Baby Watch

This is NOT (repeat NOT) a "we're having a baby" announcement. This is a story of how a street vendor tried to get me to be a customer by insulting me.



So there I was, walking through the street market in Kuala Lumpur's China Town. We were just about finished for the evening and the vendor in the last stall said, "You wear a baby watch. Come buy a man's watch. My little baby wears a watch that size." Really. He said all of those things.

Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything clever to say in response except, "Can your baby tell time with a watch this small?" Yeah, I know it's weak but it's all I had.

So, what kind of baby watch do I wear? Since I've been running my ideal watch includes the following features:

• Thin and light. Even though I am a big guy, watches that are big as a house are impractical to me whether I'm running or not.
• Digital. I know how to read an analog watch but prefer digital.
• Big numbers. I want to glance at my watch to know the time not squint and study it.
• Stopwatch. Occasionally I like to know how long something takes.
• Countdown timer. Occasionally I like to do something for a certain amount of time.
• Alarm. Occasionally I like to wake up at a certain time. 

The closer a watch comes to these ideals the more I like it. When we started out this trip I was wearing my all-time favorite watch. It was a Timex made specifically for triathletes. It was thin and had big numbers. I loved that watch right up until the moment the strap broke. Most of the Timex athletic watches (including this one) have straps molded right onto the watch itself so you can't just replace the strap. I was so sad.

When the strap broke, and after I finished crying, I remembered that since Utah I had been carrying Sam's watch. He didn't want it and I threw it in my bag at the last minute. We bought it for him years ago when he needed a watch to keep time while reffing soccer games. It is probably a lady's watch but it was Sam's size when we bought it for him. It fits all of my requirements with the exception of having big numbers but I've lived with it for months. It might be a baby watch but I don't care it's MY baby watch. Oh, and I did NOT buy a man watch from the street vendor.