Back on the beaten path

Oh, the wonders of motherhood. Sure, it’s the greatest job on earth and the most rewarding… but I do hate those days when Mady’s sick. She was sick a couple weeks before Halloween, and luckily she was mostly recovered when it came time to trick-or-treating, but now she’s sick AGAIN! WTH? Aaaaarrrghhhh, those of you mommies out there must know what I mean… to have your routine schedule finally in place just to have it crapped all over by a sick kid. But really, what can you do? Grin and bear it… and do your best to not get sick alongside her. Which means kissing her dried-on, snot-smeared cheeks instead of her lips. And holding her hand and giving her plenty of hugs, but making sure you wash your hands immediately after. And most importantly, wiping down your iPad and phone after she’s played with it (I got sick last time from not religiously wiping down the iPad everyday Mady was sick). As I’m writing this, Mady’s been napping, albeit fitfully, and as soon as she’s awake, I’ll be packing her up in the car to go pick up her cough meds. And then rush home to make her dinner that she will undoubtedly pick at and not eat.

Oh yeah, did I mention we’re in the midst of potty training? I’m quite sure Mady’s enjoying this as much as I am. Uh huh…

Ahhh it’s that time of the year again… Christmas? No, not yet. Thanksgiving? Pretty soon. It’s HALLOWEEN!!! One of my favorite “holidays” where guys like to get gored out and scary while girls like to go slutty. Well, apparently that’s how all the halloween stores like to see it these days. They stock up in every costume imaginable, and somehow manage to have every female costume in “slut” as well as in “norm” mode. I’m by no means a prude, but come on… a slutty NUN??? On one of my days off, I high-tailed it to our local Spirit Halloween store in search of a costume for this year’s Halloween party we’ve been invited to. Granted, it’s mostly a party for the kids, and since most of them are around 5 and under, I had to forgo my award-winning costume of yester year, Samira, the girl from The Ring. That costume scared the bejezzuses out of everyone… I LOVED wearing it!!! muwahhahahahaha…..

So yes, something a little less R-rated and more kid-friendly would be ideal… therefore I opted for dressing up as one of the famous Star Wars characters. Unfortunately, the only one they had available was the one showing bare midriff, which is okay as long as it’s not too cold Sunday night, AND I’m able to get a few extra workouts in to ensure no hint of muffintop. hehe… oh, and where the hell am I gonna be able to get my hands on a blaster rifle???

mike’s costume is of course, neglible at this point. He never wants to waste his time thinking about what he wants to be, until we’re getting dressed for the party and all of a sudden he no longer wants to go as a cutthroat pirate (his costume for the past 3 Halloweens, and yes he’s got his money’s worth in this one), then it’s a mad rush to see what last minute costume we can put together. Mady has a fairy costume, but I’m contemplating having her go as Kai-Lan or Boo from Monster’s, Inc., both of which would be quite easy to achieve… except Monster’s, Inc. is so 2001 and unless I can find an adult Sully costume for Mike, it would be kinda difficult for people to figure out who exactly she is. Dilemna, dilemna, dilemna… got a couple more days to figure it out!

Met up with some old friends for lunch a few days ago. Three of us have been married for awhile and have at least one kid in tow. One of us had gotten married recently (June 2009), and while the ink was still drying on their marriage certificate, she and her husband were already seeing a marriage counselor. Turns out her husband suffers from OCD, something that apparently didn’t surface until after they had gotten married. It was difficult for the rest of us to keep our composure as my friend poured her heart out to us… how her husband had to control every aspect of their lives and the mental and emotional abuse she had endured because of it. She finally decided to pull the plug when after nine months of marriage (five of those months being in therapy), he told her that he did not want to have kids, to start a family.

I can’t imagine what she must be going through, to have what should’ve been one of the happiest times of her life become something one would only see on a soap opera. To have the one person who should be your best friend and love of your life treat you as if your opinions don’t matter, that whatever you do is not good enough, that you are not worthy. To go through every day walking on eggshells and wondering what will tick him off next. She didn’t even recognize him anymore. Fortunately, things never turned violent, but she was prepared in case it ever did. At least she had the gumption to just walk away in the end. Many women are not strong enough to walk away. But my friend is strong, determined, and she will overcome this. She deserves happiness. She deserves someone that will love her the way she loves him.

I’m very lucky. I have the best husband I could ever ask for. And he’s a wonderful and doting father to Mady. We tend to take what we have for granted and concentrate on all the negative aspects of life, but what we have together as a family is real. No matter what’s in store for us in the future, as long as we’re together, we shall endure. I wish my friend best of luck in finding her forever… he’s out there.

Hey everyone, I was on CBS5 News the other day! My three seconds of fame, haha. I attended my friend’s U-Jam class launch about a month ago and CBS reporter Juliette Goodrich was there doing a story on dance fitness. Unbeknownst to me at that time, I had my friend save a spot in the front, right where the camera man decided to film at close-up level during class. I distinctly remember a bright light swimming right in front of my face during one of the routines, and I thought, “Holy crap! That’s the camera and it’s right in my face!!! Divert your eyes! Divert your eyes! The camera man had taken about 45 minutes of footage in all, but of course I expected those few seconds on me would be hitting the cutting room floor. At the end of class, we were told this segment would air 3 weeks from now.

Flash forward 3 weeks and CBS ended up not airing our story the day they said it would. Then one day a few days later, my friend (a non-U-Jammer) happened to be watching the 6 o’clock news and saw my face flash across her TV screen. It was a teaser for the story they would air later on in the evening. She texts me right away letting me know that she saw me on TV. I quickly wrote on U-Jam’s FB wall letting everyone know that the story will be airing that night, and set my DVR on record. The whole time, I was hoping please, let it just be a flash, or a brief glance of me from far away. But my friend was not expecting to see me, and thus I concluded my face had to have been pretty prevalent in order for her to pinpoint me on the news. Uh-oh…

Of course, the Giants are in the playoffs and Mike would not let me anywhere near the remote. Luckily when it came time for the news, the Giants had just won their game and Mike was in a good enough mood to let me change the channel. Once they started the story, both of us were glued to the screen. I got to see many of my fellow U-Jam friends and instructors struttin’ their stuff, then BAM! There’s my face up front and center, and the camera zooms out on me right as I started doing one of my gyrating moves!!! Mike laughed so hard… he rewound it and played it back on slow mo… about 5 times! I was horrified!!! But ok, it wasn’t THAT bad I guess… I could’ve looked worse, been off-beat, whatever. I wasn’t smiling either, but hello, I was working out! I’ll spare you the actual video, haha… Comments came pouring in on my FB page with my friends poking fun and asking me for my autograph (pshahhh!) and all in all, it was really fun to watch. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a fun, exciting group… one making headlines enough to be featured on CBS news! Go U-Jam!!!!

Back home from a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. Mady got some one-on-one time with my parents, while I got a few hours to myself… which meant lunch at Santouka followed by karaoke (yes, I LOVE karaoke hahaha!) with my friend Elaine. If you are ever in the bay area, and you are into ramen, this is one place you gotta check out. Nothing fancy by any means, Santouka is basically a ramen stand located in a Japanese grocery store’s food court. But peeps flock from afar to visit this new establishment, so after hearing about it I had to try it for myself.

I had heard the lines can get pretty long, so when I arrived at 12:30 on a Saturday, I happily stood in a line that was only about 10 people deep. I decided to order the extra pork ramen with salt broth. Salt broth, you say? Uh-huh, it may sound a bit disgusting, but it actually had a real nice flavor coupled with the pork. Here’s a shot:

My first taste was divine… and I greedily scarfed down the rest while Elaine filled me in on her latest and greatest. But by the time I got 3/4 of the way done, the salt broth became overwhelmingly, well… SALTY! My taste buds have had enough… I resigned to not being able to finish my ramen, but I was still thrilled to have gotten a chance to sample Santouka. I’ll be back… the next time I’ve got a cravin for a salt lick!

After lunch, Elaine and I hightailed it to a local karaoke joint to sing our lungs out for the next couple hours. Another brand-new establishment, and we were pleasantly surprised. Happy hour was 11am (OMG!) - 3pm DAILY (OMGG!) for $10/hr (HOLY SHIT!) and there was a $2 food/drink minimum per person (no biggie, both of us were SUPER parched from lunch anyway). Not present was the usual odor of cigarette smoke that more than likely comes with karaoke joints… probably because this place was new. Rooms were good-sized and everything was on a digital screen, including calling for room service to order your snacks. Now I’m an old skool karaoke maven, and I’ve always turned my nose down at snazzy, computerized digital screens… yeah, thinkin they’re all hot stuff that everything’s digital, but it makes locating songs hell and more often than not comes with bad midi music (yes, I’m a snob). So upon reading reviews that this place touted digital catalogs, I was skeptical, expecting the worst. This place ROCKS! Not only was it easy and user-friendly, they had a great collection, with what sounds mostly like original instrumental backgrounds (with bkgd vocals, thank you very much!), but the very best part of it was that they showed the actual music videos!!!!! I don’t know how copyright laws affect karaoke places (most are shady enough that they don’t care), but this was f’n awesome! I got to watch Lady Gaga in all her glory while crooning along to Alejandro. They even had songs from Wicked (no music video though), which I forced Elaine to sit and listen to me belt out 3 Wicked songs in a row. After about 2 hours of us singing non-stop, we had to call it quits before we both lost our voices for the rest of the day. But I’LL BE BAAAAACK…