Treadmill tales and pains in the neck

Treadmill tale #1: My mom, my friend Maddy and I shared a good laugh late last night over a boo-boo I committed. Maddy had just called me as I was going to start my nightly routine of walking/running on the treadmill. I was using our cordless phone so I told her I would just continue talking to her while I exercised. But when I got on the treadmill and switched in on, it wouldn't start. I whined to Maddy that our treadmill was busted. I kept on trying to turn it on but it wouldn't respond, so I gave it up for dead and just continued chatting with Mads. A few minutes later my mom walked in, saw me in my exercise gear and asked me why I wasn't running, so I told her the treadmill was broken. She took a look at the machine and it was then she discovered her genius of a daughter HAD NOT PLUGGED IT IN. We started laughing at my stupidity and when I told Maddy she cracked up too. She half-jokingly said she'd write about it in her blog, but I told her I'd probably beat her to it, and now I have. :p

Pain in the neck #1: This morning my brother woke me up at 7 complaining of a stiff neck (for me, 7AM on a Saturday is an unholy hour, so I admit I wasn't feeling completely sympathetic to my brother's pain). He had an exam at 9AM but he couldn't move his right arm, so I advised him to go the hospital to get a doctor's note to show his prof so that he could get a make-up test. I went back to sleep around 8 and woke up at noon to find my brother back, and it turned out he had taken the exam after all, after drinking some painkillers the ER doctor gave him. By this afternoon he was already surfing the Net (using his right arm to move the mouse) and doing practice golf swings (using his right arm and twisting his supposedly stiff neck), so apparently he hadn't been in that much pain this morning, and he yanked me out of bed for nothing. Men have such low thresholds of pain, it's pathetic. They should get menstrual cramps every month to know what real pain is.

Treadmill tale #2: I watched the Ateneo-UE game today while running on the treadmill (which was plugged in and functioning perfectly). It was an awesome game because one, obviously, we won, and two, our boys actually played well. They weren't spectacular, yes, but they certainly didn't stink either. Usually when I watch them play, at some point in the game they give me reason to slap my forehead and groan, by messing up a huge lead or committing moronic errors. Today they played like they knew what they were doing, and they had the game under control. I don't know if it's thanks to Norman Black's coaching, but our boys are looking pretty good on the hardcourt. Even my dad acknowledged that Ateneo's second stringers have improved tremendously. Japeth Aguilar in particular is showing great potential, and I can now actually say "Japeth" without snickering. :p The game gave me such an adrenaline rush that I was running on the treadmill faster than I usually do, especially during fastbreaks and when we sank three-pointers. Imagine what kind of high I'd be on if we beat La Salle on September 15. :)

Pain in the neck #2: Tonight I found out from my students (who of course were all rejoicing) that Monday has been declared a non-working holiday, which at first I refused to believe. After all, this morning's newspapers said that Malacanang had announced that Monday would be a regular working day since National Heroes' Day should, under the law, fall on the last Sunday of August, so it has no bearing on the following Monday. But then our wonderful President, who, it appears, has no regard for the law, suddenly changed her mind and announced this evening that Monday will be a holiday. Ordinarily, I'd be celebrating this news like my students, but now that I'm working for our family business, I am livid with fury. This means there will be no deliveries, no bank transactions, and no communication with our foreign suppliers. No wonder our economy is so fantastically screwed up! What kind of brilliant economist makes all business come to a standstill for one whole day for no good reason other than to boost her approval ratings? She's so concerned about saving her own ass that she doesn't give a damn that employers lose money, employees lose a day's wages, and students are deprived of a day's worth of education which their parents have already paid for (although I'm sure the students don't see it that way). So even though I will enjoy sleeping in on Monday, I still say GMA is inconsiderate and incompetent, and I sincerely hope her inconsiderate and incompetent butt gets impeached.