A Packing Frenzy
My in-laws gave Ali and I a European honeymoon as a wedding gift, back when we got married nearly 100 years ago. Despite our trip getting off to a terrible start thanks to food poisoning in Paris and some very unfriendly Parisians who smirked at what I thought was a rather impressive attempt at French by Ali, we had a good time overall. But as we traipsed through Paris, London, Monaco, and Vienna, I wondered the following:
1. Why didn’t I think to check the weather.com forecast prior to departure? A little research may just have prevented me from bringing all the wrong clothes and shoes for the unbelievable 90+ degree temperatures.
2. Why did Ali pack an enormous suitcase with little more than 2 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 ugly pair of jeans, swimming trunks, loads of camera cables, and dozens of different power converters? For 2 weeks? His suitcase was so big and empty that it could have easily fit a stowaway.
Needless to say we learned a lot during that trip. I learned he can’t pack worth S#@%. He learned that it doesn’t take much more than a poorly dressed new husband to put my temper into overdrive. We both learned that European hotels charge more to do laundry than the cost of the clothes themselves.
From then on I have taken it upon myself to pack Ali’s clothes for any and all trips, which is how I spent a good part of my morning today.
As I packed my little heart out, I cursed the disastrous state of his closet. But there was no time to clean yet another one of his messes because I had to respond to Maya’s statement, “Mama, I’m all packed and ready!” Clearly my daughter couldn’t wait to get the hell out of the Din Household. No love lost there I guess.
For her impending stay at my in-laws place, she’d basically packed everything except the kitchen sink. And while I was pretty impressed with her initiative, we definitely had to take out a few unnecessary things. After removing an umbrella, a few tacky T-shirts, and no less than 3 tubes of toothpaste, we managed to edit her selection to only the necessities.
After selflessly taking care of my husband and child, after ignoring the work emails that piled up, after attending an orientation at Maya’s new school, and after battling 3 hours of Thursday traffic to drop Maya off at my in-laws place, I am now about to tackle my own packing.
Have I mentioned I have a serious phobia about checking my bags in? I just can’t do it. I am so terrified of my luggage being lost that I always carry on, and since I managed 10 days in Paris and Amsterdam last year without checking anything in I decided I could tackle Asia in the same way. So I am off to figure out how to cram enough clothes and shoes into a 22″ X 14″ X 8.5″ suitcase.
Wish me luck.
PS – Not sure what the internet situation will be like in Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, but I’m hoping to post fairly regularly. I hope you consider this good news. Right??
I Hate Circuses
I don’t consider myself an activist. It’s not because there aren’t causes I believe in, it’s just that I am usually too busy/lazy to take a proper stand on anything. But when I believe in something I take a stand in my own way…and if there is one thing that really bothers me it is seeing animals being mistreated.
A few days ago, while I further weakened my already injured knees by running on the treadmill, I watched the most horrible story about a circus elephant killing a trainer.
To say I was upset after watching this is an understatement. Call me heartless but while I am sad that the circus worker was killed, I am much sadder for the poor elephant and all the other animals that are trained to do unnatural things. I am upset that in this day and age animals are still being used in circuses. I am sad that they live their lives in cages and spend their days being trained to do ridiculous things like turning around in a circle with one leg up. I am even more upset that people want to see this.
I remember hearing all the shock and outrage back in February when an orca killed its trainer at Sea World. But I wonder why we are surprised that a 12,000 pound killer whale finally turned on the person who forced him to do silly tricks for an audience? Are people still turning a blind eye to the fact that the captivity of these poor animals is literally driving them crazy?
Ali just asked me, “If we don’t have zoos or circuses how will Maya ever see animals up close?” Well, as far as I am concerned, Maya will either see them in their natural habitat or on tv in the amazing Planet Earth DVD’s my mom gave her. And she will be a better, more compassionate person for it. As a person who rarely takes a stand on anything, I have and will continue to take a stand on this: The Din Household will not visit zoos, circuses, or any place that involves captivity of animals.
The other day we walked past a pet store and Maya said, “Oh Mama, how sad those doggies are in a cage. They don’t have any space to move around!”
Sometimes my kid does me proud. She might cough up a nervous storm while doing it but who am I to judge?
Sugar Overload
I feel like a grown up now. I finally purchased a piece of luggage.
After running from the Tumi store to Bloomingdale’s to Macy’s and back to Bloomingdale’s, I finally settled on a Tumi bag. 5 minutes later I had buyer’s remorse but Ali told me to consider my purchase an investment rather than just a carry on. I’m trying to take his advice but I still have the tags on. Just in case. Apparently I have difficulty with committment.
Thanks to my indecisiveness we were late for lunch so we were rushing to the parking lot when we encountered a curious sight:
Ali insisted I take a picture of this random guy carrying around his computer and would like for it to be noted that he isn’t the only person who brings his laptop to the mall. Noted.
After Maya asking, “Are we there yet?” about 500 times, we finally made it to the party in our finest Fancy Nancy/80’s attire:
And what a party it was! Suddenly Maya’s Fancy Nancy party didn’t seem so fancy after all.
Pie ‘N Burger set up on site and grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs.
There was also pasta salad, potato salad, and a delicious quinoa salad. Made specifically with me in mind. I must say I felt pretty special.
Dessert was pretty ridiculous…in a good way of course. There were cupcakes from Sweet Lady Jane….
Tons of different types of pies and ice cream with all the trimmings…
And just when I though Maya would keel over from sugar overload…
The birthday boy got to blow out the cutest monkey cake I’d ever seen…
I had two bites of icing from my friend Nadia’s cupcake and seriously, it was the best icing I have ever tasted.
After running around like a crazy child, learning all about bubbles from the cool bubble lady, demanding balloon animals from the balloon lady, and eating her weight in hot dogs, chips, and sugar, Maya stopped coughing long enough to take this picture.
She hasn’t stopped since.
If the coughing doesn’t stop soon I may head down to Costco to purchase a giant bottle of Robitussin. For me, not for Maya. Because I need something to lessen the pain of hearing her cough. And I hear that Robitussin has some beneficial side effects.
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 
