Shake Down

A lot of people ask me what I do on the weekends. Well, I don’t have an exclusive membership at any private golf course, nor do I jet off to any exotic destination. I don’t go sailing on a private yacht, and I don’t stay at any five-star resort. I reserve my weekend to be with my family, and despite what you may think, we live a fairly simple yet happy life.

Here is what the Nagasawas did this past Saturday. We drove all over the island looking for an ice cream milkshake. Our 16-year-old daughter said the latest online food rage are these convenience store make-it-yourself milkshakes called “f’real.” They come in all different flavors, but the problem is they are only available at certain 7-Eleven stores on the island, and on military bases, where you must have a military ID.

I figured our best bet would be at 7-Eleven, so my wife, daughter, our dog, Buddy, and I got in the car for our quest to find this treasured elixir. We canvased several stores near where we live, but none of them carried the product. I had our daughter use her phone to see if there was a f’real store locator.

She did, but we found the closest location was miles away at the Nuuanu 7-Eleven. When we got there, the tiny parking lot was completely filled and no one seemed to be leaving – pretty strange for a convenience store. My wife and daughter got out as I circled the block, and when I returned they explained that about 10 people were in line for this shake.

I told them to get back in the car and we would find another location. We tried two more, but encountered the same situation. I told my daughter we would try one more, as now we were nearly in Waikiki. They went in and I waited in the car with Buddy. It was a lot of effort for something like a mere shake, so I had hoped it was worth it.

My wife came out empty-handed.

I asked her what happened. She said they got their shakes in hand and when they got up to the machine, she looked at the nutrition label and saw that her shake exceeded her diet calorie limit! No way was she going to go off her strict diet.

As our daughter drank her shake, the only response I could muster up was, “Are you for real?”