended families, we are wise to avoid the place like the plague. Then too, we’re clearly not cool or yuppy enough to be carting home their stuff by the truckloads.

I mean, they have great designs but their stuff are not built to last and frankly I don’t have the time to keep running out to replace broken cupboards or doors that fall off.

Anyways back to the meatballs. As you might’ve guessed, we got there too early for meatballs. They were still serving breakfast and we didn’t fancy waiting around for lunch to start. At the rate the receipt printer was dinging, it was obvious the weekend crowd was starting to build up.

So we picked on a few bits of breakfast and didn’t even bother refilling our coffee. We had to make a hasty exit before we went deaf from a young boy bringing down the roof with his continuous squealing while his mother just sat there doing nothing! And that wraps up our annual trip to I-k-ugh!

Don’t bank on it!

Posted by Clairity 2 Responses »

Nov 272010

There’s good reason why I hate going to the bank. This bank in particular. Judging from the last entry in my passbook, the last time I stepped in there was way back in March and I certainly wouldn’t have gone there if I didn’t have a check to deposit.

I’m greeted at the information desk by not 1, not 2 but 3 staff who’ve probably been chit-chatting about acsonix reviews right up till then. I ask if I need to get a number to wait in line. The guy asks what I want to do and when he hears I need to deposit a check, he points me over to the machine.

Now I’ve never trusted any machine that sucks up my money. So I make up this story about having some other stuff to take care of and hope they’ll just give me a number. But no, he now asks me what else I want to do. As if that’s any business of his!

So I mumble something about a time deposit account. The lady behind the desk whips out a form and the guy points me to a free-standing counter to fill it up. By this time, I’m wondering why I even bothered making up that story about the time deposit.

So I march back to the information desk to demand for a number. Are you done filling the form? the guy asks in disbelief. Yup, I lied through my teeth. I don’t think he was convinced. But enough is enough!

The lady behind the desk reluctantly presses a button on her machine to generate a number slip for me. Remember the joke about how many men it takes to change a light bulb? Well, the joke here is how many empty barrels does it take a press a button? And the answer is 3!

Thankfully the wait was short. I hand the bank teller my check. He whips it out of my hand and says OK. I’m like, OK what? That’s it? He stares at me blankly. So where’s my receipt? as if that wasn’t obvious enough to him.

Oh! He slowly awakens and hands me the slip. Okay, so tell me, why am I, the customer, having to tell him what to do? If I know his job better than him, why the heck is he sitting there handling my money? Herein lies an even better reason why I call this the completely idiotic and moronic bank.

For the record, I’ve only been banking with them because they’re located so conveniently near by. When I come back from my vacation, am I going to continue banking with them? Um, I’d say don’t bank on it!

Just one of those days

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Nov 032010

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?