Brawl at the cash register

Let me lay out the scene for you. Running errands one night and I'm getting ready to check out at the register. There is a woman in front of me. It's pretty obvious to me that she's getting ready to put her items on the belt. There is a space between the cart and the register. She's fishing through her handbag for her membership card and credit card. A man comes from the side and proceeds to put his items right onto the conveyor belt. The woman tells the man,"Excuse me, I was on line." Which means, take your stuff off the conveyor belt and get in line. The man proceeds to say .. "Dui bu qi, wo bu shuo ying wen. Wo bu dong." Well, that moment brings me right back to the days of living in China. Locals cutting in front of me and giving me that toothy grin. Well, hell no. We're not in China now. That's where I come in. Obviously, the man speaks Mandarin. What do you know, I can speak Mandarin too! I proceed to tell him in Mandarin, that he cut the line and he needs to get in back of the line. Well, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. The woman who is at the center of all this, doesn't understand what is happening because the man is now yelling at me in full blown Mandarin Chinese. He proceeds to spit out the following " Wo mei yao cha dui. Wei she me ni shuo wo cha dui? Ni bu ming bai." Translation, "I didn't cut the line. Why are you saying that I cut the line? You don't understand."

Hmmmm,uh, hullo....I know what I saw. He clearly cut the line and pulled the I don't speak English card. Hey, I understand. I pull that card out when I'm walking through the mall and don't want to deal with the vendors who are hawking their goods. I proceeded to reiterate in Mandarin, "Yes, you cut the line and you need to follow the rules here in the U.S., you are not in China." As if on cue, a child is having a meltdown two registers over, the man is yelling at me and a store manager comes to ask what has happened. The woman proceeds to tell the manager that the man cut in front and I must have obviously translated and then the man started yelling at me. She doesn't understand what happened since she doesn't speak Chinese but it's pretty obvious that the man is very ANGRY with me.

Long story short, the screaming child was removed from the store (by the parent, not the store manager), the store management removed the mans items from the belt and asked him to pay at a different register, the woman in front thanked me for helping and I was hit with dagger eyes - three registers away from the man. As I was walking by his register, he was pretty much yelling at me. I was waiting for him to jump me in the parking lot.

So, I am glad that I still have my Mandarin skills and can hold my own. If he did want to jump me, I would have hit him with the paper towels and practiced some cool kung fu moves that Matthew has taught me.

Don't know if I would be banned from the market going forward but I know I did the right thing. Who said I can't go anywhere without causing a scene?

Maturity

Sandi and her family came up to spend the weekend with us. The last time we were all together was Christmas 2008. The kids had a great time together and it was really nice to watch them interact with each other. We all remember how they used to fight when they were much younger. It was a welcome to see them have a great time together.

They arrived on Thursday night along with the snow. The weather was dreary on Saturday so we decided to spend the day at the Stamford Nature Center. The kids went on a hay ride, hung out at the pumpkin patch and spent the afternoon at the playground. Jeff's parents - Ruby and Wilson came up from New York to spend the day with the kids and we ended the day with a fabulous meal at Matteos.

Sandi and I can't believe how much they have grown and matured. Nicholas slept in the room across the hall from Matthew and we would wake up to find them both hanging out on the coach watching television.

We ended the visit with dim sum at one of our favorite places before they had to leave to return to Florida. The kids were inhaling the food as it was coming off the carts. Two hours at the place and to sum it up, it was a wonderful weekend filled with great meals and laughs. We'll see each other again in December when we have our family reunion at Disney.

Weekend Getaway

Last week, I took off and left Tony and Matthew to fend for themselves. Ran down to meet my sister Sandi in Puerto Rico. It was a mommy get away weekend. It was really nice. I had a flight first thing on Friday morning and arrived into San Juan at about 1:00 p.m. My sister landed shortly afterwards and we took off to the hotel. We checked in and were ready to go.

Problem was that the areas we wanted to see closed down by 6:00 p.m. Oh well. We decided to hold off on the sight-seeing and wander around the hotel and walk on the beach. Decided to visit the spa before we headed to dinner at Il Mulino. We had a great dinner followed by some jet fuel grappa. We loved the dinner, didn't like the grappa too much. After dinner, we wandered over to the casino where we plunked down some cash and my sister was the winner of a whopping $.30! Whoo Hoo! Who said that we didn't know how to live life on the edge? We're really big spenders. Didn't you know that?

Following morning, after breakfast, we decided to take the bus down to the piers to catch the ferry to Catano Island where the Bacardi distillery is located. We joined the tour and learned all about the history of Bacardi. The origins of the logo and the different types of rums available. We even had some mojitos (really good mojitos) and then took the ferry back to the San Juan side of the island. The skies opened up while we were waiting for the ferry and we were caught in the torrential downpour without umbrellas. Not like us. We normally would have umbrellas but we left it the hotel. A lot of good that did us.

We made it to a trolley that happened to be passing when we got off the ferry and took refuge until the rain stopped. We were able to take in some sights and decided to walk down to the plaza where there were vendors. As if it didn't rain enough, the skies opened up again. We were soaked to the bone but were laughing our butts off! We found a local cafe and had some great Puerto Rican cuisine for lunch while waiting for the rain to let up. The rains finally stopped and it allowed us to do some quick shopping for the kids. We found it odd that the stores closed at 6:00 p.m. the latest. We ran through the streets quickly before the vendors would slide their gates down for the night. Just in time for us to look for dinner. Headed over to another restaurant and sampled some more Puerto Rican cuisine. We did nothing this whole trip but eat. One of our favorite pastimes.

Sunday, final morning in Puerto Rico before we had to head back to our respective families. We had breakfast and just spent the morning lounging. I was reading the newspaper on the veranda and was busy giving blood to the mosquitos of the island. I didn't need to buy any souvenirs since I got all my mosquito bites for free. It was a carefree weekend spent with my kid sister. It was fun, we laughed a lot and we'll see each again soon. This time, families will be involved. We can't leave them behind again.