Sweet Flight

Today I had a 40 minute flight from Zurich, Switzerland to Paris, France. In that forty minutes I was served a snack with a drink. I know, right?! In the U.S. you can fly across all the continental states and not be served a thing, without first needing to pulling out your wallet. If you are lucky a glass of water will be offered to prevent your parched thirst.

If you have had this experience then you too can imagine my surprise when first I was being offered a snack, but even more amazingly was handed this…



Oh yes! That is a picture of some very delicious strawberry ICE CREAM! I mean seriously, was I just served Ice Cream on a plane? I was in heaven! Floating above the clouds watching the sky and eating Ice Cream!

As I was finishing the best snack ever offered on a flight, another flight attendant came around and offered this…



Oh Yes! Chocolate and Thanking ME!

No no no… Thank you Swiss Airlines, Thank you!

My Rock Collection

Happy 100th Posting!

I wasn’t sure what to write about today. I felt pressure being the big 100 and all but last night after watching He’s Just Not That Into You”, and reviewing Mamakat’s writers workshop, I decided boys are a pretty big topic in any girls life, and would thus be appropriate for my 100th post.

The prompt: List 10 things you would say to 10 different people in your life if you had the huzpa.

The list moves from my youngest remembrance of a boy, to present day. All boys I have come across along the way, some were romantic others not at all- but they are all boys I do recall. Each one I think about from time to time, and this is generally what I think of, when they come to my mind.

1. If I had never moved when I was 5, would I have been your girl next door?

2. You were always my favorite of the ten and my best friend. I hope life takes you to magnificent places and you are still having as much fun as we did back then.

3. I fell on my head doing a flip on the monkey bars trying to impress you. Talk about literally being head over heels.

4. When you asked me to dance I should have said yes. I was just too scared. And still feel guilty to this day for walking away.

5. I always wore DC shoes because those were your initials.

6. I’ll never forget what you said- you are my favorite, thanks for the truth. Friends for life.

7. Boooooooo. I hope you got hit upside the head with a club.

8. You gave me a whole new perspective on my life. You deserve wonderful and I hope you find her. Believe in yourself and I know you will.

9. I wish you would contact me already! I am starting to forget how amazing I know you are. Small memories only last so long. Will I ever see or talk to you again…

10. Where are you? Will you find me and marry me already? Thanks.

MISSING!

Something has been taken from me!

What has been stolen you ask?

Well let me tell you, I have a list of blogs that I “follow,” and this morning when I opened up my blogger page, under my “Blogs I am following” section, it was _________.

Yes Blank! What the heck happened? There are at least 13 blogs I follow and now I am a follower of Jesus alone. (Had to throw that one in there- it was just too easy.)



Now I am stuck and don’t know what to do. Do I wait for them to come back? Do I go and search them out? Did they all get together and decide to kick me off of their blogs? Do I re-tag their blogs to follow? Or is that considered blog stocking, which will result in them all handing over to me a blog restraining order? Maybe they will all suddenly re-appear, just as they all went MIA, (The vortex!).

So sad, right?
I know… Life is tough.

To those wonderful bloggers I follow (The Musings of the Mrs., LA Mom, Patrice xoxo, in the waiting line, and many many more), if your follower count last night suddenly decreased by one have no fear, I didn’t stop loving your blog- in fact my morning wasn’t the same without you.

Jared vs. Johan

Many of you know the Jared as the guy who lost a whole bunch of weight by everyday eating a subway sandwiches. I bet you have never heard of Johan Groundstroem. but you should, he's pretty impresive. If only Jared lived in Sweden like Johan then he too, could have lost all that weight by eating at Max’s every day. The local version of a McDonalds/Burger King.



When beginning the subway challenge Jared lost 100 pounds in three months leaving him at over 300 pounds. I bet you didn’t know that if you ate a hamburger everyday could have similar results. Sure is new news to me. But sure enough Johan took on the 90 day challenge to eat 180 hamburgers and lost a total of 30 kg- that’s 66 pounds in three months! I don’t know about you, but if I ate hamburgers for 90 days straight, I would find not lose 66 pounds.

I wonder what the Swedes’ are putting into their fast food, maybe it’s a build it yourself module like their other great success, Ikea? Whatever it is, I am sure the rest of the world would love to know what the real secret is behind fast food equals fast weight loss.

Happy Birthday Nicole

It's seems as though I have missed another one... I always seem to be M.I.A. on this day. But for you today my friend, I have a list of things I miss doing with you!

- Learning to play the flute in Junior High
- Football games and going to Prom.
- Visiting you at Cinema star and going to the movies for free
- Going off to two separate colleges but through the experience it is what made our friends even stronger. It was nice having you as the only one from home who could understand.
- I helped rescue you at Margarita Rocks (and Denny's) and you are what kept me sane in Margarita Ville.
- You sending me care packages when I lived in D.C.
- The way that you are easily embarrassed and not afraid of who you are.
- How nervous you get- and the way your react.
- Your high expectations of life and the care you put into everything you do.
- Having you yell at the tickets lady for sneaking in food and drinks into the theatres.
- Watching you get pushed into the water at the beach and storm off- I thought you would never talk to us again. haha
- Our first real jobs and meeting down the street for lunch.
- Catching the bouquet at your wedding.

It's amazing how much has happened over the years, and that no matter how far apart, I treasure our friendship that only seems to grow stronger with time. You have so much strength, Courage, and love within you, I am sorry I am not there to celebrate...

Emergency Flight Information

"There are 5 exits aboard this plane: 2 at the front, 2 over the wings, and one out the plane's rear end. If you're seated in one of the exit rows, please do not store your bags by your feet. That would be a really bad idea- we would hate for the bags to make it out before the people do- though I am sure you value your louis vuitton more than the passenger next to you. In the event of a loss of cabin pressure- (because we are nose diving to the ground) these yellow baggy things will drop down over your head. Please be sure to secure yours before helping other passengers. We would hate for you to be the last one in style with this must have accessory.”



Generally, when the the flight attendants are doing their spiel I am sleeping. Once in air I don’t get much sleep so I use the boarding though take off time to catch up on some much needed zzzz’s after spending tedious long layovers between flights. However- I think that rather than trying to make the emergency speech more interesting, or pleasing to those like me who are not even pretending to be paying attention, there is more useful information to be given. Not to mention that, in the case of an actual emergency, all passengers will freak out and be in a massive state of panic and more than likely not be referencing the third column in the emergency pamphlet, they will just cry and scream.

So I give you my version of: Emergency Flight Information:

In front of your seat there is a Brown Paper bag. A.K.A The barf bag. In the event that you need to use the barf bag please do so- that is what it is there for. However, if you are continuing to be sick, please do not remain in your seat but proceed to the restrooms where being sick is a bit more appropriate and less likely to make all other passengers need their brown paper bag too.

During episodes of turbulence the seat belt sign will come on. Please remain seated. This rule is better translated to mean: During the time that I am pushing the food cart, mobile drink bar, or the on-flight duty free shop, stay out of the aisle and out of my way. This cart is the width of the aisle- so no Mr. six feet tall, you cannot just squeeze right by as I am pouring hot coffee and tea to the other passengers- not to mentioned I just passed your seat 15 seconds ago when you could have freely moved about the plane without any hinderance. So please sit down and wait until I am completed serving this aisle. Or here is a genius idea, walk in the other direction, there are several lavatories on the plane.



And yes we would like you to stay seated during turbulence as well, but not so you don’t get injured but to keep you from running through the aisles in a state of panic. Think of this more as a restraining belt during this time.

If you are fortunate enough to have a window seat- then you have been provided with a complementary head rest for the flight. However- if you are in the center seat or aisle we do apologize but your neighbor is not to be your free head rest unless this person is a family, friend or relative. You just met this person and I am sure they would not appreciate you sleeping on their shoulder for the next 4-8 hours depending on the length of the flight.



Also please keep your feet down- no one wants to findout the last time you had a pedicure.



Your child is cute and adorable. I am sure the passenger who is sitting behind your child, loves having cute Little Suzie look back and smile and make little cute funny faces. But I am positive that the man sitting in front of your child, would like to thrown Little Suzie out of the emergency exit. Suzie may only be two feet tall but planes only have one foot of leg room, making little Suzie the perfect height to kick the seat in front of her. For Little Suzie maybe you can tie the seat belt around her legs a few times as a nice way to assist her legs in remaining still. Oh and please hold the throwing of goldfish.



To Mr. and Mrs- I am bringing all of my luggage as a carry-on. Please do not in attempts to take up an entire overhead compartment remove someone else’s smaller bag to make more space for yours without asking first. After removing their bag please do not then place their bag in another compartment- they will be very confused when the plane lands, and unable to find their belongings. Now, because we have ask you to not remove another’s bag- does not mean we are giving you the permission to smash their stuff to make room for yours. Next time – please check your bag and pay the $25.00 like everyone else.



Please enjoy the on-flight music provided or feel free to listen to your iPod or other musical devices. However please remember than not all people have the same love of your voice as you do. You may be listening to Boy George or SugarRay’s “I just want to fly” but all the rest of the plane can hear, is you.

P.D.A. Save it for after the flight.



After we land we will ask that you remain seated until the seat belt sign is turned off. Please realize that when the seatbelt sign goes off this is not the same as when a gun is shot to commence the start of a race. The door to the plane has not even been opened and you sitting in row 63 will not be able to get out until rows 1-62 leave. So please let’s not try and fit every passenger on the plane in the aisle once the seat belt sign is turned off.



I hope you enjoy the rest of your flight. So please sit back (except for during the meal time) and enjoy the rest of your flight being mindful of all those sitting around you.

I Speak American???

In the past few months I have done my fair share of griping about learning the French language. I whine when I don’t feel like studying and I always wish the language would somehow morph itself naturally into my mind, without me putting in any effort whatsoever. That would be fabulous! However- today was a quick kick into reality that English is not so easy and user friendly either. If learning French is complex- teaching English just might be its equivalent.

I have spent all day trying to explain the intricate differences of the English language and parts of speech I realized, I may not even fully understand. How do you describe basic word definitions without using the actual word itself? For example in attempts to explain the verb “To do,” I stared blankly and kept repeating, “if you do something, I mean when you (don’t use do, don’t use do,) plan to do your homework. Ugh, I blew that again.

“What is the difference between too much and too many?” In my mind I wanted to say- I don’t know, but in different situations one sounds better than the other. You can never have too much ice cream. There are too many complicated questions.

I suppose the biggest difficulty I faced was explaining the differences between two similar words. “What’s the difference between wishing and hoping?” I don’t know… but I do know that Cinderella’s song is, “When you wish upon a star...” And that it would never work as, “When you hope upon a star.” But then if you have ever seen "My Best Friend’s Wedding," you would know that the intro song there, has lyrics that say, “wishing and hoping and thinking and praying…” And thus adds a whole new layer of confusion in my mind, on how to properly segregate the differences of these two synonyms, from one another.

For the next two weeks I will get to learn the English language all over again, while teaching it to others. I think once I am finished I will be eager to once again be the student, rather than the teacher and will hopefully (not wishfully) have more motivation to put some Oomph into my French study skills.