Ski-sensation at Mammoth
This year we decided to head for Mammoth again for skiing. While last year’s ski season was like a bad aftertaste after staying at Mammoth Mountain Inn, the slopes and snow at Mammoth is just unbeatable.
With Janine in daycare and Eon in ski school, we decided last year that it would be better for us to stay right at the foot of the slopes. We choose Mammoth Mountain Inn. The pictures were deceivingly clean and description was inviting. Little did we know. After 9 hours of driving (due 4 hours of to LA traffic), we finally arrived. The Lobby looked nice but once we head to our “suite” we were greeted with a smelly and stained carpet on the hallways. The elevated was in a similar state of neglect. The 2 bedroom “suite” with kitchen was an equal let-down. The sheets and curtains were worn and old-fashioned. The beds were squeaky… and my litany of not-so-great things about this place goes on and on. The only highlight was that it was on the slopes. But what is that worth if you go home exhausted from a day of skiing to a dump?
We decided to explore the village and found that Westin was at Mammoth. We looked around and decided that we have been…screwed!!
This year, we learned. We stayed at Westin and the brief gondola ride to the slopes was a breeze. Westin and their Heavnenly Beds was such a great upgrade from tawdry Mammoth Inn. This time around, I actually felt like it was vacation.
We ate, skied and went to the jacuzzi to soak our tired muscles. Everyday was a routine… in a nice way. It was Janine’s first year of ski lesson. It was a horror morning on the first day but somehow things worked out. Eon is out-skiing me but on our last day chickened out on a blue slope, fell and we had to make a trip down to the main lodge with the ski patrol. Eon was fine and back skiing soon after the ski patrol dropped us off at the bottom on the slopes.
I was up for more challenges and decided to cajole my littlest one to ride Chairlift 7 with me and Eon. She was fine on the lift but started freaking out as soon as we got off. She started crying and declaring that she was NOT going done the hill and “skiing was ugly.” After some threats of abandonment, we finally skied downhill. Call me a despot but that was actually quite fun.
Pulled-over
Last Sunday, I was for the first time pulled-over. Atleast, for the first time here in the US.
I was heading to our company dinner in Downtown San Diego. I was driving my husband’s car. I was on the phone talking to my step daughter when I heard a siren. I glanced at my rearview mirror and saw a car with weird bright lights and lighted rearview — I thought, what an odd car. Then came the realization that it was police car and I was being asked to pull-over.
I nervously hung up and slowed down. I lowered the passenger side window and waited for the police to approach me.
Totally unaware of what my violation was… I asked the policeman. He told me that I have been driving on the left-most lane for the part 3 miles at varying speed of 65-78 mph. “Ma’am did you know that the left-most lane is only a passing lane?!”
I profusedly apologized and pleaded ignorance. He asked for the car registratin (which I couldn’t find!) and then asked for driver’s license (which was still with the old address). He asked if I updated my address with DMV and left to verify my driving history…
Thankfully, he only gave me a warning saying that since I have a clean driving record, he’ll let me go without a ticket. Whew!
Elusive light
You drive at night when suddenly a car starts driving next to you. Honking.
You think, what’s your problem?! Can’t you see this is my lane? Scoot!
You keep on driving. Suddenly, another car drives right next to you. Again, honking.
You think again, what’s going on with this people?!?
Suddenly, the passenger window rolls down and a hand starts an open-and-shut motion.
You realize, opps, my front lights are still off at 9pm. And not surprisingly, this is not the first time it happened.
Rainy days and Mondays
I woke up with a hangover and a sudden rush of adrenaline when I heard a sprinkler went off. It has been raining the whole night and to hear a sprinkler suddenly go off made me realized that I forgot to turn it off.
We had a crazy weekend. Carsten came back from the east coast after being gone for 4 days. On Friday, we headed for LA to apply for German visa and to report our marriage to the Philippine Consulate (long overdue!) I needed to report it first before I can ammend my passport. The drive was long and there was traffic most of the time. Another notch on my personal disasters list was when a missing 2 from the German Consulates address almost made us miss their office hours. I wrote down 622 Wilshire instead of 6222 Wilshire. What a disaster! It was at opposite ends of the boulevard (15 minutes away from each other). Whew! Thankfully, my husband is not the type to scream your head off when such inane mistakes are made. He merely shook his head, turned Pussycat Dolls loud and drove to right address as fast he could get away with.
To my relief, we made it by a scant 5 minutes. Whew!
Driving back to San Diego took ages. Traffic was slow and busy in LA even at the carpool lane. To make matters worst (or slower), I was driving. I am the least aggressive driver I know of. I usually stay in one lane (despite its turtle pace). I slow down at curves and I don’t drive over 70 mph. So my husband decided it was time for me to have a few lessons. As soon as traffic cleared, I was practicing my turns and lane switching. I was told to maintain my speed whenever possible and to go with the flow (meaning, drive just as fast as the other cars). After 5 hours, we were finally home.
To our surprise (and dismay), we had a disaster waiting at home. My husband told me that our pool was half empty and the filter was “blown off.” My mind went spinning. Was it because of the newly installed solar heater? Was it because of the 2.5 lbs. of DE (powder-like substance that coats the filter) that I put in 2 days ago? Was there a blockage in the filter? And on and on. You see, the pool is my charge. I maintain it. I check the water balance, clean it and add acid/chlorine whenever needed. The weight of the responsibility for the “disaster” was reeling in my head.
So instead of the restful weekend that our family was looking forward to, we ended up tending to pool matters. I went to Leslie’s for DE replacement FiberClear (which is biodegradable unlike DE), and cyanuric acid. I had a lengthy discussion with the store manager hoping to find some answers to what happened to our pool pump. Carsten tended to filling up the pool (15,000 gallons of water?!?!), cleaning it and the filter.
We had guests over from LA that day too. Gracia, who is my sister’s schoolmate from Bukidnon who is now in LA came with her friend Marie. It was a good break and I was finally speaking my dialect again. I cooked adobo (like always and because I really have limited cooking abilities).
We finally filled up the pool by 8pm (after 8 hours)…. then the next day comes rain and then another day of rain. That was the Monday morning with a hangover.
Oopps, I did it again
Thankfully, unlike Britney I’m not referring to another pregnancy. I hate to admit it but I am not really helping the feminist movement in defeating the age-old belief about women and cars.
I’m not a great driver. Not only do I require utmost silence while I’m driving (read: kids, please no bickering) but I also can’t switch lanes without my heart pounding. I hesitate a LOT before parallel parking and I will almost always opt to park where there are 2 empty spots next to each other. I was only 2 points away from failing my driver’s test but at that time I was blaming it on the difference of traffic rules and road conditions in the Philippines and the US.
I cannot be trusted to maintain a car. My Toyota Corolla was taken care 0f by all-star mechanic Mang Domeng. That car has been in two accidents. One when another vehicle drove towards us as we exited a parking lot. Another time was when I opted to pick up an earring while in traffic and without putting the hand brakes. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Now, the only time I check oil and air is when my husband reminds. Helpless or just lazy?
But the Britney episode is something that has been haunting my car record since I started driving 7 years ago. I have a strong tendency of leaving the headlights on and draining the battery in the process. It has happened about 4 times already and pretty much with every car that I drove. My trusty old Toyota Corolla, then our Ford Escort and my husband’s Chrysler Pacifica. On my Corolla, on the 2 times it happened, I was animatedly talking to my future husband that I completely forgot to turn it off. The other times can be attributed to pure an unadultered inattentiveness.
Believe me, I have learned how to jumpstart my manual Corolla on my own or sometimes I’m the damsel in distress looking for someone to provide ”pushing labor.” The worst time was when it happened at night in the middle of an almost empty parking lot and under pouring tropical rainstorm. I had to call for help (thankfully my cellphone was charged!!) and thankfully my colleague from work had cables to jumpstart the car.
Over the weekend, my husband was in a business trip in New York. Usually, I refrain from using his Pacifica because of it’s massive size and my hesistancy to drive an overly automated car (in my poor car lingo this means that the car has too many buttons and special uh-operations). On a momentary lapse of good judgement, I used it at Sunday night to pick up my stepdaughter from the airport. Voila! Guess what happened? Yep. I left the fog light on (why was it on in the first place on a clear evening?!?) I managed to drive the car out of the garage in the morning to wash the car and YES, inattentive me didn’t even notice that the lights were still on. In the afternoon when I was about to drive it back to the garage, all sorts of little icons where lit on the dashboard AND it won’t start! In these cars, it seems to be a bad sign to have these tiny icons on. I had to browse through the manual before finally diagnosing that the car’s battery was discharge. Yes, the battery sign should have been a clue but ABS (Anti-Brake System, I just learned that!) and some other buttons were also on making it even seem more distressful to me. Thankfully, my neighbors came to my aid and helped me charged the car. They had a cable. I didn’t even know if we had one!
So much for breaking old myths about women and cars.
