I think I nearly gave my father-in-law a heart attack when
he walked out of Hulk’s in the late evening with Snickers and I wished them
both farewell for the day.
“Aren’t you going home too?” he asked me.
No, I wasn’t going home but I just needed everyone to leave –
leave me to do my own thing by more importantly to just leave me alone.It had been one too many of those annoyingly harsh days that
weren’t really bad but were just down right annoying. They left me mentally exhausted and I felt like
I was fighting for women’s rights and the rights of me as owner of this
club. It’s funny because my
father-in-law asked me the other day if I were to have a kid, would I want a
boy or girl. I responded by saying “definitely
a boy”. I know what it’s like for a
woman like me to be living in Korea and I know the stress, hardship and anxiety
its given me and I wouldn’t wish to pass that on to anyone else let alone
someone of my own blood.
Tonight our change rooms were built in our locker room and
when I went in to see how the work was being done I noticed a gap in the step
up into the change room and the floor. I
noted the gap and instantly my father-in-law cut in and said “It’s ok”.
“It’s ok”?!... need I remind everyone my absolute hatred
towards the word “ok”. Ok means not good
but not bad, it means sufficient. I don’t
want anything that’s “sufficient” especially when I’m digging my own debt grave
so I told them to please fix it. I tried
to be polite about it and instead of saying I flat out thought they were being
lazy with cutting corners, I mentioned that if one of female members were to
simply accidentally drop a necklace down and it get stuck in that hole, are they
going to come and buy this lady a new necklace?
I then joked and told them heaven help I drop my wedding ring down the
hole. I’m going to rip a whole bigger
hole and then rip THEM a new hole (suggesting I’m going to seriously kick them
in the rear.
Again my father-in-law said, “It’s ok”. I instantly turned around and said, “When you have your own
boxing club, you can pick and choose what is ok but this is not your club,
please respect that.”
Out of all my in-laws, my father-in-law is most definitely
one of my favourites. With his adorable
pudgy cheeks and salt and pepper hair, he’s just too cute. I know he tries hard to understand my culture
and the fact that I’m not to be treated like a typical Korean girl like others
so often do. I probably can count the
amount of times he’s brought up the baby issue in the past 4 years on one hand
and I like it how he greets the other ladies of the family with a cute
hi but me with a punch to the shoulder.
He’s always been supportive of my boxing up up to attending my fights that is. He comes watch me train, is always trying to give me pointers and now he’s
helping us set up our boxing club. He’s
been helping out with our renovations way beyond what I ever imagined and I am
ever so grateful, truly I am, but I definitely see a confusion of roles at
play. I know Snickers is his son but too
often I’ve seen him being more of a father here and telling Snickers what to do
when I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to be doing so. Initially I told Snickers to not let his
father help us because I totally predicted this happening and now it has. When he repeatedly told me “It’s ok” in the
locker room, I just about had it. I had
had one too many days of “It’s ok” and feeling like I was a child following a
parent’s orders so I walked out of the locker room and told Snickers I wanted
to talk to him outside.
“This is NOT his dream, this is NOT his debt, this is NOT his
business and he is NOT a business partner, and he is your father, NOT my father. Maybe you two need to clarify things.” I told him.
I felt so upset having to say this to him because I do love
his father. He is one of three family
members I can honestly say I do love – K-Gere (father-in-law), Brooklyn (Snickers’
cousin), and Granny Kim. I just couldn’t
not say it though; I had to get it off my chest. I know we’re all trying so incredibly hard to
make Hulk’s the best it possibly can so perhaps we’re all getting too
emotionally involved and maybe that’s were the problem stems.
Regardless of where the problem stems, I just needed
everyone to leave the club. When everyone left, I cranked up the tunes so loud that I
seriously couldn’t even hear myself belting out the tunes. Slipped into some training clothes, laced up
my boxing boots, and wrapped my hands up.
I was ready and I was so needing a good workout.
When I’m stressed, I workout.
When I’m happy, I workout.
When I’m sick, I workout.
… even when I’m injured, I workout.
Tonight I definitely hulked out and it felt amazing. It felt so good in fact that instead of
taking a taxi home I jogged home. I felt
so great, like all the stress I had just carried was totally in the past and
let me say, God bless the tabboki hubby and wife duo down the street from my
house. In addition to already telling
everyone their tabboki is by far the most dangerously delish tabboki in Korea,
this husband and wife duo now added sweetest tabboki shop couple to their
label. As I reached my street all sweaty
and tired from boxing and now running home, they called out to me and asked me
why they hadn’t seen me these days.
Their open-window shop is a stone-throw away from my apartment so I see
them everyday and everyday we say hi to each other and exchange a sentence or
two. Lately we rarely have these daily
exchanges thought because I’ve been spending every waking moment at Hulk’s.
“Don’t you like tabboki anymore?” he joked.
“I love it, it’s my diet cheat food… but I have no money for
tabboki” and it was true. Our weekly
tabboki late night dates, Snickers and I, no longer happen because now all our
money goes into Hulk’s. The other day
K-Gere gave me money for coffee and, though I was craving coffee like there was
no tomorrow, I decided to buy a plant for Hulk’s lounge instead. I called him is Cino, as in cappuccino.
Anyways, when I told them why I’ve been so MIA the husband
reached out his hand with a bag attached to it – it was a bag full of his
dangerously delish tabboki in it!
Instantly I bowed to him, thanked them and had to laugh myself over the
fact that I was getting choked up over a $5 bag of tabboki – thick rice noodles
in a spicy sauce.
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