How to make travelling not the worst

Last week I travelled with Jack and Rob (my little brothers) to Seattle. Gate to gate, the way there was 12 hours and the way back was about 10.

That's a lot of travel time with a 6 and 10 year old. Now, you might think this would be a frustrating experience... but you would be wrong. Let me tell you about something called the"young single mother card."

It seems every security guard and every airline attendant just assumed I was their mom. I caught some definite glances to my ring-less ring finger. And I did nay make any attempts to correct anybody because seriously, I was living the life.

For starters, you know when you go through security and you feel like a jumbo jerk for holding the line up while you repack your laptop and stuff? I feel like everybody else in the world wears slip on/off shoes and there I am fixing my orthotic then lacing up while the guy behind me mutters something about missing his flight. I get so stressed out in those situations. But when you're with kids? All the time in the world is yours. People give you kind smiles as you take your time to help your toothless freckle face get his coat back on. It's the best.
Also, security is incredibly lenient when you're with kids. For example, I accidentally had a water bottle in our carry on. I apologized and said they could just dump it. But no! Apparently, if you're with kids, they'll TEST it for you and let you keep it! What? Where were these tests in the past when I've had to throw out so much stuff?

Later, on the flight home, Jack took out his pencil case for some colouring. Guess what was in there? SCISSORS. Not just safety scissors either, but the real kind, sharp enough that I would let somebody cut my hair with them. Security had let us through with scissors. AND! I had tweezers and nail cutters. Whoops, but holy cats, right?
Also, we got full cans of pop from the drink service (the flight attendant said, "Mom, is it okay if I give the boys a full can?" and I said, "... sure!") and DOUBLE SNACKS. YA YA YA!

OH! AND! They got to go right up and visit the pilot! What? They still do that? This is the most fun any person has had post 9/11, am I right? (The pilot said, "Does your mom have a camera?" and the boys said, "yeah!"... even they were thinking I was their mom by the end of it)So the moral of the story is:

• always travel with children
  
• be a young female
  
• flash your best "just tryin' to make ends meet" smile
  
• maybe have messy hair
• make sure your children are adorable sweethearts that some people think are twins, and one of them is missing both his front teeth

and you will get:

• no hassle at security from other passengers
• no hassle at security from the staff even if you are carrying every illegal item you can think of
• to board the plane first, with wheel chair people and others who require extra time or assistance
• extra snacks
• full cans of pop
• love and attention forever

THE BEST!

(ps yes, they did get haircuts while in Seattle)

20sb Vlog Day 2

Wednesday was 20sb Vlog Day 2!

This time the topic is "show us what you love"

Here is what I love:

20sb vlog day 2 from Lisa on Vimeo.

(I was late to upload because I'm in Seattle for the week, and haven't been on the computer much. I made the video on Wednesday though!)

Birds Nest Beverages (and other fun)

On the advice/hilarity of Peter, I decided to organize a beverage tasting night with some of my friends. It was on Friday. It was the best.

The concept is simple enough: try new things! So we went to previously uncharted territories (mostly local Asian grocery stores) and collected a total of 15 drinks that we had never tried. One of these was a Vitamin Water named XXX and the other 14 had very little English.

We took turns selecting which drink to open next, and then passed it around the circle once or twice to accurately judge the liquid on the following criteria:

Maximum Total= 100 points

Up to 60 points for taste (aftertaste deductions can be made here)

Up to 10 points for smell

Up to 5 points for texture (including viscosity)

Up to 25 points for packaging/emotional needs/whether or not feelings got hurt or expectations let down.

Some highlights:

Ramune

Ramune had a list of 6 steps just to open the bottle (though step 6 was “drink and enjoy!” which warranted some packaging deducts on my judging card) and even featured a thumb grip! It tasted like delicious and got the second highest score of the night. It would have got the highest score but one of the judges held out.

Pokka

Picture says it all. Taste: non-memorable.

Let’s Qoo Dance

It didn’t have any flavour-indicating English... though there was a picture of an onion, a carton of milk, and a lemon. The perfect trifecta! In the end it didn’t taste terrible but the reason it finished fourth was probably because there was a little guy in a wig on the cap, which definitely met my emotional needs.

Today’s Tea: Vacuum flavour

Memorable quote, “I don't like to see the words 'floor sanitizer' on any of my beverages." Because oh yeah, check out this bad boy. Lady. Vacuum. The words “floor sanitizer.” If Kevin hadn’t vehemently assured us that this came from the chilled drink section, I might have been more alarmed. It tasted like Catholic communion. We (I) spilled a little and it turns out that two separate liquids which clearly different specific gravities existed together in this bottle. They separated a bit and resembled an amoeba and we all felt sick for a little bit. But we carried on!

2% Lemon

This fairly non-descript can just had a picture of a lemon and said 2%. I liked it.

Apple ilac

The winner of the night! Pretty and fun packaging, delightful apple flavour! Later we wondered if it only scored so high because it followed...

Yan Wo Temples

Hey guys, this one smelled like wilderness. Smelling it reminded me of running through the woods portion of a high school cross country race with the smell of decaying leaves and the vomit of runners from previous races . Not the smell of something I would usually elect to put in my mouth. Oh and the can had frogs and birds on it. The ingredients said, and I quote!: “... made of the best quality of Thailand's natural bird's nest and wild hashima."

But a pact was a pact (everybody had to at least have one sip of every drink) so even though the two people before me made “I think I’m going to vomit” faces, I had a sip:

It was the very worst.

We then poured it into a glass because some people thought it was gelatinous, some said they thought they got a twig in their sip, and others said surely there was feathers. Nope, but it did look like this:

Barfaroni to the max! The next morning we looked up what hashima was... oh yeah, wild frog fallopian tubes. No big. And “bird’s nest” wasn’t a bad translation but literally the saliva/mud/liquids birds use to make nests. Those ingredients have touched my lips and have entered my belly. I feel forever unclean. But we did it. And I only slightly regret it. Makes for good blogging material, right?

All in all, I recommend you have one of these nights yourself. 15 drinks at costs about 40 dollars I guess depending on where you get them, and it’s worth hours of fun. We had four people which was ideal for us but I wouldn’t recommend less than that... maybe 4-8 people would be perfect for you.

Total score chart for posterity:

	SJ	MJ	LF	KM	Average
Ramune	84	85	82	57	77
Temple Yan Wo (Bird's Nest)	12	17	2	8	9.75
Pokka	82	68	48	62	65
Longan (American)	48	28	26	27	32.25
British Afternoon Tea	59	42	61	43	51.25
Let's Qoo Dance	64	85	63	65	69.25
Today's Tea: Blend	40	27	28	36	32.75
Today's Tea: Vacuum	35	27	31	32	31.25
Cocoa Grape with Jelly Cubes	71	68	77	88	76
Sweet Cinnamon Punch	55	34	66	60	53.75
2% Lemon	81	58	84	42	66.25
ilac apple	73	83	82	88	81.5
Banana Milk	73	58	54	83	67
Woongjin	80	38	48	46	53
XXX	72	75	84	59	72.5
Average:	61.9	52.9	55.7	53.1

(So SJ had the most fun, MJ had the least fun)

Fun times!

(Full set of pictures)

My last midterm week.

Midterm week is the absolute worst. 5 midterms, 5 days. It's like the premise to an elimination based reality show. Forget passing, who can survive through it? Lately I've been experiencing some strange symptoms.

For starters, I've been having a lot of trouble focusing. Not that my mind wanders- no, it just stops. I look at the clock and it's like, wow 10 minutes have passed and not a single thought has been thinked! Zen mediators could really learn a lot from me. Clear your mind, indeed.

Next, today walking to my midterm I realized I felt like I was sobering up. You know? When you run out of drinking money at midnight but the night carried on and it's 3am and you're exhausted, and you start to feel yourself sober up? Still confused, but starting to realize that you're acting foolishly? Yeah, that's probably not a good way to feel as you walk toward at midterm worth 30% of your mark.

This is my last midterm week ever, as fourth year engineers get their midterms spread out over several weeks like normal people. I started the week with some forced nostalgia, like, "Oh man, this is my last chance to think of nothing but school for 168 hours straight! I better cherish these moments!" but now, as the week comes to a close, I am incredibly ready to be over.

Tomorrow's midterm is worth 40% of my mark and I kind of haven't started studying yet. It's on 6 textbook chapters and I've only done corresponding homework for 3 of them. Each chapter takes what, 5 hours? So since it's not actually possible for me to study thoroughly, I'm just procrastinating even more. I feel like I'm just lying on a raft letting the current take me where it wants to. Well, more like that I'm being dragged over rocky terrain by wild horses. Either way I feel totally not in control.

Hey kids, don't be an engineer. It can't possibly be worth this.