Another Blog about my Gym..

I was drying my hair in the locker room, and an older lady came up to me, "you live in Four Seasons?" (the gym is part of the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences and people who live there get some kind of discount). I smiled and said no. She said "Oh, you look just like my neighbor."

I smiled and turned back on the blow dryer. But she wasn't convinced yet.
"her husband works for Yahoo.."
I'm trying not to act annoyed that I had to turn off the dryer again. I said, "oh..that's quite a commute" out loud and, "still not me, Lady. Can you finish your cross examination when we both have clothes on?" in my head.
her: They're only here on weekends.
me: I don't have a husband or a weekend home. (I said it politely somehow.)
her: well, now you know what is in the plans.

How sweet.

My Girl Crush..

You heard me...I have a crush..ON A GIRL! More like lots of admiration, respect, envy, etc. To top it off, she is just so sweet and humble that I think she deserves everything I think she has...it all.

She teaches a conditioning class at my gym (that I plan my life around), but works full-time in marketing for the Gap. My fancy-schmancy gym membership is my only real splurge, besides monthly garage parking fees. So my favorite group exercise instructor has a Kellogg MBA. If you hate her already, wait until you learn that she just had a baby a few months ago, and she was instructing until a few days before she gave birth, and took less than two weeks to come back to teach her class with a fabulous body. At all times, she has lifted more than me, done more push-ups, etc. even while nine months pregnant...not that she ever looked nine months pregnant..

So I found out that she works for the Gap through some recon on the internet, and forgot that it wasn't in her bio at the gym. I mention to her that I can see the kids in the gap's daycare running around at recess from my office next door. "Oh and that's where my little guy will be.." But I can see the wheels turning in her head...how did she know? Will she be watching my kid? Oops. I lay off making conversation for awhile.

But she is so caring and doesn't stay away from me. She remembered my sprained ankle and when I started to do lunges again, she made it a point to check on me after class and ask about my healing progress. She is so sweet and encouraging. I joke about how it's taking longer to heal than when I sprained my ankle in college. She laughs that she probably has ten years on me and it only gets worse. (It's not quite ten years, we all know I looked her up.) So I reply something about her being my hero..it made sense and possibly seemed appropriate at the time. She looks a little caught off guard and starts stammering "you're so sweet...actually that scares me...that's when you know you have problems if I am your hero."

I'm trying to make it a point to be friendly in a non-instructor-student way when she makes conversation. Tell her I hope she has a good week, ask her how she is...I'm trying to score a lunch date! But she always brings it back to complementing me or asking about my ankle.
She's the type you want to hate but can't...

my car and my love life

so a few weeks ago, i got rear-ended. i never drive in the city. i try never to drive. i'm a terrible driver.

anyway, so a few weeks ago, the dean of my law school was in town, and there was an alumni reception and the invitation said complimentary valet parking. now this is a pickle..
i opted to take advantage, even though i would have normally walked the 6 blocks from my apartment. but this way i could run errands and wear heels, etc.
sure enough, on the way home, i got rear-ended. ugh.

anyway, so i go to pick up my car today, and the paint looks funny in one spot...like when you paint your nails and put too much in one spot. so, of course, the guy is like 'no - it's just the light. i can't even see it when i look at it from this angle.' and i'm like 'i can.' so he's speaking whatever language to some other dude who drove my car down.

and we go back and forth for about 20 min, before he says okay they'll fix it. so the amy from a year ago would have needled him about admitting there is something to fix, but i chose to thank him and walk away. so i guess the guy thought i couldn't hear him from the office where i went to ask the lady to call hertz to come back to get me. cuz i heard him screaming at the other guy 'HOW COULD YOU MISS THAT?' (an aside - i guess he DOES speak english..were they trying to keep something from me by speaking another language in front of me??)

so then i realize how much time ive spent on the car, and i just want to go home and hit the gym, cuz i plan on starting again today, cuz ive gained 5 lbs since spraining my ankle, and it still holds me back, but it's been so hard to get into a routine again and i JUST NEED TO GO.
so i tell the lady in the office to call hertz and cancel it - i'll walk home and call them in the morning if i need to go to berkeley.

so i am walking home, carless, and i feel SO FREE. i remember this happened last time i didn't have a car in the city. even though i pay a pretty penny to park 15 min from my apartment door, there is still so much stress associated with having a car in the city.

yea..so i really thought i would start to talk about my love life here, but i'm tired. made you look though! i wanted to post a happy blog, since my last one was sad, and i am happy! even though i had a dream last night about my big mean brother.

i'll blog about my love life next time.

Managing People is the Worst Job Ever

..and I totally suck at it. don't befriend your staff. that's pretty hard advice to follow, but SO worthwhile. if they know what is going on in your personal life, they will use it to their advantage in the work world. if you ask them to do anything, they take it as a suggestion instead of an assignment.and if you supervise them in general, they will accuse you of 'picking on them.' this is when i turned to my manager for advice. he told me that people who report to you are always going to think that you are picking on them, and that i just needed to get over it. that was a little amusing. because he has so picked on me before! but just once or twice. he's not so bad i guess.

Men are complicated; my mom: not so much

He said that I treated him like chopped liver when he was interested in me, and now that I am interested in him, he's already over me. I am the one who still has feelings for him. Sucks to be me.

This whole thing has just been so strange. I try not to tell my mother anything. She thought I was gay. Anyway, one night I was out with above mentioned guy, and my dad called. Said my mom fell and shattered her elbow and has to have surgery. My guard was down, and when my mom asked what I was doing and who I was with, I told her. So about a month ago, I planned a trip to visit my mom over this long weekend. My dad was going on a long business trip, and my mom needs help because of her injury. But then this just happened over the last couple weeks, and I dreaded discussing it with my mom.

Of course, it came up, and she was totally cool about it. She even told me about her love life before she met my dad. For those of you who have met my mother, you know that I am not exaggerating when I say that she is a beautiful woman.

Being the Chief Justice's daughter, I think there were plenty of suitors in her circle. One of the stories that made me feel better was one she was a little tight-lipped about. She gave me a man's name, and told me to google it. I did so, and found out that my mom was with someone that has since been named her home country's 'Most Important Man.' But, I also found his picture. So I asked her, 'what? you wanted me to be ugly?'

She thinks he married some white chick and has since divorced. Then we talked about how lucky she is to be with my dad. They are SO in love. They've had some bad times over the years, and are complete opposites in every way. They argue constantly. But they still love each other so much. No man has ever loved any woman the way my father loves my mother. He has taken such good care of her and does things I keep forgetting to do. He works all day, cooks for her while he's tired because she doesn't like restaurant food, cuts up her food, cleans up, and never makes her feel bad about it.

She kept saying " it just didn't work out" with the other guy. :)