10 New Reasons to Fly Coach

I decided to break my blog ban to share this slideshow. Lots of international airlines and Delta seem to be making some interesting upgrades to their coach sections. I'm particularly intrigued by a state-of-the-art air filter and cooling system and something called "cuddle class".

Check it out and let me know what you think.

See you in another 6 months.

Germaphobes Anonymous

I confess, I'm a huge germaphobe. Usually I'm pretty good at keeping my insanity under-wraps. I walk through the world and people think I'm a normal person. In reality, I would love to live with a germ zapping force field around me that would kill the germs off anyone that came near me. It is becoming increasingly hard for me to not run in disgust every time a person coughs without covering their mouth.

This is why when I saw the New York Times article How Not to Get Sick From a Flight I immediately dropped everything and read it.

I already have a system that I believe helps keep me safe from germs on flights.

1. I take Airborne before I go to the airport. 
2. I try not to touch things in the airport or airplane.
3. Since it is impossible to not touch anything, I carry hand sanitizer with me.
4. I try not to touch my face.
5. I wash my hands as much as I can without having to enter gross public bathrooms. If I do have to go into public bathrooms I have another system to try and leave cleaner than I went in.
6. Pray that the person sitting next to me isn't sick.

This may seem crazy, but I would like to point out that lots of people take it a step further. The people interviewed for the NY Times articles were buying all sorts of things to keep the germs at bay.

•  Disposable face masks
• Antiseptic spritzers
• Airline seat covers
• Portable air purifiers (hangs around your neck)
• Nano UV scanners (uses ultraviolet light to kill germs on surfaces)

While I completely understand what motivates these people, I'm way too cheap for all that. The article also mentioned that some people wipe down the arm rests and trays with disinfectant wipes. That is something I could get down with.

Although most of the article didn't give me tips I could use, it did give me a comforting new fact. Major airlines deep clean their planes once a month and do lighter cleanings more frequently than that. This made me happy because I didn't think they were deep cleaning those suckers at all.

Any other germaphobes out there? We've got to stand together...but not too close.

Four States in 24 Hours

Two weeks ago, Boyfriend and I spent a Saturday driving all over creation.

Leg 1: New York to New Jersey. We drove to my uncle's house to pick up my TV from college. I've been storing it in his attic for the past 2.5 years. I promised the TV to my brother but have been too...I'm not sure if the right word is 'busy' or 'lazy'. Regardless, we decided to finally get it done and I got to see spend a little time with my cousins.

Leg 2: New Jersey to Delaware. Boyfriend's grandmother lives in Delaware. We have be meaning to visit her forever. Since we were already gonna be driving around this seemed like the perfect time to take her to lunch. It was actually a lovely visit and made us both wonder why we don't do it more often.

Leg 3: Delaware to Pennsylvania. We dropped the TV off with my brother in Philly. I got to see how truly disgusting the living quarters of college boys are. My mother would faint if not for the fear of what is festering in that carpet. Then we went to visit Boyfriend's friends that just had a baby. She was like a cute little ball.

Leg 4: Pennsylvania to New Jersey. We visited Boyfriend's sister this time. She and her husband made us a delicious dinner. We spent the night because we had enough driving for the day. Actually, Boyfriend had enough driving and I had enough sitting and playing DJ with my ipod.

We headed back to New York the next day. We were exhausted and Boyfriend was strung out on caffeine but this was probably our most productive weekend in months. I think it was definitely better to bang it all out in one day instead of dragging this out over multiple weekends.

Next drive on our list is Rhode Island for Christmas. While we are in that neck of the woods we'll visit my grandfather in Hartford and my friend in Boston. We're just checking things off the list all over the place.

My Ring

O, and the main reason we were destroyed after our tour of the least exciting states in the Northeast was because we got engaged the night before! We were up late celebrating. This is why even though we spent most of it running big errands we had been putting off, it was still an amazing weekend :)

Have you seen a ring nicer than mine? I haven't.

How Murder and Nudity Ended My Thanksgiving

I'm on the flight back to New York from Atlanta (thanks for the free internet Airtran) and I am shocked and appalled!

A guy sitting across the aisle and one row in front of me is watching a movie on his laptop.  I don't know what movie it is but there has been a fully naked woman on the screen for the past 15 minutes.  First she was having sex, then she was chasing after her partner and trying to shoot him, then she was running from some masked man who actually killed her partner, and finally she got killed.  All naked.

Honestly, I'm not sure if it was the nakedness or all the killing that disturbed me more.  It's not like I'm against movies with nudity and murder.  That isn't the point.  The point is that we are on a plane.

What if a child were in my seat!?  The poor thing would be traumatized or worse yet not care at all.  Kids these days are growing up too fast.

Either way there should be a thing called plane etiquette.  Not watching inappropriate movies should be right after keeping your hands to yourself.  Did I mention the woman I sat next to on the plane to Atlanta grabbed my thigh when the plane landing startled her?

What is wrong with people?

How to Survive Traveling Across the World

Traveling to Sydney, Australia meant 2 very long plane rides and 3 very different time zones.  Somehow I made it here in one fully awake piece.  Here is how:

1.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  This is the advice Boyfriend gave me that I didn't really listen to at first.  Our first flight left JFK for LAX at 6:30am.  We got to the airport in enough time which is really important to me because I hate rushing.  We were flying Qantas so naturally we head to that terminal.  Turns out that the Qantas staff doesn't show up at the airport that early.  WTF?!  I immediately go into panic mode.  We find out that we have to go to the American Airlines terminal.  That would have been nice to know.  It all worked out and we checked our bags, got through security, and to the gate in enough time.  The 30 minutes until it worked out were filled with me cursing all airport staff under my breath.  All that stress for nothing.

2.  You must sleep!  On both flights we slept a good portion of the time.  It is so key.  If we hadn't of slept on the first flight we would have been zombies all day in L.A.  If we hadn't slept on the second flight we would have been bored for one thing, and fucking comatose our first day in Sydney.  Because we slept we were able to have a great time hanging out in Manhattan Beach in L.A. and we had enough energy to spend our first day in Sydney exploring - not sleeping. 

3.  Pack a light carry-on.  I knew this would be important because I had to lug that thing around L.A. all day.  Also, we got to Sydney a few hours before our hotel room was ready so I had to carry it around when we first started checking out the sites.  It was still heavier than I would have liked but considering I usually treat my purse like it was a Mary Poppins hand-me-down I think I did ok.

4.  Fly Qantas.  I started out hating them because they weren't at the stupid terminal when we started out trip but I got over that.  The plane, the crew, everything is awesome.  Trust me.  On a flight that long in economy it makes a big difference.  If I were on American Airlines I probably would have shot myself.

All-in-all the trip to Sydney was a lot better than I thought it would be.  The hardiest thing was figuring out what time I should be taking my birth control since the time zones were all over the place.  Getting accidently pregnant is not something I want to happen on this trip.

Hell has frozen over!

In 12 hours I'll start my trip to Sydney, Australia.  Boyfriend and I are flying from JFK to LAX, spending the day in L.A., then flying to Sydney.  Basically our travels start ass early on Saturday morning and we don't reach our destination till Monday morning.

To prepare for THE LONGEST FLIGHT EVER, I bought 2 seasons of Mad Men.  When else am I going to have time to catch up on that show?  Other than that I hadn't really done anything prepared...i.e. packing.

All week I've been dreading packing for this trip.  I just knew it would be a disaster.  Ughhhh where do I even start?!  The weather is spring-like over there.  I don't even remember how to dress for spring.  That was months ago.  I don't want to be too hot or too cold.  So, I've been procrastinating...till right now.

I decided to just bring jeans and t-shirts, a blazer, a few dresses (for the wedding we are going to and if we go out to dinner), some clothes to work-out in (wishful thinking), and tons of underwear.  Worst comes to worst at least I will have clean underwear.  Also, I'm only bring 3 pairs of shoes: pumas, heels, and my work-out shoes.  I still haven't gotten together any toiletries or carry-on stuff but already this is my most successful packing experience to date (knock on wood).

If I end up with not enough or totally inappropriate clothes then I'll just have to go shopping.  This could work out in my favor....

Update: You need a visa to go to Australia.  You can get it online and it takes 30 seconds but don't wait till the very last minute to do it.  Kinda stressful.

You Learn Something New Every Summer

I've been visiting my family in Anguilla (heaven in island form) every summer my entire life.  The island doesn't change much but I learned a few new things when I was there a few weeks ago.

1. I'm an over-packer for life.  I have a tendency to over-pack.  I know this about myself.  Every time I pack I try and combat this....and fail.  Packing for Anguilla was no different.  I labored over every article of clothing.  I thought really hard about whether I needed 15 tank tops for a 10 day trip.  I even put some things back in the drawer (a big step for me).  I asked my boyfriend for advice about how many dresses I should bring.  He said yes to a couple (not knowing I had already said yes to 5 more I wasn't showing him).  I just can't shut up the voice in my head that whispers, "Just in case you spill on your shirt, fall in the ocean, trip, and get dirty hand prints (little brother) on you all in one day, you'll need a ridiculous number of outfits."  That sounds logical.  Well, I guess it's good to be prepared.

2. Non-drowsy Dramamine is truly God's gift to earth.  My older sister has given me many things.  Clothes, advice, the list goes on.  I'm not sure if anything can stand up to the greatness of her gift of non-drowsy Dramamine.  To get to Anguilla I fly in and out from St. Maarten.  There is a ferry that goes between Anguilla and St. Maarten.  The ferry is only a 20min ride....from hell.  It didn't always bother me but, in the past few years, it has made me feel like I'm going to throw up all over myself then slowly die.  I tried Dramamine and I didn't feel nauseous...I felt unconscious!  That stuff totally knocks you out.  Not good when you are traveling.  Hence, my new found love for non-drowsy Dramamine.

3. I'm a horrible bartender.  Good thing is I always test drinks out on myself.  Bad thing is that I am myself!  What kind of person keeps accidentally getting themselves obliterated.  Ridiculous.  Island living means drinking basically all day (at least it does for me).  That combined with my heavy handed pouring is trouble.  Lets just say that after this summer's trip to Anguilla I have enforced a two drink maximum for myself - neither drink to me made by me.

The best things about Anguilla I already knew: it has the best beaches in the world, it is the perfect place to relax/do absolutely nothing, and sibling time = awesome time.