Results

Here is the results of the experiment I did on how many countries I could get of people who look at my blog. Thanks to all who helped (Jessica).

United States

India

Latvia

Thailand

Canada

France

United Kingdom

Malaysia

Netherlands

Germany

Butt Crack

This is a totally random thought blog post and probably isn't worth your reading.

Last night, as I was drying off after a shower, I noticed something that I don't think I had noticed before. I was looking for a wild hair that sometimes grows on my lower back. I hadn't seen it in a while so I was looking to see if it was growing or not. Wild hairs are weird. Why does a hair just grow super long in a day some places? Or do they grow slowly but we just don't notice them?

I couldn't find the wild hair. I had talked before about hanging a bead on that one hair and celebrating it. It would probably pull the hair out though, since the wild hairs are usually pretty thin. If I had three hairs all together, I would braid them. I would like to see how long I can grow one someday.

But getting back to last night and my discovery. As I cranked my head around to see my back I realized that I could see my own butt crack (sorry Mom and Dad). Why did I never realize this before? Or is it because I have been doing P90X and the stretching is helping me to turn my head farther? I think I will give P90X the credit for this one. Or maybe I should thank my parents for the genes. I'm sure they would appreciate the credit. Or maybe everyone can see their own crack and we just don't talk about it. I have been told I talk about things that others know not to talk about in public, so this is possible.

So the next time you take a shower and are drying off, check to see how far your head can turn. And tell someone!

Pity Party

Sorry for my last, pathetic blog posting. I was having an early pity party for my birthday I guess. I am feeling better and less stressful about the whole "having no money" thing. I know I have friends to borrow from and I know we won't be poor for very long. It is good to remember how lots of people have to live month to month and go without things. I know one day we will be millionaires and won't have to worry about money anymore. And when I am a millionaire, I will still hate spending money.

Too Poor to Pay Attention

Lately I have felt the sting of poorness. I have an issue with anxiety anyway, and this is a new test for me in seeing if I can survive through it. It is also a good test in learning to trust, both God and my husband.

We are importing skateboards to sell here in India and right now we are waiting to get them out of customs. I guess we didn't figure in the long delay of customs here when we planned. So there sits our boards (and money).

So anyway, we had to leave India for our visa renewal and we came to Thailand. When we got here we withdrew money and the ATM shows us the balance in our bank. After withdrawing, we have around $30. left. I have never had that little of money. I know that my idea of broke is different than others, but to me, we are broke.

So I lay in bed worrying about our finances and wonder if I am suppose to trust God to take care of us, or if it is our own poor planning that is making us suffer. Like, does God take care of you when you are foolish?

I also lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. My birthday is next week and I wanted a few things. Nothing big, but at least something. I wanted a special cake. But now I just can't justify buying the cake with our last dime. We will get paid on my birthday, but not in time for the cake to be bought. I also wanted to buy a pair of jeans here in Thailand and maybe get my nose pierced. Both are totally cheap here. Six dollars for the jeans and another six dollars for the piercing. But both are things I don't "need".

I do allow myself to buy a few Thai iced teas. Those are treats for me. So I guess I need to enjoy the moment and not worry about eating cake. I will put a few thai bhat away for the last day here. Enough to pay for the extra baggage they will likely charge us at the airport.

Traveling is no fun anymore

Every six months, we have to leave India. Our visa stipulates that we go out of the country after 180 days. We can just cross the border and come back in, but we choose to use the time as a break from life in India. We also like to visit friends in close by countries. So this time, we went to Thailand. Actually, we almost always go to Thailand. So we flew here on Air Asia because it was cheapest. But I didn't realize that they nickle and dime you until it isn't so cheap or comfortable. Here is where I lost it.

When I say "I lost it" I don't mean that I lost my mind. I mean that I lost my cool. Traveling is stressful for me. If I was alone I don't think it would be too stressful, but I am with my husband and son, which makes it a little more stressful. Steve normally packs his bags a half hour before we leave and that is stressful to me. So I have learned a skill to help me. I ask him a day before, "When will you pack your bags?" And he is suppose to give a time that he will be ready. Well, I forgot to do that this time. So he went back to his normal routine of packing the last minute. He was actually out skateboarding just a couple of hours before we were suppose to leave. So he would need to come home, eat, take a shower, and pack. Just the time issue stresses me. Then riding in the taxi is stressful, just regular traffic and no seat belts.

So we got in the airport and it seems we always pick the slowest lines. Neither of us want to commit to choosing the line, so we get all wishy-washy. We ended up in the check-in line of "Ms. Grouchy Pants". She was yelling at her co-workers to do things and trying to check us in at the same time. She didn't acknowledge us until it was time to weigh the bags. I had paid for 15kg for one checked bag, when we bought the ticket online. So we planned to take carry-ons and one check bag. Our bag was 4kg too heavy. So then she weighed the carry-on bags to see which one we could put a few things into. But our carry-on bags weighed too much. I HATE having to reshuffle our stuff as we wait to check in at the airport. So we thought, we will just put more stuff in the check-in bag and pay the difference. So we got our carry-ons almost completely empty, since they weigh almost the limit when they are empty, and we got back in line. Now our bag was 11kg too heavy. She calculated how much we would have to pay extra and came up with the figure of around $80. I couldn't help but repeating this figure quite loudly and rolling my eyes. I told her that I would have to eat the gulab jamin (sweets) that we were taking. The guy helping with the bags asked me if I liked Indian sweets. I said, "Yes, I like gulab jamin, but I don't like your airline." So I asked how much it would cost for us to just check in another bag. She didn't answer me. Instead she said she would ask her boss if we could just pay a lesser fee. So somehow she figured that we could pay around $18 and take the extra weight.

I was frustrated because it seems that our empty bags would be about the right weight limit. What does the airline expect people to do? We fly places and take clothes to wear on our trip. It seems ridiculous to charge more than my clothes are worth to take stuff. I know Air Asia isn't the only airline doing this, but this is international and I didn't think airlines did that on international flights. They also charge for food, which is fine. We just didn't get any food. And then they have the audacity to charge for a blanket and a pillow. Oh, we also paid for our seat assignment. I wanted to ask if they charge for toilet paper, but I never needed to use the toilet.

It has gotten ridiculous. Why not just tell the poor passengers what the cost is going to be up front, and then treat them nice? Isn't there enough air rage and stress without adding more difficulty to the passenger? No wonder people go crazy on flights. I vote we go back to honest pricing and give people a pleasant experience.

For our flight home, we might just throw our bags away and pack in garbage bags so we can actually take some clothes home with us. That way our bags won't weigh much at all.

My Color Coded Bookshelf

A few days ago I was wasting time by reading blogs of people that I don't know. You know how on the top of a blog page there is the "next blog" button? Well I just hit that and if it was interesting, I read it. I read a blog about a couple who had three babies that died, two were still-born and one lived one day. Sad. I read about kids with illnesses. I read about traveling. And then I read one that caught my eye. Or at least the picture caught my eye.

The picture that caught my eye was of a bookshelf that was arranged by color. I thought that it looked nice and that maybe that would be the way I would rearrange my bookshelf (or I should say, Steve's bookshelf). I told Steve my idea and he didn't go for it. He said he wouldn't be able to find his books. But I didn't let him poo-poo on my parade. I let him see my sad expression (manipulation) and then he decided that it would be okay. So the next day Micah and I took all the books out and arranged them in color stacks.

I was surprised at how many blue books we had. I thought there seemed to be more white books when they were all mixed up. But when they were in stacks, our biggest stack was blue. Lots of yellow books too. So we put them all back on the shelves by color and I lined them up straight so the bindings were all level. It looked nice. And the cool thing is that you end up seeing books that you didn't know you had. I already have picked out two books to read.

Today our house-help lady was here. Her last act of the day was to dust. Even though I had dusted the shelves yesterday when I took all the books off, she went straight for the shelves. And as she dusted she pushed the books all against the back of the shelf and they were all out of line. I had to just roll my eyes. Of course she would decide to dust when it wasn't dusty and shove those poor books all wacky. And she has no idea that she did it. At least she didn't take the books out to dust.

Two Things

As I walked to the market today, two things struck me as interesting. Firstly, it seems that cars here end up honking right next to me. I wonder if it is done on purpose. People honk when they approach an intersection or a turn that they are not going to stop at, or that a person may be not stopping at and will hit them. So it is just a way of letting other drivers know that you are there. So I suppose that if I am walking right before a turn or an intersection that it could just be that I am in the exact area that they always honk at. It is irritating none the less. So loud and startling.

The other thing I thought about is boom boxes. I remember back in the 80's that cool people would walk around with a boom box (music) held on their shoulder. At least I saw it in a movie or on a commercial. Well today I passed a guy who was listening to music, but he was listening from his cell phone. So I wonder if it is the same idea. And I wonder if it is just an India phenomena or if people in other countries also walk around with their cell phone music playing loudly.